As promised in my Mid-Republican guide, here is my second installment for injecting a healthy dose of history into your Rome 2: Total War experience. This guide will show you how to create and use your Roman armies during the Late Republic (147 BC - 30 BC) and the first period of the Roman Empire referred to as the Principate (27 BC - 284 AD).

Again, just as I stated in my previous guide, the limitations on unit and army size in Rome 2 does not allow a full 1:1 copy of the military forces during this time period. I've experimented with different types and styles and have always kept historical accuracy in mind when coming up with the following compositions.

The definitive start of the Late Republican Legion was of coarse the Marian Reforms.

Gaius Marius, a Roman legate and statesman, was elected consul in 107 BC replacing Quintus Caecilius Metellus Numidicus whom the former had served under previously in Africa. At the time, Rome was engaged in the Jugurthine War (112 - 106 BC) in Numidia which had come to a complete standstill. Tasked with finishing this conflict and wary of the Germanic tribes encroaching from the North but with no army to raise, Marius introduced a number of changes to Rome's military over the subsequent years that eventually became permanent fixtures of the Late Republican and Imperial Roman Legion.

In a nutshell, the Marian Reforms made five distinct alterations:

I. Before 107 BC certain requirements needed to be met for a Roman to be allowed to join the Legion. He had to be a part of the fifth census class or higher, be a property owner, and had to supply his own weapons, armor, and other equipment. Marius effectively did away with this and opened recruitment up to the capite censi ("counted by the head") - the landless and/or poor population of the Republic - and convinced the state to cover the costs of arming every man.

II. As opposed to the older practice of raising and disbanding Legions during and after a campaign, the Roman military would now be a standing army that recieved the same equipment and training year round whether the state was at war or not.

III. The Manipular system was done away with and replaced by the cohort. A Legion would now field four-thousand eight-hundred fighting men divided into ten cohorts of four-hundred and eighty each further divided into six centuries containing eighty men. In addition a Roman army would now be made up of anywhere from two to six Legions.**

IV. Besides spoils of war, soldiers would now recieve retirement benefits for their military service such as a pension and a plot of land within the geographic region the Legion had campaigned in. Officers on the other hand were typically given additional monetary rewards that could be over ten times greater than what the normal rank and file earned.

V. At this time in history the Socii, the Republic's Italian allies, were growing more and more upset at their exclusion from Roman citizenship (see my previous guide for further info). In light of Tiberius Gracchus' reforms (133 BC) failing to properly address the issue, Marius decreed that any socii who fought for Rome and completed a set term of service would recieve citizenship.

The effects of these reforms were substantial. Opening the Legion up to the poor made recruitment incredibly easy and standardizing equipment and training quickly led to Rome being able to field a military that was larger, stronger, more mobile, and able to respond faster than ever before.

An unfortunate consequence however, one that Marius himself and many other Romans after him would discover, was the shift in loyalty of the common soldier. Whereas the Legions of the Early and Mid Republic were generally loyal to the state, the landless soliders of the new Legions owed their allegiance to their respective commanders who were in charge of keeping them fed, paid, and fighting. This shift would lead to the forthcoming civil wars between Marius and Sulla, Julius Caesar and Pompey, and the battles fought in the wake of Caesar's assassination.

**Side Note**
The size of the Legion would technically be six-thousand men however only four-thousand eight-hundred were actual soldiers. In a century eighty would be fighting men and twenty would be non-combatants - thus making a century literally made up of one-hundred men, a cohort literally six-hundred, and a Legion being six-thousand.

Now that Marius had standardized everything the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii ceased to exist as distinct heavy infantry types. They were instead replaced by what is commonly known as the Legionary.

A Legionary of the Late Republic would be outfitted with either the lorica hamata (chainmail) or lorica squamata (scale) for armor and would carry a rectangular shield (scutum), two javalins (pilum), a short sword (gladius), and a dagger (pugio) along with other assorted non-combat related equipment.

In relation to both light infantry and cavalry the Roman military also experienced some changes from the pre-Marian Reforms period.

