It's been reworked for the next patch.
Rome at War - Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.)
- Thread starter Gothic Knight
- Start date
Users who are viewing this thread
These questions weren't asked yet it seems, and I'm sort of feeling crappy about spamming the 'suggestions/bugs' thread, so I do have a question.
Uno: So I noticed the mod's troop recruitment doesn't work like natives' troop recruitment, where nameless peasants turn magically into other troop types, but rather it lets you recruit specific soldier types dependent on location (I think), and in greater numbers. To me this makes army management and entering battle significantly more easy and tactical. My curiosity is just in how you get 'elite' troops, and whether or not 'villages' are the only place for recruitment, and in how often they replenish troops, etc.
Dos: In my recruiting, I've come upon some troop type names I'm not quite familiar with! I imagine that 'Ephebes' are youths in training. What, however, are 'Epibates'? Would it be worth it to add in visible name translations somewhere?
Uno: So I noticed the mod's troop recruitment doesn't work like natives' troop recruitment, where nameless peasants turn magically into other troop types, but rather it lets you recruit specific soldier types dependent on location (I think), and in greater numbers. To me this makes army management and entering battle significantly more easy and tactical. My curiosity is just in how you get 'elite' troops, and whether or not 'villages' are the only place for recruitment, and in how often they replenish troops, etc.
Dos: In my recruiting, I've come upon some troop type names I'm not quite familiar with! I imagine that 'Ephebes' are youths in training. What, however, are 'Epibates'? Would it be worth it to add in visible name translations somewhere?
yes, "ephiboi" means youth, teenagers, i mean ages from say, 16 to 21. greeks had a fetich
of starting to train from very young ages. with the spartans having the most extreme system.
"epibates" means those who are aboard a ship. i think athenians used to have
an elite corps, used to fighting and jiumping aboard ennmy ships.
as far as i know recruitment comes from villages, and classic mercenaries from the tavern.
but i might wrong.
of starting to train from very young ages. with the spartans having the most extreme system.
"epibates" means those who are aboard a ship. i think athenians used to have
an elite corps, used to fighting and jiumping aboard ennmy ships.
as far as i know recruitment comes from villages, and classic mercenaries from the tavern.
but i might wrong.
jepekula
Count
You can upgrade some units to better-armoured versions of themselves in cities and castles which you or your own faction own (IIRC). When you enter a suitable walled settlement, there's the retrain troops (XXX remaining) option, click on that, and then you are given a menu which has your upgrade-able troops, click on them, and on the lower left it should tell you into which troop it upgrades to. Peasants, however, can still not be upgraded to superduperultramegadeathknights of hellas, but they'll be upgraded to peasants with more clothing. If I can remember correctly, some hoplites though are upgraded to epilektoi, which makes them the exception. Syracusan hoplites can't get upgraded to Epilektoi, though.Childe_Rolande said:
You get elite troops by recruiting them from cities, or sometimes they spawn in taverns iirc. Since you're in Greece, the 'yaddayadda epilektoi hoplitai' are the elites, but so are Spartiate hippeis, and Spartan promakroi are something special too but I can't remember. You could also, possibly, count Cretan archer(er)s and Rhodian slingers as elite, and they definitely spawn in taverns. You can also go to Krete to get the archers.
Epibates are marines. I don't remember if they were special in SP. In MP they get a bow, and in last version got an aspis to go with it.
1 - Currently it's only villages and tavern mercenaries as Jepekula pointed out, you recruit directly from a village "garrison" that receives a batch of troops every 3 days if they can afford it and send the troops to their attached center every 10 days to reinforce the garrison. They recruit either a large amount of light troops, a medium amount of mid-class troops or a small amount of elite troops which is currently random with the light troops being most likely to be trained.
Recruitment is also factional, if faction X holds village Y they train troop W there while other factions will just train generic units. It just works
Well that's until the game decide you personal faction defaults to Rome and you're stuck recruiting Roman troops which kinda sucked for my rebellious Tyrrhenoi absolutist democracy.
It's a flawed attempt but now I have some new ideas to improve the system, I want to group factions into cultures and base the recruitment around it for the most part. So as long as a Hellenic culture is present in Greece they will be able to recruit regional units (Spartans, Athenians, Thebans, etc...) but if the Romans come around they'll start training Auxiliaries or some generic infantry.
