Best phalanx in game?

[Praylak]

Greek Armoured Hoplite. Not only do they look cool, as Akka modestly pointed out, but that armour has it's advantages. Spear vs pike is no contest, thats why these guys are nice. Forget the spears in this situation, run them around the flank and rear of the pikemen and engage with sword.

[Osbot]

In the tests I ran, I was not microing the units at all. I simple lined them up gave em a push and said go. This is why in that thread where I posted the results the Silver Shields lost some battles they otherwise should have won. They would shuffle themselves away from the guys they were fightin and end up getting smoked in the back ;p

[The_Emperor]

I ran a Silver Shields vs Spartan Hoplite battle, and the Spartans were winning acording to the tooltip.

But they were not, with their shorter spears they couldn't get much purchase on the Silver Shields, who with the superior length of their Pikes were able to get more kills...

But the Spartans slowly shuffled in closer and then they really started killling. Even with the superior numbers and longer Pikes, the Silver shields were then in a world of hurt.

The Spartans won that one.

I also had a costly battle storming a Greek cityas the Selucids, a unit of armoured Hoplites chewed through Two Units of Levy Pikemen, and weakened two others to below 50%, before they were routed and killed.

And the two surviving levy Pike units, attacked them from both the front and rear!!

Armoured Hoplites are tough.

[Husar]

I would say Greek Armoured Hoplites aswell, but only because of their general performance. As I played a greek campaign I once lost 4 units of Spartans to archers in a siege battle(I was attacking) against the Brutii. They are superior to Armoured Hoplites in close combat with swords on walls, but Armoured Hoplites are not that bad at it aswell, against AI controlled Sacred Band in a custom battle I lost with both(no tactics), but the Armoured Hoplites seemed to do better( I think that was their better defense). In my campaign I didn´t care that much about archers firing into my wall of armoured hoplites, because it didn´t do serious damage, I could wait and hunt them down after the legions or whatever were defeated in close combat.
And that´s why I would say greek armoured hoplites.

PS: I remember them defending my walls very well against all those units Pontus and others sent onto them.

[Bob the Insane]

Greek Armoured Hoplites...

Armour of 11 is nearly as good as elephants and the most advanced Roman units and better than everyone else (except Desert Axemen the *&^$ing mutants..).. Add good skills to that and not hugely expensive...

A solid unit....

[Ktonos]

GAH is the best all-around phalanx unit. Spartans are a Juggernaut if the enemy do not have missile units otherwise you must be carefull with them.

[Jeanne d'arc]

What about sacred band??Surely they would win vs GAH.....

[Oleander Ardens]

One should devide in two categories:

a) Long pikes

b) Short pikes

Anyway I like the Spartans for being brilliant heavy infantry too, using them on the wings and the rear of the GAH. A very high attack (16) with both spears and swords, the very_hardy and the two lifepoint makes them great wings. Agemas also shine as flankers, are well armored, have good stats and large shields and come in a large package, plus they are also able to fight as heavy infantry. They form also the flanks of the mainline of the long_pikes Phalanx. Same goes for the Sacred Band, only that they are fewer and heavier...

Cheers

OA