Imperial reforms recruitment

**GRoss** · August 14, 2009, 03:04 AM

I've been playing this RS1.5 for a bit (a week or so) and I loved pretty much every aspect of it so far..... until I got the Imperial reforms. I quickly noticed that I was unable to recruit ANY foot soldiers in some of the low population cities (lower then 3rd lvl barracks) which was extremely annoying and not logical - even the worst militia type footmen should be allowed to be recruited everywhere I think.

The 2nd dissapointment was when I realised that I could only recruit legionnaires in certain cities, but I got over that, since I guess that that could be relatively realistic (even though I don't understand why). The worst thing however was when I found out that those troops could only be re-trained in the city, where they were recruited, which just ruined the game for me lol, since most of the game would be spent on moving the troops back and forth between those cities and the armies constantly. I don't understand why has this been done!-surely you could order reinforcements to gather at a specific point (any city in the game), which will make the whole process so much more enjoyable.

So the question is how can I make it so all types of legionnaires could be retrained everywhere? Any tips appreciated!

**apple** · August 14, 2009, 03:15 AM

Impossible, your game would ctd. There is a limit in how many units you can have in each city. If you override that the game would CTD!

Every legion should have two cities to be recruited in, take a look at the aor (area of recruitment) map found in your C:\Users\..........\Rtw\data\_IMPORTANT_STUFF

**DaddyPro** · August 14, 2009, 03:31 AM

i love that i can recruit legions only in a certain citys, legionnaires were elite soldiers as i understand and it would be unrealistic to retrain your legion just anywhere and it makes you think more what forces you need to invade in enemy territory, how to deploy your troops and stuff and you valuable your legion much more.

**Ybbon** · August 14, 2009, 03:32 AM

Originally Posted by GRoss

I've been playing this RS1.5 for a bit (a week or so) and I loved pretty much every aspect of it so far..... until I got the Imperial reforms. I quickly noticed that I was unable to recruit ANY foot soldiers in some of the low population cities (lower then 3rd lvl barracks) which was extremely annoying and not logical - even the worst militia type footmen should be allowed to be recruited everywhere I think.

The 2nd dissapointment was when I realised that I could only recruit legionnaires in certain cities, but I got over that, since I guess that that could be relatively realistic (even though I don't understand why). The worst thing however was when I found out that those troops could only be re-trained in the city, where they were recruited, which just ruined the game for me lol, since most of the game would be spent on moving the troops back and forth between those cities and the armies constantly. I don't understand why has this been done!-surely you could order reinforcements to gather at a specific point (any city in the game), which will make the whole process so much more enjoyable.

So the question is how can I make it so all types of legionnaires could be retrained everywhere? Any tips appreciated!

You can't, the point is that there are 35 named and numbered legions which must be retrained in their home region. There is another thread (Apples guide to Republican legion I think, but someone will provide it) that shows how to build auxiliary armies. The idea is that you attack with a legion or two and supporting auxiliaries, replacing legions with auxiliary troops until the point when you must ship your legion back to be retrained but at which point you will have conquered or have more armies in place to take over.

As for no troops at all, I think you may find you don't have adequate population to recruit from! I just took a town that only has 400 or so population, so I can't recruit anyone. Train troops in a nearby settlement that has a surplus and send them to the new settlement if you need them to keep the peace.

There are quite a few threads that explain why there are only 35 named legions, but in essence it's because there are only a certain number of available slots for different types of troops, so a balance was found to give as many as possible without negatively impacting the other factions. Historically there were more legions but the underlying game exe doesn't allow that level of complexity, so I guess some legions had to be dropped and in those cases, you can only recruit auxiliaries - but bear in mind you also get some special troops at cities that can't train legions - you get all sorts or archers and cavalry in Sicily but no legion.

Perhaps you need to slow you're conquering down, don't extend so far that you have no supporting legions or auxiliaries and try not to lose so many soldiers in each battle

**Legionary Titus Pullo** · August 14, 2009, 04:06 AM

1 Point : i think it was mentioned before (and im sure i will be corrected if i am wrong) but at its height rome only ever supported around 30 legions at any one time anyway, to have more than that at any one time would have been far too costly, and remember when a legion was lost and destroyed that name was "retired" and not used again.

**GRoss** · August 14, 2009, 05:57 AM

Thanks for the replies guys! YBBON66 - I don't really conquer that much - I have all Italy and Sicily and 4 cities which are Gaulish in original game (Mediolanum, Patavium and another two further north) and 2 in Greece, but since the Imperial reforms occured I've lost 2 cities in to Gauls and both of my cities in Greece are under siege by Macedonians and Greeks, and since I cannon re-train my experienced soldiers (principes, equiteis and triarii) I am forced to try and make up for it by training those militia units, which are of much lower quality, which is ok I guess.. but the problem is that in 2 bordering regions (with ~5000+ population) I can only train light auxilia (spear-throwers), which doesn't make too much sense (you have to agree with me here) since even in the most basic society, there will be swordsmen/speamen/some sort of melee troops and lighter auxilia troops would come in later - thats what all other factions have anyway.

