Tactical Problem - any suggestions??

In my current Egyptian campaign I have an army in a camp about to fall. The enemy is a large Pontic army with 5 scythed chariot units so I can't see my armt facing it. If I sally out I will get slaughtered, but if I stay put I loose the lot to seige. Ironicaly I would slaughter him if he assaulted. So - how do I save some or all the army? - oh and because I am in a mountain pass, I can't get anymore troops involved.

I had thought about putting one unit of spears in the gate facing the Pontics and rush the rest out the opposite gate towards the map edge

What units have you got? Which ones are you trying to save?

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Originally Posted by King Kurt

I had thought about putting one unit of spears in the gate facing the Pontics and rush the rest out the opposite gate towards the map edge

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You can not save your units that way. I suggest you to sally and take as many of them with you as you can. You can not save your troops by simply running towards the map edge.

Sally. You have a huge advantage whenever you sally from a fort or city. Send most of your army out the back gate. Leave your missile troops inside. Use your General or a cavalry unit to bait individual Pontic units past your missile troops so they can shoot them to pieces. Then bring them to your infantry on the backside of the fort. Rinse and repeat until all of the Pontics are dead.

Some good suggestions here - especially the back gate version.

My army is a fairly typical early game egyptian army - some nubian spears, some nile spears - I am keen to save them as I have only just started producing those - some bows, some desert cavalry and some chariots. I would feel confident facing the Pontics if they did not have so many scythed chariots. I have defeated a sizeable Pontic army with this force to get to this position, but they only had 1 scythed chariot unit. By getting them to attack me piecemeal may be the way to do it.

The Nile and Nubian spears in phalanx mode are more than enough; sally out in tight formation with those up front and let the chariots come to you and watch them turn to soup on contact with the spearpoints.

Last night I finally got an opprtunity to try out the suggestions. I sallied out close to the camp with my Nile spears and then took a unit of desert cav out, put in open order and went off trying to lure the chariots on to my troops - this failed sadly, so, as the chariots had conviently stopped near my cavalry I put them back in close order and threw them into the chariots - they did some damage, so I pulled them off then put them in again - repeated this a couple of times until the cav got used up. I repeated the process with another cavalry unit and by then the chariots were tired and running amok. I then attacked with everything - troops came in a bit piecemeal, but I wanted to keep the momentum up. There was then a wild battle with units all over the place during which I managed to get my general killed. However the strength of my infantry won through - especially as they could move freely now the threat of the chariots was gone. I smashed the Pontic army and won a great victory. What's more the game was good fun - felt in the balance for a long time and I had to keep pulling units back into the fray. The camp was a benefit in that when troops routed they went back into the camp and thus rallied easier.

Ironically I have played a few more moves and have the same situation again - I intend to repeat accordingly and then attack the Pontic homeland as the 2 battles will ahve probably weakened their army considerably.

Thanks for the tips:2thumbsup:

I've never found AI controlled chariots very dangerous as long as I had any kind of Phalanx troops. As long as you make sure there are no gaps in your Phalanx formation, and you protect your flanks, you should be good. Most of the time, once you get close to the enemy, the chariots will charge and destroy themselves on your spearpoints. Flank protection is critical, but you can stick your Phalanges inside each other, creating a porcupine that's basically unassailable to cav. If the Pontic armies in question have a lot of ranged troops, though, you could be in trouble with such a tight formation. In that case, it would be better to use a half-hexagon or mayby a horseshoe of Phalanges, with your general and missile troops inside. That should be sufficient to draw in the enemy general and cav/chariot troops.

This is months after your battle but I'll put in a wee bit more.

Onagers work really well in forts and towns without stone walls. They don't break your stone walls (because you haven't got any) nor do they shower your archers with friendly fire.

I've found that I can have three unit cards of archers set on fire at will and use fire to be real battlefield busters.

You can control them or just let them shoot. In my present campaign, I have several forts with the onagers in them. The Germans keep laying siege to the forts. I sally and it is normal for the onagers to destroy between 1/4 and 1/3 of the besieging army. Then I march out infantry if I have large enough numbers but usually, next turn they are gone. Quite often, the enemy army flees while the onagers are raining fire and death upon them.

It took me years to figure that out. You might want to try and see if it helps you.

Strength and Honor,

Celt Centurion