Stopping missile casualties

[Pontius Pilate]

when in doubt, ATTACK!

(preferably with cavalry when facing the skirmishers)

[Aemilius Paulus]

(preferably with cavalry when facing the skirmishers)

Actually, often times it is difficult to defeat a skirmisher unit with cavalry. Skirmishers have a lot of men (usually 120), some have spears not to mention that whenever you try to charge them, they run and when you finally catch up with them, the charge has long dissipated. It is a good thing that they have low ammo and short range.

[Pontius Pilate]

Actually, often times it is difficult to defeat a skirmisher unit with cavalry. Skirmishers have a lot of men (usually 120), some have spears not to mention that whenever you try to charge them, they run and when you finally catch up with them, the charge has long dissipated. It is a good thing that they have low ammo and short range.

yes, good point. I think light cavalry would be best. heavy cavalry can sometimes be cut to shreds when in melee, light cavalry, or even medium fairs a little better in melee.

[Aemilius Paulus]

How is light cavalry better? Its fast but a 120-man skirmisher unit will probably slaughter it, especially if the skirmishers have spears. No matter how fast a cavalry unit is, you will notice that charges only work when a unit is standing still or running towards you. A unit charging at your cavalry will not be hurt, just like a unit that is running away.

Here's my post on this topic, which also happens to be my first post in the totalwar.org forums:

What I have noticed so many times much to my own lament is that when a unit is running away from you, the effects of the charge tend to be minimized. A unit of un-upgraded Akontistai (120 men) against my Hellenestic Mercenary General's unit of 3 experience, 1 armor/weapons and containing 51 men tends to suffer only 1-5 casualties under the conditions that the general's unit is charging them while they're running away. A unit of spearmen or heavy infantry armed with spears, when braced for the impact, usually has no fatalities. Even a unit that is not armed with spears could minimize the number of dead by in turn charging the charging enemy horsemen. However, simply running towards the charging cavalry but not actually charging at the horsemen does not offer much advantage.

For instance, to test this I took a unit of Gaesatae (60 men) and Seleukid general's unit of about 35 men. During the first test, I let the bodyguard charge me, head on, with my men braced. The casualties: a surprising of 7 men dead (JUST the initial impact, absolutely no melee)! On the second test, the Naked Fanatics charged the in turn charging bodyguard, resulting in no losses among the Fanatics due to the effects of the charge itself, although as the fray went on, some of the Gaesatae did eventually meet their ancestors (the first Fanatic died well into about the 15th second of the fight). I also ran this test with other medium to high quality swordsmen and ended up with strikingly similiar results. The braced swordsmen received even higher casualties from the charging cavalry, but when leading a counter-charge, the sword infantry usually did not sustain any losses from the charge.

[Pontius Pilate]

interesting. I was talking about melee instead of charging though. Light cavalry isn't very good at charging into infantry masses anyway. But it does fair better in melee. Well, I don't know what I'm doing is right or wrong, but my tactics alway work for me.

[Aemilius Paulus]

but my tactics alway work for me.

That's the most important thing. Using tactics that are useful to other people, but at which you do not excel does not make sense. One should do whatever they are most comfortable using.

have one or two units you dont like, and put them in loose formation, and let them stand in front of your lines and take all the enemy fire

That is also possible, but what will end up happening is that when the battle ends, most of of those units that you "don't like" will heal, due to the fact that their casualties were so large and all from missile fire, while the rest of the units will not heal at all, because there is only so many menthat will recuperate after a battle. If you are fine with this, than its no problem, but if you're not, usually, using a high armour/shield unit in loose, two-line deep formation is your best bet. Gaesatae/Galatikoi Tindanotae are especially good for this role as their two hitpoints make them extra resilient to missiles.

[ludwag]

I was going to say that most om them would heal anyway becouse its from missile fire. But I diddnt know that there was a limit on how many that could heal. details like this is hard to know. I wish there was a list of things to know. So many questions comes up all the time.

I have a question by the way on missilefire: Are they more resistant to arrows in guard mode?