Romani Lovers... How did u face Horse archers and Heavy cavalry only army?

[Rahwana]

Especially in multiplayer... well, I was often play with my friend at my school network, and that guy always play either Hoplite heavy army, or all horseman army... Against hoplite and Phalanx army, I often deploy Romans to flank them off, with some sucess (well score is roughly win a bit more when we play infantry battle)... but then, he usually resort to all horsemen armies when I say I want to play as Romani, or Barbarian forces against him... And with his ridiculously two or three unit type of army, he beat me every time we play... and I know, there was many Romani lovers that should know appropriate tactics against those Nomadic soldiers... so pleas help me...

[Starforge]

Not really a Roman Fanboi but when I play them I typically follow 2 internal guides:

1. Auxiliaries are your friends (ok, poorly paid and manipulated mercs.) In any event effective. When knowing that I will be facing larger numbers of horse archers or archers in general I increase correspondingly the number of missile troops with good range and effectiveness.

2. Much like Longstreet, I prefer a more defensive posture. Chasing horsemen = quick way to get butt kicked. Make the slippery twerps come to you. I've yet to find (save very expensive troops) large numbers of horse archers that can stand up against return missile fire (usually by cheaper troops with larger numbers.)

[Darpaek]

WWRD?

Hire auxilaries.

[Rahwana]

But in multiplayer, my Sagitarii auxilia usually took up several minai, and with a lack of spearmen, their Cataphracts will almost bring my line dead... the worst things if I face (as usual), the armoured Saka Nobles, and many "Steppe Nobles" that usually ends up impaling my horsemen... but then, I'll try with more archers & Slingers (maybe I must start using cheaper greek missile?)

[Brave Brave Sir Robin]

Use slingers. They do a great job of dealing with armored horsemen. Against lighter horse archers counter with archers of your own. Just don't use Toxotai. Spend little money on your missile troops while he spends all of his on his. Then put your remaining money into Roman infantry. You shouldn't need spearmen. Recruit two or three units of cavalry and just keep them in reserve the entire battle until he charges. Then swing them around his lines to deal with the tiring heavy horse and prevent them from charging over and over while your infantry swarm them.

[Starforge]

countering his elites and their charge might require some corresponding non-line troops of your own. Of course, this works well against the AI and maybe not as much against a player since he'll have mobility on his side. Always (always) have auto fire on your infantry so that the pila can do some damage (especially if he likes to withdraw and recharge.) Even a few pila to the back has a good chance of causing casualties.

If he stays and fights hit him with some Triarii or another elite level unit. Loose formation and surround.

[Skullheadhq]

φιλopωμαιoς;

Θανατoς τoις βαρβαρoiς!
(Hope this is a good sentence :sweatdrop:)


Serious now,
Just let them fire their missles and wait till he runs out of arrows, then wait for the time to run out or let him ccharge you and kill them off with your spearmen.

[Mikhail Mengsk]

Hold the line until he finish arrows XD. Roman infantry can stand against almost any cavalry charge, even catanks. Cover your back, use foot archers to counter its horse archers.

[Rilder]

Admit you can't conquer them and stop trying to expand in that direction. :P

[Maion Maroneios]

While not a Philoromaios myself, I have some suggestions when fighting against a player with a brain. Make sure you use some spearmen, especially in the flanks. Don't bother using too much cavalry, as we all know you Romaioi have crap cavalry. Use some good slingers or archers (like those Saggitarii or whatever you call them) in loose formation and make short work of their own shooters. Stay defensive and make them waste their arrows on you, and make sure you have your flanks and rear well-protected.

But I'm sure there are many out here who can help you more than me. Especially fellow Philoromaioi like yourself.

Maion

[Reno Melitensis]

If you are fielding a Camillan or Polybian legion, deploy your army as usall, then when the enemy is close enough attack with levies/Velites supported by Hastati and Principe in losse formation. Slingers will support your attack from a distance. Use cavalry to attack already fighting enemy units, running after horse archers is a waist of them. Pray Jupiter Maximus and have faith in your tactic.

Fighting with a Marian or Imperial legion is a lot more easy. If your opponent is not using anlimited arrows, just sit down in Testudo formation and wait until they exhaust their ammo. Using the above tactic works fine too.

Using this tactics their is a 50/50 chance of winning with heavy casualties.

Cheers.

