I hate phalanxes

[war is hell]

Especially how they are portrayed in rtw. Whenever I'm fighting them they just rove around and never present a battle line, except with weird angles. If you charge them in the back they just turn there pikes around, somehow through there own men.

Oh and if your using them how do you get the enemy to attack them? because it seems like the A.I. always ends up splitting their army in half and going around while the slow pikes chase.

So what is the best way to use them?

[Blxz]

Try and create your own formations. Try a square or a triange of 3-12 units with all pikes facing outwards. You can even put your general in the middle and maybe a few archers and just shoot out from there. If you really want to be ahistorical turn arcade mode on so you have infinte arrows and then you are almost guarenteed a defensive victory.

You need to tailor your army to the enemy you are fighting. Keep some lighter, more mobile units on the edge to counter the enemy flanking. If you are fighting a highly mobile army such as the nomads then leave your phalanxes at home, unless you plan on taking thier cities. In that case you can river hop from one crossing point to the next on the campaign map so that if you are attacked you will have a perfect defensive battle where they cannot flank you.

As for fighting them, charge in then withdraw to counter the fact they turn around. Or get a unit to engage them from the front...typical tactics of that age; they apply to EB as much as they did to real life. When using ranged units make sure to never shoot them from the front. Even on easy difficulty setting you will be hard pressed to do any damage at all. However if you can get them to show their backs to you then you can do massive damage upwards of 5% per volley.

If worse comes to worse and you still hate them by all means feel free to click some of the other little buttons on the faction selection screen. Casse and Lusotanna are unlikely to ever encounter phalanxes. Averni, Aedui and Sweboz are unlikely unless you go far east. And Carthage and Rome won't see any during the first part of their campaigns, when you DO see them you should have access to your better units and it will be easier to counter them.

Of course if that is still not enough for you then I might suggest that you play another game. I think spearmen in empire earth are much easier to beat.

Best of luck.

[seienchin]

I fought a battle against nearly all phalangitai army (5 Light troops, 14 Phalangitai) with south italian levies and hoplites... BOOOM
Never lost so many man in a EB battle, never came so close to the time limit.

I encircled the enemy phalanx on a slope and atack them from every side after I killed their light infantry and WOW. Although my enemy were mainly composed of phalangitai deutheroi It took heavy losses. The Enemy phalanx moved their spears so that they made an impenetratable ring. I Lost every man I used to atack them from the back. 2 Of my 4 Samniti milites units were all killed.
My campanian cavallery atacked wave after wave not even scaring the enemy to shaken and I thought I loose the battle. Only after 15 minuits of fighting and everybody beeing exausted I atacked the enemy again with my cavallery and got everybody except one agyraspidai unit to flee after loosing 60% of my cavallery.
I never fought against an enemy were my troops felt so useless. Yes I hate phalanngitai, expessiacly when fighting with italian troops.
Anyway 360 of my men were healed after the battle so no big deal

[Rahwana]

Hey, EB's 2 handed phalangitai animation works much better than vanilla 1 handed phalanx spearmen.... no shuffle up occurs... at least because mine was usually play defensively with phalangitai

[anubis88]

The best way to use them is to use them for what they were used. To pin down the enemy. It never fails

[G. Septimus]

I fought a battle against nearly all phalangitai army (5 Light troops, 14 Phalangitai) with south italian levies and hoplites... BOOOM
Never lost so many man in a EB battle, never came so close to the time limit.

I encircled the enemy phalanx on a slope and atack them from every side after I killed their light infantry and WOW. Although my enemy were mainly composed of phalangitai deutheroi It took heavy losses. The Enemy phalanx moved their spears so that they made an impenetratable ring. I Lost every man I used to atack them from the back. 2 Of my 4 Samniti milites units were all killed.
My campanian cavallery atacked wave after wave not even scaring the enemy to shaken and I thought I loose the battle. Only after 15 minuits of fighting and everybody beeing exausted I atacked the enemy again with my cavallery and got everybody except one agyraspidai unit to flee after loosing 60% of my cavallery.
I never fought against an enemy were my troops felt so useless. Yes I hate phalanngitai, expessiacly when fighting with italian troops.
Anyway 360 of my men were healed after the battle so no big deal

Me to,
I used 1 Roman Army with 10 Units ( Approximately 670 men)
against Arche Seleuka (full Unit bar) , KH (Full Unit Bar), And Makedonia (Full Bar)
On Very Hard Mode. I won, at the end, but the costs were high. Never lost so much men before

[war is hell]

Thanks for the help. I prefer to play historical so I won't be making any nube boxes any time soon. Anyway I found this gem of a thread.

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showt...ight=phalanxes

I wish there was a "forward advance button" or something instead I have to group them all together and click behind the enemy to get them to face the right way. And then even still it seems like the A.I. is lined up at all these odd angles

[seienchin]

Me to,
I used 1 Roman Army with 10 Units ( Approximately 670 men)
against Arche Seleuka (full Unit bar) , KH (Full Unit Bar), And Makedonia (Full Bar)
On Very Hard Mode. I won, at the end, but the costs were high. Never lost so much men before

Good Joke
That is impossible On Very hard you cannot beat 3 fullstacks with 10 units. Maybe with 10 indian war elephants or 6phalangitai and 4 cataphraktoi against levy units...

