Chariot Generals

[Somebody Else]

Does anyone else find the fragility of chariot-borne faction members somewhat annoying? I've had, in my most recent campaign, three family members killed whilst charging into the rear of an engaged enemy formation (my best general, my second best general and my faction leader) I've also had them fall off bridges. Makes playing as the British infuriating, I can't trust my generals to be of any use in combat

[Echelon]

Yes, the chariot generals are utterly rubbish. Use them wisely, as in: don't use them.

[Paul Peru]

Ah! I thought I had just suddenly become rubbish in some way.
I started my first brit campaign a few days ago, and have had the same experiences. They look less lethal than the south-eastern chariots as well, perhaps it's historically correct. After all these are barbarians, as opposed to the post-Alexandrian sophisticates.
I use them for killing routers. Otherwise out of harm's way, and close to my men, hoping that they actually give some morale boost.

[ChaosLord]

Don't feel bad, I lost three family members in my first test of Briton Chariots, running down PEASANTS.

So yeah, the Briton General(Heavy) Chariots are made out of paper. Don't get them anywhere close to an actual fight, the only think i'd suggest doing is swiping the rear/flanks of enemys with the group. They won't cause a whole ton of casualties but Chariots cause fear to infantry which can be a great boost in battle. Generally everything they do can be done better by your Briton Light Chariots though.

[Vikings]

Heh ran off the bridge, now that sound like sexy.

One thing i dont like about those Chariots becuz they'er hard to turn or U turn. Yes i gotta stay they'er pretty fragile alright.

-Vikings

[Jeanne d'arc]

Well what is there to expect , we are talking about 36 men on 12 chariots, if the enemy manages to disable 1 chariot then that makes for a 1 on 12 chance u get to kill the general as well.Even a few volleys with arrows could easely kill a briton chariot general.

[Slyspy]

Yes but gameplay-wise it sucks when you consider that the Britons do not have any regular cavalry. A little tweak, at least for family bodyguards, might be in order perhaps.

Incidently the Briton chariots also suck at killing routers. Trundle-trundle-hesitate-wham-we knock you over! Woo scary. Then the routers pick themselves up and run the other way while your chariots do a huge u-turn. Why is their killing power so low against routing troops? Half a dozen barbarian cavalry mercs do a better job.

Just another minor RTW issue I guess!

[mad caligula]

they suck i was playing with my egyptien campaing i lost two in the same battle

[NightStar]

I found it funny that some people were complaining that chariots were over powered.....and when I got scythed chariots with the Seleucids I found them to be absolute rubbish. I have never had any trouble at all to kill those egyptian chariots either both as the Seleuc's or the Romans...the only thing that annoys me is the speed of those wagons, I have a hard time catching them with light, fast cavalry

[son of spam]

^Chariots are easy to kill with missile units, but cav seems to get mauled versus them.

[Cardinal]

By the times the romans were taking over the known world, charriots were seriously out of fashion as far as war went. I read some where that that they were quite effective in transporting 2-3 warriors in the battlefield quickly from one place to another by the "brits", but don't quote me on that.

I suspect that this low-tech. aspect is what they might have tried to simulate here by making the chariots so absolutely sh*te.

[The_Emperor]

Historically the Brits used to hurl javelins from the chariots ride around disrupting the enemy formation, and then the riders lept off to continue the fight on foot...

The drivers would also come back and collect them in a pinch if the battle started to go badly.

Still you would have thought that running someone over in a chariot would probably kill them, after all your being run over by two horses and some big wheels!!

[Schnief]

I don't know about you guys, but I had a very bad expierence with these chariots once they went crazy!!! They charged through my ranks, turned sideways and cut my first line of units down with with the pointed metall blades on their wheels... Horses, heavy infantry, you name it. Very Nasty!!

[Doug-Thompson]

I don't know about you guys, but I had a very bad expierence with these chariots once they went crazy!!! They charged through my ranks, turned sideways and cut my first line of units down with with the pointed metall blades on their wheels... Horses, heavy infantry, you name it. Very Nasty!!

Crazy chariots are more dangerous than sane ones. I had one bezerk chariot unit kill 18 horse archers it never would have caught if the HA could have forseen their next move and skirmished away.

Very nasty, indeed.

[Vikings]

Hope next time they'll replace the spinning blades on the wheels with rubber hoses!

-Vikings

[Somebody Else]

I've now taken to leaving the general well out of things, and only engaging with my light chariots when they're out of ammo. When I do send chariots in, I like to have cavalry mercenaries charging in concurrently - the chariots disrupt, the cavalry actually get down the the killing.

[Theodoret]

I found chariots quite effective playing as the Britons. The light chariots are as good as horse archers, and can also be used up close and personal. Admittedly the general's chariot isn't all that effective in close combat, but then again I avoid commiting the general unless it is absolutely necessary whichever faction I play. The main advantage of chariots is the fear factor. They are probably best used against less organised troops - I never had much success with the Seleucid ones but then again I wasn't fighting barbarian mobs.

[Doug-Thompson]

The light chariots are as good as horse archers ...

I have to disagree, Theodoret. They seem much more prone to getting trapped against the map edge, and not being able to skirmish away as effectively.

Granted, my only experience was in a very crude test where I put a unit of HA and then a unit of Briton light chariots on a "grassy flatlands" map against one unit of Gallic spears. However, the HA were able to stay away from the warband and defeat it without any human intervention. The chariots were quickly pinned against a map edge and routed. Significantly, this happened despite the fact that the chariots have twice the missile firepower of a vanilla Parthian HA.

The chariots seemed to spend more of their time skirmishing away than firing. I suspect this is because they are slower than vanilla HA and other light cavalry types.

... and can also be used up close and personal.

Now that part is completely true. Vanilla HA are close to useless as melee units.