Largest force you've ever assembled?

[Lansa]

What is the largest force (ie how many full stacks) you have ever assembled then invaded a place with? Currently, as Arche Seleukeia, in 115BC, I have 15 full stacks of good quality troops preparing to capture Greece (it's the only place I need to fulfil my victory conditions). It seems like overkill, and, well, it probably is, but Makedonia has been turtling in the triangle from Kallatis to Segestica to Sparta for about a century, and Hellas is a fortress. It gets pretty easy to bankroll huge armies when you have about 90 huge cities, from Kart-Hadast to Diospolis-Megale to Seleukeia to Sulek, many with mines.

So, what is the largest invasion force you've ever assembled? I bet the Romani fans, with the invincible Roman economy, will have a few armies for the ages.

[Bob Doad]

Ok welll when I invaded the Balkans with the Romani cause no one owned it and then promptly got attacked by Aedui, Arverni, Sweboz, Makedonia, Koinon Helenon(?), Lusotannan, Epeiros, and the Arche Seleukeia I had to assemble 12 stacks of Romans 2 Illyrian/Dacian/Celtic stacks, 6 various mercenary stacks, and 1 Celtic stack and then preceded to invade EVERYWHERE lol so i guess i didnt just attack one place but since i was sitting on a ton of money i figured i best use it

[revo]

Not many actually i generally build big navies but not a ton of max stacks. The biggest i've ever had as makedon is 2 royal (elite) stacks with my best generals going from asia minor to pella to retrain and 3 merc raiding stacks defending asia minor.

[Entropy Judge]

Hmm ... You know, I don't think I've ever had more than three full-stacks in any given area at a time, let alone all going to the same place. I suppose if I counted all the reinforcements (counting units returned and retrained as a new unit) sent over time to a given theatre, I might have used six or seven in one of my Romani games (invading Epeiros/Makedona/Greece). I think I just haven't played any single game long enough to actually require multiple full-stacks to engage enemy forces. (Playing on H/M, normally.)

[Ferdiad]

I have 20 stacks in the East atm, I usually ship them across the Mediterranean in bunches of 6.

[Artorath]

...Playing on VH/VH, I normally can't afford this sort of madness. And when I can, I normally prefer to hit multiple areas instead anyway.

To answer the question though, the most was I think 2 Roman stacks that I used to conquer the Arverni/Aedui.

Edit: Ferdiad, do you use 0-turn recruitment?

[xXEsotericXx]

...Playing on VH/VH, I normally can't afford this sort of madness. And when I can, I normally prefer to hit multiple areas instead anyway.

To answer the question though, the most was I think 2 Roman stacks that I used to conquer the Arverni/Aedui.

Edit: Ferdiad, do you use 0-turn recruitment?

He can edit scripts as 1 of the best , he might have a easy campaign.

[Yomamashouse]

My Eastern-pacification force was ~15 stacks of Roman legions full to the top (post-marian) and 4 stacks of celtic auxillaries (3 with mostly basic units 1 with all neitos/Galatian heavy spears/rhomphaiaphoroi/brihentin).

Many asses were spanked to say the least.

[Freelancer Tex]

In my old campaing as Pahlava,after conquering the Seleucid Empire I assembled a force of 8 stacks of parthian troops (Cataphracts and horse archers) and 5 stack of auxiliaries to invade the North Africa.

[Cyclops]

My RP house rules mean I have 1 full stack as the Royal/Boss/whatever Army (ie FL as general): 16 for the FH and 12 otherwise. I have mustered 2 or 3 stacks (eg defending the alps as Carthage vs remnant Romans and Gauls), but never more than one fullstack.

[Peucestas]

I RP as Macedon and have at the moment only 1.5 stacks on the east (Persepolis). The .5 stack is a re-enforcement army that I use to replenish depleted units and carry siege engines. This strategy has allowed me to go from Pella to the all of Greece (minus Epeiros) and Dacia in 12-13 years and onto Anatolia, the entire Ptolemaic Empire and on to Persepolis in 6 years. I am currently working on another 1.5 stack in for an invasion in Italy to aid Epeiros my loyal ally. This sounds impossible, but the siege engines allow me to take 2-3 settlements in a turn depending on how close to each other they are and the re-enforcement army allows my Royal army to stay in the field indefinitely.

[Bladvak]

As the Romani, 4 stacks for the blitz against Lusotani.

[Ferdiad]

That pretty tame.

[TheRomanRuler]

Well it wasn`t in EB, but 13 full legions! But its ONLY purpose was to invade 5 cities + couple armies, it was "recruit and dispand" army, no standing army.

[smoesville]

Max full banners, not including reserves and garrisons, would be four iirc. One in Anatolia to hold back the Armenians, one in west africa on the former Cartho/ptolomy border and two pushing south of egypt into Kush in an effort to eradicate the ptolomies. Five if you include the reserve in N. Italy which was a full banner stationed in a fort to respond to any incursions into Latium. I usually only ever have one banner per warzone, eygyt required three because of the size of it and the fact the war had to be driven in 3-4 different directions.

[bojieh]

I'd say between 12 and 15 stacks, playing with the Romani: 2 rotating in the Balkans(retraining in Italy was a pain in the !@#), 3 rotating in Egypt, 2 for both Spain and North-western Africa, 2 local( machimoi+peltastai+1-2 units of light spears) stacks stopping the relentless Ptolemeic attacks at the Suez channel, between one or two local stack of both African and Spanish troops. But I guess the fleets cost more.
PS: The year was around 200 BC, Polyb.