Quote Originally Posted by Simon Appleton
- screen with velites and archers, ie put them before, not behind your hastati. Surely that is the historical deployment? Friendly fire is horrible in RTW. Now, the velites may not do much directly against a barbarian infantry charge but I believe in TW, charge bonuses only work against the unit charged. The barbs charge your velites; they have to redirect to hit the hastati as the velites pull back. On medium, I have found the barbs sometimes halt in confusion and even retire under terrible fire when the velites give way to serried rows of hastati.
That's the way I do it.
My formation for offense and defense is basically the same -
Heavy Infantry in the center - lines expanded in ranks of 5-6 deep (large unit size), with the General right behind them.
Way out on my flank, effectively detached from my main force is my calvary. If I can hide them behind a hill, even better.
In between my main Infantry force and my calvary are my 'spec ops' units (dogs, pigs, gladiators).
On my other flank I'll usually have one or two units of infantry (closer to my main force that my clavary flank).
Both flanks are deployed slightly forward of my center in a semi-flattened 'U'.
Velites up front and center, with archers right behind them.
On offense, move the whole lot forward slowly until your velites are in range; usually the enemy will react in some fashion and that's typically the que to pull your flanks in.
On defense, kick back and watch the bloodbath (again, your flanks are key here).