roman manipular formation

[rorarii]

A few years back I did some initial work on introducing a Manipular formation in RTW, where hastati and princep maniples could easily move past each other, to quickly relieve troops. As you can see in the picture, it kinda worked? I set the Hastati soldier spacing to 2M frontage and 3M depth, giving a more realistic attacking stance for heavy peltasts armed with pila and sword. The Princeps (spearmen) I retained at 1M frontage and 2M depth. These formations seemed to fit into the texts which stated the hastati were originally smaller groups to break-up celtic charges with volleys of pilums, and the princeps were still the main battle line.

The system worked well enough, true to historic accuracy, the smaller units of hastati were able to slow down, and sometimes break up infantry charges, but were easily swept away by major charges. The hastati then routed (or if you were quick enough), retired through the princeps to reform.

I was able to get the smaller maniples by editing the horde.tga file in the formations directory But The problems I faced were the inability to setup special 'manipular' ability buttons AND the fact that the horde formation was unable to rotate to face a different direction.

I was just wondering, with all the extra knowledge we have now, would it be possible to implement a Roman Manipular formation properly?

Thanks


R

https://img292.imageshack.us/img292/1132/manipulaformation2pg9.th.jpg (https://img292.imageshack.us/my.php?image=manipulaformation2pg9.jpg)

[Thorlof]

Wow! I have pray for this. Another problems with this formation this is little problem.

[rorarii]

ignore this ..


admin please delete.


R

[rorarii]

ok, I've had a request to provide details of creating a unit maniple formation, so here it is;


(1) rename the file HORDE.TGA in the data\battlefield\formation directory
(2) use the attached file or create your own, and name it HORDE.TGA
(3) backup the EB\DATA\EXPORT_DESC_INIT.TXT file
(4) edit the EB\DATA\EXPORT_DESC_INIT.TXT file, find the soldier you want to change (Early hastati for my case), change the formation details from SQUARE to HORDE. You can also change the rank and file spacings. Note : horde won't work as a 2nd formation, as the special ability button won't work (for some hard coding reason)

Warning: I have been told that routing units use the horde formation but I haven't seen any problems so far. Also, the Horde formation cannot be rotated.

I think that's about it.

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Looks like I cannot get this site to upload a file, and imageshack alters graphics files ... so looks like you'll have to create your own. look at HORDE.TGA, you should be able to create your own.

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R