Pike push

[Publio Cornelio Escipión Africano Mayor]

Before opening this thread I read all the FAQ and I didn't find anything about it, so here I go.

How do you perform a pike push??? You just order your troops to atack? How do you deploy your phalanx during a pike push?? Do you stop the unit after they make contact with the enemy unit? Do you order your unit to go beyond the enemy lines?

I hope you enlighten me because I always stop my phalanx when they make contact with the enemy unit and I keep them busy there until I flank them, is that a good practice?

PS. I use hammer and anvil tactic but in a very defensive fashion, but I would like to add the pike push to my arsenal.

[||Lz3||]

Em.. I think (It as been a long time since I used phalanxes) that you need to form a solid unit , and put them in defensive formation, after that just click behind the enemy lines, the phalanx unit should push the enemy until it gets to its destination.

IIRC :smash:

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Disable Guard Mode. They will often push themselves to close melee.

[mikil100]

Disable Guard Mode. They will often push themselves to close melee.

Really? Haha I didn't know that. I always had guard mode up, they usually stopped when they made contact but sometimes would try to continue to walk, messing up my line causing hard causalties.

This method is good, but when the enemy shuffles positions it can be a BITCH to make sure you have your phalanx line in a straight line, so best deply some light infantry behind the wall just in case one phalanx is ahead of another.

[Senshi]

Just be dynamic with your use of the guard function.
When I'm on offensive:
For initial impact I always leave guard mode on as a tighter unit can push deeper and especially more orderly into the enemy lines. When the push stops due to the "compressed" enemy hordes, it depends on how things go. If my men manage to surround the enemy by themselves, good. If not and run danger to be slowly encircled or outflanked, I sometimes deactivate guard mode. So even if your phalanx has been surrounded and is completely compressed, by deactivating they promptly "explode" and push everything away until they have their space regained, of course, losses might be higher for that period, but often this allows to regroup your phalanx or even cut the enemy lines and bring chaos to their rear.

This works especially good if you have phalanx with the extra phalanx mode. If you deactivate their guard mode together with phalanx mode, they push each other that hard some of them often are sent flying...:laugh4:

Of course this works also excellently when on defensive or when generally outnumbered, phalanxes are a good medium to form each battle to your will, when used correctly.:2thumbsup:

[antisocialmunky]

Disable Guard Mode. They will often push themselves to close melee.

QFT

However, it can cause your troops to decide to moon the enemy and/or moonwalk.

You can set them off guard mode and then order them to walk past the enemy.

[satalexton]

i've mentioned this before some time ago...

you make a square, deploy phalanx, take off guardmode, and tell them to move forward by clicking behind the enemy lines.
Once they engage, which cancels their move order, order them to push forward by clicking again.

Now prepare for heavy casualties.

[ziegenpeter]

Now prepare for heavy casualties.
On which side? :laugh4:

[satalexton]

both, but more on the losing side.

[Dayve]

I've noticed that there's a slight bug regarding phalanx units. When you're defending, sometimes the AI will use its phalanx units aggressively against your phalanx units. It will engage them head on, and perform this "pike push" you're speaking of, and decimate your entire phalanx unit with little to no casualties to their own.

This happened to me last when i was playing as Makedonia. I had a unit of Agyraspidai, 2 bronze chevrons, bronze weapons and armour. They were going up against Seleukia and a unit of Pantodapoi Phalangitai. Their phalanx simply engaged mine head on, and shredded my Agyraspidai to pieces in a few seconds, while taking little more than 10 casualties of their own. My unit was not engaged from any other side, it was in defensive formation and phalanx formation.

Even if i had turned phalanx mode off and told them to charge with their swords, they would have defeated the Pantodapoi with less casualties than what happened. So it's definitely some sort of bug with phalanx units.

If it happens again i shall try to get a video of it, or at the very least a screenshot.

[antisocialmunky]

There are tons of bugs with phalanx units like when 2 hit and they explode and men go all over the place. Or when that one guy backflips his way off the map.

[The Wicked]

I've noticed that there's a slight bug regarding phalanx units. When you're defending, sometimes the AI will use its phalanx units aggressively against your phalanx units. It will engage them head on, and perform this "pike push" you're speaking of, and decimate your entire phalanx unit with little to no casualties to their own.

This happened to me last when i was playing as Makedonia. I had a unit of Agyraspidai, 2 bronze chevrons, bronze weapons and armour. They were going up against Seleukia and a unit of Pantodapoi Phalangitai. Their phalanx simply engaged mine head on, and shredded my Agyraspidai to pieces in a few seconds, while taking little more than 10 casualties of their own. My unit was not engaged from any other side, it was in defensive formation and phalanx formation.

Even if i had turned phalanx mode off and told them to charge with their swords, they would have defeated the Pantodapoi with less casualties than what happened. So it's definitely some sort of bug with phalanx units.

If it happens again i shall try to get a video of it, or at the very least a screenshot.

I lost a battle today because of that :furious3::furious3:....... even with alex.exe....

[bovi]

I've noticed that there's a slight bug regarding phalanx units. When you're defending, sometimes the AI will use its phalanx units aggressively against your phalanx units. It will engage them head on, and perform this "pike push" you're speaking of, and decimate your entire phalanx unit with little to no casualties to their own.

This happened to me last when i was playing as Makedonia. I had a unit of Agyraspidai, 2 bronze chevrons, bronze weapons and armour. They were going up against Seleukia and a unit of Pantodapoi Phalangitai. Their phalanx simply engaged mine head on, and shredded my Agyraspidai to pieces in a few seconds, while taking little more than 10 casualties of their own. My unit was not engaged from any other side, it was in defensive formation and phalanx formation.

Even if i had turned phalanx mode off and told them to charge with their swords, they would have defeated the Pantodapoi with less casualties than what happened. So it's definitely some sort of bug with phalanx units.

If it happens again i shall try to get a video of it, or at the very least a screenshot.
Perhaps you were in a steep slope? Phalanx units cannot attack at their usual length when they are too far above the enemy in RTW. Given the right slope, a phalanx in the lower end will be able to hit without being struck back, which is somewhat counter-intuitive.

[LordCurlyton]

Yeah with the way RTW has its phalanx mode set up even a slight slope can yield vastly differing casualties. If you are (un)lucky enough to bring phalanxes to fight in one of the very mountainous, steep maps it is quite possible to annihilate a vastly superior army with basic phalanxes (or have said result done to you). I did that once as the Maks against the Romans and I crushed 3 full stack armies in the same battle using a mere half stack of stretched out levy phalanxes on extremely steep territory. Suffered maybe 30 casualties, tops.