Equites more-or-less ceased to exist as a battlefield unit starting after the Second Punic War (218 - 201 BC). Either by coincidence or consequence to the opening up of the Legion to the poor/landless masses the Equestrian class (aristocrats of the Roman social hierarchy) began to find other non-military avenues by which to follow their political and/or social ambitions. In their place, auxiliary and non-Roman cavalry units began to appear in support of the Legion during campaigns. There did however exist some form of Legionary cavalry but they were very few and were typically used in non-combat roles like scouting and being message runners.

It also appears as though the Velites were replaced by these foreign warriors as well.

Lastly, it's during the Late Republic era that artillery began to show up on the historical record as being a common part of the Roman military.

Historically speaking, these non-Roman cavalry and light infantry units as well as the artillery would be combined into a complimentary force that would support the Legion but would not technically be considered a part of it.

Due to the limitations of army size and the number of which you can raise I've found that the most appropriate composition for a Late Republican Legion is to combine these two seperate forces into one. The following is what you end up with.

Late Republican Legion

• One (1) General attached to Veteran Legionaries bodyguard
  
• One (1) First Legionary Cohort
  
• Two (2) Veteran Legionaries
  
• Six (6) Legionaries
  
• Three (3) Native Cavalry (ex: Numidian Cavalry, Iberian Cavalry, Gallic Cavalry, etc)
  
• Three (3) Native Light Infantry (ex: Numidian Javalinmen, Gallic Light Infantry, Balaeric Slingers, Iberian Infantry, etc)
  
• Two (2) Ballista
  
• Two (2) Scorpion

This will give you a full twenty-stack and account for heavy infantry, cavalry, light infantry/skirmishers, and artillery.

The following sections will now show you how to properly use these units.

Legionaries

• Your main fighting force just like the Hastati, Principes, and Triarii.
  
• Will throw their javalins prior to engaging the enemy.
  
• Can be used in a variation of ways and formations (expanded in the section below)

Veteran Legionaries

• Simply more statistically powerful versions of the Legionaries unit.
  
• Can be included in the Legion setup if desired or replaced with regular Legionaries units.
  
• Personally I used them in the same fashion as Triarii (expanded upon below)

First Legionary Cohort

• Slightly more statistically powerful Legionaries unit.
  
• Should be included in every Legion.
  
• Historically considered to be the most pretigious and experienced of the whole Legion, hence why I include them in the first line of battle (expanded on below).

Native Cavalry

• Can be any non-Roman cavalry unit recruited through the Auxiliary Barracks in foreign territory.
  
• Used in the same fashion as the Equites - for engaging enemy cavalry units, flanking infantry, or running down routing foes.
  
• Place them on the flanks of your Legionaries.

Native Light Infantry

• Can be any non-Roman infantry unit recruited through the Auxiliary Barracks in foreign territory.
  
• Can be either ranged or melee based units.
  
• If ranged use them like the Velites - screen the front ranks of the Legionaries, engage enemy skirmishers, hit-and-run on the ranks of your foes.
  
• If melee use them as either reserve troops for your Legionaries, to guard the flanks, or even to guard your artillery units.

Ballista

• Heavy hitting anti-infantry and siege weapon.
  
• "Explosive" rounds will cause chaos among enemy infantry.
  
• During sieges use them to destroy walls, gates, towers, etc
  
• Deploy them behind your infantry.

Scorpion

• Anti-infantry weapons only.
  
• Deploy behind your infantry - despite being close to the ground they shouldn't willingly fire through friendly units.

One of the biggest changes to how the Roman Legion fought after the Marian Reforms revolved around the dissolution of the three distinct heavy infantry ranks and the addition of one single type.

Now Roman commanders were given a lot more flexibility in how they deployed their cohorts. A single, double, and triple line were all used and in multiple line formations cohorts could be interchanged with one another when those fighting on the front line became tired. Cohorts from the second or third line could also be used to bolster the flanks of the first or fill gaps which might open.

Personally I used the triple line formation referenced by Julius Caesar in his memoirs of the conquest of Gaul (58 - 50 BC).

