Auxiliaries

**Garnier** · March 27, 2007, 12:15 PM

What do you guys do with auxiliary swordsmen that are in a legion when it goes back to refill its ranks after the twenty turns or so of campaign?

**jegui** · March 27, 2007, 12:21 PM

I normally garrison them in nearby border towns/forts or alternatively I merge them with my auxilia legions... I have one auxilia legion per 2/3 imperial legions

**Konig** · March 27, 2007, 07:13 PM

i was under the impression that there wasnt a 20 year rule.

**Garnier** · March 27, 2007, 07:19 PM

Not 20 years, 20 turns. Thats what it says in the houserules and I stick to it roughly, at least with the republican and imperial legions I do. With Pre-marian I fill them up as often as I can since they take a lot of casualties.

Also what do you guys think about the tactic of cavalry charging the rear of the enemy army? Its pretty much the main tactic I use (esp. with premarian legions where otherwise my men are overwhelmed) to start the chainrout of the barbarians.

Basically I set up my formation as normal, get the enemies to rush straight on into the 3000 pila I have for them, let the hastati fight until their numbers are 130-120, then pull them back and let the princeps fight, and send the cavalry around the flank and sweep through the enemy missile troops, then hit the rear of the enemy mass and start them routing.

**Konig** · March 27, 2007, 07:31 PM

what i do is send my 1st and 2nd line of hastati and principes (fire at will on) to engage the enemy's main army head on (with my general with them for the morale boost), thus giving my triarii room to maneuver onto their flanks.

i actually only use cavalry against already routing units and skirmishers and archers. normally sending my cavalry against the enemy's infantry (heavy or light) has little or no effect even if they're flanking them or attacking them from behind unless they're already wavering. but even then, that sometimes isn't enough to break them. hopefully 6.3 will change all that.

**jegui** · March 28, 2007, 04:28 AM

Originally Posted by Konig

what i do is send my 1st and 2nd line of hastati and principes (fire at will on) to engage the enemy's main army head on (with my general with them for the morale boost), thus giving my triarii room to maneuver onto their flanks.

i actually only use cavalry against already routing units and skirmishers and archers. normally sending my cavalry against the enemy's infantry (heavy or light) has little or no effect even if they're flanking them or attacking them from behind unless they're already wavering. but even then, that sometimes isn't enough to break them. hopefully 6.3 will change all that.

I use exactly the same technique with pre-marian legions however I leave one triarii behind the front line to fill the gaps when the enemy cavalry charges in and breaks the front line.

In version 6.3, cavalry is going to be a little bit more effective at routing engaged enemy units and I have been using it a lot on my beta play-testing

We still need to use some cavalry micro-manegment.

**Darius_D** · March 28, 2007, 04:27 PM

as for cavalry this good news about 6,3, now I avoid to use them esp against archers as they may get heavy losses. Instead, their usual orders are to neutralize enemy's cavalry and then charge wavering units - from rear or flank - to rout them. this was key to win in many battles...