Everything to do with battles

[salemty]

hi everybody! im made this thread so people can post about everything to do with batles, such as anti phalanx tactics, how to use phalanx efectivley, anti barbarian tactics and so on. also feel free to post about amazing battles u've won against the odds and tell us how u did it and even battles you've lost so we can learn from your mistakes.

[Bartholemew-Varath]

Ok, well ill post first then, heres a few anti-phalanx tactics:

Phalanxes are a strong formation which is top heavy, meaning that one side is strong and the other side is weak. The side with long spears pointing at you is the heavy and generally most threatening side. So what you want to do is hit the weaker side with an overpowering unit which will also break the stronger side. To do this pin the stronger side with a weaker unit of your army (its going to take a few casualties anyway so make it a weaker and less important unit in your army) Pin them with the weaker unit first, then hit their rear with the stronger unit, and they will hopefully switch to swords and get massacred, or they may use pikes and still lose, oh well. The morale will still drop due to many things, outnumbered, flanked, etc.

I may post more later on, but thats all for now

[Quintus.JC]

I generally compare pikemen as weaker to hoplites, for some reason hoplites seems harder to rout than pikemen, perhaps due to the reason pikemen fare worse at close combats. Phalanx are relatively easy to beat once you get used to it. Low-tier phalanx troops such Milita hoplites and levy pikemen could be broken with one singer cavalry charge at the flank or rear. medium type such as hoplites and phalanx pikemen are harder to beat, but are proven routable with 1 unit attacking the front with the other assulting their rear. Higher tier Phalanx are troublesome and must be dealt separatly, armored Hoplites are almost undefeatable front-on and can hold their own very well in melee as well, normally these type of troops can not be routed with one single charge. Other phalanx at the extrem end of the power-scale such as Spartans and Sacred Band takes really effort to be beaten. Although phalanx troops are meant to fare very well against cavalry I normally find them to be the best to rout a phalanx, one powerful charge down the flank or rear, and if this isn't enough then pull your horsemen out before suffering too much casulty and charge again, heavy cavalry such as Cataphracts and Companions very high charge bonus are perfect for the job. Phalanx formation is also vulnerable to missile fire. It's probably worth mentioning that troops in phalanx formation are able to catching arrows easily on their shields, meaning that firing at them from the front is just about wasting your ammo, but firing front the back is completly different. Without their shields for protection they are lambs for the slaughter. This is an very effective way to kill off high-tier phalanx units without sustaining much casulty yourself. Even better if you use onagers, although unaccurate. These machine will cause massive damage due to the fact the phalanx is a densely packed formation. It is possible to rout a unit of phalanx with one hit. Phalanx formation is also vulnerable when marching through trees and that's the best time to attack them with your swords infantry, the trees will cut a whole in the formation and the unit could be broken instantly. Something that happened in the historical battle of Cynoscephalae

[salemty]

ok this seems to be going well. ill tell u about my anti phalanx tactic. i use a semicircle which works especially well against the macedonians which route nearly as soon as a couple of units are on their flank. so i set up like this

ha ha
ha ha
tw ho ho tw
v a a v
e g e

ha=hastati
ho=merc hoplites
tw=town watch
v= velites or merc peltats
a= archers
e= equites
g=general

so basically the phalnaxes wich attack my merc hoplittes will have a couple of hastati on their flank which greatly loweres their moral which makes them route easy. tw are used as cheap charge stoppers or reinforcemens. velites and archers attack them as they approach, lowering their moral. and equites are used as flankers. i play on hard, hard most of time and ive pretty much never lost a battle using this formation.

i also use hit and run tactics when i have very smal armys. ill tell u about a battle. i was brutii with 2 units of hastati. 2 units of veilites. 2 generals and 1 equites. enemy had many phalnx pikemen and levey pikemen with some mac cavalry and light lancers. his cavalry were to far ahead of his army so i destroyed them first. then using hit and run tactics and using my cavalry well i routed the rest of his army. i had 400 troops. he had 1200 of better quality troops. final death toll

Brutii
kills: 1156
losses: 229
Macedon
kils:229
losses:1156

[salemty]

dam formation came out wrong ill try again. the dots are just placeholders


ha................ha
.......ha.........ha
....tw....ho.ho..tw
.....v......a..a.....v
.....e.......g......e

[salemty]

it stil stufed up. the hastati up the top right are ment to be to the right a bit more but hopfully u get the idea