Advice needed.

[68 Powers]

Im playing as romans just got the Marian Reforms so i have numbered Rupblican legions and in the house rules it says that i can retrain legions every 20 turns or years im not sure at this point in time.

But i have about 3 republican legions and every battle i have used these guys in they have been crippled with 70 men or lower left in each cohort.
Any suggestions on how to keep this from happening so often.

[Mysticforce]

Well, there are several things you can do to improve the survivability of your men. But, they are all relative to what and who you are fighting.

1. Formations. Try to use the formation most suitable for each battle. Fighting against barbarians? Go with double envelope. Fighting the Greeks and their derivatives? Left or Right echelon. Fighting entire armies of horse archers? Bring 2 legions for each army of theirs you are likely to face

2. General tactics. In battle, if you want to conserve your men, then you need to force the enemy to rout ASAP instead of dragging out the fight. This is most often done by concentrating you forces in 3 to 1 odds locally to collapse one enemy wing at a time. Usually, after your first line engages the enemy on a flank, you swing your 2nd line around to hit that enemy unit from the flank, and move your cavalry into position to charge at their rear.

It is easier to rout each additional unit after you rout one.

3. Strategy. Sometimes equal numbers just won't cut it if your goal is to minimize casualties. So, get yourself a numerical advantage, and those bloody battles suddenly become cakewalks. Try to isolate enemy stacks and hit them with 2 of your stacks.

4. Reinforcement. The house rules state that you can only retrain each legion once every 20 turns (5 years). However, you can still keep your legions at full strength numerically even if you don't retrain. Just replace the depleted cohorts with auxilla swordsmen, your depleted spearmen with more.

I hope these general tips will be helpful. However, it'll be much easier to pinpoint what tips you need most if you give a specific example of the problems you are running into.

[GaussSoldier]

The limit is 20 turns (5 years)

Depending on who you're fighting, shield wall is your friend. The manipular formation is also you're friend but I hear that it's not getting along well with shield wall so I suggest to use one or the other. Having your front line on FAW helps with softening up the initial charge. Also, this has worked for me before against Greece, do the throw pila and charge bit to create some kind of gap in the unit's formation.

Keep an AUX legion nearby to transfer troops to the REP legion to keep it at fighting strength.

[General_olli]

A chirgeon helps also. Make sure that your general has one and you'll increase the number of wounded that will recover from their wounds. So instead of ending with let's say 80 men/cohort after a battle, you can end with maybe 90 or more men. Got it?

[Garnier]

There are actually three ancillaries that heal casualties now, instead of in previous versions there being only one.

The Chirugeon, Physician and Priestess of Juno. If you have all three... you will lose hardly anyone.

[Teodosio]

But i have about 3 republican legions and every battle i have used these guys in they have been crippled with 70 men or lower left in each cohort.
Any suggestions on how to keep this from happening so often.

When your units are left with too few men merge them, and replace the losses with auxilia. I always try to keep my legionary cohorts to at lest 100 men, so for example, If I have two with 70 men each, I merge them and add a sword auxilia unit to the legion. When the legion goes back to home city, the legionary unit is replenished, the auxilia unit is disbanded and replaced by legionaries.
Be careful for the first cohort! You can't merge that!

[68 Powers]

alrighty. all very good advice thanks a lot.