Problem beating battle of Carrhae

[bigredlemon]

And i thought i was the only one!

btw, presuming we kill off the cats... how the heck do we take on the horse archers? they'll keep running away while firing at you!

[Noong]

They have to run out of arrows some time.... hehe

[bigredlemon]

They have to run out of arrows some time.... hehe

I recall placing archers beside the computer town square watching them just chuck away at the idiots waiting in the middle. Let me tell you... waiting for me to run out of arrows has not brought them success.

[bigredlemon]

Well i thought up another possible start:

use the two calvary to heard the horse archer into your infantry... have the cavs flank a archer or two from behind/sides so it has no where to go but toward your infantry. Keep all of the in testudo formation except two units closeest to where you're hearding them. have the two infantry alt charge the cav archers while hearding and then charging them.

You should be able to kill off one or two archers this way before the cats get here. Then remove testudo formation. Have the infantry that the cats are charging into counter alt charge, while the other infanty javelin charge. Position your cavs in front and to the side of the infantry and charge into the back of the cats and pull out just in time for the flank infatry to charge in after chucking the javlins. The cats are now suroounded.

You'll probably need to keep them a bit awar from the infantry at first so that the cats don't charge your cavs first. (you'll lose them quick.) Or if they do charge you, i guess luring away two cats isn't too bad, but it'll be hard to shake them off without losing some cavs which you'll very much need for the horse archers later. After taking care of teh cats, repeat the hearding trick ti finish the horse archers.

If you do it all right, i think you could pull out with a victory.

[bigredlemon]

Oh year, tried to use your cavs to heard the archers away from the back of your infantry line, where they're weakest. If they can only shoot at your through the front, they'll probably hit a few of their cats too.

[cooldragon]

Chemok i tried your strategy and well it didn't work. I have been able to surround the Heavy cavlry and killed about 200 of them but then the CA's jump in and charge from 5 directions.

To surround the heavy cavlry i took my 2nd line which has 2 units and i took them out of the testudo formation. then i made them run to each side of the front line and move them up. THen when the cavlry charges the 2 units can charge the cavlry from the back of the cavlry.

The only problem is that they charge too late. If they would charge right when i tell them i would be able to kill them quickly. I may just give up on it till someone comes up with some crazy strategy.

[bigredlemon]

I may just give up on it till someone comes up with some crazy strategy.

try mine

[cooldragon]

I did not see your strategy bigredlemon. That looks like a good strategy. However i dont understand how i can force the CA's into my infantry with my cavlry before the heavy cavlry charge.

Also how do i countercharge without them throwing javelin?

thanks for all the help guys.

[bigredlemon]

I did not see your strategy bigredlemon. That looks like a good strategy. However i dont understand how i can force the CA's into my infantry with my cavlry before the heavy cavlry charge.

Also how do i countercharge without them throwing javelin?

thanks for all the help guys.

run one cav around behind and to the left of the horse archers, and run the other behind and to the right. This will force the CA to run straight forward. You can have them charge without throwing by holding alt while double clicking.

[chemchok]

Chemok i tried your strategy and well it didn't work. I have been able to surround the Heavy cavlry and killed about 200 of them but then the CA's jump in and charge from 5 directions.

To surround the heavy cavlry i took my 2nd line which has 2 units and i took them out of the testudo formation. then i made them run to each side of the front line and move them up. THen when the cavlry charges the 2 units can charge the cavlry from the back of the cavlry.

The only problem is that they charge too late. If they would charge right when i tell them i would be able to kill them quickly. I may just give up on it till someone comes up with some crazy strategy.

Yeah, I tried my idea a couple of times and I kept on getting kills in the mid 200's but no victory. The turning point was always the 2nd group of cats that come from behind the hill. They either chase away/kill my cav or destroy one side of my already weakened and embattled infantry. I like your idea of sending the two units ahead and then charging back, maybe I'll give it a try.

@bigredlemon, I wasn't able to herd any of the archers back toward my infantry before the cat charge hits. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's seems really hard to be able to pull that off in time. Still, I'll try your counter-charge/flank idea, it definitely has promise. BTW, did you manage to get a victory?

[Ptah]

Possibly an alternative:

The problem is that there are two Parthian armies with two generals. While the kataphracts are devastating, so are the horse archers(gold level weapon upgrades.. damn it!). When you think of it the losses from the horse archers seem to be actually larger than the losses sustained from kataphracts.

I've noticed there is a very steep but small hill behind your lines, and an enemy general is stalking out there. At the beginning of the battle, as quickly as possible, send your general's cavalry and Roman cavalries to the hill to kill the enemy general(this guy's the leader of the horse archers) as fast as you can.

At the same time, sacrifice two~three infantry cohorts to stop the initial kataphract charge and buy some time, while the rest five~six cohorts run ASAP to the hilltop.

I almost won the battle on medium difficulty - I'm pretty sure it was by luck(but you need it in a situation like this! :) ). I managed to kill the general of the horse archers very quickly with minimal losses. Subsequently, the horse archers supported the kataphracts and charged with them to my infantry, but by some miracle, the 5 units of cohorts managed to hold the lines at the hilltop.

Incredibly, all of the enemy cavalry routed after a short but brutal fight. I've also sustained very heavy losses, and only about 30 infantry remained(total of all the five cohorts) plus 12 bodyguard cavalry. The Roman cavalry was all dead.

The only enemy unit left was the enemy general of the kataphracts, and he killed my general which was the end of it all - but this was as close as I came to winning the fight. I've tried different and same tactics many times, but never came that close to winning.

[cooldragon]

Ptah i tried your strategy and it didn't work too well. It is really difficult to pull off.

So far the highest i have been able to kill is 350 troops but i always lose.
I can easily beat it on easy but it is too difficult to rout the horse archers. they are always able to run away.

[Underhand]

You want a crazy strategy? Try out my idea (based on a true story! Well, an account of one of Alexander the Great's battles...).

Since I don't have time to be obsessed with a game right now and so don't own RTW, there is no guarantee that this will work. This is the closest I can get to actually commanding these battles

[chemchok]

This is one of those situations where you really can't appreciate what a cataphract charge is going to do to a formation of Roman centurions unless you see them flying through the air like bowling pins in the game.

Anyway, that encirclement tactic is not going to work Underhand.
1. The cav archers will not focus on just one unit.
2. There isn't enough time to take the Roman infantry out of their defensive formation and then move them in position before the cats hit.