And for recruiting legionnaires, I am fine with the fact that they can only be recruited in a few cities, but don't you think that being able to retrain them anywhere (or at least in the whole Italy/cities after a certain level) would be if not more realistic, but realistic&FUN to play? I can't imagine fighting somewhere in Egypt or deeper in the mainland and having to constantly ship my troops to and from Italy for retraining..... and there's only 1 single type of infatry available otherwise.. 8(((

**Ybbon** · August 14, 2009, 07:47 AM

Originally Posted by GRoss

....
And for recruiting legionnaires, I am fine with the fact that they can only be recruited in a few cities, but don't you think that being able to retrain them anywhere (or at least in the whole Italy/cities after a certain level) would be if not more realistic, but realistic&FUN to play? I can't imagine fighting somewhere in Egypt or deeper in the mainland and having to constantly ship my troops to and from Italy for retraining..... and there's only 1 single type of infatry available otherwise.. 8(((

OK, sorry for making an assumption, I thought you'd gone blitzing but you're in a similar position to me except I have Massilia, Salona, Segestica, Lovosice and couple others. Those Macedonians are hard work. I am attacking Macedonia from the North down and just shoving them ahead of me gradually taking their cities and reducing their bases to raise armies from. I think having Masillia helps with Gaul because I can defend all routes through the Alps. Attacking Macedonia and Greece would be hard work, I did that in one aborted campaign, they were busy fighting each other until I took a Greek city and then they both ganged up on me instead, sounds like your problem too

Abandon the Greek cities, destroying every building you can to recoup some money and use it to build up before attacking them again? If you leave a single small company in there, you may tie them up sieging an empty destroyed city for a few turns too

You can raise legions much further afield though, there's a couple in Gaul, one in Britain, one in Jerusalem, at least one in Iberia and Carthage and a few more at least dotted around. The problem would be if you took your legion from Britain and fought with them in Parthia for example but you're not at that point yet.

You could take a screenshot of where you are, post it in the "post your empire" thread and ask for opinions on how to get going?

**GRoss** · August 14, 2009, 10:29 PM

Alright, thanks I'll try that - I've played a few more turns and I have around 15.000 gauls moving in on Italy and Around 12000 troops sieging by of my cities in Greece - both Greeks and Macedonians, which is funny as well, since they also fight each other... I have a few legions on the way and a quickly assembled mix of different legionnaires mixed with other lower grade troops just defeated a 3.000 strong army on its way to Rome (I think), so even if I lose a few cities I should be able to recover (I have 500.000+ denarii). I just wish there were a few more types of non-legionnaire footmen available...

By the way is there a preview for Roman Empire for RS2 yet? Thanks for all the tips people, I'm back to loving RS1.5 I think 8D

**Legionary Titus Pullo** · August 15, 2009, 03:33 AM

Originally Posted by GRoss

Alright, thanks I'll try that - I've played a few more turns and I have around 15.000 gauls moving in on Italy and Around 12000 troops sieging by of my cities in Greece - both Greeks and Macedonians, which is funny as well, since they also fight each other... I have a few legions on the way and a quickly assembled mix of different legionnaires mixed with other lower grade troops just defeated a 3.000 strong army on its way to Rome (I think), so even if I lose a few cities I should be able to recover (I have 500.000+ denarii). I just wish there were a few more types of non-legionnaire footmen available...

By the way is there a preview for Roman Empire for RS2 yet? Thanks for all the tips people, I'm back to loving RS1.5 I think 8D

the Roman Preview is not out yet, but i can assure you that the Auxillry units will impress the hell out of you, so it is gonna be worth the wait

**~~Ibram~~** · August 14, 2009, 06:42 AM

In a 'House Rules' thread somewhere, it was suggested that you train a small 'releif contingent' of extra cohorts, so that you can replace you losses with those units, and then ship THEM back to rome for retraining instead of shipping the main army.

Although, I've always wondered why a legion was never raised in Sicily. They were rasied nearly everywhere else...

**D.B. Cooper** · August 15, 2009, 12:43 AM

Originally Posted by GRoss

So the question is how can I make it so all types of legionnaires could be retrained everywhere? Any tips appreciated!

You can't and shouldn't, not only because it's historically accurate (how can a legion replenish itself in the depths of Germania?_ but also because it would be too damn easy if superior Roman infantry could be trained anywhere on the map.

I like it, actually. It helps the roleplaying aspect, and makes everything more believable.