Roman vs Roman infantry tactics

Hi all,

First, first, though I know this is a democracy, I'd really appreciate it if those who think the modded demo (via RoDeO or RomeMOD) is uncontrollable and impossible would refrain from posting "What tactics? You can make one charge and the battle's over!" sort of comments. The point's been made in many different ways elsewhere. I'll simply assume that I'd have fourty-some posts like that if everyone who's active in the Colosseum were to voice their opinion.

And with that disclaimer...

I've been focusing on Roman vs Roman battles. All my observations come from playing on a "Hard" setting, with all units having 1 valour, 0 armor, 0 weapon, and nothing but Velites/Hastati/Principes/Triarii on both sides (Julii vs Senate).

1) As has been noted elsewhere, rolling up the flank is massively effective, so much so that I've started to run every infantry-vs-infantry battle with either one flank or the other heavily weighted, and a small reserve who usually end up strengthening the centre or left flank.

2) Hastati perform FAR better when in a formation where they're in four ranks rather than three.

3) Pila throwing is basically impossible if the enemy is charging the throwers at full speed. I keep the hastati out front and if they get a throw, well and good. But I rely on my principes, either on my weighted flank or behind the hastati, to use both their pila to weaken the enemy. Then they charge in as flanking or reserve troops.

4) The enemy AI on a "Hard" setting weighs your army's frontage. If you weight to the right, it will weight its army to the left. I've played around with counteracting this by using screening troops (velites). The AI will often (not always) focus on the velites, so at times you can get the AI to give chase to the skirmishing velites, ignoring your main army. Then it's fairly easy to flank the majority of the AI army.

5) Velites are superb at isolating units. Because they skirmish so trickily now, even though they cause few deaths, they can keep a better unit out of action for most of the battle. I've used velites as screening units, they run behind my main army, then I form them up into a tight bunch and march them around the enemy's flank to start throwing javelins at the enemy's triarii. The triarii almost always give chase and voila, the enemy are short a couple of strong reserve units.

6) Fatigue playes a HUGE factor. Given two equal armies, if one has to walk to where the other is and doesn't stop for a rest before attacking, they'll lose in a big way. I will move my units to about 100 metres away from the enemy's front, then stop and let them get a breath for a bit. The AI ALWAYS just stands and waits in my experience. In a couple of minutes you have a much happier set of troops to launch your attack with.

Umm, that's enough for now. I haven't played with missile or cav units at all -- anyone want to give some help there?

I haven't played that much as the Romans. But I always end up putting the cavalry at my wings, in the middle the skirmershers, sword, spear then archers (going front to back). I've seen that the enemy tends not to string out is cav (like I do, two rows of men). They tend to have deep cav.
For the skirmshers, I've had some pretty long javilen duels, though they end up mostly running away from each other for a while.

Cav and Archers? I've played about with them a bit. As Gauls v Romans I allowed slightly higher upgrades for Gaul units, as I'm guessing they will be cheaper units than the Roman ones.

4 Cretan Archers
8 Archer Warband
3 Swordsmen
4 Skirmisher Warband
Warlord General

3 Roman Archers
4 Velites
4 Hastati
4 Principes
4 Triarii
Gen Bodyguard

I marched to my position and placed my ranged on guard, skirmish off. The Romans arrived and in the process of advancing, lost all but a few archers and a lot of Velites. They charged my lines and then my Skirmishers unleashed volley after volley into their ranks. The Cretans and Archer Warbands held well with all the close support and a final charge with my 3 Sword units ( stretched out into 2 ranks ) drove the enemy off.

Not having any Horse Archers to play with, I have used Numidians instead. I tried this scenario last night..

3v1...Julii/Senate/Gaul v Carthage

4 Cretan Archers
8 Barbarian Mercenary Infantry
3 Numidian Cavalry
4 Medium Cavalry
Gen Bodyguard

3 Hastati
3 Principes
Gen Bodyguard

2 Hastati
2 Principes
2 Triarii
Gen Bodyguard

3 Archer Warband
3 Skirmisher Warband
3 Warband
Warlord General

As you can see, I was looking for something nonCarthaginian :sneaky:
I was pleased to see the 3 enemies joined forces to attack me and I was also pleased by my gorgeous ambush ( I love the way units crouch when hidden )
I had 4 Barbarians supporting my Cretans ( or Cretins as my wife calls them ) my cav on each wing and Numidians over to my right in open ground. The other 4 Barbarians were hiding in trees to the left of the area that my main army had vacated. The enemy scouts saw my movement and all 3 armies joined and marched onward....and passed within spitting distance of my ambush :smug: The Numidians attacked using Cantabrian circle ( I love zooming in on this if I can afford time for a quick peek ) but the enemy ploughed straight on towards my waiting lines and Gen. As my infantry engaged, the cav moved out to the flanks and my ambush was sprung when 4 units hit them in the rear. Sounds good but my initial infantry line was practically destroyed and there were quite a few enemy units left. My cav now charged in on these weakened units ... and the enemy fled. One sour note was the remains of a Triarii unit sneaking up on my unattended General and routing him at this late stage.

I can't wait to try out the Parthians ~D

........Orda