Effective use of chariots? (and a few other unit tips needed)

[Drag0nUL]

Recently, I've had some pretty interesting developments in my AS campaign. The year is 225 BC and after sitting on their starting province until now, Pontos went on the offensive.

Since all my armies are too far away (1 stack in North Africa fighting Carthage, another one in India and the 'royal army' -commanded by the faction leader and the only one allowed to contain Angyraspides and TABs- is busy in the south of Arabia) I had to raise a new army to contain the menace (already lost most of central Anatolia in the 6-7 turns it took me to raise a decent fighting force).

I decided to give a few 'new' units a try (units that I had never used before, or used too little):

First of all Scythed Chariots. Despite looking good on paper, they fail to deliver. Maneuvering them in any direction other than forward is a nightmare (they always seem to turn at awkward angles) and after the initial charge they tend to get 'stuck' in the enmy unit, and just die there. anyone found an effective way to use these things(other than keeping them in the second line for th fear effect) ?

Also, Peltasts (and skirmishers in general). Despite being a significat part of many ancient armies, they just seem pretty useless to me: too few javelins to cause significat casualties and javelin range is so short they tend to spend more time running around than shooting. also, as light melee infantry (talking peltast and similar units here, since lighter skirmishers are pretty much worthless in melee) I find it's better to actually get some non-skirmishing light infantry (galatian shortswordmen or jewish spearmen for AS). Is there something I'm missing here?

Hetairoi Aspidophoroi: The only effective use I've found for skirmish cavalry is annoying enemy flanks in the hope of drawing some troops away from the main battle and hunting down routers. For both of those the Hetairoi Aspidophoroi don't perform significantly better than their lighter (and much cheaper) counterparts. Also, their melee ability is unimpressive also (had one unit of these owned by one unit of karians, light infantry with which IMHO sword cavalry shouldn't have too much trouble with).

[seienchin]

Wow... NEVER try to use chariots in a realistic, historical way in Eb. It doesnt work.
But they scare the enemy and are cavallery killers, esspecialy while they are routing (Yes its crazy, but its true^^). So navigate them behind the enemy, atack their cavallery and they are at least decent.

Peltasts are great! They are usefull in melee also.

The hetairoi skirmishers are skirmisher cavallery so forget about them. They are terrible.

[anubis88]

1)
When using chariots, never make them charge in a unit, just make them go pass the unit, ie klick behind the unit. It will not deliver many kills, probably none, but it will completly brake the enemy formation, make theire morale to go on the very low. Have some elites, preferably heavy cavalry ready to follow the chariots. I routed many units this way.
2)
Peltast are very good imho. They are very mobile, and are able to stand up to most medium infantry.
3)
The hetairoi are a decent bunch. I find most use from them in engaging enemy cavalry. Also they fare quite decently against light infantry. At least "decenter" than those cheaper cavalry u mentioned

[Cute Wolf]

1) Harmata Draphanephora are worthless because of their hoorible morale.... Cidainh is waay better because they had guts to made them withdrawn themself nicely after wrecking enemy infantry formations.... but Hellenic chariots are just charge and rout... mostly

2) Turn off their skirmish mode then peltasts can hold themself quite well, except facing heavy cavalries

3) Hetairoi aspidophoroi are still the best when it comes to hackin and slashin through massive low class enemy infantries.... just made sure they don't face proper spearmen

[Drag0nUL]

Thanks for your answers so far
From your posts I understand that you employ peltasts as light infantry rather than skirmishers, is that correct?

[Macilrille]

Peltasts are very versatile, you can employ them as skirmishers and as light infantry both.

If used as skirmishers, do not let them attack from the front, either keep them behind your line with skirmish mode off to shower the enemy with javelins while your infantry fight them or maneuvre them behind the enemy line or to his weapon side with Fire at Will off, them turn it on and watch the havoc. This is especially good if your infantry is engaging the same enemy from the front in Guard mode.

Skirmisher cavalry is used the same.

Chariots I have no experience with. I would probably use them like my german scare units, keeping them behind the line to scare out of range of most missiles, then charging as the enemy waver, Seinchin's way sounds best.