Brit Charriots

[the_rydster]

I am about 20 turns into my first Barbarrian campaign with the Brits.

I have aquired some light charriots and have used some of the charriots that came with one of my Generals. I charged my generals charriots into the flank of a pressured Gauls warband unit and my general was instantly killed and I think I lost more of my own men from the nasty pointy bladed on the charriots wheels. Basically they were usless.

My light charriots are just as bad. A Gaul general was sitting on the battle field doing nothing just waiting to attack. Having send my light charriots up to within range I had them fire ALL their arrows resulting in ZERO kills!

I have been on the recieving end of devastating Egyptian charriots when I played as Scrippi. A nightmare at time almost omnipotent.

[Paul Peru]

The Brit chariots are not very good.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=39772

[Fridge]

I played my second campaign as the Brits, on VH battles, and the light chariots were my most effective unit (and one of the most effective I've encountered in the game so far). Maybe we just use them differently - check out the Brit section in the Guides forum - it might give you some ideas.

[Epistolary Richard]

British Light Chariots are very good. Insanely good.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=39953


BTW I had my worst auto-resolve ever last week...

Setting VH/M

Player (Gauls) 700+ men led by a general ambushing

Computer (British) Lone general with heavy chariot bodyguard

Auto-resolve:

Player defeated, takes 300+ casualties and banner destroyed

Computer 12 casualties, I imagine mostly through splitting their sides laughing...

And as it occurred during Computer's turn... auto-save then saved after the battle. Other save games? Of course not.
~D

[Zorn]

Actually, light carriots rock.
Let them scirmish far ahead of your line. They don`t do so much damage as you would expect, because the driver doesn`t shoot. But if you fight far ahead of your line you will have a lot of time to shoot, so you will still inflict a lot of damage.
You can use charriots very agressively. The only thing you have to be careful of are archers.
Infantery can`t catch you, and cavallery is always doing bad vs charriots.
If you didn`t manage to damage the general, you either ran into a bug, or shot into an obstacle. It takes a while before bodyguards start to fall because of 2 HPs each, but after 3 salvos you should see an effect.
I usually have 4 units of LC in my armies. Especially vs barbarians, they are devasting. But even against romans they are very effective.
In my recent campaign I took all my generals and troops, abandoned my island and traveled straight to italy. There I had to fight at least 2 nearly full stacks of romans or gauls each turn fo 20 years. My LCs were the thing that made it possible to win those battles with minimal casualities.
And one more great advantage: If units of LC overlap, they do not inflict friendly fire casualities among each other like any other missle units would.

As for heavy charriots, they are a difficult matter. They can help you to decide a critical fight (allway charge in from behind, not from the side). Still, wardogs or an other unit of infantery will do the same job, and are easier to handle.
What HC are good for is hunting cavallery. While infantery is only knocked down most of the time, horses die like flies from the scythes. I`ve seen even routing charriots killing a decent number of horses.

[the_rydster]

Ok I just used two units of LC to skirmish ahead and they won the battle actually, because the enemy (Gauls) army basically split into 3 with one group chasing each LC unit and the other one heading for my warbands and general.

I just lost a general during my taking of the Gauls capital. It was a joke, I had already killed their general and they had one unit of warband in the town square, I had about 40 warband and I attacked them and then charged my two generals into the Gaul warbands rear. For some reason about 30 secs later all my warband routed one of my generals died and then about 2 warband managed to hold of everything I threw at them untill I sent my LC into the melee. What a joke! Maybe there is some massive moral bonus in the town square or something? My General as a sodding 4 star as well!

:embarassed: ~:confused: ~:confused: ~:confused: :embarassed:

[Fridge]

There is a massive morale boost in the town square - in the sense that the enemy can't rout (ever) when they're standing in there, and I think they get the fight to the death bonus as well whcih improves their stats.

It makes finishing people off very difficult, though they won'd run away from missile fire, so get those light chariots in!

[Zorn]

There is a "massive morale bonus" - such as that units never ever rout if they defend a square. You have to kill them to the last man.
Also, british generals are incredible fragile. That always makes me wonder, because they should really have a load of HP.
Anyway, I only use my Generals to chase routers. Even there they are not efficient, because they just knock them down most of the time.
I only attack not routed units in very desperate situations. And then make sure to keep them moving. Charriots that stand still in melee with infantery are dead charriots. If your charriots ever seem to be stuck in a fight with inf, get them out.

[The_Emperor]

Anyway, I only use my Generals to chase routers. Even there they are not efficient, because they just knock them down most of the time.

I don't... I prefer a unit of Merc cav to do that (or light chariots, they can shoot down routers very well, send them up right close behind a unit and then halt and target them).

I found out the hard way that Chariot generals are not useful to ever use in combat, those things are just way too flimsy and losing a good general is not good.

They need to be beefed up a lot more.

[Maltz]

I haven't really played Britania yet, but I have some experiences facint them.

2 Britania light chariots units gave me a huge headache last time. It was a 20 vs. 20, huge unit size barbarian settlement assault; AI Briton was the defender. As the total number of men goes more than 6500, the game lagged a lot on my mediocre system. It is ok - I just need to be a little more patient.

The AI put the chariots on skirmish as usual. They run their own men over countless times - these warbands screamed because their knees are cut by the blade - but 5 seconds later, they pad their arses and stand up as nothing happened. I seriously think friendly fire should include the chariot's scythe blade, given horses can be killed by friendly spearhead. But this way the stupid skirmish chariots will probably kill all of their own infantry before I even start to ram the wall. (Pretty enjoyable to watch, of course.)

The chariots never stopped shooting my men as they prepared to rush in, and they were soooo accurate from inside the wall. Well, that's ok because horse archers can do the same. But they also love to rush out of the wall breaches and harrass my infantry - and even if it is just one single cargo among the many coming out, they are still unstoppable in a horde of 200, and bullet-proof. They plow through my "spear" infantry, killing a lot, and go back, then come out, and so on. My engaged infantry, on the other hand, think they have to start attack the chariots and want to rush inside the wall despite I tell them to hold position. (The commander of the chariot is inside the wall. The unit is too big so they stretch a big area inside the settlement.)

Finally I said, "Enough!" I will rush in and kill you. So I rushed 10 units from 5 openings simultaneously. But all of the troops routed within seconds of seeing the chariots even before melee happens - I have never seen this kind of routing happened on an Roman army. My general is not a newbie - he is one of those "Mighty"s. I guess 2 light chariots + arrow shower + other heavy chariots (general's unit) combined has a great morale penalty on my infantry.

I don't remember the last time I had give up the assault and maintain the siege to the last turn. When they come out in their last turn, I will teach them the real way to fight like men. But if only I have 10 units of archer auxilia... ~D

[Mikeus Caesar]

I have to agree, Brit LC are crap, but HC rock!! If you something for charging into the enemy and breaking them up, then you will definately want to use Brit HC!!!