This will sound REALLY dumb, but...

[16kadams]

I am playing as rome, it is my first campaign. I am a noob and I cant even take over spain. But the biggest problem is man power. The computer, if I take of fog of war because I am flabbergasted by the amount of troops they have, they will have like 10 stack armies and I will have two, who win a few times then die. But, here is the stupid part, how do you recruit units? I build those organization buildings, which look like a barracks, but I cant recruit units! And when those units being built in rome are 2-3 turns away, I really cant fight a campaign out of the immediate area. Can I only recruit units regionally? I'm probably being a rube.

So, yeah, how do I recruit units?

[White Knight2]

Build the "client or allied state" building tree and then build the "client state barracks" that follow. Those will allow you to recruit allied cohorts, velites and allied equites. The roman oppidum and the other barracks only give you some regional troops like celtic archers etc. They are useful after the marian reforms to recruit the legions.

[landkarte]

Alternatevely, you can Annex and give a citizenship afterwards. Will give you access to roman units eventually both pre- and post- reforms but the happiness will suffer from Annex. Penalties and bonuses for buildings differ region by region, though, so read the building descriptions carefully.

[16kadams]

Build the "client or allied state" building tree and then build the "client state barracks" that follow. Those will allow you to recruit allied cohorts, velites and allied equites. The roman oppidum and the other barracks only give you some regional troops like celtic archers etc. They are useful after the marian reforms to recruit the legions.

Wait, so only rome can get normal units (i.e. not allied) for the pre-marian era?

[High Fist]

And in order to recruit units you need to build a "metal import facility" (or something like that) and then "weapon import". Some regions can't build these and that's because they already have iron as a natural resource - you should be able to recruit once you have the oppidum built up.

I am a noob and I cant even take over spain.

Spain took me ages to conquer. You can expect to be tied down there fora long time.

[ImperialAquila]

You're not noob for not being able to take Spain. Players can get bogged down there. It's usually where most of the Carthaginian armies are. I got stuck in Spain as well before I figured out an alternate route which was to take over north Africa and start to make my way northwards from Gadir.

[16kadams]

Thanks all of you! I will follow those instructions

[Post Hoc]

no, if you keep upgrading (cant remember building names of the top of my head) you can get republican units in other cities than Roma.

[16kadams]

Oh. And one last thing. For the allied tree thing, I can only build that in new cities NOT in cities I started with. So basically rome is the only good city at first until I expand. Because I dont see it, for example, on my Cannae building browser.

[Post Hoc]

No, the reason you can recruit only non allied units in Roma is because it has the "campus Martius" already built. This building can be built in every city on the map.