Eleutheroi super-stacks?

[QuintusSertorius]

I recently discovered Satres and his super-stack of mega-veterans guarding Iuvavoeta (it even says in his traits that he's the guard army for the place).

Here's what happened after my green Polybian consular army met them in battle:



Not a one of his units broke, they all fought to the last man. I did manage to take out half of them, not bad going for an army of freshly-recruited troops who were outnumbered by veteran heavies.

Are there more stacks like this guarding certain provinces? Are they there to stop the AI expanding a-historically in certain directions? Here I could see it might be to stop the Sweboz rushing southwards, or the Getai too far westwards.

Just wondering if it's a bad idea to take them out given I don't plan to expand in that direction at all.

[mcantu]

The Eleutheroi units tend to get like that because of numerous auto-resolve battles against the AI factions...

[Irishmafia2020]

There are a number of superstacks in central Europe that are supposed to represent factions, and they are also intended to keep the a.i. romans from expanding ahistorically into that area. Actually some of my best battles have come against rebel factions... I have had them combine stacks and reinforce eachother with greater coherency than the actual factions....

[Papal_Knight]

Quint.S: leave them there as a nice buffer zone, especially if you have no intention of expanding that way yourself. there are many of them around, and some are a really cool scripted surprise (at least that's the way it seemed to me in the game).

BTW, they never stray out of their province to cause you trouble, so don't worry about that part either. they are like a powerful, but friendly neighbor for the Romani!

[QuintusSertorius]

Hmm, I'll leave them well alone in that case. I kind of feel bad now having mauled them, even if it was a good excuse to lose a massive battle in an almost appropriate time. It wasn't quite Cannae or Trebia, but it'll do!

[Papal_Knight]

yeah, leave 'em be for the moment. think of it this way, might be a fun thing to cut your teeth on once the marian reforms kick in!

[QuintusSertorius]

yeah, leave 'em be for the moment. think of it this way, might be a fun thing to cut your teeth on once the marian reforms kick in!

I might have to recruit myself some of those armoured Gallic swordsmen*, though, having seen them in action. I can recruit them in Bononia, so perhaps they'd make good partners to the pedites extraordinaries in my new-look consular armies.

The Samnite spearmen I use didn't perform so well in that battle, not even compared to the Polybian hastati, or if I'm honest velites.

*EDIT: Neitos, specifically, I've just been looking at their unit card, and they're better than principes!