Army Formations

[NoHelmet]

Try this: triarii in the middle, tree men deep, only a phalanx can breach that line (they will hold on indefinitely), on their flanks rorarii (they can stand their ground surprisingly long) and put all your hastati and principes on the flanks (pretty much Cannae formation). It works with all factions. Thin line of spearmen in the middle, heavy & assault infantry to the flanks. One more thing: always try to ensure overwhelming cavalry superiority. With spearmen like triarii, you can anchor many more infantry than your own, and if you ensure that they are aligned without holes in the line, trust me, they wont break. Follow the teachings of Hannibal and Alexandros (with a fine combined army, for cavalry, go with Surenas, or Genghis!)

[Marcus Darkstar]

Well the enemy never give me too much trouble at this point. My armies tend to be larger or at the very least can stand more punishment than others.

I'm mostly ignoring Carthage becuase except a few strikes at Sardinia they havnt really done anything. They dont really have much of a standing armies anymore since i annilated their Siciliy one in my first punic war. They've begun recruiting African Pikemen and Libyian-Phoe elite infantry but they havnt been able to afford much. Last signficant Carthage attack involved 2 FM generals (so about 150 Sacred Band Heavy Calvary), 80 Numbian archers, 1 african pikemen and the elite libyan-phoe infantry. Killed them with 2 mercenary Greek Phalanx, 4 Sardian infantry and about a few slingers hired locally. Always been dissapointed in Carthage as an opponent more of an annoyance than a actuall challage. I think the worst spot i had with them in another champaign of them landing near Capua when the legions were elsewhere kicking their asses.

Actually fear the Gauls beyond the Alps more than I do Carthage they destroyed one of my allied celtic armies (2 Gaullic Heavy Swordsmen, 4 Celt Spearmen, 4 Celt archers, 2 Gaullic Noble Calvary, 1 Lesser Celtic King) with one of their armies filled with silver cheveron units (veterans of their continuing civil war) They even had a few of those Soldorus noble elite heavy infantry with them.

I dont think there are many Hoplite units that can match the Triari I have more problems with missile calvary and enemy heavy calvary. Only recently gotten my allied states producing some Gallic Noble and Liguarian Calvary (javlen throwers decent armor though not much staying power)

Only lost 200 men after the battle in the pic above (maybe due to the piss poor moral Hadruable's men had cause the enemy army was starving itself to death in rebel territory near Emporion), then i took Emporion from the rebels with a bit more casualties took the legion out of comission for a couple of years.

[Marcus Darkstar]

Try this: triarii in the middle, tree men deep, only a phalanx can breach that line (they will hold on indefinitely), on their flanks rorarii (they can stand their ground surprisingly long) and put all your hastati and principes on the flanks (pretty much Cannae formation). It works with all factions. Thin line of spearmen in the middle, heavy & assault infantry to the flanks. One more thing: always try to ensure overwhelming cavalry superiority. With spearmen like triarii, you can anchor many more infantry than your own, and if you ensure that they are aligned without holes in the line, trust me, they wont break. Follow the teachings of Hannibal and Alexandros (with a fine combined army, for cavalry, go with Surenas, or Genghis!

Ya know i actually used something similar to this in my MTW2 Stainless Steel Roman/Byzantine campaign. Scoutari spearmen in the middle, Swordsmen on the flanks, had like 6 units of Calvary 2 Light Calvary, 2 Calvari (Missile Calvary with compound bows) and 2 Cataphrants (heavies). with supporting archers behind the line infantry.

Getting good calavary reserves is a bit tricky in EB though lol.

[NoHelmet]

Ok, for the gauls, bring bunch of rorarii and triarii, and THE ENTIRE FAMILY. Stretch your line as much as you can, put them on stand ground, flank with your brother-in-law, nephew, uncle, roommate and slice them from behind.

And that pretty much solves the problem of cavalry reserve.

[Marcus Darkstar]

Ok, for the gauls, bring bunch of rorarii and triarii, and THE ENTIRE FAMILY. Stretch your line as much as you can, put them on stand ground, flank with your brother-in-law, nephew, uncle, roommate and slice them from behind.

I dont bring mulitple family members into my battles lol. Ever. I perfer FM use for Govenors and Generals. Though the would work for my old Seleucid campaign last i checked i had like 150 family members and only about 40ish settlements for some reason the AS family tend to pop out FM's by the but load.

[NoHelmet]

You will always have a bunch of pretty much incompetent governors or generals. So what, you are going to let them govern a city and lose money? It's ok if they are good governors, but don't let them rot in the city. Find a good general (morale stats make a good general, btw, not command stars) send some dumb cousins, and roll. It's another thing if you want to recreate roman tactics, but you still play against the AI, and after all, rome was always ready to adapt it's military.

[Ibrahim]

my method on the battlefield, when not using manipular, is simply that I place the triarii on the right, principes to the left, hastati and rorarii in the middle. leves are in front, accnesi to the rear.

polybian is similar, only there are 2 hastati instead of one, and two principes in place of one and accensi.

just throwing my

[Marcus Darkstar]

my method on the battlefield, when not using manipular, is simply that I place the triarii on the right, principes to the left, hastati and rorarii in the middle. leves are in front, accnesi to the rear.

polybian is similar, only there are 2 hastati instead of one, and two principes in place of one and accensi.

just throwing my

I never seem to use Hastati anymore in Polybian. The only difference in them in that reform is that Princeps wear chainmail. I typically just replace the hast with more principes.