In this formation the front rank contains the First Cohort and three other Legionaries for a total of four units. The two following lines then have three Legionaries units each and in my case, since I used Veteran Legionaries, I had these units bringing up the third line and only used them when the battle wasn't looking in my favor or I needed to counteract an enemy flanking attack.

Aside from this, much remains the same. Your cavalry should be located on the flanks of the Legionaries and any ranged light infantry should fill the role the Velites previously played. If your light infantry units are not ranged however I would use them exclusively as reserve troops and deploy them on the flanks of or behind your third line of Legionaries.

Artillery then can be deployed either behind your Legionaries or behind and off to both sides. Don't worry about putting them behind your units though, unlike the original Rome: Total War your artillery will not try and fire in a straight line through your own men when the enemy gets too close.

All in all, just like the Roman commanders of the time, the choice is yours how you want to use and move your Legionaries on the battlefield. The specific tactics and strategies of the Manipular system are now gone and the possibilities are open to you. As you'll see, much like reality, this introduction of flexibility will make your Legions much more effective and powerful on the field of battle.

The first period of the Roman Empire is sometimes referred to as the Principate. Beginning in 27 BC when Augustus Caesar was named Emperor, the Principate is distinguished from the later Dominate due to the trend among subsequent Emperors of preserving an illusion that the Republic had survived.

Rather than flaunting their immense power, Augustus and those that came after him considered themselves "princeps senatus, princeps civitatis" or literally "first among the senators, first among the citizens" and reassured the people of Rome that the much despised Roman Monarchy had not returned. Instead, Emperors were painted as wise fatherly figures who had risen up to the challenge of steering the Senate and the state towards the greater good.

This system continued for a little over three hundred years until the Imperial Crisis (235 - 284 AD) - a time when civil war, foreign invasion, plague, and economic depression gripped the Empire and threatened to dismantle the entire thing.

Despite the Emperor Aurelian's (270 - 275 AD) successes in defeating the Visigoths, Vandals, Persians, Palmyrenes, and the Gallic Empire and reestablishing the Imperial borders many problems remained - mostly stemming from the sheer size of the Empire.

When Diocletian became Emperor in 284 AD he introduced the Tetrarchy - a system that divided Rome among four rulers: two co-emperors and two junior emperors. Each set would go on to control what today we consider to be the Western and Eastern Roman Empires (though it should be noted that Romans themselves didn't recognize this distinct, geographic split).

It was from 284 AD onwards that we recognize the Dominate period of the Empire as the illusion of the old Republic was throw away and Emperors assumed more-or-less complete control over their respective half of the Empire. While the Dominate period ended with the formal collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD, the Eastern Roman Empire continued to exist and would eventually adopt a system of autocratic absolutism.

All-in-all much didn't change between the Late Republican and early Imperial Roman Legion.

The most significant change Augustus made in regards to it was that he reduced the number of Legions from fifty to either twenty-five or twenty-eight (sources disagree which). Additionally, Legions were now typically tasked with border security on the Northern and Eastern fringes of the Empire - used to counteract (both defensively and offensively) any and all foriegn powers looking to invade or threaten Rome.

Equipment also remained much the same save for the adoption of the lorica segmentata an armor made up of segemented plates which were iron on the inside, steel on the outside. The details surrounding the lorica segmentata are debated amongst historians who tend to agree that it first appeared around 9 BC but disagree over who actually wore it and how widespread it was used. Some believe, citing Trajan's Column, that the armor was used by the standard Legionary but others think that it might have been either used as a formal/parade armor or was just uncommon compared to the more widespread continued use of the lorica hamata.

In Rome 2 the shift between the Late Republican and Principate Legion comes in the form of "updated" units (much like the change from Mid-Republican to Marian Legions). Legonaries are replaced with the Legionary Cohort, the First Cohort is replaced by the Eagle Cohort, Equites are replaced by Legionary Cavalry, Veteran Legionaries are replaced by the Evocati Cohort, and the General's Bodyguard Equites option is replaced with the Legatus.

