How can I perform a tactical withdrawal?

[Timoleon]

I was wondering if there is any way to perform a tactical withdrawal when in melee with the enemy WITHOUT my troops turning their backs. Something like having a unit of Pezhetairoi fighting an enemy unit and order them to make back steps but keep their sarissas pointing to the enemy.

This would be very useful in two situations:
1) When a battle seems lost but you want to save as much of your troops as possible.
2) When you wish to create gaps in the enemy formations for your cavalry or flanking troops to exploit. This is what Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's father) did in the battle of Chaeronea.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KezhQ6waZT...h/testvdfg.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KezhQ6waZT...0-h/chaert.jpg

[Celtic_Punk]

sadly no... Im fond of pulling troops back to cycle new ones in. if you want to do THAT you can tell the fresh guys to engage, and as they push through to get to the enemy tell the guys you need to pull back to rest to get the hell outta dodge. otherwise youll just have to accept the casualties as nessisary to save the rest. realistically speaking youd take heavy casualties pulling out of melee anyway. its just not represented well by the animations in-game

[GodEmperorLeto]

This is where skirmishers come in handy. Usually, you pull them backward behind your main infantry line. Instead, withdraw your infantry line at a run, and charge the skirmishers through your infantry line and into the enemy. It'll slow both your retreating infantry and your charging skirmies down, but once they hit the enemy, your main line will be able to hotfoot it away. If your skirmies are fleetfooted enough, they can fall back and outpace the enemy as well. If they can't, accept the casualties and reconstitute what is hopefully a cheap skirmisher unit.

I've actually pulled this tactic with heavier troops using the Romani. Enemy heavy cav usually charge the hastati, perhaps sensing their weakness in comparison to other divisions. I also fight in typical Polybian/Camillan formation with the Romani, though, so the hastati are always the first struck anyway. My trick is to have the hastati fall back, not through the Principes, but through the Triari, who can hold their own much more effectively against cav and even units like Gaesetae.

These withdrawals are easy if you are playing an all-cav army like the steppe peoples. Their tactical withdrawals are the stuff of legend in Persia, Rome, and China alike. My tactic is to blitz an enemy army, keeping my distance while peppering them with arrows. When my quivers are empty, I retreat. Wash, rinse, repeat. You can destroy an army 4 or 5 times your size and quality in a year without losing a single man this way. I tried this strategy against the Bactrians with the Sauromatae, as soon as the game began. I didn't lose a single battle, and in fact I completely annihilated their entire faction within six years of game time. The steppe peoples, being masters of the feigned retreat and the tactical withdrawal, are your best bet if you like playing with them.

[Connacht]

2) When you wish to create gaps in the enemy formations for your cavalry or flanking troops to exploit. This is what Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's father) did in the battle of Chaeronea.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KezhQ6waZT...h/testvdfg.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KezhQ6waZT...0-h/chaert.jpg

Sadly^2 this is hard to do in game because the AI doesn't always keep very stable formations and make units charge almost independently.
So most times you have to move your own troops in order to surround the enemy, rather than forcing him to get in a fake gap.

[Timoleon]

Thanks for the replies. It too bad that this maneuver is impossible with the RTW engine. Is it possible with the M2TW engine? I've never played it.

[Ibrahim]

Thanks for the replies. It too bad that this maneuver is impossible with the RTW engine. Is it possible with the M2TW engine? I've never played it.

nope. still not possible.

[||Lz3||]

IIRC you CAN do that by ordering them with alt+clic

[Strategos Alexandros]

I've managed it with alt + click before but it could have been a fluke.

[overweightninja]

I've managed it with alt + click before but it could have been a fluke.

No, there is definately a keyboard shortcut to make your troops move while keeping facing, IIRC they still turn to move but put themselves straight back into formation. I believe its either alt + click like you said, or failing that shift + click, would probably say in the options menu.
Hope that helps.

[Puupertti Ruma]

According to a thread about almost (or exactly) the same thing as this, the alt+click is the way to have your units move while keeping face.

[marodeur]

That's definitely one of the best questions. A solution to this would certainly reduce the number of stories going to the "worst military mistakes" thread...

I was wondering if there is any way to perform a tactical withdrawal when in melee with the enemy WITHOUT my troops turning their backs. Something like having a unit of Pezhetairoi fighting an enemy unit and order them to make back steps but keep their sarissas pointing to the enemy.

This would be very useful in two situations:
1) When a battle seems lost but you want to save as much of your troops as possible.
2) When you wish to create gaps in the enemy formations for your cavalry or flanking troops to exploit. This is what Philip II of Macedon (Alexander the Great's father) did in the battle of Chaeronea.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KezhQ6waZT...h/testvdfg.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KezhQ6waZT...0-h/chaert.jpg

[J.Alco]

Well this happened to me in RTW Vanilla, not EB, but I think the principle of the tactic is sound:

Basically, I had an outnumbered Roman army fighting a vastly superior Germanic army (I was outclassed in numbers and quality of troops). I thought I might as well give the battle a shot and see what I could do. I arranged my troops in several lines, taking loose inspiration from Roman formations. The first line was composed of Town Watch, the second by a mix of Hastati and Principes, another by Triarii, and the final line had my archers, skirmishers, and my general's unit (I had no cavalry, but neither did the Germanic army).

Thanks (Oh thanks) to classic RTW AI, the enemy army didn't even try to flank me, instead just marching forward into my lines in a classic 'punch through the centre' genius move it often makes. My archers fired on the advancing troops, and when the germans hit the Town Watch, who were holding ground, I ordered them to cease fire and sent my skirmishers forward to pelt the enemy from behind my lines. When it looked like that wasn't going to do anything, I sent the second line forward, and then finally my third, and finally the out-of-ammo skirmishers. In the meanwhile my general kept darting around the enemy flanks and rear, charging and moving out and charging again. After a while it was clear that it wasn't going to work (There were simply too many of them), so I started a gradual retreat. I pulled my general back to a safe position behind the lines, then pulled back the militia with the 'withdraw' command and made sure they kept running, before repeating the same process with the Hastati/Principes, followed by the Triarii, and finally the skirmishers (I could be getting the order wrong there). As my troops were relatively fresh, or at least fresher than the enemy, they were able to outpace the Germanic army suspiciously quickly while my archers kept firing into the Germanic units (the bulk of their army was those slow-moving pseudo-phalanxes, which make great targets), moving back every so often to keep a good distance. When they were out of ammo, I withdrew the archers and the General, who I'd kept on the field to rally any units that might have broken into a rout.

I was actually rather proud of that maneouvre. A practically textbook example of a fighting retreat.

Unfortunately I can't guarantee it'll work for EB, for several reasons:
-You need prime conditions for it, in my case an enemy army with no cavalry and alot of slow-moving infantry.
-The EB AI is much more fond of flanking maneouvres, so taking up a 3 (or more)-line formation will probably be a big risk with regards to losing versatility.
-In the end the enemy lost as many troops as I had, and that was probably because alot of my troops were killed as they withdrew, so high losses are inevitable.

As I said, that's how I fought a tactical withdrawal, and ended with my force relatively intact. I can't vouche for its effectiveness in EB though, but like I said: The principle is sound.