[Xurr]

First recruit yourself a bunch Scythian foot archers(excellent range and ammo). Get a few units of spearmen(Cohors Validvm Avxiliarivm will work) to protect your archers from heavy cav. Then when you deploy find the highest hill and put your archers on top and spearmen below. Then simply wait for him to come to you. Make sure to direct your archers to fire on his horse archers and not the heavy cav.

[Megas Methuselah]

Using this tactics their is a 50/50 chance of winning with heavy casualties.


Lol. What would Pyrrhus say? :laugh4:

[tls5669]

Or you could always play as Getai, their HA's aren't too shabby. Getai has a nice all around roster.

[antisocialmunky]

You can use Heavy Archers or just sit there until they run out of missiles.

[Andy1984]

I'm not sure how many money one would need for the rest of your army, but accensi - while cheap - maintain a decent cost/value-rate. Other than that: take sufficient hastati or legionary cohorts for their pilae. Once that steppe army decides to charge and retreat, these pilae (and slings) in their back will hurt. Your opponent can't fight hand to hand for any prolongued period of time, so spearmen don't seem necessary to me.

[Beefy187]

Hide them in the forest, hire some cavalry mercenary to match the cavalry charge. Then rush in your infantry to finish them off.

Either that or archer base army on the hill should do.

[ARCHIPPOS]

any fight with nomads tends to become a missile duel at least during the first stages of the battle... they just sit back and shoot missiles against you... my first idea of dealing with them was to place my slingers archers and missiles in front and battle it out with them... this lead to heavy casualties also the AI usually placed the heavier units of nomad bodyguards and nomad nobles in front and those guys being better armoured died signifigantly slower than my troops... not to mention they had a better range and they could always withdraw and hammer me from a distance (though they very rarely did that) plus the benefit of mobility (=cantabrian circle) can make it really difficult to get many of them...

what i do now instead is apply a wall of shield and pikes between my missiles and nomads... i stretch my pantodapoi phalangitai to a long thin line (to cover as much os the front as possibe) ...plus the phallanx is impressively resistant to missiles (of course some casualties are inevitable) behind them follow the slingers, archers and skirmishers in three waves and loose formation... my cavalry (generals) are placed together in the back...i guess any kind of heavy infantry or pikemen could work as this "anticavalry wall"

This way the phalanx absorbs the arrows and allows my missiles to kill off the enemy ... when i run out of long range ammo the skirmishers are called forth... (unfortunately those guys suffer the heavier casualties-they are the bate!!!taking the full effect of themighty nomad charge) and when the nomads are busy slaughtering them the phallanxes (directly behind skirmishers) march through and pike them ...

when facing nomads i have observed that the key is to keep your army together... do not isolate units or send them forth too far... the nomads being more mobile will simply move away or take the chance to kill some poor forgotten undefended missille troops on your back-keep your pikes missiles and cavalry together and let them interact and support eachother...

Of course i understand that in real life things would have worked out very differently... if i played as the nomads i would split my army in many small groups (frontal attack and flanks) and arrow the hell out of them... and when they came after me i would wipe out the weaker exposed units one by one using my mobility... being fluid and armoured i think in real nomads must have been almost unbeatable ...

[chenkai11]

BC Romans can't stand a chance against horsemen factions. :clown:

I am playing Hayasdan (my favorite faction), and every time I am fighting the AS heavy infantry army and always being outnumbered, I fight in guerilla tactics, ambush, arrow shower, "bulldozer", hit and run. Results are multiple heroic victory.

So if you really want to fight the steppes or the tankers, I suggest deploy your army in defensive position first. Let your unit face the direction where the arrows are coming, less casualties. But watch out for cavalry charge. Recruit few long range archers to kill some unarmoured horse archers. Don't use your cavalry to fight the heavy cataphracts, only use them to flank light horses or chase when routing.

Deploy your army formation to Roman checker formation and not 3 lines formation. This you can trap those heavy cavalry charges without getting hit and run tactics from your enemies. Just like what happened in ZAMA.

I don't play Romans so I am not sure how long can the legionaries or the auxilia spearmen can hold cavalry charge. But a combination of Thureophoroi and Thorakitai can definitely kill even the heaviest tankers.

[fleaza]

the tetsudo formation works very well. just make sure to get out of tetsudo before the enemy charge hits you.

[Alsatia]

If you are trying to attack a steepe faction, don't even try with the romans. Try some other faction for a greater chance.

