Lets talk about: Officer, Standards, and Musicians

[Kinjo]

I really hope CA goes all out and does some awesome unit standards for all the faction particularly the Romans (not the floating flags but carried by men in the unit). I know the game is pre alpha but there are no standards in any of the pics so far. It would be disappointing to not have a centurion, vexillifer, signifer, cornicen, and an aquilifer (1 per legion/1st cohort) for the Roman faction. Also lets not forget infantry are not the only units that carry banners, roman cavalry units used vexillum! CA always forgets/avoids cavalry standards please don't do it this time. The Dacian Draco banner was another epic banner that would be awesome to see in a cav unit.

The vexillum would be a neat feature if it displayed the legion's number on it for example "LEG X". This would also adds some characteristics to the units as well. Instead of just having a bunch of red roman units we could have unique banners for each of the units mainly basic stuff like the what legion and cohort they are.

Cornicen (horn blowers) would be awesome and add to the immersion of commanding units if they sounded off their cornu (horns) when you give a unit orders to advance, charge, stop, run etc. This would be the perfect title to add this feature and lets not forget the epic Carnyx of the barbarian factions!

Aquila/eagle standards should be a big deal and carried by the 1st cohort, they should also be capture-able on the battlefield. If lost in battle they should have a negative moral penalty, for example if they boost nearby units morale by +1 if lost in battle it would be a -1 morale or something like that.

Vexillum- carried by a vexillifer

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Signum- carried by a signifer

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Cornu - carried by a cornicen

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Aquila - carried by an aquilifer who is also the paymaster

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Imago - carried by an imaginifer (image of the emperor) imperial age

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Here is a neat little vid from RSII on cornicen.
http://vimeo.com/40364229

One last thing officer positioning in the unit, do you think they should be in the middle or on the side?

Personally I prefer them in the middle especially if there is the possibility of 3-5 of them.

I know I mostly only brought up Roman stuff so feel free to post info on other types of banners we might see in use by the other factions.

[Andreius Pretorianus]

many of this things are for the Roman Empire,post marian reforms.

[Kinjo]

Last time I checked Marian reforms were in Rome 1 so I don't see why they wouldn't be in Rome II. Regardless there were still officers, musician, and standards.

[Chris lol]

Yes these things are what adds so much flavour to a unit. The little details just make the game better. Having more differences between individual soldiers of a unit just makes them feel more lifelike. In shogun 2 units would have a captain and a flag bearer. I hope in Rome 2 this can be expanded somewhat to not only include different banners and standards, but also faction and unit specific ones. What i mean by that is that a julii banner should obviously not look the same as a scipii banner.

One last thing officer positioning in the unit, do you think they should be in the middle or on the side?

I personally believe the officer should be in the back rather than in the front. I dont mind if its on the side or in the middle of the line, but having the officer on the very 1st line while in battle formation is just kind of strange to me.

[SirCymro]

I personally believe the officer should be in the back rather than in the front. I dont mind if its on the side or in the middle of the line, but having the officer on the very 1st line while in battle formation is just kind of strange to me.

Centurions the majority of the time always fought in the first or second rank as it was used as a 'tactic' to inspire the troops. The optios (seconds) would normally do the same however not always. It was common for the commander of each Legion to often appoint new Centurions after each major battle as they were a prime target for enemy troops as they were involved in heavy fighting.

As for musicians, cornicens were only used for battle commands and were situated near the Legion commander for quick and easy order notifications

[Destraex]

I would absolutely love for orders to have to be given in this fashion. The Centurion and Optio repeating the order in the ranks.
Complicated orders need a messenger and simple orders by trumpet or flags.

[Asgaroth]

If anybody has modded RTW I ever, when you unpack the files you can see textures of musicians which indicates that they were planing to put them in Rome I, but for unqnown reasons they didn't.

So I a preaty sure that they will appear in Rome II.

In my mind the would rise the atmosphere on the battlefield ingame.

[Kinjo]

Yeah the musician have a lot of potential to increase immersion, for example if you click on 5 units to advance at the same time the sound of the horns could be amplified to be louder (one tone) instead of hearing 5 low toned horns with their timing off.

[-FrOzeN-]

If CA would include all that I would probably end up loosing all my battles. As I would get stuck looking at my units instead of the battle
But if every cohort would have its own standard (for example Leg X Coh II) it would be bloody awesome^^

[tone]

If CA would include all that I would probably end up loosing all my battles. As I would get stuck looking at my units instead of the battle
But if every cohort would have its own standard (for example Leg X Coh II) it would be bloody awesome^^

Yes. Great idea.

One of the really fun things we did for RS2 was give each of the legions its own Vexillarius with unique standard and shields - if this could be extended to each cohort (assuming they have enough unit model slots available that would be fun!)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[rude dude]

Yes. Great idea.

One of the really fun things we did for RS2 was give each of the legions its own Vexillarius with unique standard and shields - if this could be extended to each cohort (assuming they have enough unit model slots available that would be fun!)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

That's why I absolutely love that mod, you all went the extra mile in making it.
Thanks!

[Kinjo]

Yeah that would be awesome and with the 1st cohort additionally carrying the Eagle on top of the other normal banners. Here is one of my favorite parts of Rome I know its not completely historical but there are lots of standards.

[JankoMega]

How I love "Rome" series.

[Kinjo]

Yeah Rome is a great show might have to watch both seasons again. I was digging around the RSII forums and I have to say they did some awesome standard and officers for their units CA should seriously take note.



Here are a few more;

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[Bobz]

I'd love to see officers and standard bearers return, and the addition of musicians would be fantastic as well. We had them in Empire so let's just hope they can be improved and included into Rome II.

[Kinjo]

Speaking of RSII there is tone! I'm hoping musicians make a return and the unique vexillarius would be very welcomed as well. To me these are the unit features that give the units characteristics not facial expressions.

[The Glorious Moldovan]

LESS INSTRUMENTS! MOAR SWOARDS!

[Kinjo]

Screw that swords didn't bring down the Walls of Jericho

[Adufka]

Good point mate...hopefully CA will not forget for anything...but I am sure they will make this time every detail in the game now..after they have seen mods especially RS2...it will be shame for them if they don't make a game better in every way

[Kinjo]

Lets hope our boyz over at CA are just as passionate about these things as we are.

@tone feel free to post any of your other cool standards!