Imperator: Rome Developer Diary - 9th of November 2020

  • We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
Does that means we will need to haul the armies across the world with embarking and all that every single time we go to war?
No, you don't need your german levies to fight arabian tribe. And you could see it the other way: if big empire will try to conquer your pride tribe it will need to either fight with you with local forces at first that you could manage to beat and achieve peace or take big war exhaustion hit to prepare for total war and destabilize itself.
 
  • 12
  • 4Like
Reactions:
Wouldn't this break the balance of battles? How can a nation fight without archers or foot infantry? Are cultures like the Parthians cavalry only? I think the bonus system works better because it lets you have preference for certain kind of troops without neglecting other important combat roles.
Having the composition of armies taken out of the control of the player (to a degree) surely makes it more likely that we will see rational army compositions. When the player has full control, we see things like pure HI/HA/Elephant armies because they can cheese the combat system better.
 
  • 8
  • 4Like
Reactions:
No, you don't need your german levies to fight arabian tribe. And you could see it the other way: if big empire will try to conquer your pride tribe it will need to either fight with you with local forces at first that you could manage to beat and achieve peace or take big war exhaustion hit to prepare for total war and destabilize itself.

So we would need to... Absolutely dreadful. I hope there would at least be rally points like in CK3.
And what about the old PDX feature of waging total wars for insignificant gains? Do they really need to use tedium and micromanagement handle against us to give AI any advantage?

FFS at least finaly add diadochii breaking to options...
 
  • 11
  • 2Haha
  • 1
Reactions:
Will we be able to split up the levies? Like, in order to force-march cavalry units from a further away region in order to bolster an army on the front faster? Because I can see how that would cause problems both ways, with the system described here.
Surely this kind of auxillary action will be handled by Legions and Mercenaries? They will be the permanent fighting forces that you shift to where they are most needed. Otherwise you will be wanting to use your local forces in each Region as your first line of defence. It makes space much more important, it really undermines logistics when you can just teleport all of your manpower across an empire at a whim.
 
  • 4Like
Reactions:
Greet stuff! Keyword for me here is the legions which you can get Later. That's some progression, evolving. To me it's very good, you want some stuff to upgrade gradually, I mean real meaningful things.
 
  • 1Like
Reactions:
No, you don't need your german levies to fight arabian tribe. And you could see it the other way: if big empire will try to conquer your pride tribe it will need to either fight with you with local forces at first that you could manage to beat and achieve peace or take big war exhaustion hit to prepare for total war and destabilize itself.
I see increased regionalisation of forces as a good thing in particular as it encourages more use of fortifications if your levies will need to spend a long time moving across your empire if a large war breaks out unexpectedly. It's also another way to encourage you to develop a solid road network.

Though it might also instigate a review of the currently slow pace of unit movement which is a bit slower than might be historically warranted.
 
  • 9
  • 4Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Don't get me wrong, I understand where people are coming from but I see having to mobilize troops from far flung corners of your empire as a good thing personally. It was absolutely an actual consideration IRL and makes sense in game.

Also, I do support faster movement speeds for armies because it can get a bit silly sometimes with how slow armies move.
 
  • 5Like
  • 2
Reactions:
Does that means we will need to haul the armies across the world with embarking and all that every single time we go to war?

I also agree that this is a good thing and goes in line with the Marius Reforms theme.

As your empire expands you are encouraged to consider reforming your military to have a professional standing army that could quickly react to diplomatic changes across your big empire.

I think this will add a really interesting depth to growing empires, not just dealing with their internal population but also how they can evolve their military to deal with their new borders. I am hype for this!
 
  • 5Like
  • 3
Reactions:
I find the lack of information on professional armies and mercenary units disturbing. Seleucid soldiers had their own equipment, while the Egyptians had state sponsored poor equipment (historicly proven and accurate). I would like to see a clear difference between levies and professional soldiers, since levys were mostly used to fill the gaps in armies or desperate mainforces, if the prior army had suffered a major defeat and had to be replaced.
 
Last edited:
  • 1
  • 1Like
Reactions:
This is the greatest update regarding Imperator since it s inception.

With an already detailed and interesting combating system, we will also have historical plausability.

Keep up the good work Imperator team, fix this lifeless game and breath in new life in it.
 
  • 4Like
  • 1
Reactions:
Having levies be the primary source of military troops, with appropriate effects on composition, is great. But this sounds like ONLY the governors can lead armies and that's horrible. I can't think of one ancient empire where troops were *always* led by local governors. For one thing, there's normally more than one army.
 
  • 1
  • 1
  • 1Like
Reactions:
Also super surprised, in a very good way.

I love how everyone loves this. I do too. Almost 300 love icons. I love levies taking from pops and economy. I love more laws. I love integrating cultures and getting access to more military traditions. There's lots of love to share!
 
  • 3Like
  • 1
Reactions:
This is the one of the most exciting changes I've seen so far for this update, thank you for trying to make things more accurately immersive, keep up the good work!
 
  • 2
Reactions:
I find the lack of information on professional armies and mercenary units disturbing.

I rather find it understandable, given how much details this DD contained on levies. I'm will be more than satisfied, if both professional armies and mercs get each a DD of the same dimension - because that would very likely mean they got a thoughtful and detailed rework as well :)
 
  • 5
  • 4Like
Reactions:
Been thinking some more about this lately. The levy system is really interesting because it means now you'll really need to consider putting high military skill governors on your border provinces in order to win battles out there if you're a large empire while higher finesse or other stat governors can rule the internal regions. Simulates reality well.
 
Last edited:
  • 8Like
Reactions:
AT LEAST!

Small question: what about veteran armies (like the ones Eumenes of Kardia commanded) or Hetairoi? Are they supposed to be descripted by legion type of units?

Would legions have different names dependent on culture?
 
  • 2Like
Reactions:
What you can do to affect how many of your pops are raised is change your economic policy for your armies, these can increase or decrease the portion of your integrated population that you call to arms.
Laws also affect the percentage of people levies, with republican laws especially allowing you to levy a larger part of your population, should you so wish. Each tradition tree also contains a 5% levy size buff should you choose to go for it.

Lastly Rome rather famously was able to raise quite big armies from its citizens, this is reflected in an additional levy size % boost for the Roman heritage in particular, which is part of the big levy you can see the in the screenshot. It is a bit of a double edged sword as you say :)


Actually - if I remember - it was greek poleis that had highest military participation percentage of up to 30%. They had just much lower citizen base then Romans...
 
  • 2
Reactions:
Been thinking some more about this lately. The levy system is really interesting because it means now you'll really need to consider putting high military skill governors on your border provinces in order to win battles out there if you're a large empire while higher finesse or other stat governors can rule the internal regions. Simulates reality well.

It will also depend on the quantity of assimilated pops in those border provinces. Perhaps the first years after the conquest you want high finesse governors to pacify/assimilate pops quicker and later in the game you want to prioritize military governors.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions: