Roman: Scipii

[Deus ret.]

to let units fight in loose formation usually is not too good an idea. Ok, they cover more area and the immediate losses particularly vs. elephants are lesser, but units fighting in loose formation get a morale penalty. This penalty, although slight, undermines what most units are made for: hold their position and kill as many as they can before they die themselves or rout. If they rout, which they will do more likely on loose, only they (and not the enemy) will suffer more casualties.
Additionally, the chances of killing those elephants are better if the beasts are forced to run into a thick wall of, well, preferably spears. Against chariots try everything to keep your formation together; they will whoop it up anyway but if your men stay close they will most likely win through.

[nameless]

Wow imagine playing on ARCADE MODE

Speaking of which, are Mirmillo gladiators actually stronger than Samnite gladiators? Last I checked the Samnite has 14/14 while the Mimillo has 12/14, is there something I'm missing?

[Craterus]

Samnite (Julii) - 14 attack, 14 defence
Velite (Brutii) - 12 attack, 14 defence
Mirmillo (Scipii) - 12 attack, 14 defence

In conclusion, Samnites are better, unless they have a worse charge bonus? I don't know all the particulars.

[katank]

@craterus, the mirmillos are fast. The velites are just most accessible on the tech tree.

Grouping units and packing em tight is optimal. Stop the charge cold and you have pretty much killed the chariots/elephants.

Use all your pila. Velites are nice. Just mass em.

[nameless]

When you meant fast do you mean like they run fast or they have a faster attack rate?

Velites have a bonus against calvary units though so their good spearmen, better than the typical roman spearmen but I would still go for the Auxilla, better than nothing.

Another goody thing about the Scipii are that they have those special boats which come with Neptune, man when you look at it the Scipii are probably the strongest out of all the roman factions. Julii is like the third.

EDIT: I just checked out the stats for the Mirmillo and Samnite

Samnite 14/14
Charge Bonus - 4

Mirmillo 12/14
Charge Bonus - 7

This makes the Mirmillo's attack 1 point higher if both charge.

Not sure if this is correct but do please correct this if its wrong and if there's anything else to add.

So the tip of the day guys who play as Scipii is make sure your Mirmillo's charge to get their butt kicking skills in place.

[Deus ret.]

"fast" usually refers to a unit's movement speed on the battle map.

if I'm not making a mistake myself, velites get a bonus against only one type of horses... those pulling a chariot. And elephants of course. Ever tried taking a heavy cavalry charge w/ velites? I bet you wouldn't have many of them left afterwards. Seriously, what reasonable way would there be to kill them if they had a bonus against your cavalry, which is most likely to catch them?

Apart from that, your observations are correct. Gladiators are great units if you don't wait too long to build them.

[katank]

They are fast in movement on battle map. Thus, better for flanking.

Velite glads don't have bonus vs. cav and their small unit size gets them killed against a cav charge in the open.

However, gladiators in woods are quite able to slaughter waves of cav.