Parthian armies

[Blatta Optima Maxima]

Since everyone has been proposing ways of managing various armies lately, I suggest CA does the following for Parthia. Instead of any kind of uniform unit, Parthian armies are raised as hosts. When raising a host, the faction leader can choose which of his vassals are supposed to turn up, and who will be in command (the most powerful by default). Then the army is gathered. Units are not uniform at all. Each noble lord commands two units - a bodyguard of cataphracts and a much larger group of light cavalrymen armed with bows and/or javelins. These two share their leader's banner, which can be randomly generated for each new character just as their character picture is. Each has their own, of course. Units vary in size depending on how influential the lord is, and in proportion depending on some kind of wealth factor, or maybe just random calculation. This is the meat of the army, which can then be further bolstered by pressing serfs into battle. For those the player should be given a choice of whether or not to take them along, and if yes, roughly how many. These represent the workers used in sieges and the supply train. They should be grouped in variously sized units, equipped with some cheap, random weapons. The serfs should bear randomly assigned lords' banners, and before a field battle, the Parthian commander should be given a choice of whether to take them to the fight or just leave them behind.

Whenever a province is conquered, the Parthian can choose to either give the land away to Parthian nobles, or to allow the local elites to remain in power. This way, in addition to their own army, the Parthians should be able to levy pre-set armies from their autonomous subjects, at the expense of having tight control over the province, and less income. These aren't the same as protectorates, since the army is still under Parthian command.

[CK23]

I actually like the idea, from what we know already thats kind of how the recruitment pool is going to work. Unless I am totally off, basically you recruit a "mob" and it eventually grows into a unit...unless I read that wrong which is likely.

However, for most factions with the exceptions of the Greeks and Romans, this would be at least historically accurate.

[The True Roman]

Recruitment has been the same since the original Shogun, The only thing they've changed is how many u can recruit at a time and your generals can call recruits to him. I dout there gonna change a system that's pretty much the same in almost every RTS/TBS.

[Blatta Optima Maxima]

In case you haven't noticed, R2 will have a different recruitment system. Romans will recruit legions at once.

[Biggus Splenus]

In case you haven't noticed, R2 will have a different recruitment system. Romans will recruit legions at once.

Really? That sounds interesting

[joker8765]

In case you haven't noticed, R2 will have a different recruitment system. Romans will recruit legions at once.

If your going to make a claim like that you'll need a source, as far as I understand it all that CA have said is they want to focus more on armies instead of individual units, as was said in many interviews. This then set the community into a frenzy where most people assumed you would no longer recruit individual units but whole preset armies instead. However in the exclusive content thread which is stickied Jack told us that individual units are still in the game. So as far as we officially know the armies still work in a similar fashion and this assumption that we shall mass recruit armies at once is simply that an assumption by the community which the evidence as far as I can see does not support. However if something has happened to confirm this feature and I've missed it I would be very thankful if you could link the source so I may glean all the R2 info I can

[-Joker-]

In case you haven't noticed, R2 will have a different recruitment system. Romans will recruit legions at once.

Not sure how I feel on that one, Kinda liked building my own legions

[Destraex]

Not sure how I feel on that one, Kinda liked building my own legions

You will still be able to choose the individual units. I don't think forming a legion will be compulsory but it has advantages such as traits for each legion.

[Barbarian Nobility]

The recruitment will certainly be interesting. From what I can gather as Rome you create a Legion and the units that constitute that legion are preset...So the way I interpret this is that there will be no more recruiting units from your various provinces and pooling them into a stack, rather you 'build' your legion and have to wait until its complete before you can move it onto campaign.

How this will work for the other factions is a mystery I guess. They could employ a similar system that Rome uses, except instead of building a legion, the character you choose to lead your campaign builds a horde or host around him.

I base all these presumptions upon the statement by CA that there will be less battles then in previous games, but these same battles will be far more epic in size and far, far, far more decisive for your grand campaign. This can only be a good thing imo.

[Durendalv2]

The recruitment will certainly be interesting. From what I can gather as Rome you create a Legion and the units that constitute that legion are preset...So the way I interpret this is that there will be no more recruiting units from your various provinces and pooling them into a stack, rather you 'build' your legion and have to wait until its complete before you can move it onto campaign.