As you'll see my setup remains mostly the same aside from the removing of native/auxiliary cavalry and light infantry. The reason for doing revolves around the inclusion of the Auxiliae (expanded upon below) who would more-or-less fill that role. In their place I've included Onagers and Legionary Cavalry. Onagers begin to show on the historical record as part of the Roman military around this time, and Legionary Cavalry were basically non-Roman cavalrymen who would probably recieve standardized weapons and armor.

Principate Legion

• One (1) General w/Legatus
  
• One (1) Eagle Cohort
  
• Nine (9) Legionary Cohort
  
• Three (3) Legionary Cavalry
  
• Two (2) Scorpion
  
• Two (2) Ballista
  
• Two (2) Onagers

The roles of each of these units remains much the same as the ones which they replaced.

Onagers will give you a nice boost to your artillery capabilities and will definitely help your Legion's siege warfare.

Legionary Cavalry will also be a little more useful since native cavalry units can vary in their defensive and offensive abilities. With a standardized heavy cavalry you'll now be able to use them as such on the battlefield.

The second change which Augustus Caesar was responsible for during the Principate was the formal organization of allied/native armies dubbed the Auxiliae. Much like the socii alae of the Mid-Republican era, the Auxiliae was not composed of Roman citizens. Instead it was made up of native peoples from all across the Empire known as peregrini (foriegners).

These Auxiliae, like the socii, would be around the same size of and accompany the Legions when they marched to war but would also act as defensive garrison forces within their geographic location.

Weapons and armor of the Auxiliae is thought to be standardized and fairly identical to the Legion by at least 50 AD but it's possible that units were allowed to outfit themselves with their own native arms and armor before and possibly after this date.

Overall the role of the Auxiliae was to provide the Legions with additional infantry, cavalry, and possibly skirmishers (javalinmen, archers, slingers, etc).

Auxiliae of the Principate

• One (1) General w/Legatus
  
• Ten (10) Auxiliary Infantry
  
• Three (3) Auxiliary Cavalry
  
• Three (3) Native skirmisher units (archers, slingers, javalinmen, etc)
  
• Two (2) Scorpion
  
• One (1) Ballista

The inclusion of artillery was a personal choice of mine as I haven't found any evidence to suggest that it was or was not present in the Auxiliae. Given that the non-Roman support troops of the Late Republic were typically deployed with the Legion's artillery and Augustus' emphasis on making the Auxiliae fairly equal to the Legion in terms of equipment I chose to include it here.

It should be noted that the Auxiliary Infantry in Rome 2 is a bit different than what it probably would've been in reality. Given that Augustus intended them to be outfitted similar to the Legion it's assumed that they were given the lorica hamata armor, the gladius, the pugio, and the javalin (though not the heavy pilum type). The only thing that stands out as definitively different is that the auxiliary troops used the round clipeus shield as opposed to the rectangular scutum. In the game though Auxiliary Infantry are shown using spears. My assumption would be that Creative Assembly just needed to make them different from the regular Legionaries. Either way the Auxiliary Infantry still acts as a heavy infantry unit and can be used as such.

Lastly, my setup here is just one possibility amongst a few. In order to keep things somewhat historically accurate you should keep the ten Aux. Infantry and three Aux. Cavalry but feel free to experiment with the other open slots in regards to different kinds of native light/heavy infantry, cavalry, and skirmishers.

The last major military contribution Augustus made to the Empire was the official formation of an elite unit loyal to the Emperor - the Praetorian Guard.

Prior to the Principate the Praetorians were elite hand picked troops who formed a force no larger than a cohort. Their duties were simply to remain loyal to and protect their commanding officer.

When Augustus came to power he knew that the Praetorians could offer both a military and a political advantage if he made some changes. The previous years of relentless civil war had made it abundantly clear that if someone in power wanted to stay there they needed a sufficient force of loyal soldiers to protect them.

Under the guise of respecting Republican laws forbiding military forces in the city of Rome, Augustus formed the Praetorian Guard and stationed them outside the city. Numbering nine cohorts of five-hundred men (later increased to one-thousand), the Guard was a total force of around four-thousand five-hundred however only three of these cohorts would be on duty at any given time.

