should legions fight in guard mode?

[bigmilt16]

In attack mode, soldiers fight, and chase the enemy down; often breaking formation and strecthing the line. (like in the opening scene of "Gladiator"). Is guard mode more appropriate for Roman legions?

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

I would say so, yes.

Running down routers is a job for skirmishers and cavalry, not legionaries.

If there aren't enough skirmishers and cavalry to catch all the routers, tough - some of them will escape. Live with it.

[Maeran]

When receiving a charge, probably yes.

But when you attack the enemy line, I find that guard mode tends to result in your troops facing away from the enemy and being hacked down.

So when I attack or counter charge, I take guard mode off, but do not permit any chasing of routers. Guard mode is on for the rest of the time.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I put Roman troops in guard mode most of the time, but when I start either winning or loosing the battle and I want the kill rate of my men to go up, I'll turn off guard mode to represent either loss of disciple (loosing) or breaking formation to finish off the enemy (winning).

[Watchman]

I do that with pretty much all the troops with really close spacing (since not keeping them in guardmode most of the time sort of loses the point of the close order), as well as the ones that the old Gut Instinct(tm) with its impeccable scientific accuracy and pedigree suggests might probably have preferred sticking to their drilled order most of the time, unless it was raining.

[LorDBulA]

Playing Adui right now and I put my unit in guard mode all the time unless:
A: They are attacking enemy form behind, B: chasing broken units.

I learned that you can also use Guard mode to attack enemy unit. Just give unit order to move behind enemy unit.
Since I play with General Camera and gauls dont have good shock cavalry I very often have to fight enemy ( mostly Roman) army head on and achieve victory by braking enemy main line and not by usual flanking maneuvers.
I cant imagine fighting such battles without Guard mode.

[Eduorius]

Romans charged and they tryed to get into the space of the opponent. I would say no. You have to watch closely the battle to know when to say the unit to stop.

[konny]

I don't think that guard mode would be correct for Romans. They fight in a much more open formation than Hoplites, for example. I see Hastati and the like often swarming in and around the flanks of an enemy unit when they do not hit the exact middle of the enemy formation. Guard mode is fine for Camillan Triarii of course when beeing attacked.

[NeoSpartan]

Playing Adui right now and I put my unit in guard mode all the time unless:
A: They are attacking enemy form behind, B: chasing broken units.

I learned that you can also use Guard mode to attack enemy unit. Just give unit order to move behind enemy unit.
Since I play with General Camera and gauls dont have good shock cavalry I very often have to fight enemy ( mostly Roman) army head on and achieve victory by braking enemy main line and not by usual flanking maneuvers.
I cant imagine fighting such battles without Guard mode.

HOW DARE U SAY MY BRETHEN AEDUI HAVE NO SHOCK CAVALRY???!!!!!!

Get 4 family members with 20-30 horses each and THATS your shock cavarly! Also, Leuges Epos have a decently good charge.

Before I got my reforms every army going out to fight a major battle had 3-4 family members in it.

[LorDBulA]

HOW DARE U SAY MY BRETHEN AEDUI HAVE NO SHOCK CAVALRY???!!!!!!

Get 4 family members with 20-30 horses each and THATS your shock cavarly! Also, Leuges Epos have a decently good charge.

Brihentin (Gallic Noble Cavalry) is very good but its only bodyguard unit untill last reform.
I on vary rare ocasion have 2 generals in one army.
And 50-70 men unit while good cant compare to my usual 300-400 heavy cavalry wing.

Also, Leuges Epos have a decently good charge.

You are right about that. I will have to use them more. Right now I have only one unit of them in whole 8000 men strong standing army.

[jtareb]

I keep them in guard mode to recieve the charge but once the battle has taken shape I take them off and attack. The exception being when facing a phalanx. Then I leave them in guard mode as taking on a phalanx head on is suicide. When on the attack i never use guard mode.