Praetorians!

[Smellycowsquid]

Late last night, while looking on this site, I saw a thread about the Civ Rome, and I thought, "I haven't played with them yet." So I loaded Civ, found a good location, and went for Praetorians, I had them by 2400 B.C.(ish) and ran (and still running) rampant throughout my tightly pacted continent. To anyone who hasn't played with them, Do!!!!! Praetorians are pretty sweet, crushing archers and stuff, I will soon win.

I just was overjoyed, and had to tell someone.

[Arrian]

Next, give Cyrus and his Immortals a try.

-Arrian

[Stuie]

I love seeing Grog celebrating Christmas in July.

[Will9]

An overcrowed pangea with Rome is AWSOME! I once conqured a nation with only Praetorians, and didn't lose one. The next conquest was done with 50% Praetorians, 30% knights, and 20% catupalts. The early advantage you get from them makes you unstopable.

[Smellycowsquid]

I conquered one Civ(Alexander) with 3 last night, he only had 3 cities.

[LordShiva]

I'm surprised it took you so long to try them out, especially with Nugog and myself constantly harping about them...

[Dauphin]

In an MP game I have 2 praetorians with over 40 experience points and having over 75% attack chances against cities defended with macemen.

Only because I was lucky enough to be on an island with only AIs and no human players to give them a right seeing to.

[Snotty]

I have heard from a reliable source that praets are broken/unbalanced.

Enjoy them while you can!

[Rancidlunchmeat]

Am I the only one that gets macemen so quickly I can barely build any Praets?

If I get a source of Iron by my first two cities and I'm Rome and beelined towards IW (something I don't do if not playing Rome unless I lack copper), then I've had some nice domination fun with the Praets.

But for the most part, if you play Rome and don't plan for an IW beeline, I'll find I can get maybe one Praet out the door before they are upgraded to macemen.

[LordShiva]

Not beelining for IW as Rome is just silly

[MightyTiny]

Originally posted by Rancidlunchmeat
But for the most part, if you play Rome and don't plan for an IW beeline, I'll find I can get maybe one Praet out the door before they are upgraded to macemen.

What gamespeed are you playing with? In Marathon mode (the speed I play exclusively), you certainly get plenty of time to use praets before macemen.

And it is indeed silly not to aim for getting early IW if you're playing Rome.

[Common Sensei]

Originally posted by Snotty
I have heard from a reliable source that praets are broken/unbalanced.

Enjoy them while you can!

Is this a hint that they're getting nerfed in Warlords?

[MasterDave]

Nah they aren't broken. Axemen can do a number on em and are cheaper to build. Plus, there is risk in choosing the Romans, because you do not always have iron.

[Flash]

Hello All,
This thread inspired me to experiment. I was using KR earth map as the Romans. I was on Noble. I had 4 cities by 2680 BC. This time I didn't go for an early religion (Poly) and concentrated on getting Iron. Just as the ist Pratorean was coming online, Napolean declares war. Genova cranked out the Legions as fast as possible. Aquillae was well protected by the Alps. Apollonia was finishing her barracks when Alex declared war. Rome built Wonders.... Pyramids and the Parthenan...

I kept Napolean at bay, for about a thousand years, my units got some experience... My true target is Isa first. But in this war Alex got hammered.

I took Sparta... For someone at war, Alex was timid. ROme finnally turned out the Legio IV, complete with 6 cohorts. combined with 2 elements of Aquilae's Legio 3 and the 6 elements of Apollonia's Legio 2... we took Sparta leaving Legio 3 to Guard.

Then Athen's was a tough nut to crack... 5 Archers and a Phalanx.. The Legios made it... with 3 units left of Legio 2 and 4 units of Legio 4.

It is my belief, Rome's survival depends on Her legions, and a lot of them. While I wanted the wonders , Rome should of turned out more cohorts. The war with Greece lasted just over 1 AD.

[Magnus60]

I agree on the Praetorians, although I think they are misnamed. They should simply be "legions". Praetorians were essentially just the guards of Rome and not the usual field unit. Having said that, I think that the praetorians are the only unit in Civ IV that have any real advantages over other units, especially in the early to middle game. They can wallop anything until maceman and crossbowmen are invented. I have used the Romans to try and win the Prince level because you always fall behind with technology and you need a unit you can get early and will not soon be obsolete.

We can argue about Cossacks and panzers which are nice but by then there are usually good countermeasures for these and they are much harder to build in large numbers unless you are already way ahead. You also need other units for balanced army.

The praetorians are truly great because you can build them almost exclusively and beat most everything. A few catapults makes them hugely dangerous. I personally think this is pretty accurate as they dominated warfare in Europe for about 700 years.