Garrisons

[TotalWarker]

Hey all,

Ive been wondering about these for a while now, and how it will work with the Rome 2 system of less sieges and restricted armies. What we know:

• Number of armies will be limited around how many generals you have
• Troops cannot travel around (or I assume be stationed) without a general, and therefore most cities will not have troops in the immediate vicinity
• Smaller cities will not be siegable and will result in a field battle (therefore not as easy to defend naturally)

All of which I think are good ideas, but how will garrisons work? Will they be stronger? More numerous? Or will it be fairly straight forward to take these unguarded places? Depend on town upgrades?

Not sure if ive missed information on this somewhere, but if someone could shed some light (especially someone from CA!!) that would be great.

Cheers,
J

[Basileos Leandros I]

They've tried to recreate the aspect of the "frontline", in the sense that once an enemy army breaks through your general's army, it's free to take up your lands. So less garrisons in this case, and not as powerful as before.

[Kinjo]

They've tried to recreate the aspect of the "frontline", in the sense that once an enemy army breaks through your general's army, it's free to take up your lands. So less garrisons in this case, and not as powerful as before.

Oh god that would be horrible, that would lead to some of the most chaotic land swapping we have ever seen in a TW game which would be a very bad thing. Shogun 2 was bad enough where had factions completely swapping locations.

Notice where the Oda clan is? not to mention the Uesugi clan?


No dude garrisons will have to be stronger or the campaigns will be a mess. 75% of the settlements don't have walls which will make this game way too easy if the garrisons are weak.

Also the silly 20 unit defender cap for combined garrisons and armies needs to seriously go, the Ai is going to need it's full garrisons plus what ever limited armies they can muster if they want to put up a decent fight against coordinated attacks and player controlled host of up to 40 units.

Why can't garrisons act like reinforcement armies so if the Ai has its army in the capital the garrison would act like a second stack?

[Lockpick]

Also the silly 20 unit defender cap for combined garrisons and armies needs to seriously go, the Ai is going to need it's full garrisons plus what ever limited armies they can muster if they want to put up a decent fight against coordinated attacks and player controlled host of up to 40 units.

Why can't garrisons act like reinforcement armies so if the Ai has its army in the capital the garrison would act like a second stack?

Pretty much this... ++++
If we now can control up to 40 units it SHOULD add the garrison to your army. If you have recruited a full stack (20) units in a city and there are auto garrissons they should stack...
Only way to NOT have full auto garrisson is if you have a full stack army in your city + full stack of recruited garrisson. So you can't have more than 40 units.

In the end everything should stack. army + recruited garrisson + navy + auto garrisson up to 40 units. If there are more than that first auto garrisson will be taken out of consideration and if there are still more than 40 units the player chooses from the available ones which one should fight. In addition the old reserve mechanic should also be there... If you lose one unit (so you have 39 units left) one from the not used but available units joins the map (from the border of the map) so you are back to 40 until you don't have any reserve left.

[DarthRuanek]

It would make sense to have strong garrisons historically. Many factions in the time period did have pretty strong militia.

[DogSoldierSPQR]

In my opinion, a cap on armies should suggest full garrisons. The money you are saving from those massive armies you would have had could go on garrisons.
I also believe that Jack said the Garrisons will be pretty considerable in strength and not just crappy units.
But yeah. I would love it if there were 20 stack garrisons defending each city. It fits with how Jack is aiming for Epic siege battles.

[TotalWarker]

Hmm, two very opposite answers I guess there hasnt been a great deal of info on this? Can we tell from campaign map pics at all?

[DogSoldierSPQR]

Hmm, two very opposite answers I guess there hasnt been a great deal of info on this? Can we tell from campaign map pics at all?

You can say that again haha
Jack did explain, but from what I can remember, not going into too much detail about it. All we really got was that "Garrisons will work differently this time around" or something like that.
I just tried putting it with others things Jack has said like "Sieges will be more epic" and that's what I can make of it all

[PT_ReVoLuTioN]

Yeah garrisons should be worse than regular troops but they should make up in numbers, when a big city was attacked and it had no army for its defense everyone wold take arms to help other wise it would be a slaughter so when the player actualy break a siege it should be a 40 vs whatever the enemy had, epic battle.

