I didn't quite enjoy my first tries

[druchii7]

After trying 3 games with rome, I didn't enjoy the game for certain reasons:

• I don't know that happened to garrison armies, but they were some of the worst and weakest units I've ever played. That's not necessarily bad, but didn't feel right.
• Slower combats are not bad by itself, but there was a weird feeling (not as natural as in other mods that try to make combats slow). I enveloped 3 cavalry units with 4 rorarii units and after more than one minute no raider had died and almost no rorarii had (but those that were damaged by the charge).
• The population mechanics are interesting, but in my opinion could be better implemented. For example money for recruitment and upkeep is very redundant. Some units used to be ridiculously expensive to represent their rarity.
• I personally prefer simple numbers that make easier to understand games in the UI. For example, I find very realistic population numbers 7571 nobiles, 34632 proletarii... but they're not too practical ingame. Maybe there could use some kind of graphics or something similar to make that information easier to understand. Some buildings have such an enormous amount of information that they don't fit my screen and cannot read the upper lines.
• I don't know if it's a bug, but I cannot set fortresses (I do choose the stance, but there's no fortress on the battle map). It used to be an interesting/challenging feature in the game.
• I suspect that AI cheats terribly. After building quite good buildings I cannot afford to keep 2 complete armies. Epirus launched 2 complete armies (the original and another filled with chalkaspides) + a 10 ship fleet. That's why I think they have too big cheats, their 2 provinces outrun my 6 in terms of economy. I know that a little cheat is necessary due to the impossibility to rework many aspects of AI, but most of my neigbours had larger armies than me.
• I don't know why, but triarii worked terribly bad on my combats, they always suffer a lot more casualties than princeps in any similar combat, I tried them on flanks, on the middle...

There's quite a bunch of great ideas in the mod: the population mechanics (maybe a bit too big for such a simple game), the buildings are quite interesting and ballanced (some of the best that I've ever seen)

[Geffalrus]

All AI factions in the game are quite fond of building large armies. I've been annoyed as the Seleucids when I can maybe afford 2 stacks and little Nabatea romps around with 4. In normal Rome, I found one full stack to be sufficient for invading even the toughest enemy...........now 2 is the minimum unless your spies clearly show you that the AI does not have enough for a full stack. It was annoying at first, but I've learned to appreciate it. Makes large battles feel more real, even if they slow down a lot due to computer lag.

It pays to be aggressive on the first few turns before the AI has time to spam out massive armies. Pick an enemy (unless one's already there), recruit all you can, buy mercs, and then rush them. Now that you get money for releasing troops and such, war pays for itself a little better. You can sit back if you want, but as you've seen, the AI will build many stacks and then you might be in trouble when they attack. Best to be aggressive and gain land/subjugated allies for the next conflict down the road.

To be fair, Triarii aren't supposed to be your battle winner. Traditionally, they were only there to slow down the enemy while the Hastati and Principes retreated. "To come to the Triari" was a common phrase for "Things are really going to $hit!" (I might be paraphrasing slightly incorrectly, but you get the gist) Focus on your Hastati and Principes tactics.

Also, give the new Battle Pack put together by KAM (look around the forum) a try. I've heard it helps out the Romans a lot. I mostly play Greek, but even there, the changes are nice.

[bibs]

Just some of the points you mentioned.
The garrison units are well balanced. I can distinctly remember that a gallic warrior unit(garrison unit) can defeat a unit of basic clubmen easily. So they are above basic units. They can even hold their own against superior units. They are not supposed to defend an unfortified settlement by themselves but rather to help your army defend it. Even unfortified settlements are very hard to take if you defend with a small army + garrison. I for one rarely lose a siege if I'm defending.
The battle issues you are facing are probably isolated cases or maybe you haven't set the battle settings to normal. The clashes are mostly well done and realistic. Even better than TW: Warhammer 2, which is supposed to be a more modern game.
Yes if you are fortified near a bridge you will not get fortifications but rather just a good defensive position at the other side of the bridge. I don't like it either, but I think it's intended.

I battled against Rome too, and I found the Roman army to be very realistic, very close to what I imagined them to be. The Triarii were the last men standing, fighting to the last men.
Oh forgot to mention that I'm using the experimental battle pack.

[Nordling]

@OP you generally have listed a few of good points. Please remember however that it the mod is developed by limited team who does that out of passion and still have their normal lives to live. CA doesnt help as well and they throw new DLCs all the time for DeI team to fix. Now they updated mod manager (which makes mod managing even more complicated...) and so Dresden has to fight yet another issue.

Garrison units should be trash imo and you should rely on your own troops to defend your lands. From my perspective, it would seem right if the garrison units were even weaker

[AstroCat]

The population system unto itself is not too much necessarily but the way it is presented (limited by the base game ui) is a bit complex and at times cumbersome. Again it's not per se DEI's fault, I believe it is the limitations of the UI presentation that causes it the most trouble, especially for new comers.

[Nordling]

The population system unto itself is not too much necessarily but the way it is presented (limited by the base game ui) is a bit complex and at times cumbersome. Again it's not per se DEI's fault, I believe it is the limitations of the UI presentation that causes it the most trouble, especially for new comers.

But at the same time is very intuitive, at least for me. You can see pretty clearly what is the pop in the region, in which classes it is divided and what determines the growth of pop in that region. You just need to play the game for a while and it complements the campaign greatly, making it essential part of the game and feels like "it should have been in the game from the beginning". I love this system and have no complaints related to it. Well, maybe the fact that 1st class pop is constantly hanging around 400-500 for me (most of the times) as the class cannot replenish fast enough and constantly migrates to newly conquered regions...

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

The population system unto itself is not too much necessarily but the way it is presented (limited by the base game ui) is a bit complex and at times cumbersome. Again it's not per se DEI's fault, I believe it is the limitations of the UI presentation that causes it the most trouble, especially for new comers.

What Nordling says.

But at the same time is very intuitive, at least for me. You can see pretty clearly what is the pop in the region, in which classes it is divided and what determines the growth of pop in that region. You just need to play the game for a while and it complements the campaign greatly, making it essential part of the game and feels like "it should have been in the game from the beginning". I love this system and have no complaints related to it. Well, maybe the fact that 1st class pop is constantly hanging around 400-500 for me (most of the times) as the class cannot replenish fast enough and constantly migrates to newly conquered regions...