Auxiliaries?

[Silvius Faberus Atreides]

From my understanding, a fairly large portion of ancient armies (or at least of the post-Marian Roman one) were formed of local auxiliary units. While I consider work on the AI and computer speed far more important than anything else at this point, I do think that this would be a very good feature for Part Two, especially with the introduction of the Imperial Romans. I would imagine auxiliaries as being keyed to the map at play, much like the Natives in Age of Empires III, though there probably shouldn't be little villages cluttering up the map; auxiliaries should be trained at a special building. The Imperial Romans should probably have a low amount of standard units and have a bonus for the local auxiliary units.

Also, perhaps this topic could serve as a list of potential candidates.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Silvius Faberus Atreides

[alpha123]

This is kinda what citizen soldiers are supposed to be, I think.

I personally do like the idea of special buildings on some maps where you could recruit natives (who might not be from your civ) though.

[Burzum]

I have mention this and suggested this in one or two of my posts.

This makes absolute sense.

Auxilliaries are great for defending the borders and to garrison in them forts and wall towers or just support your main army in the field.

But the biggest advantage would be, and this is for the Romans, is that they will be fast to train and really cheap.

They would be spearmen and as spearmen they would have an attack bonus against cavalry units.

There would also need to be a change where 3 auxilliary units trained is capped at 1 pop. Because on the outskirts of empire, there's a vast population, so it makes sense.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Burzum

[plumo]

This is kinda what citizen soldiers are supposed to be, I think.

I personally do like the idea of special buildings on some maps where you could recruit natives (who might not be from your civ) though.

I've been thinking about that as well. I'll try to come up with a roster.

[Lion.Kanzen]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auxiliaries_(Roman_military)#Background:_Roman_Republic_.28to_30_BC.29

The Roman/Latin cavalry was sufficient while Rome was in conflict with other states in the mountainous Italian peninsula, which also disposed of limited cavalry resources. But as Rome was confronted by external enemies that deployed far more powerful cavalry elements, such as the Gauls and the Carthaginians, the Roman deficiency in cavalry numbers could be a serious liability, which in the Second Punic War (218–202 BC) resulted in crushing defeats. Hannibal's major victories at the Trebia and at Cannae, were owed to his Spanish and Gallic heavy cavalry, which far outnumbered the Roman and Latin levies, and to his Numidians, light, fast cavalry which the Romans wholly lacked.^[6] The decisive Roman victory at Zama in 202 BC, which ended the war, owed much to the Numidian cavalry provided by king Massinissa, which outnumbered the Roman/Latin cavalry fielded by 2 to 1.^[7] From then, Roman armies were always accompanied by large numbers of non-Italian cavalry: Numidian light cavalry and, later, Gallic heavy cavalry. For example, Caesar relied heavily on Gallic and German cavalry for his Conquest of Gaul (58–51 BC)

By the outbreak of the Second Punic War, the Romans were remedying the legions' other deficiencies by using non-Italian specialised troops. Livy reports Hiero of Syracuseoffering to supply Rome with archers and slingers in 217 BC.^[12] From 200 BC onwards, specialist troops were hired as mercenaries on a regular basis: sagittarii (archers) fromCrete, and funditores (slingers) from the Balearic Isles almost always accompanied Roman legions in campaigns all over the Mediterranean.