[Ichon]

I hope the entire province has large free garrison but as regions are lost the free garrison that shows up to defend gets smaller until the final battle where free garrison is small but by then faction should have had time to respond and provide paid garrison. Initial invasion to a province would usually face heavy resistance at first but after a couple regions are lost the men showing up as free garrison decrease as available manpower is less due both to enemy occupation and less willingness to fight successful invaders.

[RexImperator]

I'd like to see each city have a customizable garrison. No front line troops sure, why would I have Praetorians or Sacred band loitering around some back water province, but I should get to pick from more than just "armed rabble" and "town watch" units. This is where units like Urban Cohorts and Evocati can really come into their own rather than being units I drag around the map from Sicily to Sarmatia.

[Swiss Army Cheese]

I'd like to see each city have a customizable garrison. No front line troops sure, why would I have Praetorians or Sacred band loitering around some back water province, but I should get to pick from more than just "armed rabble" and "town watch" units. This is where units like Urban Cohorts and Evocati can really come into their own rather than being units I drag around the map from Sicily to Sarmatia.

I support this notion.
Having a customisable garison would work well with the nonincluded feature of cityview.

[Modestus]

Does anyone even know if these smaller regions can be besieged?

I understand that if there is a battle there will be a field battle but what about on the campaign map, is it like ETW?

[Cedz]

The Roma Capital should have a limited number of Praetorian Guard as part of their garrison historically correct?

[DarthRuanek]

The Roma Capital should have a limited number of Praetorian Guard as part of their garrison historically correct?

If all factions get equal treatment, it might be ok. Capitals should be harder to take. Though if the Praetorian Guard are included, it could make sense for them to sometimes have aspirations of their own. They did kill a few emperors, after all.

[Manu La Canette]

If all factions get equal treatment, it might be ok. Capitals should be harder to take. Though if the Praetorian Guard are included, it could make sense for them to sometimes have aspirations of their own. They did kill a few emperors, after all.

I think you hold a good idea. It would make a nice dilemma for the player, if you have to choose between maintaining the Praetorian as a military/political force, and therfore providing a strong elite garrison to Rome (and recruitable cohorts) but also a risk of armed insurection for any dangerous factions inside your faction's politic, and between decreasing their importance if you think you can rely on your own military forces (like trustfull legions and trustfull generals)...

It would be awesome!

[TotalWarker]

Hmm, some interesting ideas. Would be great if we could get a little info on this from Will/Craig/Jack etc. Then again, it's only because I seem to have developed an unhealthy addiction to any new info on game mechanics... bring on 3rd Sept I guess

[MrOuija]

I'm hoping that the provincial capital will be able to utilize all the garrisons from it's various regions if it's attacked first. So if someone tries to "headshot" a 4 region province by going right for the capitol, and each garrisons provides say 5 units, then there will be 20 units defending the capitol. In this way it'd be better for an attacker to take large provinces apart piece by piece, which would also allow the defender time to react and take them back.

[TotalWarker]

I'm hoping that the provincial capital will be able to utilize all the garrisons from it's various regions if it's attacked first. So if someone tries to "headshot" a 4 region province by going right for the capitol, and each garrisons provides say 5 units, then there will be 20 units defending the capitol. In this way it'd be better for an attacker to take large provinces apart piece by piece, which would also allow the defender time to react and take them back.

Not a bad idea at all that, a buff to the provincial capital garrison for each region held. Really puts the emphasis on capturing a whole province before moving onto the next one as well, especially when happiness and financial modifiers are thrown in

[Armageddonn]

Here is my take on garrisons

Since the number of armies will be limited the income must be spend on garrisons, i mean its logical that instead of having 5 full stacks of armies, since it will be limited it might be only 2-3 armies so you have spared income to build more and stronger garrisons, that is the only way to deal with the limited army issue, honestly if i will be able to build good quality units as garrison i am fine.