Quote Originally Posted by Celtic_Punk View Post
you actually like irregular ground? i cannot stand it! i I'm generally good at creating irregular formations to adapt, but the AI is too stupid to make logical manoeuvres that they end up making some crazy illogical way of closing the gap(like marching inside eachother's formation, or with their phalanx guarding the flank!), rendering my ingenious formation useless or dangerous. reforming causes further casualties from either their archers or skirmishers. im not usually that bad. but when there's fucking trees in the way im done for!

of course when playing as Casse i have no problem with trees... its just a nuisance that i cannot see the battle. playing as an "uncivilized" faction has its ups certainly.

Ezephkiel, i suggest you try this out, hire one mercenary phalangite, and put them in the centre of your battle line. you now have a rock hard core to your line, and the AI will try to avoid it like the plague, giving you the ability to wrap around and destroy their soft belly troops and hammer the rear of their infantry line. It also gives you the ability to better combat Phalangites without as many casualties. The computer will send his phalanx against yours 90% of the time, so the rest of your army can focus on troops that have no chance against them instead of a unit that should be able to outright destroy them.

Kev,
Usually i've had bad experiences with phalangties, they just tend to lark about and not actually get down to some hardcore action.

I've got one army with 5 in, which i use on the left of my line. But like you say the AI is terrible really, even my long nicely formed battle lines they attack all wrong, at an angle or just one flank. Usually i try and make my armies smaller, which is why i like hoplites aswell because of their tight formations. Then they smack into the front of your army and you can wrap around the flanks.

I prefer the dodgy ground as it makes it a little more challenging and i can use small hills and hold them with a few units, its mostly down to the AI again, not being able to use big armies very well.