Bracing the battle line
Hi, I've been reading these forums ever since MTW came out really but never really felt the need to post. But today, I noticed something very strange that I thought might be worth figuring out.
As many of you know, when a company of phalanx-type spearmen is in phalanx position, its almost impossible for friendly units to manage to pass through (enemy cavalry however of course find the spearmens attempts to stop them laughable at some times it seems as they leap over them) and in order to allow your men to pass freely you have to disengage the phalanx formation.
Now for the part where it gets odd. I was playing a game as Carthage (just so you know I'm currently using RTR 4.1) and had invaded the Iberian mainland in order to secure my prospering colonies along the southern shores. At first I was opposed by only mere peasants and the occasional skirmisher unit as I swept through their lands. However when my army reached Numantia, their capital, and last and final stronghold, I was delighted to find a rather impressive army of their scutarri as well as their javelin cavalry, whose name escapes me at the moment, along with the remnants of the small bands that had managed to escape my ever marching horde.
So I lay seige to them, and since they have only wooden walls, I array four rams to provide multiple breaches so as to use my usual wooden wall strategy. As per the usual, one attacks the wall to the left of the gate, one takes the gate itself, the other goes to the right of the gate, and the last goes for the next section of wall to the right.
As this goes on my archers and skirmishers pepper the enemy as they prove their superior intellect by running back and forth in range of my missles in order to deplete my ammo by catching them with their bodies until they are exhausted or dead. As the walls are broken in, i send my sword bearing infantry to the gate and have the wait outside it. The cavalry proceed to the left wall breach and also await further orders. At that point, I move my phalanx troops to the farthest breach and turn off their phalanx ability in preperation of the coming move. Then, as a final precaution, I place my as yet unused skirmisher group along the breach next to the gate.
Quickly, i send in my two sacred band and deploy them stacked on top of one another in a slim line so that one end of their formation touches the wall, and the other a random building's fence that resided in the fortification. The enemy, seeing me bringing my men into their grasp, all make a mad charge into the narrow corridor my sacred bands are awaiting. As the enemy approach I initiate their phalanx formation and realize I'd forgotten my Libyan Spearmen who were still waiting by the breach. Well I quick grabbed them and deployed them so that theyre spears were only just barely pressed against the backs of their sacred band comrades.
What then occured was bewildering. The Sacred Band, having the Libyan Spearmen behind them, were completely immovable. The Libyans spears kept the enemy from even causing the slightest shift in their attempts to break the formation and they were beginning to be slaughtered at an unusual rate. As they all made their way into the corridor of death, my infantry rushed through the gate and assembled so as to block their only escape, and then they charged directly into the rear of the preoccupied enemy forces. At the same moment, my cavalry stormed through the left breach and made a bee line for the now slowly encroaching enemy missle units that had not joined the fatal charge. The enemy infantry routed upon contact from the rear and evaporated in no time. After that it was a simple mop up operation. Yet I couldnt get over how the Sacred Band had each managed over 300+ kills in so short a time. Normally they shuffle to the side or the cavalry leap into their midsts or even they get pushed back somewhat, but with the Libyans holding them there, they were a veritable stone wall. Has anybody else encountered this?
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Originally Posted by Kraxis
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