Quote Originally Posted by Gith
Just going off of my memory, what I read in "The Western Way of War" leads me to believe they did move slowly...albeit maybe not as slow as in RTW. Mostly because the Greeks, most notably the Spartans, felt it was worth the few extra casualties from ranged weapons as long as the formation held.

I'd like to see the phalanx formations not take as much damage from ranged attacks as they do. With a hoplon, helm, breastplate, and greaves, an armoured hoplite is going to be VERY hard to kill from point blank with an arrow. A javelin is a different story, but hearing of Cretan archers slaughtering a phalanx is very disappointing.
They dont slaughter them, unless you have many cretin archers (which are very elite in their own right) ganging up on a small number of Hoplites, usually while the archers defending and the hoplites labouring up a hill, im sure you get the point.
They do take one hell of a pounding from arrows before routing, but there is only so much even the most armoured unit can take.

If the AI advanced its entire line as one this would not happen often, as even one unit of Cretin archers would be hard pressed to whittle down an armoured hoplite unit before reaching your lines.