Any good tactics against chariots?

I have been fighting (as Scipii faction) against the Egyptians for some time and have ended in a stale-mate, the main problem being that unless I outnumber them I have serious problems beating off their chariot attacks. An attack of a few squadrons will just maul through my legionnaires and create havoc at my rear. Have also found that attacking them head-on with heavy cavalry often ends in a routed roman unit. As a consequence I have deployed my legionnaires 2 units deep (each unit 4 men deep) with the danger of being outflanked.

Any advice?? ~:confused:

Guard mode for 1. Try to have your units stopped before they are hit.

Unit sizes is a big factor here, if on huge unit sizes go for about 10 deep. Also put your cohorts/hastati/princepes on fire at will to disrupt the chariots charge.

Have a few reserves and when the chariots hit, rush the reserves to the hot spot and they'll fal like flies.

But my favorite is wardogs nothing like making them duke it out over a cheap unit

My strategy is to send a large force against the chariots, no cavalry, and when the force hits the chariots if it is deep enough the chariots will ride halfway or so through and get stuck. This is because they lose momentum/charge bonus and cannot break through, so then your troops maul the stationary chariots. This works and with relatively few casualties, because chariots require several passes to deal a lot of damage. Adding ranks to your units may help as well if you do not have enough men to mob them.

Hire mercenary elephants. They are chariot/cavalry killer. Using cavalry against chariot is very bad idea.
Or try to knock out them with skirmishers. Stop their momentum with bulk of heavy infantry. 4 rank deep is not sufficient. And make a couple of auxilla or triarii reserve, and send them quickly to the hot spot.

I am using Onagers or/and archers with flaming ammo to kill and legionaires to stop them. Usually I place my army in a half circle around a hill with deep legionary formations as front rank and everything else behind them. It is difficult for the Ai to outflank me and for the chariots to charge uphill. Most chariot units are routing after they can`t break the legionary line and after receiving high casualties by the missile troops before . Especially the onagers have a high range and can kill several chariots with one hit.

i second the flaming arrows suggestion. allways works for me :balloon2:

Counter fire their arrows with 'javelin dedicated' of archers.

Use all you have to slow them down.

I recommend you to bring 'javelin dedicated' troops against the chariots. They can return fire and got a special bonus against chariots. You can recruit ether
Velites or Light Auxilla. Near Egypt their are always 'javelin dedicated' troops as mercs available. .

My basic strategy against chariots is to "sacrifice a pawn" ie use cheap cav. What I dont want to happen is to allow the chariot archers to decimate my formed inf or to allow the heavy chariots to get in amongst my missile units. Chariot archers will run from the cav and by the time they defeat my cav the battle is over. Heavy chariots will chop my cav to pieces but the sacricie means that the chariots will be pounded by missle units. Elephants are a good counter and fire arrows also work well (if you have any archers to use). Usually by this time, my onagers and inf have destroyed their opponents and are routing all in their path so any remaining chariots become inconsequential to the battle.

elephants stop chariots dead but you can't often recruit them..
hire some numidian javcav or numidian foot javeliners..

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Originally Posted by Atreides

Counter fire their arrows with 'javelin dedicated' of archers.

Use all you have to slow them down.

I recommend you to bring 'javelin dedicated' troops against the chariots. They can return fire and got a special bonus against chariots. You can recruit either Velites or Light Auxilla. Near Egypt their are always 'javelin dedicated' troops as mercs available. .

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I second the suggestion of Velites or other skirmishers. They're cheap and make good fodder. Plus, with their formation (more spread out than normal infantry), it's harder for chariots and cavalry to break completely through their lines. They'll bog down and then you can hit them with your reserves. Set your Velites to 'Fire at Will' on Guard formation in front of your lines.

The key is slowing them down first. Once their charge is exhausted, you can turn off Guard mode and have your skirmishers attack.

Thanks all. I have been given some good tips here, and now I die to try them out. Wish me luck. ~:)

I just use RTR mod...

Also since 1.2 came out you can position the javelin troops behind your line and they will still be effective, it has revolutionized my hoplite tactics and would probably help a lot against chariots.

