It’s a different design. The roman civ shield is an eagle, while the legionary is some round anchor.
Apparently there will be two unis named centurion, the old scenario editor one will be renamed imperial centurion while the trainable one will be upgradable to elite centurion. They have slightly different stats and I think the non trainable one won’t have the militia power up.
I think the new one is not very historically accurate, its horizontal helmet belongs to the early empire.
Yes the old one had a better design, but the overall look was too golden (especially for the horse, a gold-plated helmet would be fine for a commander).
Though with how severe inflation was at the time…
And how do you balance it so that it doesn’t destroy all the infantry like in AoE 3? xd…
It is because it is the Late Roman Empire of the 5th century that had that symbol on the flag…
According to the AI of the Byzantines they would start from 330…
They became argentinized xd…
And Jaguar Warrior which is the base unit for Legionary except different sprite. Until this DLC, legionary had the same stats of JW but no bonus attack. Now some of the bonus attack has been added and kept it very much similar to JW.
Now they are a lot closer to the Champion that they replace with only +4 against Infantry, while Elite Jaguar Warriors have a full +12.
In some ways they are like a Viking Champion which has +5 against cavalry and more HP.
I wonder if Aztec, Japanese, Dravidian, Teuton, Gothic or Viking Champions can win against Legionaries with equal resources or even equal numbers.
Bulgarian Two Handed Swordsman might have a chance too.
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I would argue it’s only +3 vs infantry in total as legionaries have 1 fewer base attack than champions, 12 vs 13.
When gold is short (so putting a higher value on gold), I’d also test Malay 2h-swordmen.
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But they have a charged attack. The +5 charge is probably worth as much as +1 normal attack.
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We’ll need to see how quickly it reloads. It’s an average of +1 if the charge happens every 5 strikes. (I still think the charge attack should have a range of 2 or 3, throwing a javelin, that would be interesting in mass battles)
Grand total, the legio (full upgrade) deals 20 damage against infantry, +5 for the first strike. The elite jaguar deals 31, the champion 17 (21 if Aztec).
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I disagree. Their stats are still closer to EJW than Champion.
I did the math the post above, the legio is only closer from the jaguar if you take only its charge attack and compare to a non-aztec champion. Otherwise, 20 is closer from 17 or 21, than from 31.
I like this. This is a new unique mechanism for the game actually, if I remember correctly.
And you should consider base stats other than attacks. They have same base attack, armor and HP as EJW.
And the EJW is much more specialised against infantry while the legio is more general-purpose, the +10 gold for the EJW makes a lot of difference.
But Legionary getting some attack bonus against infantry made them even more similar.
With the Persians getting Savar as a replacement for their Paladins. I think if the Byzantines ever got a rework, they should get the Legionary. Or…
Instead of Legionary, the devs could go further by reworking their Spear line instead. Just like AoE 4 Byzantine’s UU the Limitanei, but here we renamed it the Skutatos just as it should be. They should have beefier HP or armour but less attack than Halberds?
Maybe byzantines should get a unique second wall upgrade too?
They should have Fortified Palisade Wall or create both Sea walls & Sea towers. That would be interesting as well, highlighting their defensive civ role.
The last legion we have news about dates to 630 circa in Egypt so it was probably destroyed by Muslims. Based on this I don’t know how much sense it makes to give legionaries to byzantines specially now we have Romans to represent the very late Roman army up to Heraclius.
As you said Skoutatos would be a better choice or even Tagmata, stratiotes (the ones that will evolve in Albanian stradiots), many picks… A flamethrower is already present in the scenario editor, just saying.
Well if we want to be as close to a historical accuracy, Legionary shouldn’t exist on Romans (AoE 2) either since Constantine replaced them with Comitatenses & Limitanei (funny that it becomes an upgrade instead)
My Legionary idea on Byzantine is an alternative if the devs don’t want to make an entirely new unit like the Savar that the Persian got. It also to illustrate the Skoutatos too since some also wield swords as well.
Of course the best scenario would be Skoutatos entering the Byzantine roster instead of another Legionary. As for the flamethrower:
Its Chinese flamethrower…