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

[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.

[Fluvius Camillus]

Most important thing about Chariots. KEEP THEM MOVING If you dont they wont kill or knock the enemy to the ground and just get killed.

Use them like stated before, making the decisive move, when you got the main line routing you have to run them through the whole group while attacking. HUGE KILLS.

Had this experience with Pontos.

~Fluvius

[SwissBarbar]

Chariots:

As it has been said already, don't send them into melee, but let them just ride trough the enemy formation, by klicking behind the hostile army. They will run through and break off the enemy formation, making their morale lower at the same time. Before the enemy can regroup his formation, go in with heavy cavalry and make them rout. That's how to use these chariots effectivly. If they are enganged....retreat.


Peltastai:

Peltasts are actually quite useful. They can hold their line agaist most light and medium infantrymen, you only have to avoid cavalry. They are best used for flanking the enemy, pelting him from behind (or the flank) and then engange his rear, while heavier melee infantry is holding your first battle line.

Peltasts can hold a city wall even against heavier infantry or at least make the enemy suffer from many losses.


Skirmisher Cav:

Hippakontistai and similar skrikmisher cavalry are not as useless as they are often said to be. Of course you should not use them in melee. But they are fast. Let them irritate the enemy by riding around his flanks, pelting him with javelins. Doing that from the rear can cause many casualties among the enemy's troops, even among heavier ones. Especially if your cav. is somewhat experienced .

In melee you only use them against other troops for attacks in the rear, while the enemy is bound by your frontline, or to engange other cavalry, combined with one or two units of heavy cavalry of yours. Let the heavy cavalry engange the enemy and at the same time, let the light cavalry attack the flanks. If they arrive at the same time, the enemy cavalry unit will be crushed instantly.


An important part of any battle is hunting down the enemy. You couldn't have a more effective unit to do that job, than your light and fast cavalry. The enemy general is routing with the rest of his bodyguard? If someone can still reach him, it's your light skirmisher cav. Not sure, but Hippakontistai may be faster than Hetairoi Aspidophoroi. And even more effective than Hippakontistai, are - IIRC - the eastern and arabian equivalents.

[Cambyses]

Aye.

Chariots do tend to require quite a lot of micromanagment, but they are very effective in the end.

Peltasts. To get the best use from these they should engage in melee only after they have expended all their javelins. Firing 5-6 volleys into the back of some powerful heavy infantry, then charging in to finish them off is often the most effective option. Head on fighting against proper infantry generally doesnt work though. Use them as a support and flanking force. No other infantry type is better at it in my opinion. I tend to turn skirmish mode off once the main battle lines have engaged, but leave it on until then.

Hetairoi aspidophoroi seem to beat most other non-elite cavalry in melee. They are also great for getting stuck into and overpowering units like peltasts. Their javelins are a bonus - not their main feature.

[ziegenpeter]

Well the thing about heavy skirmisher cav is (for me) that they fulfill the role of regular skrimisher cav but after having used their javelins, they still do a decent job in charging the enemy's lines in the back.
So harass the enemy, maybe draw away a unit and outmaneuver them and then BAM! make the enemy rout!

[Bluefinger]

Chariots are great for disrupting enemy formations, but as stated, they need to be kept moving. One great way to cause chaos is to have lots of chariots go straight through the middle of an army line or two, and then have your troops running along behind to quickly fill the gap created by the chariots.

This splits the main force in two AND gets your chariots behind the enemy, and in a really good position to harass and cause more havoc (or deal with pesky cavalry). Force your infantry to widen the gap you've created, and at that point, units will begin to rout. I've done this before but it requires timing and a great opportunity (like really light infantry units and missile units positioned in the middle of an army both on the front and rear lines). It worked well enough in Vanilla Rome when I was dealing with the Romans as the Bretons, though whether the same concept can work in EB, I'll have to see. Custom battle time!

TL;DR: Keep Chariots moving or they lose.

[athanaric]

Useless?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This - is - (retarded AI)

[vartan]

Why do you play on huge? not enough pop.

[SwissBarbar]

Well the thing about heavy skirmisher cav is (for me) that they fulfill the role of regular skrimisher cav but after having used their javelins, they still do a decent job in charging the enemy's lines in the back.
So harass the enemy, maybe draw away a unit and outmaneuver them and then BAM! make the enemy rout!

Yes, exactly! That's how to use them



I've never played anything else than huge. No problem with pop. You don't need to recruit fullstack after fullstack to get your campaing successfully going.