Formations

[Ezephkiel]

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.

[Celtic_Punk]

take guard mode off when surrounded or fighting two sides or another phalangite.

[Maion Maroneios]

Yeah, especially another phalangite unit. Many players tend to forget that turning off guard mode makes hem very impassive against other infantry. So when attacked by another phalangite unit, they get ripped to pieces and wonder what they did wrong!

Maion

[satalexton]

you don't really have to turn off guard off unless you're fighting another phalanx line...Against the individual one or two units of phalangitai it's better to keep guard mode on so to make sure your line does not break, you'll actually lose less men overall. Besides, individual units of phalangitai have the tendancy to turn on it's sides and end up getting poked to death by your men D=

Ahh yes, another way to use your phalangitai, but i doubt it's historical...is the pike push. Have the unit in a neat square, turn off guard mode, and tell it to MOVE beyond the part of the enemy line you want to break through. Keep it's flanks secure (with hoplites or lines of phanangitai) and a unit or 2 of heavy swordsmen (peltastai makedonikoi, tintanotai...or better, thraikioi rhomphiaphoroi) behind your pike block. You can cleave a line into 2 and your swordsmen to wreak havoc, works best when you notice that the enemy line is longer than yours after the battle begins (just tell your middle pike unit to form the square, and pull your swordsmen over from the right). I once even manage to snuck my general through the resulting gap and nailed their general with hammer and anvil.

Who says phalanx armies are boring?

[Celtic_Punk]

nice strategy! I think ill try that next time i get the chance! you know what swordsmen would be perfect for the job? Samnites! they kick ass they are like hoplites with swords... or massalian hoplites since they are armed with good old Celt longswords

[Ezephkiel]

Ye i've been using the massilians in my campaign, although (i think im using version 1.0) they don't use their swords, when they're idle they have them on show, but even using alternative attack and normal attack they stick to their spears, oh well. Also the keltoi hoplitai are the bomb.

In my KH campaign at the mo, i have a rogue mercenary nomad general deep in baktrian territory (they have all of india and the east up to asia minor). Just recruited shit loads of persian archers and archer spearmen and have some horse archers aswell. Talk about blocking out the sun with arrows. Especially on flaming arrow mode it looks terrifying. Makes me want to play as a more eastern faction now, but ill stick out this campaign, been in it too long!

[Celtic_Punk]

the the farthest east i am is Antioch. I took that in a crazy amphibious assault. fought to capture the port, then spearheaded to the city, scaled the walls and destroyed its inhabitants. then ferried 2000 athenians (in the militia skirmisher format) to antioch and started their life there.

city fighting i find is much more interesting than open fighting, i love em both but city fighting requires a certain... panache. if you dont have you will take heavy casualties scaling the walls. and further more on the walls and in the streets.

forget the ram if they have stone walls or greater. itll just get set alight by the towers. sapping and seige towers are the best way to get in. send elephants(if you got em) through the breach in the walls. or any type of assault troop. hoplites take alot of casualties for some reason trying to get through the breach.