Phalanx bug

[Ellesthyan]

Try setting of guard mode, when I do that they stop drifting and start fighting

[Magraev]

The right-step is a feature and not a bug. It seems this is historically accurate - they actually did sidestep (to stay behind the shield of the guy to theis right in the phalanx). To solve keep two units - one in front of the gate and the other behind and to the right to "pick up the slack".

On the other hand it seems a bit silly, that the phalanx will eventually be facing the wall next to the gate rather than the gate itself...

[The_Emperor]

This has been said many times and this is not a bug but a feature...

Historically a man in a Phalanx would be trying to get protection from the shield of the man to his right from missiles, so a Phalanx did have a natural tendancy to slide to the right as men bunched up.

This also helps explain why in ancient warfare a tradition was developed (from classical times) that the best units were always placed on the right, this is because in Hoplite warfare they would see combat with the enemy first.

[hoom]

A welcome historical feature yes, but like several others an overdone one.
30seconds & most of your phalanx is standing around doing nothing while the legion that hit you head on is rolling up your left flank

[The_Emperor]

True but thats only if you don't use the Phalanx with any other unit covering the flanks.

Also when your Phalanx sidesteps too far, it sometimes pays to move them into standard formation to continue the fight... Hoplites seem to be ok at this. You can always reform the Phalanx when your men are properly facing the enemy.

[R'as al Ghul]

The phalanx needs micromanaging like HA did in MTW.
But they respond quite good and seem to profit from rearrangements
during melee. This sounds odd, because in MTW it would be the safe death
of your unit.
What I occasionally do is to change/rotate the facing of the phalanx via "," and "." keys. The phalanx erects their spears (dissolves the phalanx), wheels around rather fast and puts the spears down again. If you're engaged in melee with cav , your phalanx will often crush those horses in the middle of the phalanx (that have jumped over) during this procedure. At the end of this your phalanx will be positioned better and grind down the last cav in front of you.
As the Emperor said, turning the phalanx off is a good option when already in melee and the enemy is closer than a spears length or when the enemy has disturbed your phalanx. No point in keeping the phalanx mode when it's already disordered. Switch to standard formation, wait a while and switch back to phalanx.

R'as


This phalanx-thread explains it all

[Longasc]

I wonder how people can dare to name this a "feature".

CA did not give much about historical accuracy or playability with Chariots, Cavalry and Spearmen/Phalanx unit types either.

Now this odd behaviour gets "explained" because someone found a true fact about the tendency of Hoplite-Formations shifting to the right.

There have been more blatant tries to defend bugs and name them features with other games, but this makes Hoplite units sliding right away from the door and letting the enemy in unhindered not better in any way.

Use guard mode, OK.

Still, the sitting duck Hoplites are bugged. Even Cavalry can charge them head-on and win. Not even the weak rear and sides are necessary to do so, and this would require at least a bit of thought from the player.

This unit is ridiculously misbalanced. An Army of Hoplites gets slaughtered by Cavalry, Archers and even pure foot Infantry-heavy Roman Armies butcher them.

Add in this nice "feature", and you really get the feeling "it is all historical correct".

Sorry for my sarcasm. But this cannot be right.

[Akka]

I wonder how people can dare to name this a "feature".

CA did not give much about historical accuracy or playability with Chariots, Cavalry and Spearmen/Phalanx unit types either.

Now this odd behaviour gets "explained" because someone found a true fact about the tendency of Hoplite-Formations shifting to the right.

Now, seriously...
Phalanxes are the ONLY units that do that in the game.
And it happens that it was PRECISELY what happened in history.

It takes a serious stretch of negative mind to consider that it's only coincidence...

[The_Emperor]

I wonder how people can dare to name this a "feature".

CA did not give much about historical accuracy or playability with Chariots, Cavalry and Spearmen/Phalanx unit types either.

They did, I have seen cavalry and chariots lose big time to spearmen. As the Britons charging your general's chariot into a mass of standard warbands tends to leave you with a very dead general... Also I have taken out Scythe chariots, Elephants and lots of cavalry with Phalanx before.

If your playing on Hard or Very Hard, then thatwould go some way to explain why your Phalanx gets slaughtered by cav from the front, because I have rarely seen it happen on Normal battle difficulty.

The Greeks pretty much have an All-Phalanx army with no heavy Cavalry at all except for the General's bodyguards (Greek Cav is light cav) and I have had no problems with them chewing up all in their path in my Greek campaign.

This unit is ridiculously misbalanced. An Army of Hoplites gets slaughtered by Cavalry, Archers and even pure foot Infantry-heavy Roman Armies butcher them.

I disagree, Hoplites losing to Cav only happens when the units get flanked, or charged when their formation is disordered (such as while turning) also if you notice Roman infantry does a very good job at naturally "wrapping around" the Phalanx and hitting the unit on the flanks... It only takes a handful of men to get on the flank for a Phalanx to feel the pain.

Archers are not so good against them. Armoured Hoplites take very few casualties from missile fire and can be very stubbon!

Also an army of hoplites can get slaughtered by cavalry if they hit the flanks and rear or manage to disrupt the formation... If they cannot do this then they will lose. I have seen people lose online when they decided to bring an all-cavalry army and faced a Hoplite army that formed a box as a means to prevent flanking.

[R'as al Ghul]

Even Cavalry can charge them head-on and win.

Could you tell us at which difficulty level this happens?
I heard this before but just haven't seen this.
I play at VH/H and my Hoplites repel Cav and chariots. Militia Hoplites have more difficulties, but they are also weaker.
Just yesterday my off-the-mill unit of hoplites met an enemy general of Seleucia. The battle was just between those two units on even terrain.
I had plenty of time to position the phalanx, their phalanx was deployed perfectly. The enemy charged right into it and evaporated in seconds.

R'as