Formations

[Modestus]

Hello to everyone on the forum, I’ve being keeping a close eye on the developing Europa Barbarorum and I must say it is looking excellent keep up the good work.

A question concerning formations I understand that you will be attempting as far as possible to use historically correct battle formations, Hastati to the front second line Principes and third line Triarii my question is does using the “correct” formation confer any advantage in a battle, this appears to be lacking in RTW and was of importance in MTW correct depth for a pike unit for example.

I tend to put Principes to the front Triarii on the wings and Hastati to the rear this seems to be they way vanilla RTW plays those units best so I’m curious will EB play differently. I hope this makes sense.

[Shrapnel]

I have 6 Principes then 3 Hastati to back them up in the gaps between the 1 trarii with the general to give support to anyone who really needs it. I also have 4 units of archers/slingers behind hastati, and 1 cavalry on each flank.

[RandyKapp]

I tend to have a single or double (depending on army size and opposition) heavy infantry line in the centre with Spears swept back on the flanks to keep them damn flankers off.

[Ab Urbe Condita]

As far as the manipular formations go: YES. In my experience, even with mods such as the Darthmod, having to attack an enemy without a solid front tends to cause holes to open up in enemy lines, which you can easily exploit the hell out of with your principes. I have yet to try this in multiplayer however so I don't know if a human opponent will fall for this trap, but my guess is yes. Actually, I think I'll try that right now.

[Modestus]

I understand what your saying the use of Calvary on the flanks etc but what I was more interested in (and I did not make it quite clear, my fault) could EB or was EB trying to mod the game in such a way that the use of correct historical formations would somehow convey an advantage to your units.

Using Rome as an example if in RTW you put your Hastati to the front they tend not to be able to hold the line so I suspect most people end up using their Principes obviously you can use any system you want but it would be nice if you could choose to use a historically correct system that would actually work.

Of course I do appreciate that whatever formations you use there is no accounting for the stupidity of the commander.

[Lord Hammerschmidt]

From the way I understood the preview, (and please correct me if I'm wrong) the formations are mainly going to be used by the AI. Instead of every faction's armies using a single line (which the AI does 90+% of the time in vanilla) they will each use one of the formations featured in the preview in their initial battle layout.

Of course, that still leaves plenty of opportunity for the AI to goof it up. And the army needs to have the correct types of men to make the formation. However, the team reported, and many of us suspect that the formations will make fighting battles more difficult, and add a sense of difficulty and tension that the original campaign never had.

Note: This entire post was written from memory. Any team members or informed others should feel free to correct anything that I've remembered incorrectly or are otherwise wrong on.

[The_Mark]

That is correct, though the formations are useable by the player also, as the comp will deploy player's troops for him initially, in those same forms.


When discussing about formations in EB, you should remind that battle speed has been drastically reduced from vanilla RTW, so a line of hastati will not rout immediately on contact, making the manipular formation a viable choice.

[Modestus]

Excellent, I did read in the preview that the AI would be using the “correct” formations this hopefully will add to the challenge and the fact that the game will be slowed down and prevent units from routing to early will certainly add to the enjoyment of the tactical battles.
As my final remark on the subject it does feel to me that outflanking and other tactical manoeuvres were handled much better in MTW, playing RTR 6.0 recently I had a phalanx nearly ¾ surrounded by veteran Principes and it refused to break yet a Calvary attack on the slightest edge of a Principes unit may cause it to break rapidly.