[Atraphoenix]

Testudo works great, and do not worry Parthia has no Surena that will use arrow supply wagons.
after their arrows depleted the rest is piece of cake.
of course so long as you do not play with unlimited amno for historical realism. :laugh4:
but your legions has no chance against catas.
if it is too miserable put the soldiers at the edge of the map (red line as you know) so that they cannot outflank you.
and never attack them only siege their cities. if you attack your legion cannot chase them (esp. I love the scene that phalanxes tries to catch my HAs with 6 m long sarissas :laugh4:)

[chenkai11]

Testudo works great, and do not worry Parthia has no Surena that will use arrow supply wagons.
after their arrows depleted the rest is piece of cake.
of course so long as you do not play with unlimited amno for historical realism. :laugh4:
but your legions has no chance against catas.
if it is too miserable put the soldiers at the edge of the map (red line as you know) so that they cannot outflank you.
and never attack them only siege their cities. if you attack your legion cannot chase them (esp. I love the scene that phalanxes tries to catch my HAs with 6 m long sarissas :laugh4:)


I think he mentioned online multiplayer, so ah...siege their cities and putting units at the edge of the map might not be an option.

[Atraphoenix]

There is more suicidal ways better than facing a Human Player who uses HAs while the player himself using romani :no:
like charging your general into the front of phalanxes .....

[Chris1959]

Against the AI late Roman Testudo works very well, the trick is deploying to line before a cavalry charge, against a human player hope he leaves fire at will on !
Scorpiones, have the range to snipe Cata's etc but are very vunerable to missle fire, but an opponet has to react to them.
Best bet would be to use your haevy inf to shield your cavalry and missle troops until the arrows run out, and then counter attack.
If I were the Steppe warriors I'd just wait without firing until you do and then nail your most vunerable troops:laugh4:

[chenkai11]

Seriously, Roman army cannot beat the steppes or nomads, period.

[Atraphoenix]

Seriously, Roman army cannot beat the steppes or nomads, period.

seconded

[Cute Wolf]

Seriously, Roman army cannot beat the steppes or nomads, period.

well, I allready said that to Sonic... but he still insist that someday if he got better skill, he will defeat my saka army with Romaioi.... poor boy.... poor boy.....

[Mikhail Mengsk]

All-imperial legion army. Testudo. Wait until arrows finished.

[antisocialmunky]

I can beat steppe armies with Rome in multi if anyone wants to try. ^.-

[econ21]

If the Roman army is not tailored to fight a steppe army, it seems almost uniquely unsuited to fighting them - lots of impotent heavy infantry (without spears), precious few missiles and cavalry. This is not a EB example, but I inherited a Julii PBM and over-confidently, blundered into such a fight with results that I reckon are historically accurate:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpost.php?p=1263657&postcount=26

I think to fight a steppe army, the Romans must significiantly increase their missiles, spears and/or cavalry i.e. become more like a late Roman Empire army than the standard Republican one. Slingers would be the first place I would look in EB (although slingers seems ridiculously cost-effective anyway in the mod). I read one account which suggested the legionnaires themselves used slings when fighting the Parthians.

What army composition would you use, Anti-Social Monkey?

[chenkai11]

I can beat steppe armies with Rome in multi if anyone wants to try. ^.-

I would love to see a replay of that. :yes: hmmm...you are using SAKA in the online tournament, I guess you know the weaknesses of a cavalry faction.

[Atraphoenix]

we call it melee... :book:
steppe warriors were made for distance fighting...

[fleaza]

I would love to see a replay of that. :yes: hmmm...you are using SAKA in the online tournament, I guess you know the weaknesses of a cavalry faction.

what are their weaknesses? i dont think there are any glaring weaknesses for a steppe army except for their poor melee.

as long as you dont chase them and absorb missle fire you will be fine. the romans even have the tetsudo formation to help them.

[A Very Super Market]

Barbarian factions are just about impossible to play against a steppe faction, or any eastern faction at all. Arguably, the Carthies wouldn't do too well either, since their infantry has worse morale than the romans. All other factions eventually get good foot archers, and won't have too much trouble, if played correctly.

[antisocialmunky]

Its not really the army, the steppe factions have the advantage there but the Romans really have to just bash their way through with combined arms when they aren't playing highly defensively. Archers + Heavy Infantry + Cavalry.

[chenkai11]

what are their weaknesses? i dont think there are any glaring weaknesses for a steppe army except for their poor melee.

as long as you dont chase them and absorb missle fire you will be fine. the romans even have the tetsudo formation to help them.


weaknesses = none, for the steppes and nomads :clown:

Poor melee? I don't think so. With the cataphracts, armoured horse archers, and bodyguards? No way.

