How do you win?

[Antinous]

I was playing as the Ptolemy and I had an interesting thought. What happens when the Selukids fight the Ptolemy since their tactics are mainly going to be the same. Use your phalanx on the main line and circle back with infantry and cavalry to rout the enemy. Since though they use mainly the same Alexander type tactics they are basically keeping neutral power through the whole battle. :knight:

[Megas Methuselah]

Elephants. If you notice the enemy brings in elephants too, bring in more elephants yourself. Bring your elephants upon the enemy phalanx's flanks before the enemy does the same to your phalanx with his elephants. Elephants have always been the key to victory.

I am not being sarcastic. Literally.

[Antinous]

Thanks also how would this work historically.

[Megas Methuselah]

That is historic. The elephants played a major role in the Battle of Raphia.

I am Methuselah. Don't doubt me.

[The Fuzz]

The really old dude is right. If you're looking for shenanigans build some fleets in the Red Sea and travel to Persepolis with a couple stacks to raise some hell. :P

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Elephants can be a liability though. There are better ways, defeat the enemy's cavalry, then you will have won the battle. You do this by concentrating all your cavalry on one flank, the right flank preferably. Spilt the horsemen into light and heavy, use the light to draw off the enemy cavalry, once they engage away from the enemy cavalry charge your heavy cav, then once they drive home withdraw the light horse and charge with them, the withdraw the heavy.

By this point most of the enemy cavalry will be on the point of breaking, if you can charge the enemy bodyguard with all your cavalry the general has a good chance of going down. Four simultanious charging unitswill usually kill him. Once the cavalry are dead use your own cavalry to kill the enemy skirmishers, whom have been held at bay by your archers, then take the flank infantry, then once the pike lines lock finish the enemy centre.

[Skullheadhq]

I was playing as the Ptolemy and I had an interesting thought. What happens when the Selukids fight the Ptolemy since their tactics are mainly going to be the same. Use your phalanx on the main line and circle back with infantry and cavalry to rout the enemy. Since though they use mainly the same Alexander type tactics they are basically keeping neutral power through the whole battle. :knight:

YOU WANT TO DEFEAT THE MIGHTY ARCHE?!?! *Evil laugh* Phahahahahahaha! You can't beat them. They will sent forth an sea of brainless Pantodapoi to wash Egypt clean of Ptolemaic influence!
My advice to you: Flee to Arabia and stay quiet so the Seas of Pantodapoi can't find you, because if they will... Theý'll eat your Ptolly brains!

[Olaf Blackeyes]

YOU WANT TO DEFEAT THE MIGHTY ARCHE?!?! *Evil laugh* Phahahahahahaha! You can't beat them. They will sent forth an sea of brainless Pantodapoi to wash Egypt clean of Ptolemaic influence!
My advice to you: Flee to Arabia and stay quiet so the Seas of Pantodapoi can't find you, because if they will... Theý'll eat your Ptolly brains!

LOLOLOLOL:laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4::laugh4:

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

How do you win?


through superior intelligence
through superior troop quality
through height advantage

[Dayve]

You're fighting against the AI... how do you NOT win?

[Olaf Blackeyes]

You're fighting against the AI... how do you NOT win?

OMFG sig'ed for awesomeness.

[Dayve]

I'm serious though... as a faction like Ptolemaioi, you could play a whole campaign from 272-14ad and never ever lose a single battle. You start off being able to recruit units like pantodapoi phalangitai, and while they are the lower end of units for the Ptolemaioi they're still capable of pinning an enemy for lengthy amounts of time while you get some missile or infantry troops behind them to finish the job. The only time you're likely to lose is if you're vastly outnumbered by superior troops, and even then you'll most likely still win.

[Connacht]

I had a defeat against the Sweboz in my Seleukid campaign which really pleased me.
No, I'm not crazy, I say this because it was a nice battle and the AI seemed to be smart for once.

The German invaded my dominions in Mikra Skythia. So, I decided to reinforce them with cheats in order to get at least a minimum of challenge.
I filled their stacks with high level Bastarnoz, Germanic heavy cavalry, heavy swordsmen and speutogardoz, then I left them conquer the city.
After that they invaded Mesia and Thracia. So I, by role-playing, decided to "activate" a good general in order to intercept and engage in combat those fuckin' Bastarnae raiders who are invading my lands.

Well, being flanked by enemy cavalrymen in the middle of field, while falxmen overrunned my elites from the woods and heavy swordsmen plus speuton pikemen blocked my cavalry, was really fun.

(obviously the enemy had numerical superiority and even golden chevron soldiers, but their moves really enjoyed me, I found difficult and fun trying to keep at bay enemy horsemen so that my phalangites wouldn't break for a rear charge, while hoping that my pheraspidai and hypaspistai might resist until reinforcements from the other flank arrive)

I fought some honest battles, both great crushing victories and close victories with a lot of casualties, in my attempt to kick out those bastards, who resisted until the last man. I found the "campaign for liberations of the Balcans from those bad smelling barbarians" very fun.

The only disappointing point was the battle against a Baltic stack (I dunno why the AI sent them there) which was too weak.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

See? Sweboz ARE the best EB faction.

[HunGeneral]

See? Sweboz ARE the best EB faction.


Well if he added so many units to there stack + lets not forget the forest is the field of the Sweboz where other infantry are in trouble...


P.S.: I just seem to have a Sauromatae campiagn with a large horse-horde heading west in thoose forest to plunder and eliminate... aham... Liberate thoose towns:beam:
Wonder what resisntence they will meet.

[Dutchhoplite]

I don't consider myself the worst player there is but i have had *huge* problems fighting the Seleucids while playing the KH. I was either outnumbered or my troops outclassed.

Fighting Seleucid pikes and cavalry with hoplites, crap cavalry and fm's on foot is hard :embarassed:

[Marcus Ulpius]

I don't consider myself the worst player there is but i have had *huge* problems fighting the Seleucids while playing the KH. I was either outnumbered or my troops outclassed.

Fighting Seleucid pikes and cavalry with hoplites, crap cavalry and fm's on foot is hard :embarassed:

I also had problems fighting AS in my KH campaign. It's hard to win against the long line of kleruchoi when you don't have phalanx units at all. I've micromanaged everything and used fake retreats moments before phalanx units engaged my hoplitai. Sometimes I've managed to disrupt phalanx formation and break the line in some places, forcing some phalanxes to fight with their secondary weapon. In other cases my hoplitai got stuck between phalanxes and in those cases I lost. Additional problem was KH lack of quality cavalry, I don't remember what I've used, but it wasn't pretty when I've engaged hetairoi. And btw, the only (non-elite) KH unit that can hold a phalanx line for a reasonable amount of time is Classical Hoplites. Anything else suffered heavy casualties quickly.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

One word: Mercenaries. In this case merc. phalangites, Thessalians and Thracians. They won't give you absolute parity but they should be able to hold their own.

Edit: Oh, and Scythian and Steppe Horse Archers, mustn't forget those.