Armies

[unmerged(110419)]

Just so this doesn't degenerate into the battle on the combat engine thread, I wanted to say I love grand strategy games such as Rome and Crusader Kings (used to be my kryptonite). However, I can't help but ask why there isn't more depth to the armies and it stops at the basics of heavy infantry, militia, archers, etc. Are there any mods that affect this? Sometimes I feel like I'm playing the same campaigns over and over b/c countries don't really have anything unique in their military structure (ie phalanx for greeks, maniples for romans, cavalry for iranians/parthians).

 

[Swuul]

Well... There *are* different styles. What you choose as national ideas and as laws affect how efficient your different troop-types are (for example, if you want to have better cavalry, you obviously want to enact laws and ideas that boost cavalry efficiency). Also, at later tech levels you get inventions depending on which warfare culture you have (hellenistic, roman, etc), but the difference is not *that* strong compared to the ideas and laws (still it does affect the style you can use the different troops).

 

[unmerged(110419)]

You are correct. But in most cases (dice rolls), the combat engine cancels out these small differences. To be more historically accurate, it seems this should be addressed by mods. The fighting styles of Hellenic, Roman, Eastern armies was so different that it played a major role on a largely strategic level and would provide much more diverse gameplay for rome players it seems.

 

[The-Doc]

Gotta work within the system though.

This could be achieved by adding starting techs to the various cultures to help represent their differences. Like increased morale for Roman heavy infantry to represent the staying power of the maniple system on the field of battle over the single line deployments of the Hellenic armies.

We can make new techs right?