Recruitment Systems for RTW and it's mods [What works best for both Historical Accuracy & Gameplay]

[ahowl11]

First of all, if I'm posting in the wrong spot, please re-direct this thread. I figured I would post here because in my mind it needs discussion.

As the mod leader of HRTW (Historical Rome Total War) I have come across a major issue, recruitment systems!
Our mod wants to focus on Historical Accuracy, but still offer fun game play, while still retaining vanilla looking units.

One thing that I have recently discovered about vanilla RTW's unit selection. VERY GENERIC.
Here are some examples:
Greek Factions in HRTW: GCS, Seleucids, Ptolemies (Egypt), Thrace, Macedon, and Bosporans (SPQR).
Generic Greek Units (Units that are on every Greek roster in vanilla): Militia Hoplites, Peltasts, Archers, Greek Cavalry

Not that bad right? Well in HRTW I've added these units to the list: Militia Cavalry, Heavy Peltasts, Light Lancers, Slingers.
And for Macedonian style factions (Macedon, Seleucids, Thrace, Ptolemies) I've added these to every roster: Levy Pikemen, Phalanx Pikemen, Macedonian Cavalry, Companion Cavalry.

Same can be said for the eastern factions (Pontus, Armenia, and Atropatene which replaced Parthia)
Town Militia
Eastern Infantry
Hillmen
Heavy Spearmen
Peltasts
Slingers
Archers
Elite Archers
Eastern Light Cavalry (Pontic Light Cavalry)
Eastern Heavy Cavalry (Pontic Heavy Cavalry)

And barbarian factions (Gauls, Illyrians replacing Scipii, Dacians, Germans, Britons)
Warband
Spear Warband (disabled phalanx formation)
Barbarian Infantry (rebel unit for Warband in vanilla, every barbarian faction had this unit in their colors)
Swordsmen
Chosen Swordsmen
Skirmisher Warband
Archer Warband
Chosen Archer Warband
Barbarian Cavalry
Barbarian Noble Cavalry

The only unique faction rosters (not entirely) are these: Iberians (replacing Spain) and Carthage, who have very similar rosters, Nabataeans (replacing Brutii) who apart from some Bedouin and Arab units, would be almost the same as the eastern factions, Bosporans and Thrace, who are pretty much identical (both have some barbarian units and hellenic units) Sarmatians, who other than their cavalry are just a downgraded version of the other barbarian factions.

The only real factions that are completely unique are, Romans, Numidians, and maybe GCS (just because of the hoplites)

So as I was making the faction rosters, I stopped and ultimately became frustrated. Every faction would look the same! No uniqueness. Now I know why CA originally didn't include all these units with every faction in the first place.

However, when players (at least I know I did) look at RTW or any mods they look at the faction rosters and say "wow what a powerful roster!" or "wow, they have a weak selection"
Ok, that's understandable but what I've done is equalized the roster pool for each faction.
First, panic. "All that freaking work and I get this! What am I going to do?!"
Second, thought. "Wait a second, these units actually belong on these rosters, they are all generic and are not unique to any ONE faction, so how do I make the selection unique?"
Third, realization, light bulb turns on. "OMG, no wonder?! It does not matter really about each factions Generic troops, it matters where the faction starts out with their regions!"

For instance, Macedon should have access to Thessalian Cavalry, Rome, their Italian allied troops, GCS, all the unique hoplite units from each individual city, Barbarians, troops from respected tribes.

So in the end it's AOR that can really make the difference.

That's my conclusion, but am I right? Or have I gone down the wrong path with this? And there are still some questions, what will the AI recruit? Is there any point in doing it that way? Shouldn't the factions be limited somehow? But how?

When you think about EB or XGM notice how many factions have very similar units but the difference in their armies are the local AOR troops and mercenaries that they have recruited.

So my main question to you all is this:
Is it good for factions to have very similar "Generic Rosters" even if they have access to different AOR's?
And what is a smart and logical way to set up these recruiting systems?

I believe that adjusting stats can make a big difference in the units, but that's just a thought.

Remember HRTW is focused on History but also wants to provide good game play that way its not totally confusing to it's players.
And in case some of you don't know.
AOR = Area of Recruitment, designated regions to where certain units can be accessed. For example Nubian Spearmen:
Would be accessible in the regions historically owned by the Nubians or Ethiopians. So even if you owned those provinces you could not recruit Nubian Spearmen in Italy or Greece.

I just want feedback and discussion on this. I want to hear from the community and RTW players to what they see when it comes to these units and recruiting systems.
Thanks!

[Zarax]

My 2c: If you want a good mix of realism and fun make sure all factions have a relatively easy time to recruit troops for all roles (line holders, flankers, skirmishers and cavalry), with AOR bringing some exotic units and elites a relatively rare sight.

You don't need to have all main roster recruitable everywhere but logistics will get tricky if players cannot find decent replacements for troops going forward, so for example you can keep elites in "core" areas while leaving access to militia units in a much more relaxed fashion, with AOR potentially offering better versions locally.

[ahowl11]

That makes perfect sense, that can be easily done with vanilla's units as well.