Tactics against Comitatenses First Cohort?

I'm playing as WRE and after being driven off mainland Europe by both the Western Rebels and Eastern Empire, I'm rebuilt my finances and military in Africa and took on the Western Rebels in Spain.

As I entered the fray in Gaul, I noticed that most of the Roman armies I'm up against contain a lot of First Cohorts. My stacks of standard Comitatenses and Sarmatian horse can't even dent these monster armies. Most of the barbarians are wiped out and the only remaining powers are Roman.

I've tried engaging the front lines with Comitatenses and attacking the rear with Sarmatians but the First Cohors still held. They were exhausted, my men were fresh but they still wiped me out.

Any advice on how to deal with stacks half filled with First Cohorts?

weight of numbers and wear them down, they're pricy and hard to replace when one campaghn (5th level barracks) your comms are cheap and easily repleted.

-pour arrows onto them
-hit them in the flanks with calvalry
-swamp them with weight of numbers.
-make sure that you're coms are battle hardened (mithras shrines are good for this)
-use your own First Cohorts to support the line

on the big map try to take the settlements they're produced from, they are very hard to obtain of you can re-take italy

Also if you can ever get the infrastructure Plumbatari (sp :shame: ) should do a bit better because of their more numerous (I think) and more deadly missiles. Other than that not a clue, in my WRE campaign I have only faced two so far and my General's Bodyguards did a number on them in the melee and my towers killed many of the rest.

Right now I'm replacing my armies with First Cohort and see if in the field it will be a toe-to-toe match and flanking maneuvers will be ineffective.
I had Goth's All Factions Mod installed which removes peasants and lowers upkeep unit cost for better AI army composition and more stacks on the map.
Still you reap what you sow...

bombard them with two heavy infantry units and flank them with cavalry as fast as you can.

I guess you're play VH battle difficulty? That's always crazy, since the Ist Cohort, which is already very powerful, gets +7 (?) bonuses for everything, or something like that. Playing medium battles is always a solution, completely fair to both sides.

Anyway, you could always wait for them to approach you, and attempt to rout their weakest unit with pila volleys. Then, get your cavalry to kill the enemy general, further weakening their morale. The rest was explained above, swamping and flanking. They should eventually break. If not, just play another campaign with MEDIUM BATTLE DIFFICULTY!

Yes, VH/VH. There's no difference in AI tactics in moderate difficulty?

When I started playing VH battles, I've had several of my full veteran stacks wiped out. Sometimes by flanking or the AI throwing its weigth in a particular wing. And that was before I met those First Cohorts. I just noticed the AI doing something different in VH difficulty, in the campaign and in the field. More challenge so more satisfying victories. But if its an AI bonus (cheat), I'd rather go with a fair field than an uphill one.

Oh, and does the AI also cheat in a VH campaign map?

Thanks for the replies.~:)

VH battle difficulty has no effect on tactics, only on stats. On the campaign map, VH leads to a more aggresive A.I., but I don't think it becomes smarter. However, VH also seems to double or triple A.I. income.

VH campaign difficulty gives very high cash bonuses per turn to AI factions if they don't have a certain amount in their treasury, ensuring that they'll have stacks to throw at you. It also ends diplomacy, and it is almost guaranteed that a neighbouring faction will attack you in VH, even regardless of your obvious superiority (eg Numidia attacking a superpower Rome).

1st cohorts are a pain...the spartan is right...tu just gotta meet them with the best troops u have and flank them as soon as possible.:wall:

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Originally Posted by Ludens

VH battle difficulty has no effect on tactics, only on stats. On the campaign map, VH leads to a more aggresive A.I., but I don't think it becomes smarter. However, VH also seems to double or triple A.I. income.

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Is hard on BI a +4 penalty on attack and VH +6? I think it was something like that on RTW.

BlueRobin posted this suggestion in the Entrance Hall:

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Originally Posted by BlueRobin

No one has suggested the following.

The barbarians use different tactics to standard romano-greek pin and flank, namely horse-archers.

A 50:50 spilt fighting rebellious Romans with heavy infantry and horse archer should have the following effects

1. Skirmishing will tire the enemy
2. Ditto reduce numbers
3. Their lines will break

At which point (3) bring up (what will be a narrrower line of) infantry to deal with their broken lines. When engaged, your horse archers can come out of skirmish mode and be the best back-stabbers in the world.

However if the enemy has superior cavalry and know how to use it, namely agasint your horse archers, you could be shafted...

If unsure about tactics, try it out in the "sim", i.e. a custom battle.

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I agree with this fellow as well as the one who said use archers. Fill them with arrows, engage them with heavy infantry, and slam into their backsides with heavy cavalry.

Rather than your cavalry hitting them from their 6 o'clock, hit the end from their 7 or 8 o'clock at the end of the line. That will get the one on the end routing, then slam into the one beside them, and then on down the line. As Centurion Marcus says, "A trickle becomes a flood."

Strength and Honor,

Celt Centurion

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Originally Posted by The Spartan

bombard them with two heavy infantry units and flank them with cavalry as fast as you can.

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Originally Posted by Celt Centurion

I agree with this fellow as well as the one who said use archers. Fill them with arrows, engage them with heavy infantry, and slam into their backsides with heavy cavalry.

Rather than your cavalry hitting them from their 6 o'clock, hit the end from their 7 or 8 o'clock at the end of the line. That will get the one on the end routing, then slam into the one beside them, and then on down the line. As Centurion Marcus says, "A trickle becomes a flood."

Strength and Honor,
Celt Centurion

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lol in other words, there is no good way.
Mobbing from all sides and pouring arrows works for every unit in the game except for elephants.

If you have the cash, hire mercenery chosen axemen, axemen are effective vs armour and own all roman troops.

Get Plumbtarii, use them instead of your archers. And just skirmish with them.. Their AP bonus is incredible, and they have up to 10 volleys.. If the enemy chases them, it's line will break.. And that is what's vital. Why? When you fight 10 First cohorts close to each other, their morale is first boosted a lot by the usual "friendly units nearby" modifying factor, and dramatically more by the eagle each one holds.. When splitting them, and attacking each one alone, you replace those by a negative modifier effect of:
1) Your units outnumbering his in that exact spot
2) If you wait till it gets "Shaken" and charge in the rear - best with 4 units of cav - it will instantly rout.

Kind of funny that right now, I'm playing as Sassanids. I have one young General who started out with a handfull of spearmen, horse archer, and Clibinarii. I sent him from Hatra to Antioch, but the ERE kept sending armies to block him. Almost every one had at least one CFC. He has thus far totally destroyed every one of them to the last man. Some, The record only shows him taking 6, but he's done twice that many, three times two in one battle. He just took Antioch a few turns ago, and there are 6 Eagles with his name on them in Hatra.

I've softened them up with horse archers, engaged with spearmen, ran the Clibinarii around their flanks, and slammed into their rear flanks. They don't panic though, like they did with Cataphracts, or even Praetorian Cavalry.

His name is now showing, Cincerix of Eagles.

Celt Centurion

Yes, that can work easy enough.. But don't try it on VH.. Because it then means death!