[A Very Super Market]

The barbarians would get themselves shot to death, no question.

Romans have good infantry. Eventually, they run out of arrows, which Testudo has decreased in lethality, and must charge. Your infantry stand a good chance at beating them, as to have enough armoured horse-archers mean they have significantly less units than you do.

As the Western hellenics, I'm not really sure how it plays out. You could feasibly just let your phalanxes rough it, and use your own heavy cavalry to flank them after they charge. Or you could use a lot of slingers.

Eastern hellenics have it easy. You have your own horse archers and cataphracts, and good foot archers. It'll be a lot less difficult.

And nomads vs. nomads simply depends on your ability as a commander.

[NeoSpartan]

Hey! wtf u talking about barbarian factions!

I've played with the Aedui against Saka (mix infantry + HA + Catas) and against HA & heavy cavarly only.

The 1st battle was in EB 1.0 the second in EB .8x.

I won the 1st one by a HAIR pin. It was so close that when I did the battle replay, the replay showed me loosing the battle :dizzy2:

The second one I ALMOST won. It was extremely close.


I will say for those who bring up slinger:

YOUR SLINGLER WILL GET SHOT TO S*** by the HA. So if you are post-marian Romani use your armored archers instead.

My suggestion is to hire the heaviest infantry you can get your hands on, and some of the heaviest cavarly u can get your hands on. If you are a gaul that means Helvetti, Solduros, Gaesatae (2), Cornutes (sp, must have), Neitos, and Brenthin (sp). Still deploy lots of slingers to do some damage to his HA and to recieve most of the arrows. Keep mind that when HA's do that circle thing, they will be very hard to hit.

[A Very Super Market]

I highly doubt you could afford that army in MP. And have HAs and Catas.

The fact is, barbarian factions don't too well against projectiles. At all. Even the mighty Gaesatae are brought down far easier by arrows than spears. The Getai get a few horse-archer units of their own, and heavy infantry with armour, so I suppose they would fare better than say, the Sweboz.

[NeoSpartan]

I highly doubt you could afford that army in MP. And have HAs and Catas.

The fact is, barbarian factions don't too well against projectiles. At all. Even the mighty Gaesatae are brought down far easier by arrows than spears. The Getai get a few horse-archer units of their own, and heavy infantry with armour, so I suppose they would fare better than say, the Sweboz.

My army was 1/2 slinger, the other half was composed of the best of Aedui armor. I can't remember if I had 1 or 2 Gaesatae, but I didn't roll with a lot of them.

One thing though... my Solduros fought with Sword ONLY. (me and my friend took out the Spears from them and similar units, like the Arjos). This little thing makes Solduros kick some major ass, as in they can kill Gaesatae :yes:

[antisocialmunky]

Celts have good enough armor if you bring decent line infantry preferably with spears. Lustotana doesn't give a crap about arrows. The only factions that have missile problems are Germans/Saba since Getai can actually just go steppe themselves.

[mountaingoat]

just bring armored spear units to take the brunt of the arrow fire

[Rahwana]

Thank for all your opinion

BTW... I Finally know how to defeat the Saka Army with my lovely Marian Legions and Sagitarii. Along with several more cavalry. But Ironically, I win because I want play with time and I was the defensive, with a factor from my enemy's recklesnes, I put all of them hiding inside forest and cutewolf had a long time guessing where i hide, as I put my general in far away reach and when he try to chase , he incidentally run his HA inside my troops hiding place, and then, his men get pilum showered on their face :laugh4:... well, after he lost most of his horse archers, I put my legions into one single blocks and put archers behind. Although his early horse archers also kill considerable part of my reformata, all that nice numerical advantage worked for me today, and when his bodyguard cavalry that not bodyguard anyway try to slam themself, my Evites Gallorum just pop from their hiding place and poke them from behind when they poke my legionaries...... soon after all routs, he only command one general unit (all his other units are allrready routing, and you could imagine, how 20 men units get chased by 1000++ Legionaries.... well, a victory for roma! :smash:

[chenkai11]

I can see a little careless and frustration on cutewolf's part.

But, hey congratulation on your Roman victory.

[Grade_A_Beef]

This is a rather stupid idea what probably won't work on a human, but you can just spread your troops to a 3 man deep line (or 2 if you're daring enough), slowly advance, and hem the skirmishing horse archers into a corner.

