Garrison Units

[C4X]

What to use as garrison units??:hmmm:

I recently re-introduced City Militia, but have since had the desire to play more historically. I can't help but wonder what history has to say about such things. Were city garrisons composed of the expensive (high upkeep) units like Hastati? Or were small, inexpensive (albeit unskilled and decidedly un-battle worthy) Civic Militia forces a reality in ancient Roman policy? I just hate the idea of wasting quality units by leaving them to keep the peace. In the end I realize I can do as I wish. I simply would like to know from whomever has the knowledge, are City Militia, trained for the explicit purpose of light duty peace keeping, with zero expectation of battlefield deployment missions, a realistic unit? Peasants are a joke as garrison units, but Militia forces seem realistic to me. They keep the peace. That is it. Their cost is much less than regular, and even Auxilia, forces. If the enemy lays seige, there aint a #@&* of a lot they can do in defence. Thoughts?

[morteduzionism]

I can't help but wonder what history has to say about such things. Were city garrisons composed of the expensive (high upkeep) units like Hastati? Or were small, inexpensive (albeit unskilled and decidedly un-battle worthy) Civic Militia forces a reality in ancient Roman policy?

I can't answer you regarding the historical reality of how Romans garrisoned cities. I'd imagine they used a combination of mercenaries and depleted Roman units. But that's just my guess.

To answer your underlying question I'd say use the militia for what they're intended: garrison duty. Think about it, if you institute this policy(using Romans as garrisons) what happens when your Empire grows? Are you going to have garrisons of Roman units all the way to Byzantium? Garrisons of expensive Roman units.

In the end I realize I can do as I wish. I simply would like to know from whomever has the knowledge, are City Militia, trained for the explicit purpose of light duty peace keeping, with zero expectation of battlefield deployment missions, a realistic unit?

Again I can't speak to the historical accuracy of the unit so keep that in mind. Having said that, think about the unit this way; when Rome founded a colony somebody had to protect the artisans/merchants/etc from raids from any nearby bandits, right? That's who those guys are. They're there to beat the snot out of Publius "Likes a Drink" Gracchus when he starts acting a fool.

Peasants are a joke as garrison units, but Militia forces seem realistic to me. They keep the peace. That is it. Their cost is much less than regular, and even Auxilia, forces. If the enemy lays seige, there aint a #@&* of a lot they can do in defence. Thoughts?

That's all you need them to do, isn't it? Keep the peace. If you're talking about garrisoning a border city then that might be different. A border city would be under repeated attacks so unless you have an army stationed nearby to lift any sieges you probably don't want City Militia to be your first and last line of defense.

I'd suggest still keeping a few units in there(they're retrainable usually a lot quicker than AOR units) as the last line of defense and use a force of AOR mercs to actually do the fighting and defend the city.

[Sphere]

Historically, the idea of "garrisoning" a city is not accurate at all.

In both the east and west, most cities remained in control of local leaders with local forces. Tribute would be payed to the republic/empire/diadochi etc. and soldiers would be provided when needed. The real armies would be out fighting wars or garrisoned along the frontiers. Colonies would be an exception, but these were rare. Provincial capitals might have a small garrison of ~100 non-natives along with a provincial governer. This light system of control often led to revolt, as can be seen both in the greek world and the west.

To play historically, the best option would be to garrison cities with only local troops/mercenaries. Think of them as the native tribes and nobility that have been bought off and put in control of the city. You could create provincial capitals and garrison some core-units along with a governer, but these should only be in major cities. (Alexandria, Syracuse, Alesia, Londonium etc.)

Its hard to represent these client cities in RTW. Historically these client cities were rarely conquered one-by-one but rather would switch alliegances to whoever won a major battle in the area. (Think Punic wars, Alexanders conquest etc.) The Metro-Naval mod tries to do this by removing walls for all but the major cities, but this falls short as you still need to conquer-loot-garrison each city. In reality you would win a major field battle, intimidate-negoiate with the nobility in the cities, agree to certain taxation/recruitment, and move your army away.

[QuintusSertorius]

Rome itself wasn't garrisoned until very late towards the end of the Republic and it's interminable civil wars. It was a point of pride for Romans for a long time that, free of tyrannical kings they needed no troops garrisoned in the city to keep the peace. Indeed within the sacred pomerium (the old walls that surrounded the inner city) it was illegal to wear armour. Unless you were the Master of the Horse on official business.

I usually just have some family members in Rome, with a fort off to the left of the city to represent the Campus Martius.

Other Italian cities I usually have just two units, one infantry, one skirmisher, as local as possible. Thus Roma and Capua can have Roman units, but all the others are Italian troops.

I keep my main forces separate from the cities; again forts usually one outside Capua and one up above Ariminium.

[QuintusSertorius]

Course the other issue with a garrison is that it turns disciplined troops into poorly-disciplined troops if they are allowed to garrison in a settlement. Good commanders always avoided that, except when wintering their troops.

[khshayathiya]

Actually, in the Hellenised Eastern Mediterranean the whole power relation city-monarch is slightly more complicated and there is a full tango between them.

There were free cities (autonomoi poleis) that in theory were outside the king's territory and jurisdiction; then there were the many cities that had fallen into the royal jurisdiction, most often through an act of war.

Most often these would be controlled physically and symbolically by a garrison (phrourion) that occupies generally a noteworthy point of the settlement, like the acropolis or is simply bivouacked with the inhabitants. This garrison would be composed either of regular troops or of mercenaries.

In exceptional cases, certain cities would receive through the goodwill of the king the status of "city without garrison" (aphrouretos polis).

[QuintusSertorius]

I like the idea of only using local troops for garrisons; mercenaries at first, then AoR troops. I can tell myself they represent the local levies that the local powers can draw on. Thus if the region has legions, they're in a legionary base, but not simply stationed in the settlement disrupting daily life for the provincials.

[Tiberius Tosi]

I like the idea of only using local troops for garrisons; mercenaries at first, then AoR troops. I can tell myself they represent the local levies that the local powers can draw on. Thus if the region has legions, they're in a legionary base, but not simply stationed in the settlement disrupting daily life for the provincials.

I agree, I usually leave local troop types in garison of the cities, and then leave a legions in a strategic spot in a fort to protect the borders or cities in case the enemy goes straight for a city. The only thing I do that is wierd, is I have my regular Roman legions (FYI I only recruit the Roman troops out of Roma itself and then use Italian troops as Alae, pre marian reforms of course) on the fronts where I know there is a threat, and then inland more I keep an entire army of local recruited troops (Ex. Gallic Auxiliaries, Libyan Spearmen, etc.) in a camp near the center of a "region" (Near Spain, Far Spain, Cisalpine Gaul, Transalpine Gaul, Carthage, etc.) in case any city revolts or there are rebels in my territory.