Tech tree and ahistorical units

[ray243]

I was wondering if CA is going to make use of tech tree to allow us to research new ahistorical units. For example, if I am playing as Macedon, I want to have the option of researching and reorganizing my army. If I think Macedon can make do with a more heavy infantry/swordsman based army like the Romans, I want to be able to do it via the tech tree.

If I think that the Romans needs to develop new cavalry units such as cataphract during the late Republic era, such an option should be available to us.

This way, we can really shape a faction culture and army into our image, and let us have fun with more what if scenario. It will be boring if we are not allowed to reshape how our armies in a what-if game. Can you imagine taking over the whole of the known world but you are still stuck with using phalanx as the core of your armies?

Of course, there should be penalties if you want to reshape the culture of your armies. If you want to covert a cavalry based culture into a heavy infantry one, you should encounter problems finding enough potential recruits. Until your culture evolves from a migratory culture to a sedentary culture, it will be expensive for you to build and maintain a large infantry army.

The same goes for the barbarian cultures. While it might be possible for you to build an army similar to the Romans, you need to make sure your faction is rich enough to do so.

[Yomamashouse]

Chances are you will not see reforms that don't have a historical basis.

[Muizer]

Heh, you're going to get burned for suggesting this I think. Still you have a point to the extent that it would in fact be realistic if you'd be able to "learn" from your interactions with the cultures you're in contact with. What I find unappealing is the idea of being able to deliberately "research" your way towards unlocking technologies, pretty much regardless of how your faction and the world around it develop. IMHO that aspect has to go. It was interesting to hear in Jack's interview that he did not use the word "tech tree", but rather "progression system". So I hope they'll manage to get some sort of "adopt and adapt" aspect in there.This could create an interesting dynamic to the extent that it could matter in which order you come into contact with other cultures. It would certainly increase the replayability of factions and add some variety to the later stages of the game.

[ray243]

Well, they did mention that they were trying to implement a unit editor for Empire Total war. So it would be nice if they can implement a "create a unit" function for R2TW.

[akkakk]

good idea, probably difficult to implement.

One way is to have progression branches that are redundant to your culture/faction until you come into contact with the culture/faction that uses said progression branch (for example, the branch that allows Roman copies of the Calibrarii and Cataphracts of the Middle Eastern factions would be allowed until you had come into contact with the faction(s) which use them of fight them on the battlefield).

It could add a nice, wide range of variety to the unit roster and add much needed visual power.

[rory o'kane]

Well, the gradual trend towards a more Romanised army certainly occurred in the Hellenic East, with troops like machiaphoroi and thorakitai being equipped and trained along Roman lines, in some cases by Roman officers who were posted there for the purpose or who had deserted. The Celts were, however, somewhat disinclined to adopt Rome's tactics, which diminished the role of the individual warrior (which was a huge part of Celtic culture) in favour of the cohesive army. Surely if you want every faction to become gradually more Romanised, you should just play as Rome? One of the joys of the period is that the various civilisations were so different in their approaches to warfare. Look at Empire - the factions are very very similar in terms of units. While that game is good for other reasons, it's still a bit boring if everyone has the same sets of units. Even the almost-universally phalanx-based Hellenic kingdoms have variety in the troops used to support the phalanx...

[Wodeson]

I think for any historical faction that did experiment with or adopt Roman tactics it would be appropriate to have a tech skill unlock for legion style infantry. However I'd be more interested in seeing area of recruitment systems for raising auxiliary troops fighting in their native style.