Spain

[katank]

Craterus, then your original post was misleading. You gave the impression that you only have 3-4 units of cav as your entire army that took on the enemy.

You also had infantry pinning in a forest and this matters a lot. General cav is also quite believable as round shields will do little even when charging a rear unless highly massed.

[pezhetairoi]

Ouch... I can't imagine what i'll do with my round shields now when I play spain. Pretty disheartening to know your buildable cavalry is useless. But, oh well. I suppose they should be some use at least on medium.

[katank]

On medium, they are still trash. I had a unit of Iberian inf pinning a hastati unit from the front and charged a round shield into the ear of the hastati.

Result: both iberia inf and round shield routing off the map with around half casualties for the hastati.

Results get a little better with the round shields being stacked inside each other in wedge mode. This is able to break through barbarian warbands.

Best to have the general cav being the actual shock force, leading a massive wedge with the round shields adding more weight to the charge and later peeling off individual units to chase routers.

[pezhetairoi]

.

This is able to break through barbarian warbands.

Wow. Big deal. Especially when hastati are what we have to worry about >.< Sigh. I think I'll have to spend on barbarian cavalry mercs. All these posts have just erased any faith I had in round shields. Time to switch back to infantry tactics. Or perhaps I should just sail to Caralis and import some hoplites.

Um Craterus, the Julii send full-stack armies at Osca, do they?

[Craterus]

They sent one good army to mine, but apparently they sometimes send 3 armies and then tthey run out of steam. If they come back, I'm going to try and decimate them like before (with 2 generals bodyguard).

[katank]

In my campaign, they landed in Osca on turn 5 which is about the fastest they can land there. They landed a 7 unit stack of hastati/townwatch with a good general.

Five turns later, a proper full stack showed up. It's really annoying ealy on and isn't that easy to deal with as Spain as you need all your resources to reuniting the Iberian penisula fast.

[pezhetairoi]

Well as I see it, should we do what the AI did, and spend everything we have on recruiting troops and mercs and reuniting the peninsula while making Osca dispensable? I.e. we allow Osca to be lost to the Julii while we reunite the peninsula, then try to engage them in a sally battle or something by sieging Osca back with one unit and 19 others as reinforcements or something...

Does that make any sense to you? I mean, Osca's rich, but that's better than spreading out your forces against a force that has an equal chance of beating you as you have of beating it...

[Dromikaites]

On medium, they are still trash. I had a unit of Iberian inf pinning a hastati unit from the front and charged a round shield into the ear of the hastati.

Result: both iberia inf and round shield routing off the map with around half casualties for the hastati.

Results get a little better with the round shields being stacked inside each other in wedge mode. This is able to break through barbarian warbands.

Best to have the general cav being the actual shock force, leading a massive wedge with the round shields adding more weight to the charge and later peeling off individual units to chase routers.

I found out that round shield cavalry and iberian infantry are OK if raised in cities with temples that give experience boosts (Epona for all sorts of troops or Teutatis for infantry). Also it's agood idea to improve their weapons and armor.

There is a feature I was neglecting in the begining of my Spain campaign, due to the fact I've first used round shields and iberians as Chartage. This feature is the warcry and warcry is available only for barbarian factions. Warcry improves the morale of the iberians and damages that of their foes. It also seems to improve the charge bonus of the troops yelling it before attacking.

[Craterus]

Warcry imporves attack also. I would still recommend not using Iberian infantry. Just build up fast and get some Scutarii, or better, BULL WARRIORS!!!

[IliaDN]

Even on VH/VH bull - warriors are cool.

[pezhetairoi]

Warcry imporves attack also. I would still recommend not using Iberian infantry. Just build up fast and get some Scutarii, or better, BULL WARRIORS!!!

i.e. sit tight in Spain and wait for population to grow? The Julii, it seems, will not give you that luxury... and most probably neither will the Carthaginians... :-(

[Dromikaites]

i.e. sit tight in Spain and wait for population to grow? The Julii, it seems, will not give you that luxury... and most probably neither will the Carthaginians... :-(

Another way of getting Bull Warriors is to capture cities with equivalent temples. My first Bull Warriors came from Corduba, where the Carthagenians had built a level 3 temple of Baal. The second batch came from Lugundunum, 'cause the Gauls also worship Esus. Any temple of law would do.

[Craterus]

Craterus, then your original post was misleading. You gave the impression that you only have 3-4 units of cav as your entire army that took on the enemy.

You also had infantry pinning in a forest and this matters a lot. General cav is also quite believable as round shields will do little even when charging a rear unless highly massed.

The infantry was hidden in a forest for the whole, entire battle, they were not sent into action purely because I am a confident cavalry commander and I'm not so confident with infantry. NO PINNING INVOLVED!

On medium, they are still trash. I had a unit of Iberian inf pinning a hastati unit from the front and charged a round shield into the ear of the hastati.

That's because Round Shields and Iberian Infantry are both useless lol.