Testudo Tactics

Despite how cool this looks, I have only found one (rare) situation in which the testudo is worth using. This is when I am defending a bridge and I surround my side with a U shape line of cohorts so as to surround the enemy as soon as they rush across. If the enemy has archers, I start with all my units in testudo, which allows them to weather the arrows pretty well without having to move from their position near the bridge.

All other situations I have tried the testudo in have been complete failures. Towers on walls seems to kill cohorts as if they didn't have any shields. I find I take less casualties by running my units straight through the area than by slogging through it in slow testudo formation.

Has anyone else had success with this tactic in any other situations?

Probably, the extra armor the engine factors in from testudo is just marginal to make any real difference against missile losses. I've noticed though that armored warlord cavalry men are very hard to kill by arrows and their armor rating is very high... I guess, we should mod the testudo formation armor rating up...

Well, I just checked the stats: warlord cavalry have armor of 6 whereas early legionnary cohort has armor of 7... beats me why cohorts can be killed by arrows easily whereas warlord cavalry can stand under arrow rain until archers run out of amo and nothing happens to them...

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Originally Posted by Slaists

Probably, the extra armor the engine factors in from testudo is just marginal to make any real difference against missile losses. I've noticed though that armored warlord cavalry men are very hard to kill by arrows and their armor rating is very high... I guess, we should mod the testudo formation armor rating up...

Well, I just checked the stats: warlord cavalry have armor of 6 whereas early legionnary cohort has armor of 7... beats me why cohorts can be killed by arrows easily whereas warlord cavalry can stand under arrow rain until archers run out of amo and nothing happens to them...

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shield and armor factor both go into effective armor vs. missiles.

at least that's the way it was in mtw.

warlords are harder to kill becasue they are more spread out, and have 2 hitpoints (the general will have many more) rather than 1.

Anyone else notice that your troops tire out very quickly when in testudo? You can put them in testudo and just let them sit still and they will tire out at what seems to be the same rate as if they were running full speed, very quickly.

This makes it even more worthless IMO.

Sure have. Lost an entire stack of cohorts due to this. I sapped a wall in a siege battle started to walk all my cohorts true the broken wall in testudo wall walked them safely out of distance from towers. Now what happened was that all of them were exhausted so when i finally arrived in town square i had one minute to remove the opponents. Which was impossible lost my entire force because of the battle timer.

testudo must be fixed big time... just trying to make formations with it is a joke.. and i do not believe how fast they get tired from holding thier sheilds up

When in testudo, the knees are bent, so it's like walking in a squat.
difficult to do.

Why would your knees be bent in testudo? To make up for height differences?

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Originally Posted by AngryGerbil

Anyone else notice that your troops tire out very quickly when in testudo? You can put them in testudo and just let them sit still and they will tire out at what seems to be the same rate as if they were running full speed, very quickly.

This makes it even more worthless IMO.

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It all makes some sense, The shields weight 22-25 pounds, holding that over your head for a while would start to tire your arms out...

The probably kneel so missile wont hit them in the legs and destroying the entire testudo.

They also do seem to kneel slightly, no doubt in my mind that it would be a tiring postions on your arms, legs, feet, and theighs.

To be honest I never use the formation. I don't see any reason to use it myself.

The only reason I can see it being useful is in an assault getitng close to the walls when under fire.

Once inside you can easily remove them from Testudo and order them to capture the towers.

Too add to the formation's problems, it takes FAR too long to get into.

This is Rome, remember? The people who trained endlessly!

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Originally Posted by The_Emperor

The only reason I can see it being useful is in an assault getitng close to the walls when under fire.

Once inside you can easily remove them from Testudo and order them to capture the towers.

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Sadly, I've found rushing to be much better. Testudo might net you fewer casualties before you get inside but your troops will be too exhausted to melee by the time they get inside.

The Testudo is good for defence against arrows, but very vulnerable to artillery. Hence why they tend to take heavy losses when approaching town walls.

