Some questions...

[Bullman]

Hi

A few questions:

1. What are the "V" shaped chevrons that you sometimes see lined up vertically on the left hand side of a unit card? Sometimes some of them are black and some are grey/white.
2. I have been playing as Marius in Marius vs Sulla and in the Replacements screen it has three types of "nations"(?). Rome (ROM), Populares (POP) and Socii (SOC). Why does it show all these nations? What nation am I? Aren't my units called Populares? How do I know how they relate to what units I have?
3. I conquered Rome and I captured a unit called "Receptaculum". It is made up of a "Magazine" element that has zero speed coefficient, attack/defence but listed as a wheeled unit and also a Static Unit that can't leave the area. What can it/does it do?

Thanks

Bull

[Ebbingford]

1. These show missing elements in the unit, black means OK, where you can see white means the unit has one or more elements missing.
2. They are all yours. SOC are your units with yellow backgrounds. POP is just your legatus units. ROM is all your other units.
3. It is a static supply source, same as a supply wagon. It will enable units in the city to last longer when besieged.

[Bullman]

1. These show missing elements in the unit, black means OK, where you can see white means the unit has one or more elements missing.
2. They are all yours. SOC are your units with yellow backgrounds. POP is just your legatus units. ROM is all your other units.
3. It is a static supply source, same as a supply wagon. It will enable units in the city to last longer when besieged.

1. OK. Inspecting things it looks like 2 chevrons = 2 elements (approx)? Is this correct?
2. OK, but the colours seem to mean nothing and if anything are misleading. When I inspect all my units elements, they are all are blue coloured in the element card screen. However, now I see the part of the element card screen that determines whether it is SOC, POP or ROM. It is in the top left. So to determine if you need SOC/ROM/POP replacements you need to manually dig up and look at each element card?
3. Odd, because the supply would be in Rome anyway? But I am guessing it allows more supply to be accumulated in Rome.

[Jim-NC]

2 - You don't have to manually look it up. Only legatus are POP (which is the small unit at the head of the legion, each legion has 1 and only 1 of these elements). The ROM are all other legion troops, and all independent (cav, militia, etc). The last are the SOC, which are your allies (they are identifiable by name and picture on the legion, which isn't a true legion). The good news is that on the replacement screen, it shows how much damage you need to replace (1 replacement for each 10 damage). The damage shows above the icon, while the number of replacements is below.

3 - It represents a static supply source/holding area for your troops. AJE doesn't hold and/or forward supply from region to region. Thus this unit allows you to store some extra supply in case you get attacked or besieged. Think of it as the cities granaries.

[Emx77]

3. Odd, because the supply would be in Rome anyway? But I am guessing it allows more supply to be accumulated in Rome.

Having supply wagon or receptaculum inside besieged city is important for two reason:

a) As Ebbingford explained, your troops can hold longer during siege. When city is besieged it cannot produce any supply. So your units will consume what they have on hand (which is usually very little) or from internal source inside city if avaliable (wagon or receptaculum).

b) Sometimes, if they fail morale check, your units can give up fight and surrender during siege, even when they have enough supplies. Supply wagon or receptaculum will prevent this. You can read what this actually means in this thread. It is example from another game but engine is the same.

[Bullman]

OK thanks for help.

Got a few more things I'm looking to understand about how Replacements work.

1) At the Replacements screen, it tells you how many elements(?) replacements you need, how many you currently have in reserve and how many you are buying this turn.
Why does the "how many you need" number sometimes appear as RED with !!, BLACK or GREY/WHITE in colour? Why the different colours?

2) Playing as Marius in Marius vs Sulla, I have been trying to "reinforce"/have replacements replenish a legion with Replacements I have bought. I have put the legion in a coasted port town with Pasive posture. They don't seem to be getting any replacements. What could be the reason? What is a sure fire way to make a legion get Replacements?