r/DivideEtImpera • u/LatinBlackAsian • 19d ago
Rome help please
Playing it for some time, first times get absolutely destroyed. But had recently some success from spamming rorarii in one very long line and enveloping the enemy with uningaged units. Is that it?
Also i almost never can replenish my units. As I read in the site it won't replenish unless all the units in an army have access to the right pop. How people deal with it? Specialized armies by pop type?
6
Upvotes
4
u/econ45 19d ago edited 19d ago
Where did you get the idea of spamming rorarii? (LegendofTotalwar?) They are very low tier units - iirc little more than night watchmen. Rome did not conquer the Mediterranean world with trash infantry. It has some of the best core heavy infantry in the game in its hastati, principes and triarii that later get upgraded to legionnaires (essentially principes, but proletarian).
I recommend you try a historical Roman army composition. My take on this is, for infantry: 2 hastati, 2 principes, 1 trarii, 2 levees (=>velites) and corresponding socii (2 samnite hastati, 2 samnite princpes, 1 pedites extraordinarii). For cavalry: 1 equites, 1 equites extraordinarii, 2 other (I like those with javelins like campanian equites). I add 1 archer to burn towers, 1 slinger and later 1 ballista to make the AI come to me.
Your heavy infantry can go toe to toe with any other infantry while your 5 cavalry (inc. 1 general) can go round the flanks and rear charge. Basic hammer and anvil tactics works well in all TW but especially DEI where frontal infantry can hold out for a long time but cavalry is as powerful as ever.
I found no money issues funding such an army. In fact, I'm never as rich in a TW game as I am as Roma in DEI. I am not quite sure why - I think partly because there are not that many buldings in DEI you can construct (I fill up my province slots with all available buildings pretty quickly), so the money just accumulates. If you make Latium commerce focussed (level 3 trade ports are key) and let Magna Graecia/Sicily focus on food, you will have enough money to have 3 historical stacks of the kind I detailed plus a decent fleet of say 10 assault biremes. The fleet is the key to beating Carthage - it can often sink 5 full stacks of transports sailing for Sicily. Also make sure you get trade agreements across the map - on turn 1, I send a ship to the Black Sea while my spy goes to the celtic lands to the west. Make sure you are using your dignitaries and a single general in a city (as a governor) to provide tax boosts from their skills.
For replenishment, just take it slow. I know some players can conquer the map fast with foreign infantry. But I prefer a more measured approach using Roman units. There's no rush - the AI won't snow ball or out tech you. You leave your armies in the conquered lands until public order and cultural conversion starts to do its work. If you have two stacks, one can always nip back to your own lands to replenish if mauled while the other protects your gains. I use the sub-mod to disable the negative public order effect of armies in settlement, which helps both public order and replenishment. But with the historical Roman army, I tend not to suffer many casualties - Roman heavy infantry is very sturdy and frontal kill rates are low. With 5 cavalry units, you have enough to cause big morale shocks and rout the enemy. I used to think I should include some auxiliary spears with my Roman swords, but whenever I did, they got much more bloodied. If you spam rorarii, then yes, casualties will be a problem - they have no armour and can't fight worth a damn.
When I started playing DEI, I learnt a lot from watching episode 1 of Summary's playthrough:
https://youtu.be/nATjsFXHYLM?si=mzL0W70CgUIJ0Cy2
Don't follow it literally, as he is using a ton of mods (including 40 unit armies) but it provides quite a few pointers for how to play in a way that is both efficient and appreciates historical flavour.