Most dominant infantry in Europe

[vollorix]

@Ksifos: first, i had arranged my levy phalanx in 4-5 raws per unit. After most of them had been routed, and i could free a couple of my units, i arranged a real deep formation to counter the shieldwall; well, it helped only a bit, namely my units were able to hold their ground for a while, at least untill they were fighting 1 on 1, but those "stacked" Romans had still managed to break them. After the battle lines got a little bit scattered, and i still had at least 1 veteran phalanx holding its ground, i had to mass charge each of the Roman units at least twice to break them. Of course, i had bombarded them with my slingers from the rear, and have used some heavily depleted phalangitai as "finisher" units ( and those are really good at killing if unopposed ). IIRC, it was my faction leader ( not Pyrrhos, though ), who was leading that assault, so "he" could rally enough men back to fight ( and had a huge bodyguards numbers ofc, handy for the charges ), otherwise i would have lost the battle. But it felt like an actual "Pyrrhic victory" ^^

[Ksifos]

Athanaric - I replayed the Casse campaign (VH/VH :-P).Playing very conservative, I managed to create the United Kingdom (incl. Ireland) by 250BC.Not a time record but mostly following a slow progressing, "developing and conquering" plan.After that you have a strong economy and plenty of options.In my first game I made A LOT of mistakes.And that is natural because I had to adopt to the Casse playing style.It wasnt the difficulty level but my ignorance of how Britons should be played.That said, I have to admit I am quite impressed of their mobility, javelin damage and morale when having a general aside.At least versus Sweboz they dominate (Jugundai you say? :-P).

I am not aware of the bonuses you say.In fact I can't see those bonuses in game.On the other hand I can safely say that the AI is doing some very weird and precise manoevres so that he avoids misiles - you could call that a handicap but that's ok :-)

All in all, Britons are a morale dependent army.Without a general or an 'eagle-unit' things might get funky pretty easily.On the other hand the key unit for me so far are the slingers.They are deadly shooting at the back of enemies.Along with the general and Uirodusios they are "must have" in the army mix.
But that's because I haven't confronted stronger armies yet, with cavalry.That's where I will have to redesign tactics.And I can safely guess that late game I will need 2 or 3 stacks vs 1 roman, to get the edge.

Vollorix - makes sense ;-) Well those battles of drama is maybe the one of the greatest elements in EB.But is also when you wouldn't want the game to CTD on you, hehe.

[TheLastDays]

In one thing you are correct: Morale is everything, playing the Casse (and most barbarian factions for that matter), that's probably why they have Drwdae, Calawre (later Rycalawre :D) and Generals to bolster their morale and Uirodusios and again Generals to lower the opponent's morale...
Yep, they're mobile, are good skirmishers and used correctly they can stand their ground against Romans :P

I can't agree on the VH/VH approach though, at least not when trying to determine the strength/usefulness of a unit. I can "safely" assure you, that the AI does get the attack and defence boni and probably a morale bonus too (that might not be working ;) )... On the other hand I don't know what .exe you're playing but even on VH I have never seen the AI do a manouver that deserved a better label than "not completely retarded".
I for one don't see any change to the better in Battle AI by increasing the difficulty.

[moonburn]

to be fair thelastdays i saw the ai doing some correct manouvers many times

in phallanx vs phallanx batle if i can´t use tactical movements to manouver the ai phallanx would shread me to pieces i must admit i can´t use the phallanx in an offenssive way no matter what i try and in defensive way the ai tends to beat me if it was all down to peztharoi vs peztharoi

the ai biggest morronic movements is that sometimes they over complicate things by manouvering too much and when it´s time to fight my fresh troops have the advantage against the ai very tired troops

if you fight enough times against an oponent (and i mean enough like letting the breath and learn ) they start adopting more/better units to face your strategies wich again forçes you to inovate ofc if you blitz the hell out of them you´ll never see that and if you face the arche seulekids only on bridge batles you can´t see how their adjustment is an improvement

[fomalhaut]

i hate the ridiculous over maneuvering the AI sometimes does, it's just a huge waste of time.

and yeah, i've found Phalanx v Phalanx I always always lose, whether on offense or defense. I don't know what to do about it, i just take it until i can smash the AI Phalanx in the back.

[vartan]

i hate the ridiculous over maneuvering the AI sometimes does, it's just a huge waste of time.

and yeah, i've found Phalanx v Phalanx I always always lose, whether on offense or defense. I don't know what to do about it, i just take it until i can smash the AI Phalanx in the back.

There has been a study on this [1]. The AI phalangites will always be ordered to attack and will always remain in guard mode, that is for certain (I haven't seen a counter-example). Therefore your best bet is to do one of two things. If his phalangite is coming at yours, take yours off guard mode and do not order it to attack (it will auto-engage). If you are forced to move a phalangite to attack one of the AI's, turn guard on before ordering the attack. The former guard-off results in better results on average, but you have to be in a perfect position to receive the AI attack.

[1] https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B8p...ODM3ZjY5&hl=en

[fomalhaut]

wow, glad you linked that thank you.