screeching women: anti cavalry?

**Slaists** · 11-05-2004, 19:50

hmm, does anyone know of any anti-cavalry bonus screeching women would receive? the other night, my heir (julii) charged a unit of screeching women and annihilated them in one charge (no roman losses). he then proceeded to deal with another unit of screeching women in the same fashion. to my amazement, the cavalry unit went from 35 to 7 in a matter of seconds with practically no losses on the screeching side... i had to pull the heir out. consequently, i charged the screechign ones by a unit of equities and in no time, there were no women left... what's going on? the heir was not exchausted or even tired when he charged the germans and the germans had no valor upgrades... a mystery...

btw, difficulty setting was on hard.

**Quillan** · 11-05-2004, 20:00

At a guess, the first unit of screeching women caused a lot of hits on the bodyguards, but no double hits on the same member. Generals bodyguards all have 2 hitpoints each. Then when it got into the second unit, they got hit again and started dropping like flies.

**Siris** · 11-05-2004, 20:01

That possibly could have been it. But personally I have yet to even encounter "screeching women" on the battlefields. And when I do, it'll be hard to order the assault upon them... their women! But if their killing my men they'll be massacred by my Hoplites.

**Sin Qua Non** · 11-05-2004, 20:33

Do they get an anti-cav bonus? Because the only bonus I've seen them get is when I've killed so many of them that my horses start to trip over them. I've routed several groups at once with round shields. Iv'e even had them walk into battle and massacre them. Ehat happened to you is odd. Any chance they were of exceptionally high experience, or had armor upgrades to raise their natural 1 defense rating?

**Vlad Tzepes** · 11-05-2004, 22:48

Originally Posted by Slaists

hmm, does anyone know of any anti-cavalry bonus screeching women would receive? the other night, my heir (julii) charged a unit of screeching women and annihilated them in one charge (no roman losses). he then proceeded to deal with another unit of screeching women in the same fashion. to my amazement, the cavalry unit went from 35 to 7 in a matter of seconds with practically no losses on the screeching side... i had to pull the heir out. consequently, i charged the screechign ones by a unit of equities and in no time, there were no women left... what's going on? the heir was not exchausted or even tired when he charged the germans and the germans had no valor upgrades... a mystery...

btw, difficulty setting was on hard.

Maybe second time they also farted when screeching. Must be hard to yell like that.

You know those generals always talk about bowels and stuff.

**Red Harvest** · 11-06-2004, 09:01

Units file doesn't detail what the screeching ability does. I imagine it has a negative impact on all enemy units withing some radius (including cav.) The women do have decent attack stats (11, with a 7 charge bonus) and they have armour piercing axes. They have almost no defense though.

The only thing that makes sense is that the combination of screeching and 2nd attack resulted in your cav not effectively charging. At that point the women would cause some casualties, perhaps they even countercharged at the right moment before you met.

Countercharges can be surprisingly effective--it is actually one of the features I like, but I'm not sure what the "rules" are. Caesar said that charges should be met with a countercharge. It should have the effect of bolstering the morale of your men and at the same time perhaps lowering the confidence of the men charging at you and taking advantage of any disorder caused by their longer charge. This would make perfect sense for offensively minded Roman sword infantry and it would prevent them from being pushed back on their heels. It probably wouldn't make as much sense for a phalanx or spear unit. They could actually benefit from staying put and bracing for the onslaught since the spears/pikes could perhaps form a better wall that way. That's my take on it anyway.

**Koguryo_hotpocket** · 11-07-2004, 10:07

Totally useless... I won't let them stand infront of cavalry.

SW are just for backup. They are chip, have good first attack power, and they screech!!

**Mikeus Caesar** · 11-12-2004, 20:33

Screeching Women are the most useless units i have ever laid eyes on. The germans laid siege to one of my towns, and i killed both SW units within seconds.

**Jeanne d'arc** · 11-13-2004, 01:48

I find the head hurlers to be real cavalry killers once the cavalry gets stuck.
The screechers are usefull for support or for the use as shocktroops if your desperate, they have a decent charge and have a good morale(must have been strong women back then

), i wouldend charge them up front though.
I have 1 screecher unit in every germanic town just for support in case i am besieged.Very cheap unitcost and upkeep makes this not an entirely useless unit.

**Sin Qua Non** · 11-13-2004, 02:23

Screeching women are truly only useful for the player, who knows to keep them behind the front line like a homocidal cheerleader squad. The AI seems to often use them in a sorted single line with the actual front line units, where they make for easy breahces. Keep them in the rear, though, and they really strengthen the front line. I think they also cause a morale drop for the enemy, not sure.

It's too bad there aren't any unit behavior modifiers like how there is a faction behavior modifier. Something that sefines a unit's basic AI behavior like Aggressive/Defensive/Missile/Skirmish/Evasive/Covert would be nice.

**Vikings** · 11-13-2004, 02:24

Sound like those women were screaming for there life. No wonder the horses panic!

**bmolsson** · 11-13-2004, 02:37

Always send the wardogs on the womens. That is what daddy taught me.....

**Vikings** · 11-13-2004, 18:07

Aww that aint the way to treat the ladies.

**Agravain of Orkney** · 11-13-2004, 18:42

When screeching they cause a morale penalty to nearby enemy troops. They have no special combat ability or bonus. In my opinion, they are best used lined up right behind an infantry unit with good attack, like chosen axemen, night raiders, berserkers, or even naked fanatics. Get the infantry doing its warcry (gives a temporary boost to attack stats) and the women screeching. Note too that the night raiders and berserkers cause fear in enemy foot units. So if you get the right combo, and pick the right matchup, they could be very effective in punching a hole through even the strongest enemy infantry line.