v 1.2 Macedonian Peltastai (Elite): assault role must be a joke, right?

[antisocialmunky]

Well they are a 'Heavy Peltastai' sort of unit. I see Peltast as a generic loose order fighter who was armed with missiles that over time was adapted to heavier and heavier roles and eventually began to merge with normal heavy infantry. The only thing that really was unique about them was they still fought in loose order.

My guess is that they were sent in for very specific tasks like to take out units of heavy infantry that became disordered because they were the best at fighting in loose order. While the heavy peltastai might not be able to break a disciplined unit, if they were able to draw unit out of formation with their missiles and engage soldiers in 1 on 1 they would win because of their superior experience fighting outside of a formation.

Probably the very reason why peltastai were adapted into heavier and heavier roles was that they were able to draw heavy infantry out of formation which was very important fighting in the Hellenic world(if you go to western europe where people fought in looser formation, you notice that there aren't as many elite heavy skirmisher types) with phalangites and whatnot. However, the lighter peltastai couldn't exploit that effect and have to wait for the commands to notice and have the heavier formation fighters to roll in. So hellenic tacticians started training and equipping men that could on the spot leverage their ablity to draw men out of battle order without the aid of the heavy infantry. Eventually they organized elite corps of infantry that could do this so they could employ that effect in a extremely reliable manner. That's my theory anyways.

Back on track: You should use them to explot parts of the enemy line that are already falling apart since RTW can't simulate 'disordering. '