phalangitai and missile in the woods

[belliger]

but, i still say, phalangitai simply can't fight in the woods.
polybius is extremely explicit in this: phalanx can fight only in open space.
and i don't have ANY historical account over phalanx fighting (and winning) in the woods. the greeks, when campaigning in thrace, had to select special groups of young soldier lighty armed among the phalanx, to face the thracians in the woods.

oops. i forgot. i am not encountering real difficulties facing makedonian and epeiros.
they are many, ok.
but this gives more fun to the struggle .
(you know... with roman legionairs, it is difficult to get difficult )

[Watchman]

Phalanxes get crazy terrain penalties in forests. They rival heavy cav there, actually. *shrug* Best that can be done under the engine, especially considering that realistically that should only apply to the pikes rather than the much more manageable swords and other sidearms...

Note, incidentally, that Alexander's phalangites were basically retrained and -armed psiloi skirmishers and thus had little trouble converting to a light-infantry role for "close terrain" combat. By the EB timeframe, however, this was no longer the case, and such "cross-training" was the hallmark of elite units.

[soup_alex]

Phalanxes get crazy terrain penalties in forests. They rival heavy cav there, actually. *shrug* Best that can be done under the engine, especially considering that realistically that should only apply to the pikes rather than the much more manageable swords and other sidearms...

Yep. I think the problem you're having, belliger, is that even taking into account the hefty penalties that phalangites (and cavalry, and various other footsloggers, too) take when fighting in woods, they're still extremely powerful fighters, and the difficulties of maneouvre-ing and maintaining a phalanx formation in woods that would be clearly observed in reality, just can't be represented any other way in the Rome engine.
You're going to have to use combined arms and superior manoeuvrability to trump the Hellenes with Roma. Or just use the phalanx-breaker exploit...