Works excellently against the AI, and one of the main disadvantages of a square field

[a completely inoffensive name]

Just wait until they run out of ammo in testudo then charge. If that doesn't work, then send more people and repeat.

[Cute Wolf]

Thank for all your opinion

BTW... I Finally know how to defeat the Saka Army with my lovely Marian Legions and Sagitarii. Along with several more cavalry. But Ironically, I win because I want play with time and I was the defensive, with a factor from my enemy's recklesnes, I put all of them hiding inside forest and cutewolf had a long time guessing where i hide, as I put my general in far away reach and when he try to chase , he incidentally run his HA inside my troops hiding place, and then, his men get pilum showered on their face :laugh4:... well, after he lost most of his horse archers, I put my legions into one single blocks and put archers behind. Although his early horse archers also kill considerable part of my reformata, all that nice numerical advantage worked for me today, and when his bodyguard cavalry that not bodyguard anyway try to slam themself, my Evites Gallorum just pop from their hiding place and poke them from behind when they poke my legionaries...... soon after all routs, he only command one general unit (all his other units are allrready routing, and you could imagine, how 20 men units get chased by 1000++ Legionaries.... well, a victory for roma! :smash:

Ok, pal... I admit you defeat me this time, ending my streak of 20++ always win when I using Saka and you using Romaioi... other than those fried chickens, you deserve a Baloon tainted with blood this time in the org... :balloon:

But I just want to said that your choice of Map (Epeiros) is really bad terrain for cav armies, and I did fall to your trap and get my men slammed with pilum on their face, while your nasty cohors spring from their hiding.

BTW I kill 1300 of your men and u only kill 794 of mine... it was a close victory for you afterall...

Dan jangan pernah malu - maluin gw lagi di forum ini ngerti!!! :furious3::whip::wall:

[Mikhail Mengsk]

Thank for all your opinion

BTW... I Finally know how to defeat the Saka Army with my lovely Marian Legions and Sagitarii. Along with several more cavalry. But Ironically, I win because I want play with time and I was the defensive, with a factor from my enemy's recklesnes, I put all of them hiding inside forest and cutewolf had a long time guessing where i hide, as I put my general in far away reach and when he try to chase , he incidentally run his HA inside my troops hiding place, and then, his men get pilum showered on their face :laugh4:... well, after he lost most of his horse archers, I put my legions into one single blocks and put archers behind. Although his early horse archers also kill considerable part of my reformata, all that nice numerical advantage worked for me today, and when his bodyguard cavalry that not bodyguard anyway try to slam themself, my Evites Gallorum just pop from their hiding place and poke them from behind when they poke my legionaries...... soon after all routs, he only command one general unit (all his other units are allrready routing, and you could imagine, how 20 men units get chased by 1000++ Legionaries.... well, a victory for roma! :smash:
Did you use Testudo?

[chenkai11]

Did you use Testudo?

I don't think so. Legionaires wouldn't be hidden in the forest and be invisible in radar map if they are in testudo.

[Cute Wolf]

I don't think so. Legionaires wouldn't be hidden in the forest and be invisible in radar map if they are in testudo.

Actually he defeat me with tactics more suitable for Sweboz or Lusotann..... pretty barbaric and plain brutal... just hide and waaarrrrggghhhhh, and those romaioi barbarians shower pilum on my men's face...

Well, my wrong to sent waypoints without scouting first...

[chenkai11]

Actually he defeat me with tactics more suitable for Sweboz or Lusotann..... pretty barbaric and plain brutal... just hide and waaarrrrggghhhhh, and those romaioi barbarians shower pilum on my men's face...

Well, my wrong to sent waypoints without scouting first...


Yeah...at least it is still not good enough to proof that Roman army can defeat cavalry factions.

[Rahwana]

Actually he defeat me with tactics more suitable for Sweboz or Lusotann..... pretty barbaric and plain brutal... just hide and waaarrrrggghhhhh, and those romaioi barbarians shower pilum on my men's face...

Well, my wrong to sent waypoints without scouting first...

Well, you always mostly do the same tactial error in every MP games I play with you, as your initial Zerglings and Hydralisks army always got pwned by my Dark Templars, and your Scrin hordes mostly lost in the region where I build disruption towers. BTW I know that historically, hide and seek is accurate and valid tactics against army that was tactically superrior in open field, maybe If we meet again after holidays, I'll try fight with those Barbarians (oops you also call the Romans barbarians? what about your Steppe army? ).

