Britannia

[DojoRat]

I took all of Italy lat night except for the toe and unfortunately it had more to do with AI failures than my strategy. The Brutii still have massive armies in the Balkans but failed or were slow to either ferry them across to relieve their cities or land behind my line in the middle of the peninsula. I built a fort on the border of Dalmatia? and Venice and this slows them down and allows me to defend against their attacks in the open. I also have assassins taking out their captains (and family members if I'm lucky) and diplomats bribing little stacks.

I exterminate the cities I capture and knock down there temples and build my own. This makes cash not a problem but bribing Romans is expensive so i do it sparingly.

My tactics vs. the Roman armies rely on strategic movement to put my self in a threatening position so they will attack me. (Of course this army has the best troops and leader). The AI often attacks without combing groups before hand so I can often defeat them in detail. Even a unified army has trouble keeping together when I send out missile troops, light chariots and slingers, to harass their flanks. Often they send their cv chasing after them which is fine because they won't be around to flank my rush.

As the Romans advance I position my infantry in one line for the charge. If I have a druid I start him chanting and select the inf group and have them give their war cry. While they're pumping themselves up I send my barbarian cv/heavy chariots along the sidelines so to speak to be in position to double back on the Roman line or pesky skirmishers. By this time my boys are ready to go so I double click the whole group/line to a point behind the enemy line. The Roman units defend in depth in an open grid pattern so my swordsman rush smashes into and around their units. Their is a lot of feverous clicking as I send those units not engaged into the rear or flanks of a nearby unit or the enemy general if he's close. I then pick the best targets for my nonmissile cv and that usually does it. My leader I might sent in to mop up but usually I keep him close.

Again, this tactic assumes you have experienced chosen swordsmen with upgrades as the core of your army with a balance your most experienced inf chariots and barb cv. Non missile cv is essential because your swordsman can't rundown their skirmishers and they will decimate your lightly armed inf. Heavy chariots are decent flank shock troops but are too slow to be effective chasing skirmishers. I use head hurlers as well and send them in behind the rush to where resistance is strongest use them to crack the line.

Pretty soon its mop up time. The above tactics will work on the offensive but you really have to use your skirmishes to pull their formations apart. Also maneuver your inf and try to catch their line out of formation when you charge.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Chariots. A Mini Guide.

Hmmm. After such an impressive title, maybe I should think of some nice stuff to write, no?

Notes: the information I am gathering/have gathered is a compilation of my experiances and the experiances of others as recounted on these great forums. Please feel free to point out an errors I have made/left standing. Also, I am playing Rome: Total Realism (v 2.2), a very nice mod that can be found in many places. It edits out and/or modifies units to more realistically reflect the history of the time period in Rome: Total War. Therefore, this guide may be less useful than you may or may not have hoped. I also generally play on hard/hard. Enough notes.

Chariots in General
A chariot is a cart, usually with two or four wheels pulled by one to four horses. For this guide, I will refer to the chariots that the Britons have in Rome: Total War, and not other chariots. British chariots are very cartlike, according to RTW. They are boxy and have two to three people on them. They are drawn by two horses.

A chariot's value is in its maneuverability and speed on the battlefield. It moves much faster than a normal human being (ie, not RTW infantry). It is also much heavier than a human being. This gives it a strong shock value. A chariot crashing into a human body can be quite detrimental to said body. This is pretty much true in RTW, though maybe less so than in real life. When a chariot drives into a group of men, the men will probably be sent flying or just crushed. The same effects apply for women, you politically correct snobs.

And less on theoretical, dusty stuff on to... no, not the individual units yet, just more general stuff!

British chariots do not perform as well as Egyptian chariots (that don't even exist in Total Realism). I have found (at least in the Realism mod) that the general's chariots - and presumably heavy chariots, too - are not of much use. Yeah, they send troops flying, but they don't actually kill them. This may seem at conflict with my previous remarks. Well... actually, that is at conflict with my previous remarks. And so I find general's chariots to be just about useless, except for applying general pressure to an enemy or mostly harmlessly chasing routers.

Anecdote: One time, I was fighting some rebs in some woods. I had a huge advantage in [general's] chariots. They had a couple more warbands and peasants. But my general was quite good (faction leader and all). So I come into the battle thinking, "Well, time to kick trousers with my shiny chariots." But when I told my chariots to charge the enemy warbands, they would run up to the enemy dogs and... stop. Then advance a little further and... stop. They finally walked into the enemy, immediately getting bogged down and killed. Maybe because this happened in forest... but it left a bad taste in my mouth regarding heavy chariots ever since. [Lost the battle, faction leader, and two family members, by the way. Had to bribe them rebs... humiliating.]

Moral of Story:
Don't let your soldiers die. Or, use chariots wisely. Like, don't use them.

Light Chariots (Breton Light Chariots in Total Realism)
This is the first chariot you can get, besides generals. They are actually very good. They can form Cantabrian Circles, a must for skrimishing cav. They have a good stock of ammo, and are deadly accurate, and can fire while moving. Use them to harrass an enemy unit, then hunt down routers or flank the enemy. I find them very useful.
Realism Note: Breton Light Chariots haven't had their charge reduced, like the other chariots. This may contribute to their effectiveness.

Heavy Chariots (Breton Heavy Chariots in Total Realism)
Haven't gotten to these babies.... suspect they will be utter crap. Please tell me if otherwise... and then I will form my own opinion.

General's Chariots (Or whatever you call them)
As I may or may not have conveyed to your, dear reader, my opinions of this unit, let me iriterate:


They.
Are.
Useless.

Realism Note: This may be because the charge bonuses have been lowered for most chariots. Don't actually know, because I am not a numbers man.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This concludes the written part of your SATs.

Uummm. Never Mind.

Hope this helps people with questions about British chariots. I may or may not come back and append to this, depending on how loudly the masses complain about it. If I insulted or bored you to death...

I dunno, try playing outside or something.