[Duguntz]

Good Joke
That is impossible On Very hard you cannot beat 3 fullstacks with 10 units. Maybe with 10 indian war elephants or 6phalangitai and 4 cataphraktoi against levy units...

or if you're the reincarnation of Hannibal, Caesar, Cao Cao, Napoleon, Nelson and himmel all reunited in one person... but that's quiest unlickly!

[Ibrahim]

Good Joke
That is impossible On Very hard you cannot beat 3 fullstacks with 10 units. Maybe with 10 indian war elephants or 6phalangitai and 4 cataphraktoi against levy units...

*cough* *cough*

EDIT: I do admit I was lucky to beat six stacks of romans as the seleucids, in two battles. only prob was that it was vanilla

[ziegenpeter]

or if you're the reincarnation of Hannibal, Caesar, Cao Cao, Napoleon, Nelson and himmel all reunited in one person... but that's quiest unlickly!

Huh, never heard of Himmel... Who was he?

[athanaric]

Huh, never heard of Himmel... Who was he?

I think he meant Rommel. Or at least I hope so.

[Duguntz]

I think he meant Rommel. Or at least I hope so.

YEAH! himmel was annother dude, as known, but not for the same reason!
hahahahahahaha! sorry, i just woke up when I wrote that post! lol

[athanaric]

YEAH! himmel was annother dude, as known, but not for the same reason!

If you are referring to the mass-murdering psychopath, his name was Himmler, not Himmel.

[Duguntz]

Well, Mass murdering, psychopat... but famous! Great deeds do not mean Good deeds... but let's get back to the topic!

[Rahwana]

Back to topic guys!!!
And about the Phalanx, are best used to pin enemy line, while other troops flank and cause the much required killings to made the Phalanx effective, they are unbeatable frontline troops (except against another phalanx)

[artavazd]

to fight phalanx, click behind their line and have your unit run through them. Once the unit is passed the pikes click on the phalanx unit to have your unit attack them. This technique works wonders. If you want to realy be devastating, have a nother unit attack the phalanx from behind. Their numbers will drop like flies.

[satalexton]

cheek and cheat.

[G. Septimus]

Good Joke
That is impossible On Very hard you cannot beat 3 fullstacks with 10 units. Maybe with 10 indian war elephants or 6phalangitai and 4 cataphraktoi against levy units...

hey, I really won, with only 1 Cohors Praetoriani, and my Singulares remaining,
IT'S REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cadwalader]

I have recently started playing EB again after a long absence, and noticed that in my Bactrian campaign, my severely weakened unit of levy phalangites absolutely crushed a full strength Seleucid unit of pezhetairoi! While this event probably gave me the victory, it seems highly unnatural even though my unit was defending. I've made a few experiments in custom games, and it seems that the phalanx tries to actually kill people only some of the time, and it appears to be completely arbitrary whether they choose to do so or not.

..Or is it? I was hoping someone could answer that.

[Amoxcalli]

I have recently started playing EB again after a long absence, and noticed that in my Bactrian campaign, my severely weakened unit of levy phalangites absolutely crushed a full strength Seleucid unit of pezheratoi! While this event probably gave me the victory, it seems highly unnatural even though my unit was defending. I've made a few experiments in custom games, and it seems that the phalanx tries to actually kill people only some of the time, and it appears to be completely arbitrary whether they choose to do so or not.

..Or is it? I was hoping someone could answer that.

Were you on higher ground? I've had similar experiences with my own Baktrian troops. Few things can 'charge' uphill into a phalanx and come out alive. Don't underestimate higher ground!

[seienchin]

I have recently started playing EB again after a long absence, and noticed that in my Bactrian campaign, my severely weakened unit of levy phalangites absolutely crushed a full strength Seleucid unit of pezheratoi! While this event probably gave me the victory, it seems highly unnatural even though my unit was defending. I've made a few experiments in custom games, and it seems that the phalanx tries to actually kill people only some of the time, and it appears to be completely arbitrary whether they choose to do so or not.

..Or is it? I was hoping someone could answer that.

I always have the feeling the KI is micromanaging their phalangitai better than me, except for some instances when they do nothing....
By the way the Levy phalanx is often better than the klerouchi medium phalanx because they have AP axes.

[Cadwalader]

Were you on higher ground? I've had similar experiences with my own Baktrian troops. Few things can 'charge' uphill into a phalanx and come out alive. Don't underestimate higher ground!

Now that you mention it, I believe I was. It still doesn't seem right, but such things happen in RTW. In a way I guess that's realistic.

By the way the Levy phalanx is often better than the klerouchi medium phalanx because they have AP axes.

No axes involved, this time. I just turned my attention elsewhere after the two phalanxes had engaged, and when I returned I found the pezheratoi decimated and routed.