Army Legion composition

[Padre Pio]

Hi all,

I've just discovered this game a few weeks ago and I'm having a blast playing it. At the moment, I'm playing Rome as a military republic. I have 2 legions currently (a 3rd one is being trained) and I have utilized the same (barring the hastati and trarii cohorts) pre-marian army composition that I used when playing Rome: Total War, i.e. 10 principes, 4 velites and 4 cavalry auxilia. It certainly is effective against the Gauls but is it an effective combo against super power countries like Carthage, Egypt, Seleucid and the Greek nations? What should be the best army legion composition for this game? I'm playing Vae Victis patch 2.2. Gracias in advance for your inputs.

 

[unmerged(125561)]

Velites are really sub optimal as line troops - best to have HI.

My armies now, are generally composed along these lines (Unashemedly pinched from Chyll's AAR - http://www.europa-universalis.com/forum/showthread.php?t=430128 - its a good one too!)

8 heavy inf for the front ranks and 6 archers in the rear. A nice 14'000 pre horse legion. With access to horses, the legion expands with a further 4 cav cohorts to act as flankers.

Navies are composed of these numbers 14 or 18 units respectively, to maximise mobility.

 

[Sarayakat]

As Rome I usually begin with 6/2 inf/archer armies, upgrading gradually to 8/2/2 inf/arc/cav and then once I can afford the upkeep (cav is expensive) 10/2/4. Anything too big is going to mean attrition everywhere you go, so provincial support limit is an important consideration when planning army composition. Also consider who you'll be fighting, If you send an infantry heavy army against someone with plenty of cavalry you may lose battles even holding numerical superiority. Hope that helps a little.

 

[Cheexsta]

I don't feel that Velites are represented in the game at all like they really should be, so I tend to imagine them as being part of a missile infantry cohort - as skirmishers, they'd form the front line, throw javelins and then fall back to help the Hastati by plugging gaps, which is a role better represented by missile infantry, IMHO.

So, I tend to field an army of 4-2-2 HI, MI and Cav. This gives 6,000 men, roughly the size of a historical Roman Legion. Each army is made up of two of these, one being the citizen Roman legion, the other being an auxiliary legion (IIRC, Polybius describes the Roman army as actually being made up of either half or three-quarters auxiliary troops).

This provides a pretty solid basis for just about any army, I find.

 

[unmerged(41255)]

Interesting to share views on this. I haven't needed to use auxiliaries at all so far. My legions started off as 8 units: 4 HI, 2 archers, 2 cavalry. Later when I had more manpower and money I added 2 horse archers to take it to 10,000. Singly they are fine for dealing with most barbarian uprisings, rebellions etc., and I tend to use them in pairs for foreign wars and sieges. IMLE AI armies seem to top out at about 20 units.

 

[Darthvegeta800]

With Rome I usually go for 8 infantry, 4 archers. Sometimes 8 infantry, 6 archers. It varies a bit from game to game.

 

[commanderkai]

Depends on what you're doing. Conquering foreign lands? My armies are about 25,000. Why? Because my generals commonly suck, and I'm too new at the game to figure out how to get characters into general selection.

I had a breakdown of 12 Heavy Infantry-5 Archer- 5 Calvary, 3 Horse Archer

For exploring and kicking out barbarians? Get an army of 10-15 thousand. Right now, I'm still trying to find a good combo, but usually you want a substantial force of HI.

 

[unmerged(84033)]

naming armies

I try to compose and name my armies with some roleplaying in mind.

As Rome, before I get horses, that means forming groups of about 5000 men (= one legion), composed of 4000 heavy infantry and 1000 archers or peltasts.

Of course, when I need bigger armies (that is, most of the time ), I regroup into multiples of 5000: eg. when I have a 20000 strong army, I call it "Legio I-II-III-IV". If I go above that number I call it a "Consular Army".

 

[Ixtli613]

Am I the only one who fields an equal number of archer and heavy infantry cohorts? My smaller armies are typically 4/4/2 inf/arc/cav while my larger main army is anywhere from 8/8/4 to 12/12/6, depending on my manpower and support limits, as well as how many cohorts my (and enemy) provinces can support.

 

[unmerged(173060)]

I use a 6 unit pattern for Rome (and EU3 as it happens) - so each navy is 6 ships, and each army is 6 units - the bulk being 4 Heavy Infantry/2 Archers, and the occasional all cavalry army of 4 Cavalry/2 Mounted Archers. If you are continually farming barbarians during peacetime 6 is a large enough unit to hold any border without risk, and when you are at war you just use more than one unit (including at least one leader with a decent military skill, who will automatically command the entire group of units) to break up the major enemy armies, then you just send them their own ways to claim territory once the threat is over.

The cavalry armies can't siege (well they can, but it is risky and they can't assault), so they are used to mop up retreating armies, and their superior mobility (especially inland where the navy can't help speed up movement) is useful to get reinforcements to the point of any counterattack much faster.