Legionnaires

[Augustus Octavius]

I have just gotten the Marius reforms in my game and I noticed that with the new units, I have lost the ability to retrain my hastati/principes/triarii. What is a good strategy for dealing with the old units?

Currently I own all of Italy up to the Alps, Illyria, Epirus, and Southern Greece. I want to expand slowly but I had to take Southern Greece because Macedonia was going crazy. I like my position because I defend the Gauls at the passes in the Alps, The macs at the choke by Athens and the mountains east of Epirus, and to the north at Delmatia. Been really easy actually, I've played defense like this for the past 20 turns or so.

Back to my question.......
I don't want to take my old armies and just conquer all over the place(even though I could, lots of small garrisons around) I was thinking of taking cities in Gaul and Macedon proper and then razing and letting them rebel back to the original owners while I replenish my existing armies with legions. (I did this early on with Carthage and haven't had to worry about them at all). If you've gotten to the reforms before let me know what your plan was.

[Clearchus of Sparta]

The reforms do away with the older style roman units, so you wont be able to retrain them. The reforms will also have affected some of your enemies units too

[Augustus Octavius]

Right, I know some other factions change too, but what do I do with the obsolete, untrainable units? I guess I could just disband them as I replenish my armies with the legions. Is this a good idea? seems like a waste to me.

[katafraktos79]

Disband is not a sin.I disband them and replace them with new ones although I know many players that don't ever touch the disband button.Personally i hate having obsolete pre-reform units

[Augustus Octavius]

I think I will go kamikazee with the obsoletes and just fight on untill they get wiped out, exterminate some cities along the way and make some $$$$$$$$$$ which I can use to train the new legionnaires.

[Jamey]

I think I will go kamikazee with the obsoletes and just fight on untill they get wiped out, exterminate some cities along the way and make some $$$$$$$$$$ which I can use to train the new legionnaires.

I often do that with some of my legions.

I normally pull my most elite legion back to garrison Roma. I also try to retrain my best legions and park them as defense forces. I had Germania stare down at stacks of gold chevron pre-marian units for decades. It just kept going east instead of west or south for some reason. In my last Roman game where I hit the reforms, I also kept a full gold chevron legion to protect the faction leader at his summer home in Crimea.

[Augustus Octavius]

Good point Jamey, I didn't think of that. I guess I could leave a few stacks as defensive forces/deterrents. If they do get attacked though there is no way to replenish the losses. I'll just have to make the opposition route quickly to minimize the casualties. Gotta keep a general with a doctor or chirugeon with them.

[Jamey]

Good point Jamey, I didn't think of that. I guess I could leave a few stacks as defensive forces/deterrents. If they do get attacked though there is no way to replenish the losses. I'll just have to make the opposition route quickly to minimize the casualties. Gotta keep a general with a doctor or chirugeon with them.

Casualties happen. A major force tends to be a deterrent, but it won't always work. Your worst case is that you wind up merging units and filling holes with fresh legionnaires.

[Mikail Mengsk]

I think I will go kamikazee with the obsoletes and just fight on untill they get wiped out, exterminate some cities along the way and make some $$$$$$$$$$ which I can use to train the new legionnaires.

A glorious (and worthy) death for glorious warriors

[katafraktos79]

Well that's a good tactic.Total war games are fairly easy so you can choose the tactics that suit you best.I prefer to do most of the fighting with legions so until the reform I tend to keep a "small" empire and not exterminating many factions.

[Augustus Octavius]

I'm trying to expand slowly so I can keep the rioting down in new cities. It's just that i have about 7 or 8 pre-marius armies stationed at vital defense points and now I can't retrain them anymore. No big deal because the new units are a lot better, but now all my armies can't be kept up/retrained. I just feel disbanding them is a waste so I might as well go down in a blaze of glory with them.

[pannonian]

Get pairs of them to go on coordinated offensive campaigns, merging them at the end of it.

[yelrom18]

Disbanding is a waste unless needed in an emergency. By the time you hit the reforms you should have fought enough battles with your current legions that they should be within the silver and gold chevrons. Why disband such quality units? Why not fight as regular legions and merge when necessary? Plus if you disband, you are down a legion until you can supplement with your newer units. I personally continue to expand the front with my older units, merge after battles and supplement brand new legions I have built from the home front. I just see it as a waste to disband units which have more experience than brand new units just built, plus it doesn't cost anything to have them die in combat.
As for expanding your front, I'd personally take the rest of Greece to get rid of the "black death" and gain cash flow to boost your newer legions.

[Augustus Octavius]

Yeah, I played some last night and took three of my armies into Gaul territory and fought a whole bunch of battles. I only took a few cities and I am only going to keep Massila and Narbo. The rest I exterminated and wiped out all the buildings and I will let them rebel back to Gaul. I moved up eastern Greece and took Larrissa, Pella and Thessalonica. The Black Death is banished to the north and are no real threat anymore. They are now dealing with the Illyrians, Thracians, and Sarmatians.

I can't wait to fight with the new legionnaires. I didn't take a lot of casualties with the obsolete units, but I will continue fighting and merge until there's none left. What a great game.

[yurek]

i always wondered why nobody ever modded a game where you could convert the pre marian legionnary to marian ones. like a regular upgrade.
i know they're supposed to come from the nobility and therefore it would be odd, but not weirder than keeping them with outdated equipement until they're wiped out

[pannonian]

i always wondered why nobody ever modded a game where you could convert the pre marian legionnary to marian ones. like a regular upgrade.
i know they're supposed to come from the nobility and therefore it would be odd, but not weirder than keeping them with outdated equipement until they're wiped out

Limitations of the game engine.

[yelrom18]

i always wondered why nobody ever modded a game where you could convert the pre marian legionnary to marian ones. like a regular upgrade.
i know they're supposed to come from the nobility and therefore it would be odd, but not weirder than keeping them with outdated equipement until they're wiped out

Yeah ha ha there is no way the engine can handle that kind of upgrade. Would be cool though.

[fourganger]

Garrison duty maybe? Or merge as many units as possible and send them on some crack missions. I did this with my remaining Principes; essentially I turned them into a pirate brigade, sacking as many coastal settlements as possible and then letting them rebel. This is only viable if you play MetroNaval though. Because the force was infantry only, they fared poorly in field battles, so I avoided anything with walls.