Fighting at forests

[Titus Marcellus Scato]

This is one of my pet peaves with this game... No ancient commander fought in forest... They used the forests to define the battlefield.
Did Boadicea's army march through the forest to flank the Romans? No! The Romans used the forest to cover their flanks and force the Britons to attack their narrow front. Forests should be impassible on the tactical map, like they were to armies historically.
Anything other than ambush in a forest is totally ahistorical and I do not participate in this BS.
I march to my Greek enemy and attack him. He sets up his phalanxes in a.... forest??? Reload, march 1 depleted skirmisher to contact, auto-win, move on...
This is the reason I don't play Celts or Germans in this game anymore.

If you attack an AI army, and it sets up in a forest where you don't want to fight, then get the AI to come out to you.

Set up your general with a couple of other units as a 'sacrificial decoy' force in a wide clearing, or outside the forest. Then hide all your other units deep in the forest, on the edge of the map, allowing a wide unit-free route between your general and the enemy. This should draw the enemy army out to attack your general. Once you have drawn the enemy army out into the open, and ideally pinned them down in hand to hand combat so they can't redeploy, your hidden units run out to take the enemy on the flanks and rear. The trick is, your decoy force must be weak enough to entice the enemy out to attack, but strong enough to engage them just long enough for your hidden flanking units to come to the rescue. In the worst case scenario, your decoy units might take very heavy losses, but that doesn't matter as long as you win the overall battle.

[Loofa]

i like playing in the woods when its foggy... my "picts" attacking and disappearing like wraiths in the fog