LEGION
(Very Hard)
Legate 64
Auxilia 27
Auxilia 28
Auxiliary Archers 28
Auxiliary Archers 26
Auxiliary Archers 26
Legionary 23
Legionary 21
Legionary 22
Auxiliary Cavalry 28
Denarii: 1280
Fame: 1 131 335
First Loss: Men In Black or Lingering Gauls
It's official now - I can't use heavy infantry.
I decided to puchase only three Archers and it looks like this is not enough. The added support fire would be very helpfull.
All the h-2-h guys wore lots of stuff, however I decided to give them not only the usual level 5 swords and armour, but also boots and helmets of highest level possible. I also decided to buy an even higher level of stuff, but stopped at level 6 swords+armor for the three Legs.
Btw, it'll be interesting to read other people's opinion on Cavalry equipment. It cost the exact same amount as infantry stff, nonetheless you're giving it ot half a number of men, thus making it a very uneconomic purchase. Otoh, Cavalry makes good use of it, as they are fast; moreover they tend to work alone, and thic could be the reason why they need much better equipment.
Next time no stuff of level 6 and higher, because it eats too much gold, and one of my Auxies finished the cam without Achilles' Armour, which made them a sad sad panda.
I toally wasted some of the battles, I can't tell what's happening, but the Vadimo Lake, my usual nightmare was a walk in... well, not really walk in a park, but it wasn't nightmare either. However Cisalpine Gauls was a true massacre, I finished iwth two Archers and a crippled Auxies. And there was yet another one battle, where I've lost some 1500 Fame.
Skill tree was very conservative:
Legate started with the tactician's cycle, once all of them were Advanced, I gave him a little bit of swordsman's skills, then maxed the tactics, since then I was taking quite whatever. e.g. Honour Guard.
Hand to hand guys were given lectures in Swordsman, Feint, Endurance, then Drill and Anti Inf/Cav; on a first availability Legs took Expert Throwers and Auxies learned Disciplined Formations.
Archers took bull's eye skills whenever possible, when there was none archery skill available, I gave them Anti skills and Drill.
Cavalry: Swordsman, Feint, Trample, a little bit of Endurance, then Frenzy asap. Finished the cycle of sword skills, added a little bit of Drill, then Anti Inf/Cav skills, finished Drill, went on maxing the Anti.
I always thought that Auxiliary can have Frenzy, but no, they can't. Nevermind...
Legate wasn't awarded not even the smallest cap. It's just a waste of money. On the scenarios where I must not lose him, he just hides somewhere to completely avoid any harm. On other scenarios I never run him into the greatest danger, so there's no point to give him anything.
Btw, on my previous runs I always maxed the tactic skills first, but I realized that the gold flow is not that fast, so I don't have many units, thus I don't have a need for too much order points. By the end of the very first campaign my Legate is at level eight or something like that, so I hace enough order points for my two or three men. There's a nice synergy when using a small army - you don't need that many order points and you also gain Experiences pretty fast. I don't even care of Drill, I take it only when I must. Since my army grows to some six+ men, I start to take Drill more oftenly. I also give one Drill to the Cavs, so that I may overrun the routed guys with more ease.
I was quite surprised how this run finished. I'm below the usual results. Looks like the all-light units could be the way to go.
Ok, I'll give it one last try, but than I really need to take soem pause!
EDIT: Whenever possible I used Militia/Spearmint pin-cushins; the latter are extremely useful during Latin Dispute. However, I really start to think that one shouldn't overuse the pin cushins, as that little bit of experience that they ate away during each scenario, could be the reason for a little bit later Odd Bows. Further down the campaign I tried to not use them at all, and on a few occasions I didn't even deploy all of my core units.
When we're at it: of course, there are limited deploayent battles, where I even couldn't deploy all my men, but now I'm thinking of something else - to deliberately use a lesser number of squads, so that the Archers get the needed Exp.
E.g. at Pharsalus I've kept all three Legs at home, placed just the Auxies and Archers in the SE corner, where they completely annihilated the enemy Cavalry in the Rough. (And in the meanwhile my own Cavalry TDTed enemy western flank - loads of heavy inf., nom, nom experiences). This was very important, because the Archser shared much greater portion of the 250 necessary kills, moreover they were given a 1/7 instead of 1/10 or 1/11 (if pin cushion squad would have been used) of the after-scenario expo bonus. Bone us.
[pause]
