the second Thermopylae

yesterday i had to defend 1000 hoplites vs 3000 romans in their favor

i had 2 hoplites, 1 elite hoplite, 1 merc hoplite and 2 militia hoplites.

i would have lost the battle if their wasn't a kind of slope.
i put my men between 2 cliffs (i was attacked from both sides) there couldn't even stand 2 units side by side.

oke the romans attacked and my hoplites didn't shake, i butcherd the first wave, then the second. i thought it wouldn't end. it contineud like this till the time was over.

result: lost 70 men and killed 2000.

You pretty much get the same effect using a phalanx capable unit at a bridge.

Making sure you are covered from firing units - let them steamroll onto your spears - then when you think thats bad - when they rout - they rout towards you instead of away.

I held a bridge v the Julii for 30 game turns - killing about 30,000 Romans...

i did that with 4 forester holding the bridge for 50 years before i advanced. i even gave the bridge a name 'skull bridge'. at the end 60.000 romans were killed around the bridge.

Yeah, bridge battles are nasty with hoplites holding the end of it. I had one a couple days ago on the bridge between Halicarnassus and Sardis. I'd taken Halicarnassus while it was rebel, and the Greeks sent a full stack army after me. I had two merc hoplites defending the end of the bridge, 4 units of Cretan archers, and an assortment of hastati there. It's a good thing corpses are eye candy only, or the wall of dead at the point of the pikes would have ended the battle.

definitly now, with the shuffle problem gone