PREFACE
Ave, Legate.**UPDATES TO THIS GUIDE ARE ONGOING**
Patch 1.3.0 Changes: Work is in progress to include the overhaul of the legion warfare system to this guide. Until then, the legion warfare section may contain inaccurate information.
The information within this guide will range from basic information for new players to advanced tips for those looking to sharpen the edges of their well worn gladius.
I intend for updates to be regular, but they are at the mercy of my free time and you may come across unfinished content within the guide.
Feedback and requests are always welcome.
Hopefully you will find it useful in your campaign!
MAKE YOUR "ORDINARY" GEAR BECOME "LEGENDARY"
Got some unique weapons/armor collecting dust in your inventory because your new loot was better?
PUT THEM TO USE!
Dismantle unique equipment you are not using
Apply their unique abilities to your ordinary gear via the Modify option at the smithy
This allows you to swap powerful item abilities between your gear, resulting in RIDICULOUSLY effective combinations.
Notably, you can swap some equipment abilities between different equipment types as well.
Want that sword / spear ability on a bow instead? You got it.
NOTE: You can always dismantle any item to refund the unique material and re-forge the original item or modify a different item with it's ability.
PUT SEXTUS TO WORK
Don't be stingy with that hoard of crafting materials!
Craft new equipment for new stat rolls (and potential upgrades)
Modify your gear to customize your equipment or boost the current stats
You can potentially turn that [+1 Health] into a much beefier [+3 health] or swap useless resistances for ones you actually need.
As you unlock Modification Blueprints, remember to check your smithy!
DON'T LOSE YOUR EQUIPMENT
I really wish I had realized this sooner but praetorians you hire keep the equipment you give them even when the campaign ends and you transition between Acts.
Any equipment your recruited praetorians may have had, including unique gear, can be potentially inaccessible.
This includes when you return to Rome, if you dismiss them from your praetorian guard before un-equipping the items, or if you do not re-hire them on your next campaign.
Be sure to unequip unique items from your praetorians BEFORE dismissing them or transitioning back to Rome.
To recover any of these items, you can simply re-hire them into your praetorian guard and THEN unequip the items, but if you are in Rome then you are out of luck.
LEGION WARFARE (UPDATE IN PROGRESS)
"PULLO! FORMATION!"
Patch 1.3.0 Changes: Commander/Centurion TRAITS are no longer used in contested checks, but now stack cumulatively as a type of "stat pool" to determine the effects of your legion during battle. Each TRAIT type will contribute specific effects.
Confused about what's happening during an army battle? Fear not, you are not alone.
Legion battles consist of PHASES during which you will choose a STRATAGEM card for each phase.
After selecting a STRATAGEM, each phase will play out with multiple ATTRITION checks which are determined by your centurions combined traits and aggression / defense values.
NOTE: Your team of centurions, led by a commander of your choosing from among your centurions for each battle, will determine the total number of TRAITS in the pool available to your legion as their "stats".
You can track the total number of TRAITS covered by your 4-man team of centurions on the "Party" tab of the Barracks Tent in camp.
***You will want to have as many traits covered evenly by your 4 centurions as possible***
This will prevent trait deficits that can be very NEGATIVE during battle with unlucky strategem card rolls.
Centurions unlock more traits by participating in battles and earning a type of "trait experience" that can be seen as grayed-out trait icons fill. Once filled, that trait will be unlocked for the owning centurion and added to the stat pool.
During the battle, your TRAIT POOL will be calculated with deductions from the enemy's traits.
What about AGGRESSION and DEFENSE?
AGGRESSION will increase the effects against your enemy during attrition checks in each phase of battle.
DEFENSE will reduce the effects against your legion during attrition checks in each phase of battle.
LEGION EXPERIENCE
You may find yourself struggling to build your legion's experience. Experience is a great power modifier that can allow you to wipe out armies much larger than your own.
The solution I found was fairly simple and could help you as well:
Choose a centurion that will have high "Manpower Retained" score.
Choose a centurion with the "Medicus" specialization.
Select stratagems that reduce casualties during the battle.
Experience is earned for your legion by a threshold of killing more enemy troops than the number of your own troops that are killed, so when trying to build an experienced legion you will want to minimize casualties and do everything you can to end the battle with as many troops as possible.
LEGION MORALE
Your legion's morale will have a direct effect on it's fighting strength, and getting your morale to a minimum of 25 when low can easily be achieved early in your campaign by doing the following:
Build the "Baths" upgrade to your legion's camp
Recruit a praetorian with the "Social" trait
Assign your social praetorian to the baths until your legion's morale is at least 25
A praetorian with the social trait will regularly increase your legion's morale while assigned to the baths on a revolving 32-hour increment during your campaigns until the limit of 25 morale is reached.
If none of the available praetorians for recruitment have the social trait, assign a praetorian to the Barracks Tent to refresh available recruits.
NOTE: Other ways to improve legion morale include the use of certain stratagems during army battles and successful attacks during army battles.
*Building and upgrading your legion's Workshop will allow you to unlock and upgrade your strategems, respectively. Many early stratagems come with penalties to morale, so upgrading your workshop is a recommended as a priority for preserving morale as you wage war.
STRATAGEMS
Arguably, the single greatest factor to your legion's success on the battlefield will be your STRATAGEMS: the tactics chosen during a battle.
