Great appreciation for the XGM's auxiliary barracks

[ThePianist]

Nearly each city has option of constructing auxiliary barracks that can recruit local units, and each upgrade of the auxiliary barrack gets more and better units.

In the Seleucid area:
level I Eastern Spearmen
level II Eastern Hillmen
level III Eastern Cavalry (which is heavy calvary + javelins, and probably the best trainable auxiliary cavalry unit I ever got. Usually in order to get non-faction unit that is this good, it'd have to be a merc unit. So thanks in designing the Eastern Cavalry unit in the first place and making it so widely recruitable).

In Thrace:
level I Thracian Peltast
level II Bastarnae Falxmen
level III Thracian Cavalry.

In Scythia
level I Scythian skirmishers
level II Scythian horse archers
level III Scythian lancers

In Galatia (haven't campaigned in other Gallic areas yet)
level I Galatian Warband
level II Galatian swordsmen Galatian cavalry
level III Heavy spearmen Galatian heavy cavalry

I'd like to compliment the devs in implementing easy-to-use auxiliary barracks, that most cities can recruit local auxiliary units like this, and what's more, even local mercenary units (which are mostly identical to the units that can be trained once you build an auxiliary barrack) can be retrained once the appropriate level of auxiliary barrack has been built.

When I like playing historical simulation with a lot of detail, I play EB. When I like to play the fast-paced original RTW gameplay with a lot more units, larger map, a lot more buildings and a lot of variety of units (even merc units can be retrained in the auxiliary barracks), I play XGM. Thanks devs.

(and adding: the ease in upgrading existing temples into Greek temples is also very appreciated)

[CaesarVincens]

I agree, the auxiliary system is brilliant, and AoR is brilliant, combine them and well...

More AoRs to look out for:
In almost half the world, non-Greeks can recruit peltasts, thureophoroi, and hoplites too. And if you make it up to the steppes of Scythia you can find Scythian Horse Archers and even Lancers. The provinces with "Syria" in their name (Syria, Assyria, and Coele Syria) can recruit, what else, Syrian Archers at the third level. And I'm sure you found Cretans, and Rhodians. There is also an island can Balleares which holds wonderous slingers known as Ballearic Slingers, quite good they are. Many other wonderful AoR units exist, if you can find them.

[Kara Kolyo]

Nothing beats the once mighty kingdom of Media! The median cavalry is my favorite unit in this game - long range archers, ap axes, armored.... what more could you ask. and they are easy to get as mercks or from the aor barracks.

[keroro]

I've been playing a game recently as Baktria, and the early availability of Bactrian Horse Archers is fantastic - they really kick ass in the early game. As Kara Kolyo has said though, they are nothing compared to the Median ones. Once your enemies start training heavy armoured troops like argy legions or phalanx it's time to move to Median cavalry. I'm also enjoying the Indian and Baktrian archers - perfect for walls in city defences.

The last time I played as the Seleukids I found that sending an army off to the East and hiring mercenary Indian elephants allowed me to conquor most of India very quickly - you don't need to waste a turn constructing siege weapons, the elephants can bust straight through the early wooden walls on their own.

[Knight of Judgment]

in version 4 final i can rectruit baktrian horse archers only in baktria and kophen ?

[keroro]

I think so, but as Bactria you can recruit them anywhere through the standard barracks. A useful little bonus.

I'm about to go to war with Parthia in my game, and I'm wondering what forces would be best at defeating the horse archers I'm expecting up there. Any suggestions?

[EyebrowsMulligan]

I think so, but as Bactria you can recruit them anywhere through the standard barracks. A useful little bonus.

I'm about to go to war with Parthia in my game, and I'm wondering what forces would be best at defeating the horse archers I'm expecting up there. Any suggestions?

In my experience HAs aren't the problem. Their missile attack is weak enough that heavy infantry can weather the storm usually. The real problem is the heavy cavalry. These are armoured, shield wielding, javelin-toting killing machines. And they have a shedload of them!

Good quality archers and slingers are obviously going to be of use, although by the time you've expended all of your ammo they will probably still have enough left to stroll nonchantly up to your lines and inflict horrendous casualties with their javelins (I find that gullible merc units of Eastern spearmen can act as a cost effective meatshield in these situations).

In short, be prepared to lose a lot of men when you fight armies that have a high proportion of heavy cavalry.

[keroro]

Thanks CaesarVincens, EyebrowsMulligan. Sounds like some large stacks are going to be toast when I move up north. I'll get some slingers recruited up there I think, and make sure I get the high ground in any battles to let them do their job - then I guess some thereophoroi would be useful for their missile attacks from behind the phalanx wall. I have a plan.

I've actually had a bit of a reprieve - Seleukids had managed to take Marakanda and Kanga, so I could take them without declaring on Parthia. Love it when the AI does your job for you.

[Unknown Soldier]

Armoured (proper English spelling) Elephants

[CaesarVincens]

It depends somewhat on your faction, are you Bactria? Then you have your own HAs to combat theirs with.

Other factions need to go with AoR units mainly. Syrian or Cretan archers, with Median or Scythian Horse archers are good AoR units for fighting off enemy HAs.

[Kara Kolyo]

There is another way to deal with HA factions, but it never came from me you know Just reqruit large ammounts of spearmen and autoresolve. If you use older version of XGM couple of chariots in the stack will solve your problems forever.
Now i revealed my cheating nature to all...

[Stilgar CG]

There is another way to deal with HA factions, but it never came from me you know Just reqruit large ammounts of spearmen and autoresolve. If you use older version of XGM couple of chariots in the stack will solve your problems forever.
Now i revealed my cheating nature to all...

I guess this little ... hm-hm :hmmm:... revelation could be interesting to a larger public in connection with recent anti-scythian movement in XGM forum.

I was surprised when autoresolve I tried in my Thrace compain out of curiosity or lack of time (all right, all right, I acted like a lazy barbarian ) gave me victories in Scythia. So, AI clearly underestimates HAs. At the same time, autoresolve did not give me upper hand in war with Scythia: casualties were always relatively small and comparable on both sides. The ability of HAS to easily get away was not taken into account in autoresolve apparently.

And, long live the auxiliary barracks feature! Auxiliary barracks definitely add to the arsenal of new solution's in XGM as compared to RTW. For instance, capture one or two Scythian cities (e.g. in Krimea, it is easy to defend) and wait till you can train HAs. So, the mission becomes possible even for Tom Cruise, right ?

With auxiliary XGM-style barracks one may run into risk to see no barbarians in ones armies when playing a barbarian faction and fighting say in Greece. (Guess how many barbarian units do I have in some of my armies in my war with Macedon in Thrace compaign? Well, some, if you count general.) But, we ultimately have a choice of what units to train. So, all cool.

Finally, there is less of a risk to get bored of using same units and style in long compaign (me after 100 turns playing as Rome in vanilla RTW). Differently (and uniquely) shaped armies can be build and used now. So, for me no way back to vanilla.

ME

[Dom9127]

Have to agree with everything said in this thread, the AOR units were one thing I really missed from MTW which weren't included in Rome.