The Guards' main duties included the protection of Rome and the protection of the Emperor himself. When they were on patrol or acting as bodyguards in the city for the Emperor they would be without armor and had to hide their weapons from view (again in order to respect old Republican law).

If the Emperor went out on campaign the Praetorians would raise their full strength and act as any other Legion would aside from either being commanded directly by the Emperor or at least always being on hand.

Given their use as both an offensive and defensive force I've decided to compose the Praetorian Guard in a similar fashion to an actual Legion. Historically speaking the Praetorians only had a small number of cavalry (about thirty) and there's nothing to suggest they had artillery but for the purposes of the game I'm willing to overlook those facts.

Also, you'll notice that I have ten Praetorian Cohorts as opposed to nine. Personally I like that nice even number especially since it mirrors the same organization as the typical Imperial Legion. Historically though the number of Praetorian cohorts actually changed numerous times, increasing to twelve in 47 AD, sixteen in 69 AD, and ten in 101 AD.

Praetorian Guard

• One (1) General (preferably the Emperor) w/Legatus
  
• Ten (10) Praetorian Cohorts
  
• Three (3) Praetorian Cavalry
  
• Two (2) Scorpion
  
• Two (2) Ballista
  
• Two (2) Onager

Simply put there's nothing to suggest that there were any monumental changes in Legionary tactics or strategies following the founding of the Empire.

The flexibility of the Legions remained intact and now the Auxiliae were acting as an independent force that provided light infantry, cavalry, and skirmishers.

Personally I kept using Caesar's formation mentioned above and have found no serious issue in doing so.

The only thing I believe worth mentioning would be the change in how Legions were used within the Empire. As mentioned before they were typically deployed to areas along the borders in the North and East and remained stationed there as a garrison force or to be used in the event of a foreign invasion or to launch an offensive against a potential threat. The Auxiliae also served this purpose and would act in support of the Legions or would remain behind to defend the now Legion-less provinces.

In the game I've assigned one Legion and one Auxiliae to each geographic area (Gaul, Iberia, Africa, Greece, etc). Unfortunately due to the restrictions on how many armies you can have (which tops out at twelve I believe) this will become harder as you further expand your Empire. Personally I have not gotten to this point but I would think the best option to take when this happens is to start making some concessions in terms of the geographic boundaries. For instance right now I have a Legion and an Auxiliae for both Greece and Anatolia (Asia Minor). If I needed to I could move one of those Legions and one Auxiliae out of Greece and deploy them in some newly conquered territory - thus leaving one Legion/Auxiliae combo for Greece-Anatolia.

Or you could hunt down and download that mod floating out there that increases the army/navy cap.

Sieges in the Late Republican and Imperial era are basically not going to be all that different from how you fought them before the Marian Reforms with the exception of widespread use of artillery pieces.

As mentioned in the previous guide, solid accounts of Roman siege warfare don't really start showing up until Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul (in his memoirs of the campaign). During that time the most famous siege was that of Alesia where Caesar had his men surround the settlement and encircle it with wooden pallisades, earth-works, trenches, and Ballista towers.

This, naturally, is not possible in Rome 2, so we've got to stick with the standard practice of using Ballistae (and during the Imperial era Onagers as well) to destroy defending artillery, towers, gates, and/or walls while your Legionaries advance using the Testudo ("tortoise") formation.

In addition, Scorpions and ranged infantry (such as archers) can be used to harrass any defenders on the walls to better cover your advancing Legion.

This sort of bombardment assault is cited as being used at the siege of Jotapata in 68 AD during the Jewish Revolt.

If the city is on the coastline also make sure to include a navy in your assault as this was fairly common for settlements by the sea. Your navy can then either engage any ships (garrison or otherwise) that the enemy has and/or attempt to assault the port and penetrate the outer defenses - capturing control points, engaging any nearby defenders, or fighting their way to the gates to allow better access for your Legion(s).

One piece of advice though, do make sure you have more than one access point into the city. Batter down the gates, knock down a wall, use ladders, and such in order to get as many Legionaries into the city as possible. Concentrating on one single breach (especially at the gates) will usually result in absolute chaos as the defenders will push back against any forces you have coming through the bottleneck of the gateway.

