What is your go-to army composition?

[Slaists]

Has anyone made any real practical use of the Iceni donkey carts (aka. chariots)?

A friend of mine tried to use them on my half-depleted units the other day. I was playing the side of a weak AI (levy spears, slingers, that sort of mix) whom he was chasing on the map. The result: loads of dead chariots. On their own, chariots seem pretty useless to me.

I hear, to use them effectively you need many units per army (not one or two). First, need to try to get the target unit lose its cohesion (entice them to run). Then, charge chariots in, and run them out the other side immediately (this means you need open space behind the target, no uphill terrain, no trees, etc.). Follow up that chariot charge (almost immediately) with some heavy chavalry. The disorganized target unit will be ripe for a kill.

Elephants work the same way, btw. Those though, do not need the target to be disorganized in the first place. They (the elephants) make the target disorganized. If the elephant charge is followed up by a heavy cavalry one: dead spears, etc. abound. Good to take care of those pesky AI spear units chasing your cavalry.