non-Macedonian style Phalanx - broken?

[fomalhaut]

im talking only the non hoplite phalanx, so no epilektoi hoplitai.

mostly my issue is that only the first rows engage, and there is no viable shield or spear wall, even guard mode turned on a unit will pass through. run a horseman toward a pike phalanx? dead. toward a hoplite phalanx? dead. through an Iphrikatous phalanx? just fine

[Sylon]

To get a unit to switch back to its primary weapon, select the unit and right click (as opposed to Alt+right click) on whatever you wish to attack. For example, if you have a unit of Iphikratous Hoplites engaged with a unit of cavalry and they happen to be using swords, simply select them and right click on the cavalry unit they are already engaged with. This will cause them to swap back to their spears.

[SFraser]

It's a frustrating issue but can be resolved with a bit of attention.

The problem is that when an individual soldier is knocked down he will switch back to his primary weapon, so if his primary is a sword then you can end up with a front using swords and the rest of the unit thinking it is using spears.

Clicking ALT to use secondary weapons wont work because the unit is already using secondary weapons, so they wont change. So attack them with primary weapons and then use ALT to attack with secondary weapons.

Lots of units that come with sword/spear combinations and different formation densities, and particularly different enemy types, suffer from this at first glance abject uselessness. However it's just a case of making sure you use the right tool for the job and you are aware of the fact that your unit will switch weapons as soldiers are knocked down.

Once you get the hang of it they work fine, albeit are a bit more micro management intense than is ideal.

[vollorix]

@SFraser: maybe i´m kind of blind, i can see all the units with sword/spear combination switching to their secondary and not primary weapon when beeing knocked down ( they fight with spears instead of swords in melee ). There are also some other problems i´ve noticed:
1. you can force those units to switch back to swords for a while ( using the trick you described above, or puting them in guard mod for a second, then releasing them ), but after a while they do not react any more; once a unit is heavily depleted and exausted, the soldiers won´t fight with swords, but with spears only...
2. the entire unit, except from the front line, is using swords, but all the soldiers in the first rank are using spears, since they have been knocked down during the fight, while the others weren´t.

The only solution that comes to my mind is to give those units ( which are mostly elite anyway ), a rediculous high defence skill to make it very hard to get knocked down; right now i´m experimenting with EDU changing their recruitment time up to 4 turns - that way the AI won´t mass crank them, i hope.

EDIT: could one attach a different sceleton to all the units using the sword/spear combination, for example that of druids/cardinau orca, but keep their appearance on the battlefield? And if yes, is it enough to do the changes in the EDU + dmb?

[Rahl]

EDIT: could one attach a different sceleton to all the units using the sword/spear combination, for example that of druids/cardinau orca, but keep their appearance on the battlefield? And if yes, is it enough to do the changes in the EDU + dmb?

No. I once tested this. Skins don't have the same order for every unit model. They're usually very different, some are far more detailed with higher resolution for example. You would need to change the model itself.

[bobbin]

Secondary weapons are bugged in RTW (and M2TW), there is nothing you can do about it short of removing the weapon from the unit.

[vollorix]

But i thought denying the sec. weapon in the EDU might cause problems? If that´s possible, though, i would gladly keep the swords for those elites while erasing the spear entry in the EDU...