How this will work for the other factions is a mystery I guess. They could employ a similar system that Rome uses, except instead of building a legion, the character you choose to lead your campaign builds a horde or host around him.

I base all these presumptions upon the statement by CA that there will be less battles then in previous games, but these same battles will be far more epic in size and far, far, far more decisive for your grand campaign. This can only be a good thing imo.

I didn't know you had to "build" a legion. Definitely interesting.

This is pure conjecture, but I would assume that if you build a legion it would mean conscripting troops for factions via a levy system that don't have professional armies, or just have a core of professional units. For example, if you the Greeks (lets say Sparta), you have your general (strategos) and you build you're phalanx with units of Spartiate hoplites and helot light infantry, which supports the hoplite core. I think this will also mean that combined arms will be a luxury for factions like Rome.

[avesta]

The recruitment will certainly be interesting. From what I can gather as Rome you create a Legion and the units that constitute that legion are preset...So the way I interpret this is that there will be no more recruiting units from your various provinces and pooling them into a stack, rather you 'build' your legion and have to wait until its complete before you can move it onto campaign.

How this will work for the other factions is a mystery I guess. They could employ a similar system that Rome uses, except instead of building a legion, the character you choose to lead your campaign builds a horde or host around him.

I base all these presumptions upon the statement by CA that there will be less battles then in previous games, but these same battles will be far more epic in size and far, far, far more decisive for your grand campaign. This can only be a good thing imo.

That's interesting. I've been saying this for YEARS. I want to play those huge decisive battles more frequently.
Too often you are fiddling around on the campaign map, merging troops/units, combining armies, etc...
I knew they would eventually implement a system where you can recruit armies on a grander scale without so much micro-management. It was coming.

I'll bet the general has a lot of effect on the legion and how diverse/large it is...Too bad we don't have more detail.

[Xanthippus of Sparta]

The recruitment will certainly be interesting. From what I can gather as Rome you create a Legion and the units that constitute that legion are preset...So the way I interpret this is that there will be no more recruiting units from your various provinces and pooling them into a stack, rather you 'build' your legion and have to wait until its complete before you can move it onto campaign.

How this will work for the other factions is a mystery I guess. They could employ a similar system that Rome uses, except instead of building a legion, the character you choose to lead your campaign builds a horde or host around him.

I base all these presumptions upon the statement by CA that there will be less battles then in previous games, but these same battles will be far more epic in size and far, far, far more decisive for your grand campaign. This can only be a good thing imo.

So, for example, in RTW2 I go to Rome, select "Recruit Legion I"...

And eventually I get a stack of 4 Hastati, 4 Princeps, 4 Triarii, 2 Equites, and 2 Velites...

Something like that?

[Barbarian Nobility]

less smaller armies being spammed all over the joint will please psychoticbarbarian greatly.

[Princeps]

I think this should be the standard recruitment system pretty much (with different units ofc).

Perhaps Romans would recruit entire legions as standing armies and the Carthaginians would raise mercenaries mostly.

[Blatta Optima Maxima]

Levy was the basic way of raising armies. Variations from faction to faction, like the focus on individuals for Parthia, or the focus on tribes for the Celts, but still levies.

[Princeps]

yeah. IMO TW's recruitment system is totally, painfully obsolescent, imo.

[Abe86]

I find it unlikely for every culture to have a recruitment system that's mechanically different, perhaps it will be abstract enough to just be differentiated through flavour text.

[ToonTotalWar]

Cannot wait for some persians to feel the steel from an army of Greek Hoplite spears sinks into there flesh! hehehe

[Toho]

Cannot wait for some persians to feel the steel from an army of Greek Hoplite spears sinks into there flesh! hehehe

Ha! my horse archers will bleed you dry while my cataphracts trample over your troops corpses!

[ToonTotalWar]

Ha! my horse archers will bleed you dry while my cataphracts trample over your troops corpses!

You wil have no chance of penetrating the phalanx as it will be like hitting a bronze wall! also my cretan archers will decimate any cavalry charge hehehe