2 - Ephebes are the Athenian youth forced into mandatory military service following the defeat at Chaeronea but it didn't last long, a few decades after the mod is set they were back at relying practically only on mercenaries to fight their land battles, the Athenian citizens focused mostly on the navy and their naval troops would be the Epibates (or was it Epivates?). I wanted to make some proper presentations, documentations and even an english names patch for the mod but since things are still ever changing it would be a waste of time. I'd rather answer a question every now and then, rather than making a document that would soon enough be outdated.
Recruitment is also factional, if faction X holds village Y they train troop W there while other factions will just train generic units. It just works
Well that's until the game decide you personal faction defaults to Rome and you're stuck recruiting Roman troops which kinda sucked for my rebellious Tyrrhenoi absolutist democracy.
It's a flawed attempt but now I have some new ideas to improve the system, I want to group factions into cultures and base the recruitment around it for the most part. So as long as a Hellenic culture is present in Greece they will be able to recruit regional units (Spartans, Athenians, Thebans, etc...) but if the Romans come around they'll start training Auxiliaries or some generic infantry.
2 - Ephebes are the Athenian youth forced into mandatory military service following the defeat at Chaeronea but it didn't last long, a few decades after the mod is set they were back at relying practically only on mercenaries to fight their land battles, the Athenian citizens focused mostly on the navy and their naval troops would be the Epibates (or was it Epivates?). I wanted to make some proper presentations, documentations and even an english names patch for the mod but since things are still ever changing it would be a waste of time. I'd rather answer a question every now and then, rather than making a document that would soon enough be outdated.
sifis172 said:
Sounds good, thank you! That's what it was, like 'marines', of sorts. Very nice. Early on, I would expect Greek infantry marines to use the aspis. Eventually I would think that thureos shields and javelins/swords might be the way to go though.
jepekula said:
Excellent. Thanks! That sounds reasonable; it's funny because in Europa Barbarorum and to a small degree in Rome II that's what I'd do for a late/hellenistic Greek campaign. I gather my Greek pikes as my main line, and thureophoroi/thorakitai, (or hoplites when historically available) as flank supports, Rhodian slingers and preferably Cretan archers as my missile units, and maybe Thessalians as cavalry. Greece does as such feature a pretty good mix of unit types.
Seek n Destroy said:1 - Currently it's only villages and tavern mercenaries as Jepekula pointed out, you recruit directly from a village "garrison" that receives a batch of troops every 3 days if they can afford it and send the troops to their attached center every 10 days to reinforce the garrison. They recruit either a large amount of light troops, a medium amount of mid-class troops or a small amount of elite troops which is currently random with the light troops being most likely to be trained.
Recruitment is also factional, if faction X holds village Y they train troop W there while other factions will just train generic units. It just works
Well that's until the game decide you personal faction defaults to Rome and you're stuck recruiting Roman troops which kinda sucked for my rebellious Tyrrhenoi absolutist democracy.
It's a flawed attempt but now I have some new ideas to improve the system, I want to group factions into cultures and base the recruitment around it for the most part. So as long as a Hellenic culture is present in Greece they will be able to recruit regional units (Spartans, Athenians, Thebans, etc...) but if the Romans come around they'll start training Auxiliaries or some generic infantry.
2 - Ephebes are the Athenian youth forced into mandatory military service following the defeat at Chaeronea but it didn't last long, a few decades after the mod is set they were back at relying practically only on mercenaries to fight their land battles, the Athenian citizens focused mostly on the navy and their naval troops would be the Epibates (or was it Epivates?). I wanted to make some proper presentations, documentations and even an english names patch for the mod but since things are still ever changing it would be a waste of time. I'd rather answer a question every now and then, rather than making a document that would soon enough be outdated.
Thanks for the clarification. So, if I read this right, am I actually sort of reducing my faction's manpower by recruiting from villages? Temporarily?
