Testudo Tactics

[TinCow]

Despite how cool this looks, I have only found one (rare) situation in which the testudo is worth using. This is when I am defending a bridge and I surround my side with a U shape line of cohorts so as to surround the enemy as soon as they rush across. If the enemy has archers, I start with all my units in testudo, which allows them to weather the arrows pretty well without having to move from their position near the bridge.

All other situations I have tried the testudo in have been complete failures. Towers on walls seems to kill cohorts as if they didn't have any shields. I find I take less casualties by running my units straight through the area than by slogging through it in slow testudo formation.

Has anyone else had success with this tactic in any other situations?

[Slaists]

Probably, the extra armor the engine factors in from testudo is just marginal to make any real difference against missile losses. I've noticed though that armored warlord cavalry men are very hard to kill by arrows and their armor rating is very high... I guess, we should mod the testudo formation armor rating up...

Well, I just checked the stats: warlord cavalry have armor of 6 whereas early legionnary cohort has armor of 7... beats me why cohorts can be killed by arrows easily whereas warlord cavalry can stand under arrow rain until archers run out of amo and nothing happens to them...

[Dorkus]

Probably, the extra armor the engine factors in from testudo is just marginal to make any real difference against missile losses. I've noticed though that armored warlord cavalry men are very hard to kill by arrows and their armor rating is very high... I guess, we should mod the testudo formation armor rating up...

Well, I just checked the stats: warlord cavalry have armor of 6 whereas early legionnary cohort has armor of 7... beats me why cohorts can be killed by arrows easily whereas warlord cavalry can stand under arrow rain until archers run out of amo and nothing happens to them...

shield and armor factor both go into effective armor vs. missiles.

at least that's the way it was in mtw.

warlords are harder to kill becasue they are more spread out, and have 2 hitpoints (the general will have many more) rather than 1.

[AngryGerbil]

Anyone else notice that your troops tire out very quickly when in testudo? You can put them in testudo and just let them sit still and they will tire out at what seems to be the same rate as if they were running full speed, very quickly.

This makes it even more worthless IMO.

[Haido]

Sure have. Lost an entire stack of cohorts due to this. I sapped a wall in a siege battle started to walk all my cohorts true the broken wall in testudo wall walked them safely out of distance from towers. Now what happened was that all of them were exhausted so when i finally arrived in town square i had one minute to remove the opponents. Which was impossible lost my entire force because of the battle timer.

[Jango Fett]

testudo must be fixed big time... just trying to make formations with it is a joke.. and i do not believe how fast they get tired from holding thier sheilds up

[DemonArchangel]

When in testudo, the knees are bent, so it's like walking in a squat.
difficult to do.

[Medieval Assassin]

Anyone else notice that your troops tire out very quickly when in testudo? You can put them in testudo and just let them sit still and they will tire out at what seems to be the same rate as if they were running full speed, very quickly.

This makes it even more worthless IMO.

It all makes some sense, The shields weight 22-25 pounds, holding that over your head for a while would start to tire your arms out...

[Haido]

The probably kneel so missile wont hit them in the legs and destroying the entire testudo.

[Medieval Assassin]

They also do seem to kneel slightly, no doubt in my mind that it would be a tiring postions on your arms, legs, feet, and theighs.

[jullii caesar]

I know tustedo wont protected your men from catupult fire but does it protected your men from ballista?

[LordKhaine]

I'm imagine it would actually increase the damage done. The shield wont give any protection against such a large bolt. And in a testudo the men are very tightly packed together, so you're even more likely to get a "man-kebab" effect.

[Rodion Romanovich]

No, it's useless mainly because of the fact that if the unit loses one man while walking in testudo formation, the entire formation has to stop, and it takes half a minute for them to reshape a testudo so they can move on. Usually they take more casualties during that minute and therefore they usually end up not being able to walk in testudo.

I also get less casualties and less fatigue by running through missiles than from walking with testudo. Only place I think testudo could be could is if you form testudo with ONE unit and move it ahead of your line to attract missile fire. If the enemy attack, you send the rest of your line forward. Usually a skilled opponent would however make sure to do hit-and-run attacks against the testudo legionary, and force your cavalry into the missile rain, or tire your troops by making them move forward to engage the raiders, only to have to move back again to avoid the missiles they were kept back from by the testudo unit. So in conclusion, the testudo seems useless in all situations I can think of, unless you're fighting AI in a wooden castle assault where the enemy have more missiles. It's a good way of making them waste all missiles by shooting at one cohort in testudo, then you move in with your own missiles, rams, cavalry and everything else you have...

[nameless]

If the walls have archers on them, I usually place a few "spare" cohorts in Testudeo near the wall. This way the archers and towers automatically target those cohorts while the others are pushing their ladders or towers to the walls. I hardly ever need to send another cohort up the wall unless needed which in this case would be gladiators or something.

For other purposes I dunno, it would be better though if we had more formations to work with the romans, I remember reading an Asterix comic about it, yes I know it's a comic but the writer noted something about showing you some other roman tactics. They had more than just one formation, the Testudeo.