Early roman cavalry and archers

[|Sith|Duke_Spartacus]

Hi fellas, im having a huge blast playing RS2(awesome awesome awesome) but i miss my shock cavalry and good archers. Any tip where to recruit them early in the campaign?

Thanks!

Providencenl

[TW-fanboy]

Traditionally, the republic took her cavalry from Celtic tribes, either in Northern Italyor southern France (Gallia Cisalpina and Gallia Transalpina)

[frontier-auxilia]

Traditionally, the republic took her cavalry from Celtic tribes, either in Northern Italyor southern France (Gallia Cisalpina and Gallia Transalpina)

Waaa not from what i read. Only the late Republc (espacially Caesar) took his cavalry from mercs, celts, protectorates, germans and Spainards because Sulla did a fair job slaughtering the Equites. The imperial period also saw this due to political and social change.

Traditionally the Roman cavalry are made up of Italian allies and middle class members. Contray to popular belives they are actually quiet decent in what they are doing. Seriously grab those mercernary slingers. THey are awesomesauce phalanx murder machine incarnate.

[DUFFMAN]

For cavalry, use the equites in large numbers, or recruit the Campanian cavalry in Capua, or find mercenaries. For archers, well, you can get Cretan archers in Tarentum I believe but that is not in the very early stage. Your best bet would be to conquer the northern Italian regions like Mediolanum and Taurasia, where you can get the Celtic Warband Archers after a little bit of developing, shouldn't take too long. And of course you can recruit slingers, or purchase them as mercenaries. They are really useful, and I read they have AP capabilities.

[Imperator of Rome]

For cavalry, use the equites in large numbers, or recruit the Campanian cavalry in Capua, or find mercenaries. For archers, well, you can get Cretan archers in Tarentum I believe but that is not in the very early stage. Your best bet would be to conquer the northern Italian regions like Mediolanum and Taurasia, where you can get the Celtic Warband Archers after a little bit of developing, shouldn't take too long. And of course you can recruit slingers, or purchase them as mercenaries. They are really useful, and I read they have AP capabilities.

You can get Gallic cavalry in Massilia.

[rory o'kane]

I'm glad to see the AOR is working as it should be, historically speaking.
Also, you can get Campanian Cavalry in Capua (i.e. the province of Campania) but only when you've built up your barracks rather high.

[Tsim]

really nice mercs available from turn 1

[rory o'kane]

Yes, but they're mercs, so it's not like you can recruit entire stacks of them!

[apple]

Yes, but they're mercs, so it's not like you can recruit entire stacks of them!

Well Rome didn't do that or am I wrong.

[AnthoniusII]

Yes Apple is right.
If you want to play with Rome the best way to feel the essence of their battles is to create accurate armies and legions.
For the armies of the republic.
1 General
1 Equites
2 Vellites
10 Polivian cochorts (because there was not Principes and Hastati)
5 Triarii
The standard formation of that army was :
Three lines with :
1st line 5 Cochorts
2nd line 5 Cochorts
3rd line 5 Triarii
Infront of all them the 2 Velites
Use Equites in one flank but remember to keep your general protected.
Total 19
When the imperial legions become available.
1 General
2 Scorpions
2 New cavalry units (according to the area you are going to reqruit them)
1 Legion cochort 1st
14 cochorts (standard).
Total 20.
You see that i have not added "artilery" in the Polivian armies.
Artilery and archers were far to rare in the roman armies that time.
Only after the fall of Syracuse Romans had the chance to experiment better with artilary but they adopted it very slowly.
You may ask :Then al the rest of the units available are worthless?
No because those auxilias and local mercenaries were used by "side" legions or armies .Even the auxilia units that are available in the same cities legions are to , we should reinforce legions (after casuallties) with some of those units to realisticaly present the mix of warriors that joined as "side" troops in the legions!

Try to play realisticaly...It is worthing all the trouble ,believe me...

[rory o'kane]

Yes Apple is right.
If you want to play with Rome the best way to feel the essence of their battles is to create accurate armies and legions.
For the armies of the republic.
1 General
1 Equites
2 Vellites
10 Polivian cochorts (because there was not Principes and Hastati)
5 Triarii
The standard formation of that army was :
Three lines with :
1st line 5 Cochorts
2nd line 5 Cochorts
3rd line 5 Triarii
Infront of all them the 2 Velites
Use Equites in one flank but remember to keep your general protected.
Total 19
When the imperial legions become available.
1 General
2 Scorpions
2 New cavalry units (according to the area you are going to reqruit them)
1 Legion cochort 1st
14 cochorts (standard).
Total 20.
You see that i have not added "artilery" in the Polivian armies.
Artilery and archers were far to rare in the roman armies that time.
Only after the fall of Syracuse Romans had the chance to experiment better with artilary but they adopted it very slowly.
You may ask :Then al the rest of the units available are worthless?
No because those auxilias and local mercenaries were used by "side" legions or armies .Even the auxilia units that are available in the same cities legions are to , we should reinforce legions (after casuallties) with some of those units to realisticaly present the mix of warriors that joined as "side" troops in the legions!

Try to play realisticaly...It is worthing all the trouble ,believe me...

You're telling people to play realistically, yet for your post-Marian army you recommend an entirely ahistorical army!
A post-Marian legion was comprised of TEN cohorts - either ten regular cohorts for the non-named, non-numbered legions, or one First Cohort and nine Cohorts for the named and numbered variety. All other units in the stack are variable, though you should have a General to lead the troops.

[Frost, colonel]

You're telling people to play realistically, yet for your post-Marian army you recommend an entirely ahistorical army!
A post-Marian legion was comprised of TEN cohorts - either ten regular cohorts for the non-named, non-numbered legions, or one First Cohort and nine Cohorts for the named and numbered variety. All other units in the stack are variable, though you should have a General to lead the troops.

I played the SPQR mod with a First cohort and 9 regular cohorts, that left auxillary, artill etc for the rest, it was a nice way to play the game, made each Legion feel like a Legion. Ended up with 15+ unique Legions like this.

[DUFFMAN]

10 Polibian cochorts (because there was not Principes and Hastati)

The cohorts as described by Polybius are in fact Hastati and Principes..

[|Sith|Duke_Spartacus]

thanks guys! this will certainly help me!

[DarthLazy]

You have arevaci cavalry (infantry are also a good substitute for legions, since you will be blasted with carthi and galleici stacks) available in emporion, along with the awsomesauce balaeric slingers, cretan archers are available in tarentum.

[xsithspawnx]

Cretan Archers can be recruited fairly early on in your cities in southern Italy. Also, as mentioned above the Corisco Sardinian Infantry, though only mercenaries, are awesome as well even if you can't recruit them in great numbers.

[DarthLazy]

But you will have a supply problem since ther are only available on islands and carthage dominates the sea

[mp84]

I try to keep it to some historical sense as well, but at the same time this is probably one of my hardest RTW experiences yet, so I've given myself a little liberty here and there.

I'm not saying that I stack my armies with 15 units of Triajii, lol, but my composition is usually about 12 Cohorts, 2 Triarii, 2 Calvary, plus 1 General (I also fight my general with the Cav, for the extra punch), and 2-3 Skirmishers, but if I include Slingers or Archers, I take out the Skirmishers.

I find this to be a good balance between gameplay fun, but at same time I don't feel like I'm going on a total ahistorical path.

On a side note, I do really hope the Trait system gets looked at soon though as I really wanna roleplay my characters too, as my Roman Military Leaders don't seem to be gaining any of the leadership traits (Like Legatus, etc..), even on ones that are suppose to be automatic triggers (E.G. Pro-Consul, to Legatus Legionis).

[apple]

I use 8 polybian cohorts, 4 triarii, 3 equites, 1 general and 4 velites for my Polybian army.

[|Sith|Duke_Spartacus]

well thanks to you guys i have great pre marian romans,and having a BLAST with the AOR troops. The athenian units and masillian units are awesome to combine with your legions, as are the cretan archers and companion cavalry. I did notice a missile mercenary unit in western greece with a crazy missle atack 10. It has, of course a greek name and i cant remember it. And are those balearic slingers really that good? I mostly used archers, but if those slingers are worth it, i might try them.