Also, it would be a bit of a silly thing to expect granted your workload is already as large as it is, but, largely out of curiosity.. how far away is this mod from Greek thureophoroi/thorakitai, in terms of historic timeline? They're one of my favorite Greek military evolutions of the hoplite. (Indeed, the final one; I certainly don't consider phalangites anything like hoplites)
I read that this is actually around the time when they started to make an appearance, though they seemed most used, I think by the Achaean league. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thureophoroi I suppose by this point I would expect at least a couple of the peltastai to be getting the hint and carrying slightly larger, almond/ovular shaped shields.
jepekula said:Thureophoroi are off the time frame by 30-40 or so years.
And no, you won't get them even if you play so long in game
Well gawsh, o'course not~
Gawsh! Hahah, no, I don't expect a unit which hasn't been created to magically appear in-game after said amount of time. Just as I wouldn't expect gunpowder weapons to make an appearance in Native Calradia if I had a campaign span over 100 years.(Although, I wonder if Thracians in particular ended up using it earlier?)
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/552605816759072217/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/552605816759066481/ (313BC)
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/552605816755974620/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/552605816755880495/
I didn't know they would be so far-off in time. You're right, in that the official dated adoption appears to be at 270BC, the Galatian invasions which might have directly influenced or introduced them in the 280's, and Pyrhus' invasion of Italy in the 280's as well. In particular, I would have expected that Greek peltastai would have used something that looks a little similar, albeit smaller. It's not a lot to go on, but I've seen this depicted in a few games. It's like a thureos but not quite. Smaller, not as long, and more 'pinched inward' toward the top and bottom.
But then, this might have just been what was utilized at the time of thureophoroi for peltastai.
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j278/donlogan/hegemony/ad_peltast_shields_01.jpg
http://www.europabarbarorum.com/i/units/koinon-hellenon/kh_peltastai.gif
So in regards to research, I am really curious what that shield is based on, but as far as depictions go I guess that round shields or the crescent-shaped pelte are accurate.
jepekula said:Well, there was this one guy on ModDB who suggested that principate legions should be in because he'll play 300 in-game years
That is utter madness.
I would not suggest such. This was more a matter of me not quite understanding exactly when the Thureos was adopted by Greeks, perhaps supposing it was gradual as opposed to instant. And on top of that, not quite understanding where this interpretation of peltastai with a smaller version of the thureos actually originated from. So I assumed some variant of it was in use by Greeks earlier on. It was more of a question though! I wasn't intending to sound like I was demanding thureophoroi appear in this game, especially for the reasoning of 'in 30 years they will be there!'.
jepekula
Count
Don't worry, I get what you're thinking; I was not mocking you, I was merely making a joke!
Sorry if you got it any other way. I tried looking for the original quote, but it seems it's lost in the tests of time.
Anyway, personally, I'd guess it would be a more gradual process than anything, but after all, I'm not in a position to say anything about the actual development of the mod, so yeah.
Sorry if you got it any other way. I tried looking for the original quote, but it seems it's lost in the tests of time.
Anyway, personally, I'd guess it would be a more gradual process than anything, but after all, I'm not in a position to say anything about the actual development of the mod, so yeah.
Understood. Funny enough, I actually appreciate the relative historical absurdity of going many many years without troop type changes in a game like this, (or in the RTW franchise), as I tend to be extremely patient and turtle-like in those games, to build up the desired forces at the desired state, and if troops changed as they would have with the times, my forces wouldn't be anywhere near where I'd want them to.
In the taverns just like in Native you have to talk to the ransom brokers to sell prisoners.
They haven't been touched so no idea on their current status.
I was always under the impression spies were just random passersby, as there's nothing in the scene editor for spies from what I can tell.Flintlock longbow said:
Hello, everyone. I hope this is the right place to ask.
In this mod, do the lords tend to change a lot between factions by mid-game like in Native or do they always stay loyal to their original faction like some other modules? I'm curious to know whether by mid-game I can expect to see each faction being made up of various lords from different cultures. Thanks.
In this mod, do the lords tend to change a lot between factions by mid-game like in Native or do they always stay loyal to their original faction like some other modules? I'm curious to know whether by mid-game I can expect to see each faction being made up of various lords from different cultures. Thanks.
For now they mostly leave a faction when said faction is defeated.
All the better for my plans! I generally don't like it when all the lords get jumbled up in historical mods