[Mikhail Mengsk]

Today i faced a full cavalry SAKA army with an Imperial Roman Legion, with 1 first cohort, 5 cohorts, 2 pedites extr, 4 eastern auxilia, 2 eastern auxilia archers, 1 cohors evocata, 1 cohors pretoriana, a general, 1 gallic cav, 1 german cav, 1 extraordinarii cav. 40000 mnais.

Babylonian flat map.

I won, but it was against the AI, so...

Anyway, i saw that it's better NOT to use testudo, because the heavy cavalry charges hit it before they could reform original formation, and hit really bad. Normal formation, use infantry to cover flanks, use the few cavalries to attack isolated units.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Anyway, i saw that it's better NOT to use testudo, because the heavy cavalry charges hit it before they could reform original formation, and hit really bad. Normal formation, use infantry to cover flanks, use the few cavalries to attack isolated units.
Exactly. Which is why Crassus never used it. Learn from history, and it will even help in EB MP. Also, it tires troops, both in RL and enormously in EB.

Accensi are questionable to me, as your human opponent would simply charge them. Numbers would have to be your saviour.

The most important thing you should know is that NEVER stand and take a cavalry charge. Even spearmen, even hoplites, even the hoplite elite/thorkitai can take a heavy cavalry charge standing. This is the most common misconception ever. In RTW, if you let you infantry counter-charge, it will suffer very, every few casualties, if any. Running away from the horsemen and then turning when their charge dissipates is even more effective against the heaviest of the heavy cavalry. This is quite (very!) ahistorical/counter-intuitive, but that is how RTW works, and I consider myself a master of RTW game mechanics.

[Cute Wolf]

Honestly, after that defeat, I just admit that the element of surprise ambush did play a really significant role on the battlefield. But running against cav charges is also a good option when fought in the woods. Just curious, why units that was fallen into ambush tend to rout much quicker?

[Aemilius Paulus]

Just curious, why units that was fallen into ambush tend to rout much quicker?
Hah, have you ever seen the "surprised by the emerging enemy"?? That indicator shaves off a few points of morale. Now take some Gaesatae/other naked warriors/Slavic Spearmen, and add some fire arrows, a few routing enemies, your general close by, or even a rear attack, and you get an insta-rout. Thus, always keep some of your men hidden, even if there is no tactical value in that.

[vartan]

Running away from the horsemen and then turning when their charge dissipates is even more effective against the heaviest of the heavy cavalry. This is quite (very!) ahistorical/counter-intuitive, but that is how RTW works, and I consider myself a master of RTW game mechanics.

Would you ban this in an online tournament?

[Cute Wolf]

Hah, have you ever seen the "surprised by the emerging enemy"?? That indicator shaves off a few points of morale. Now take some Gaesatae/other naked warriors/Slavic Spearmen, and add some fire arrows, a few routing enemies, your general close by, or even a rear attack, and you get an insta-rout. Thus, always keep some of your men hidden, even if there is no tactical value in that.

It happened very quickly... and Sonic didn't used frightening troops. Just POOIIINNNNGGG!!!! rain of pilums, and afterall all my initial horde of HA's flee, never to answer my rally.... :wall: Well, my fault, my fault..... It made me learns that sacrificing one unit to scout was really worth it... :wall: :sweatdrop:

[antisocialmunky]

Exactly. Which is why Crassus never used it. Learn from history, and it will even help in EB MP. Also, it tires troops, both in RL and enormously in EB.

Accensi are questionable to me, as your human opponent would simply charge them. Numbers would have to be your saviour.

The most important thing you should know is that NEVER stand and take a cavalry charge. Even spearmen, even hoplites, even the hoplite elite/thorkitai can take a heavy cavalry charge standing. This is the most common misconception ever. In RTW, if you let you infantry counter-charge, it will suffer very, every few casualties, if any. Running away from the horsemen and then turning when their charge dissipates is even more effective against the heaviest of the heavy cavalry. This is quite (very!) ahistorical/counter-intuitive, but that is how RTW works, and I consider myself a master of RTW game mechanics.

I rather just sit there any take the charge. I'd also rather have a few chevroned up skirmisher units run infront of the cavalry to screw up any formed charge. Its what the Gauls do online and its quite effective,

[chenkai11]

I rather just sit there any take the charge. I'd also rather have a few chevroned up skirmisher units run infront of the cavalry to screw up any formed charge. Its what the Gauls do online and its quite effective,

Yes, that is a very effective way to counter cavalry frontal charge. A few skirmishers, slingers or archers line up before your front line, in guard mode and loose formation.