Well, I found that testudo works wonderfully against field archers: my units would not take any casualties form arrows at all. The only problem, once my legionaires have closed the bow-range distance to the enemy lines, they are exhausted: thus, subject to being slaughtered by any decent melee opponent. Kind of defeats the purpose... I guess, the "getting tired from testudo" should be streched out a bit longer... Just a tiny tweak :) Anyway, maybe, historically it was meant to be used just on defensive? i.e., allow the enemy expend their arrows and then recover by standing up straight? Of course, the battle timer would kill you (if you still use one).

On another note, testudo does not work attacking walls... I suspect, they have implemented something similar to MTW where towers were actually using armor piercing longbows... If that's the case, the extra armor testudo gives might not be enough to counter the armor piercing nature of tower arrows.

P.S. the fact that foresters can out-range my wall towers suggests the tower weapon, at least, does not have a longer range than the normal bow... at least, it does not match the range of the "better-quality-RTW-bows" used also by archer auxilia after the reforms take place.

Yes, I found that very true at the end of my Julii campaign. It's essentially what I said about the bridge battle without the bridge. When the enemy decides to bombard you with many volleys of arrows before attacking, the testudo makes a HUGE difference. I put all my cohorts into testudo when I saw the archers moving to the front and sat there until the enemy was done. Once their main lines started moving again I resumed normal position. This worked very well.

Against regular archers, it's fine.

Used it a few times to protect myself from archers on walls. Now I simply move my infantry back a bit further or use cheap skirmisers to absorb the arrows...

They chould support the shields on top of their helmets. They should be able to stand still in testudo literally forever :p And walking under it should not be nearly so tiring.

Well I have heard of cases where men get the shields pinned to there arm and feet pinned to the ground by arrows. So I guess since tower walls are shooting down the arrow is only gaining speed making it that much more deadly and thus the testudo ineffective on an assault.

I could have sworn that was what the romans used it for seiges. I dunno i could be wrong but i remeber ready that.

I actually DO use it. First of all, its great against normal arrows/pila. Secondly, when you approach one of your seige towers anchored on a wall, the TESTUDO is what actually separates you from getting up that tower and running away from the field with only 3-4 men left. It actually takes a while for the men to get into the towers and start climbing up...

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Originally Posted by cegman

I could have sworn that was what the romans used it for seiges. I dunno i could be wrong but i remeber ready that.

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They did, but they still took alot of casualties. It's probably a morale thing. I'd feel safer in the middle of one of those, and if I saw one coming at me, I'd be scared.

I think it's effective when getting shot at but ultimately almost useless because the soldiers get so exhausted just standing there.


During my civil war as the Julii I attacked Rome with tons of Legion guys. I mistakenly put them all in testudo during the deployment phase. By the time my sappers knocked down one wall section every single one of my soldiers was exhausted just from standing there. It's kind of ridiculous.


While it may have been extremely tiring to hold a shield above your head I don't think its MORE tiring than charging and fighting and swinging that sword and shield around. Currently it seems testudo guys get exhausted only a few minutes after getting in formation.

Now I'm in nowhere close to the state of physical fitness that the average Urban Cohor guy was but I figure I could hold a shield above my head for 4 minutes without collapsing of exhaustion.

i used it when im getting throuh a gate.my battering ram infront and the 200 men using the tustedo behind the battering ram.so when the men are waiting for the gate to open the protected in the testedo when the gate is open the men rush in side. :medievalcheers: :medievalcheers: :duel: :charge: ~:cheers:

Woah... bumped old thread! I saw I'd posted here and thought "wtf, I don't remember posting here". Then I saw the date ~D

I suppose I did use Testudo the other day, in a siege. Guess I had run out of the skirmisers I mentioned earlier. ~;)

Generals have 2 HP

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Now I'm in nowhere close to the state of physical fitness that the average Urban Cohor guy was but I figure I could hold a shield above my head for 4 minutes without collapsing of exhaustion.

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Lift your hand so that it points straight out to your side horizontally, fist it, and stay still for your 4 minutes without moving your hand even a bit.

It WILL get tired.