You will only start the game with a few level 1 stratagems, but more can be unlocked by building and manning a Workshop. This makes the workshop a fairly high priority item when considering which buildings to build / upgrade at your legion's outpost.
Once your workshop is up and running, you will want to almost ALWAYS have a praetorian assigned to it. Early in the game, this will allow you to unlock the remainder of the level 1 stratagems as well as start stocking up on one-time-use stratagems (identified by their red color).
Hire a praetorian with the "Architect" trait
Assign your architect praetorian to the workshop and leave them there
Return to camp and visit the workshop occasionally to check your stratagem unlocks
After each time you upgrade your workshop (typically only once per campaign depending on how you utilize your resources) you will be able to unlock improved versions of your stratagems with reduced (or sometimes REMOVED) penalties or improved benefits.
PILLAGE YOUR WAY TO WEALTH
There is no time limit during campaigns, and although you will want to prioritize defending your captured territory when enemy attack notices happen, you should otherwise take the time to repeatedly farm resource nodes.
Choose a garrison territory near lots of resource nodes to reduce your legion's travel time.
Defend Your Territory (Legion Assignments can be cancelled if needed)
Send Legion to Resource Nodes whenever they're available
Visit Observatories to Discover Loot for Salvage
Visit Your Camp or a Town to refill water / sell resources
REPEAT UNTIL SATISFIED
Having a large amount of denarii is highly recommended as it makes many options available both during and after a campaign.
Having surplus resources CAN CARRY OVER INTO YOUR NEXT CAMPAIGN giving you a strong start on your next conquest.
USE YOUR TACTICALS
"IACITE PILA!"
If you aren't already, for the love of Jupiter, use your tactical items with wild abandon.
With the exception of a few prolonged, multi-stage boss battles, it will do no harm to use them as often as possible (provided you are packing spares as per the section of this guide below).
Tactical items (javelins, greek fire jars, bandages, caltrops, etc) can easily turn the tide of a battle and can be used by your praetorians as a free action.
I'll cover my favorites and how I use them:
Pilum- Break shields, deal damage, AND shred armor? USE THESE BAD BOYS. Sometimes having that extra bit of armor shred or damage makes all the difference.
Caltrops- I made the mistake of ignoring these until late in the game. They are a GREAT way to deal ridiculous amounts of bleed damage and slow down / funnel enemies. The ding-dong AI will typically throw themselves on top of them, killing their movement and bleeding themselves every turn.
Greek Fire- Up front, setting an area (and any enemies in it) on fire? I'm sold. The true value here, though, is area denial. Create effective choke points by using a combination of Greek Fire and Caltrops, then set your shield wall of principes at the mouth ready to receive the enemy. This can make some of the fights where you are vastly outnumbered a bit more manageable.
Bandage- The quintessential tool for praetorians to recover lost health during a battle; the humble bandage. It is generally a good idea to have at least one if not multiple praetorians carry some bandages into battle. Bandages are not restricted to the Triarius character class, although you can specialize your Triarius to heal for more when using them. Be aware, the bandage will trigger attacks of opportunity from nearby enemies and will not remove certain status effects such as poison.
REPLENISH YOUR TACTICALS
Eventually you will need to replenish your depleted tactical items after your many hard-fought battles. You will want to head over to your legate's tent in camp to do this. You can replenish tactical items for free a certain number of times depending on the upgrade level of your tent and for a material cost as much as you need after that, when in camp.
However, we are Romans, and unlike our barbarian enemies we will not squander precious resources when arming our legionaries.
Hire yourself a praetorian with the "Scavenger" and "Freeloader" traits
Assign this praetorian to your legate's tent after every trip back to camp to restock
This will not only grant you an extra free resupply for a tactical item, but reduce how long it takes for your free resupplies to refresh.
Ultimately, you will not want to rely solely on your legate's tent to keep your praetorians well armed. You will want to utilize the next tip in our guide, which brings us to...
ALWAYS BRING A SPARE
Try to always have a stock of spare tacticals in your inventory.
This will ensure you always have them available when away from your legion's garrison, and you can replace depleted tactical items with fresh spares to keep going battle after battle.
There will be portions of the game where you will NOT have access to your legates tent or smithy but you may NEED to replenish your usable items.
Spares. Spares are the solution.
Specifically, when you are in Rome.
Before ending a campaign, craft as many extras of the items you need as possible
If you deplete the charges on your equipped items, swap them out for the fresh ones in your inventory
TRUST ME YOU WANT TO DO THIS
USE YOUR ENVIRONMENT
FREE TACTICAL ITEMS
For those who have not yet noticed, the battlefields are typically dotted with interactive tactical items.
You can get anything from free bandages from medical crates to free javelins in a pila barrel. Even torches from a fire pit can help give you that tactical edge of setting your barbarian foes aflame.
Be warned: Your enemies will do the same.
OIL AND WATER
Have you experienced the joys of sending a fire arrow from your sagittarius into an oil barrel, around which your enemies have decided to gather? It's both satisfying and effective.
Keep your eyes peeled for chances to use oil or water barrels to your advantage in battle.
Breaking them can open different options to your team of praetorians.
Oil barrels can create both a debuff area and an ignitable surface which you can take advantage of with flaming arrows, torches, etc.
Water barrels can extinguish any allies that may have accidentally (or deliberately) caught on fire.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2751616030
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