The Roman Backstab and other battle tactics...

[ChaosLord]

In my current Scipii campaign i'm in a long drawn out war with Gaul for control of Iberia. The Gauls have HUGE armies so i'm outnumbered most of the time, to make up for it i've been hiring mercs. Most mercs though are usually shoddy in comparison to my Legions so i've taken to using a somewhat unorthodox tactic.

I'll hire a few units of mercs, stretch them out 3 ranks deep infront of my lines before battle. Then my Legions will be put behind them on defensive and fire at will. The result is the enemy charging into my lines while my legionaires bombard them with pilums. I slaughter alot of the poor mercenaries, but the sheer killing power of the pilums works great against the Gauls as well. I've even routed some units purely by doing this. Once my guys have exhausted my ammo i'll charge whats left of the front line.

Usually their shaken and a charge does them in, even if not they've been severely cut-down due to the barrage. I feel kinda sorry for my mercs when I do this, but then I remember i'm playing as a Roman.


But anyway, thats just the tactic i've started using, what other interesting tactics is everyone else using as the Romans or against the Romans?

[The_Dude]

Well I use I kind of classical tactics, same as you describe but with light roman infanterie in front and legion, principes behind on auto-fire, couple of dog to launch against the strong unit (mostly to old them on the pilum fire).
I use also a lot of cav against the gaule, flank them and they flee for their mum , crying for .