Also I can't stress enough that taking out towers is incredibly important. In one siege I fought, a single Scorpion tower managed to completely obliterate three units of Legionaries as they marched with ladders towards the walls and scaled them.

I know some of you might be wondering about these units and why I have not added them in any of my compositions. The following will explain why:

Praetorians - You get access to the Praetorians (note, not the Praetorian Cohort) after researching the tech that allows you to start recruiting Legionaries. The way I see it these early versions of the Praetorians are more in line with the pre-Augustus ones mentioned above - namely that a Roman commander may or may not have a cohort of them accompanying him on campaigns.

If you'd really like to include them in your Late Republic setup I would replace one of the native cavalry or infantry units with them and keep them by your General at all times during battles.

Given the inclusion of this unit and its historical purpose in the Late Republic it's sort of odd that they weren't made an option for a General's bodyguard.

Evocati - These units replace your Veteran Legionaries and pretty much are exactly the same thing - veterans of the Legion. The difference here seems to be that Evocati are those men who have served their time and be given a discharge but either passed it up or came back to the Legion when a popular or favorite commander called on them (which was sometimes key in this period of multiple civil wars).

In my research there's nothing to suggest that the Evocati were organized into a cohort of their own fellow veterans but rather were brought back and promoted to such positions as centurions or others. They were also commonly exempt from the military duties of the typical rank and file like building the military encampment.

Using them is purely up to you however to keep things relatively accurate perhaps only use one in your Legion to replace a regular Legionary Cohort.

Armored Legionaries - These units are basically Legionary Cohorts but with slightly higher stats. Visually speaking, the Armored Legionaries unit has each soldier outfitted with the lorica segmentata while the Legionary Cohort troops are a mix of those wearing that armor as well as the lorica hamata.

Include them if you'd like. Honestly though given the somewhat hazy accuracy of the armor's commonality I'm personally more comfortable using the regular Legionary Cohort (for history's sake).

Again here are some additional points of interest if you feel like adding just a tiny bit more historical accuracy to your campaign.

• When marching on campaign the Legion would build a fortification camp at the end of each day and destroy it when they headed out in the morning. This practice served multiple purposes besides just plain defense such as keeping the men in good physical condition.
  
  If you'd like you could attempt to recreate this practice in the game. The only issue will of coarse be that in order for an army to use the defensive mode on the campaign map it cannot spend more than half of its movement points - effectively halfing your potential map coverage.
  
  
• The two big dates for the Marian Reforms and the start of the Principate are 107 BC and 27 BC respectively. Since the Cohort and Professional technologies are what unlocks a majority of the units to be used in the Late Republic and Imperial era if you'd like to stick to the time frame ensure that you unlock those technologies on those dates.
  
  This is pretty simple to achieve as all you need to do is look at how many turns it will take to research them and then factor that into your in-game date.
  
  For example, if you see that the Cohort Organization is going to take you five turns to complete don't begin researching it until 112 BC.
  
  
• If you decide to recruit/use the Praetorian Guard make sure to encamp them outside Rome and only use them if an enemy invades the Italian peninsula/threatens the city of Rome or if you're desperately in need of an additional force in wartime.
  
  Whether at home or on campaign make sure that your Emperor is the one in command of the Guard.

Congratulations, if you've read the whole guide down to here you've either got a love of history or alot of time on your hands (or you're bored...).

I really hope you all have enjoyed reading this and maybe learned a thing or two about the Late Republican and early Imperial Legion. If you haven't done so already please check out my other guide about the Mid-Republican Legion which covers Rome's military from the campaign start time until the Marian Reforms.

Thank you to everyone who had made my previous guide one of the more popular ones on here and for showing their support. It really was your comments there that convinced me to put my nose to the grind and pump out this behemoth of a game guide.

If enough people want it to happen I may be convinced to start looking into other cultures and factions and do similar guides for them as well. For the time being however I'm going to play some more of this game (I have not done so since starting this guide two days ago).