Sacred band cav way overpowered?

[Simovek]

I've been playing the demo and it seems these guys are waaay over powered. I've won the battle mostly with just these units they just destroy all. I mean, one unit of Sacred band cav nearly defeated 3 units of Trairii spearmen, and those cav were surronded on all sides. They routed 1 unit and nearly killed everyone in the other 2. What gives?

[Scipio]

I agree, they are way overpowered... CA is gunna have a lot of balancing problems to iron out in patchs or so it seems.

[A.Saturnus]

Not sure, don´t they have quite high valour?

[Colovion]

did the romans ever form up to defend against them? or was it a flanking maneuver to get them in there?

[Tamur]

Try using principes for flanking/rear attack, keep them under fire from Hastati or Velites. They are tough, but they will rout without eating three units of triarii.

[Psyco]

They're valor 10, so I don't think that we can talk about them being overpowered. Just play a mod with fair valor, then you'll see.

[Simovek]

What did CA do, give them wickedly high valour so that anyone can win the demo without trying?

[Nelson]

What did CA do, give them wickedly high valour so that anyone can win the demo without trying?

Yup, that's it. You want people to have a good time and enjoy your game so you set them up for an easy win.

I did manage to lose as Carthago once though when just for the hell of it I left the flanking cav out of the fight. The elephants decided not to do very much for me and quite a lot TOO me. Next thing I knew the Romans washed over me like a tidal wave.

[Colovion]

the demo was prettymuch just an easy way to show people the eye-candy of RTW

works pretty well IMO for those means

[Steppe Merc]

THe carthage band isn't as nasty when you give them fair upgrades. They should be quite powerful, and Rome should have difficutly fighting them, after all. That's what they get for being so stupid about cavalry. ~:p

[Jeanne d'arc]

can someone tell us how much valour haniball and the roman captain has in the standard demo, really would like to know.

[todorp]

I've been playing the demo and it seems these guys are waaay over powered. I've won the battle mostly with just these units they just destroy all. I mean, one unit of Sacred band cav nearly defeated 3 units of Trairii spearmen, and those cav were surronded on all sides. They routed 1 unit and nearly killed everyone in the other 2. What gives?

Yes, the Sacred band cav are invinsible. I hope CA will fix it. There ware no cav, which could defeat a legion in a pitched battle.

Parthians were the best horse power the Romans fought. There were reversed fortunes.

The Roman always won the large scale pitched batles, where their hevy infantry gave stability.

Parthians won by harrasing and starving the Romans. They deprived the Romans from foraging by destroing the small detachments and cutting of the supplies lines. The Parthians main force were the light horse archers, backed by relatively small number of heavy cavalery (still much larger then the Romans one).

[hundurinn]

Yes they are overpowered in the demo. Sacred Band cavalry was one of the best cavalry of ancient times. Companion cavalry might be better. In one of Alexanders first battles he fought with his father and he attacked the SBC and he admired them so much for their strengh and courage that he built a statue on the place they died to honor them. Recent discoveries on that battlefield(If im correct is Thermyapolea) have shown that where the statue stood or stands are bones of horses and men.

[vodkafire]

Yes they are overpowered in the demo. Sacred Band cavalry was one of the best cavalry of ancient times. Companion cavalry might be better. In one of Alexanders first battles he fought with his father and he attacked the SBC and he admired them so much for their strengh and courage that he built a statue on the place they died to honor them. Recent discoveries on that battlefield(If im correct is Thermyapolea) have shown that where the statue stood or stands are bones of horses and men.

That's the THEBAN Sacred Band INFANTRY at Chaeronea, not even Carthaginian.

[vodkafire]

Yes, the Sacred band cav are invinsible. I hope CA will fix it. There ware no cav, which could defeat a legion in a pitched battle.

Parthians were the best horse power the Romans fought. There were reversed fortunes.

The Roman always won the large scale pitched batles, where their hevy infantry gave stability.

Parthians won by harrasing and starving the Romans. They deprived the Romans from foraging by destroing the small detachments and cutting of the supplies lines. The Parthians main force were the light horse archers, backed by relatively small number of heavy cavalery (still much larger then the Romans one).

Um, Cannae, anyone? What about Adrianople? both pitched battles mainly infantry. The Romans lose plenty of battles, their success was based on not only their soldiers but good commanders and inexhaustable resources(during the second Punic War, even though they got defeated in every battle by Hannibal in Italy and allowed him to pillage all over the peninsula, they still had enough resources to invade Africa and Macedonia at the same time).

[hundurinn]

The Sacred Band Cavalry wasn't only in the Carthage army. But hey, long time since I read about it so I could be wrong.

[afrit]

even though they got defeated in every battle by Hannibal in Italy and allowed him to pillage all over the peninsula, they still had enough resources to invade Africa and Macedonia at the same time).

Yup, pretty impressive. If that happened to a carthaginian player in RTW, he would surely complain about how SPQR and friends are waaay overpowered

[ah_dut]

i hope the romans just fight each other to stop that happening and that SPQR just acts like a pope for the romans

[cugel]

Gee guys, how can you complain about the Sacred Band Cavalry when the Armored Elephants are a pure juggernaught that chews up entire armies.

I downloaded the battle editor so I could play as the Romans and lost 5 straight battles! Then I tried out just 2 units of Armored elephants (valor 0) and routed the entire Roman army without losing a man. (If they run amok it's even better). One time I managed to lose 3 elephants, don't know how since I never managed to kill any as the Romans.

Boy, that was fun! But seriously, the elephants are the real uber-unit. I hardly noticed the Sacred Band while those tuskers were walking through my line! Total War: Pachyderm?

[Psyco]

The best way to deal with elephants is to swarm them with light infantry/skirmishers. With 2 units of velites you can easily rout the unit, and as long as one of the units pursues, the elephants will never rally.