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Originally Posted by Craterus

elephants stop chariots dead but you can't often recruit them..
hire some numidian javcav or numidian foot javeliners..

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Hmmm, exactly i think it's the other way around. I thought someone said this in the guide. At least that is my own experience.

Can someone conform either of the visions?

My recommendation - never let your cavalry NEAR chariots. Its just wasting troops. Normally to deal with them as the Romans, i simply let them charge into my legionaries and they get slaughtered and routed fast with barely a loss of more than 10 legionaries in huge unit sizes. I would deploy the legionaries in 5 deep at LEAST - similar to what you would do for a cavalry charge. Guard mode also helps, because they absorb an attack a lot better in guard mode. simply let the chariots charge you, not you charge the chariots.

As the Romans, i mostly use pure infantry armies with no more than 2 units of cavalry in a full stack (including a general). Romans are perfectly able to deal with the chariots, and you should be able to destroy the Egyptians in no time because of your superior troops.

However, on some other factions, the chariot is most likely going to be your bane. I'm talking especially about Parthia - which often uses full-stack cavalry armies simply because of the vastness of the Parthian provinces and needing to sacrifice some infantry backup for mobility and speed (not to mention their provinces are so poor you won't be able to afford a great amount of troops). The only way i've dealt with chariots with the parthians was to ALWAYS attack Egyptian stacks (so their troops at least hesitate/wait a bit before attacking your line), then just pepper the chariots with arrows until they're dead (takes forever, and theres a chance you're going to lose a LOT of horse archers once the chariots catch up to your troops). Remember that Chariots ARE FASTER THAN MOST CAVALRY.

Hire any merc hoplites you can find, a row of spears tends to stop chariots in their tracks, good luck!

I 2nd the hoplite suggestion, especially post-patch. Now the hoplites now use the correct stat for swordfighting and can actually kill stuff in a h2h fight.

There's nothing like seeing a charge of chariots melt upon a wall of spears!

The trick is to get the hoplites in the right spot and aimed the right way at the right time. This is particularly difficult for the Romans as the only hoplites available are recruited as mercs in Greek territories (and a few others), and have to be shipped to Egypt.

The Roman factions are particularly vulnerable to chariots due to their focus on short-sword-only infantry.

Another solution is massed archer fire. The problem becomes when they get charged, but since many of the Egyptian chariots are archer-chariots (and thus don't tend to charge right away), counter-arrow fire is particularly effective.

I think if you charge chariots with cavalry while they are immobile you can route them before they rip the ankles off your horses. You just have to hope they do not wheel towards your cavalry or away, or move at a high speed at all, damn scythes...

Does anyone know how common chariots were during the time of this game?

Wardogs are quite effective.

Fire arrows scare the horsies i think.

Mercenary pikemen from greece might help.

If desperate, i often pincer them with 2 groups of cavilry.

Shoot them with arrows and get rid of their 2nd hp before they get into melee.

newagebassist20 - the Egyptians as shown in RTW are about 1000 years out of date. After Alexander the Great's death Egypt was ruled by the descendents of Ptolemy, one of his generals. The Ptolemaic army should resemble that of the Seleucids, but I guess CA went for the "New Kingdom" look to avoid yet another phalanx-heavy army of Macedonian clones. I don't know if scythed chariots are historically accurate for the Seleucids, but the Pontics certainly used them. According to a book I was just reading, the Gauls at the battle of Telamon (225 BC?) also used chariots. Hope this helps. ~D

the only tatic i no is arrows and dogs well it worked for me
littlegannon

hoplites kick there ass to they usuually fall over wen charging into a wall of spears have fun with it against normal infratry u cant really do anything against chariots unless they have spears but they are spearmen

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Originally Posted by littlegannon

the only tatic i no is arrows and dogs well it worked for me
littlegannon

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I didn't know dogs were good against chariots? ~:confused: I'll have to try that. Spearman are obviously good against chariots but remember that the Romans don't have brilliant spearmen.. ~:cool: