Getting Smacked by Gaul General

[Auctoritas]

Ok. I did it again. I got stuck into a meat grinder and am getting pasted.
I have approx 1400 troops, hastati, light cav and some mercenary equivalents. All are pretty stock standard. My general has 2 stars.

The extremely pissed off Gauls, have 3 generals together in their army, the head honcho with 6 or 7 stars. They have approx 1100 troops and all of theirs have substantial upgrades. (Seriously, his skirmishers do more damage in hand to hand then my hastati and mercs). His light cav consistently drive mine from the field and my infantry cannot hold the center.

So I am getting creamed. I have fought the battle 5 times now and lose, badly, every time. However, when I let the computer autoresolve, it is doing MUCH better than I am. Does this mean that I stink far, far worse than I suspected? Or is their algorithm somewhat capricious?

Also, is there a way to beat similar numbers of relatively, tricked-out troops?

You'd think that my 300 troop advantage would be of some use....

Thanks.

[blaker024]

flanks

[sapi]

If campaign difficulty is on easy you will win most auto-resolves.

Use guard mode to prolong defense against barbarians

[Auctoritas]

Flanks. If I could only reach them. His cavalry consistently routs mine from the field. His 3 characters each bring 3 bodyguard units of heavy cav. 1 unit of these was mashing through 2-3 of my light cav. Deeply annoying....

[vale]

I think flank them using your cavalry is a good move, try to put 2 cav on each side of your flank while deployment. After that use your hasti and rush into battle with the gaul while quickly micromanage the two team of the cav like elephant hit them and make a run through. That always work for me, but of course I have more heavy cavarly though. always got two to three of them plus my general.

[CMcMahon]

Have you tried setting up way in the back of your deployment area, so that his guys get at least somewhat tired by having to march all the way over to you?

[caesar44]

don't use your cavalry until the end , place your hastati in the front and your missile units behind them and just wait for them to come - they don't have a chance the hastati wont loose , then send your equites

[edyzmedieval]

If you have Barbarian mercenaries, put them in front of the army. They are spearmen and very effective against a cavalry charge. Hastati really are useless when dealing with cavarly. Battle deployment should be like this:

Barbarian Mercenaries(line 1)
Hastati(line 2, to kill cavalry when they stop in the spears of mercs)
Skirmishers and/or archers(line3, need protection,very weak!!!)
Cavalry(Equites and/or Barbarian cavalry, flank troops)
General(last line, only for use when situation is desperate)

If you have some Cretan Archers(although you can only recruit them in Greece, also you can find 3 units of them in Crete, bribe them!!!) they are very useful because they can do a lot of damage.

You can beat the Gauls very easily by having some superior troops like Principes. But if you have Preatorian cohorts, you can kill them immediately.

[derF]

I once got hammered by the Gauls in northern Italy. By Lugorix The Cunning. I later sent a fresh new army with new tactics and new Principes. That sorted him out.

[Lancome]

If you have some Cretan Archers(although you can only recruit them in Greece, also you can find 3 units of them in Crete, bribe them!!!) they are very useful because they can do a lot of damage.

You can also find Cretan archers in Asia Minor for some reason. Also try instead of playing attacker, try to play defender. Try to find a nice little hill and hold it and when they rout chase them w/ whatever Cavalry you have left.

[katank]

Bribing will not give you those Cretans as Romans don't own the unit.

Also, contraryto popular belief, barbarian mercs have no bonus vs. cav as they do not have the spear attribute despite holding one.

They should be frontline with your hastati behind with fire-at-will enabled.

Disable skirmish for all your missiles and have fire-at-will.

Aim to have overlapping field of fire just in front of the barbarian mercs.

Kepp your cav in reserve and only boost a caving center or give chase later.

Pila storm should own them.

You cna corner camp also to prevent enemy flanking.

[Somebody Else]

Find a bridge - picking the battleground is always an important part of winning. Failing that, build a fort. Bring up reinforcements. Winning each and every battle is not the only way - you can outmanoeuvre them on the strategy map too.

[Auctoritas]

I appreciate all of the recommendations. I will definitely give them a shot. What I don't understand is how the Gauls got so many seriously experienced troops relatively early in the game. I've got troops with one or two chevrons and they are running around with multiple troops with silver chevrons.
Am I doing something wrong?

Again, thanks for all of the ideas/input.

KPB

[Rodion Romanovich]

Ok. I did it again. I got stuck into a meat grinder and am getting pasted.
I have approx 1400 troops, hastati, light cav and some mercenary equivalents. All are pretty stock standard. My general has 2 stars.

The extremely pissed off Gauls, have 3 generals together in their army, the head honcho with 6 or 7 stars. They have approx 1100 troops and all of theirs have substantial upgrades. (Seriously, his skirmishers do more damage in hand to hand then my hastati and mercs). His light cav consistently drive mine from the field and my infantry cannot hold the center.

So I am getting creamed. I have fought the battle 5 times now and lose, badly, every time. However, when I let the computer autoresolve, it is doing MUCH better than I am. Does this mean that I stink far, far worse than I suspected? Or is their algorithm somewhat capricious?

Also, is there a way to beat similar numbers of relatively, tricked-out troops?

You'd think that my 300 troop advantage would be of some use....

Thanks.

How much cavs do you have? If you have 5 or more, deploy all your footmen at the far back, then your cavalry at the front of the deployment area. When the battle starts, send the cavs towards one of the enemy flanks. Try to lure one or two enemy cav units away from the main army and kill them. The enemy army will keep marching towards your footmen, and if you keep harassing and looking for easy hits with your cavs, they'll eventually split up in two parts - one marching forward towards your footmen, the other half going after your cavalry. You can now either pick those off one at the time with the cavs, or try to lure them even further away from the other half, then with perfect timing stop that manouvre and run back to the line of footmen just as the other half of the enemy army charges, and then hit those enemies in the back, thus killing/routing them all. Then only the other half of the enemy army is left. Quickly reform the line, and move your cavalry out of the way, make the enemy get pinned again, then charge cavalry to their rear. This system works all the time for me against AI, so I'm even restricting myself when it comes to such tactics to keep it challenging.

[Quietus]

Am I doing something wrong?

No, you're just doing just fine.

You do need to shoot the closest units with your archers. Like, I've said, don't move your center. But you have to be quick with your flank. In my guide, I put the formation as crescent shaped. Your center must be able to throw at least some of the pila. Preferably all of it before melee.

The line has to be long as well, so the flank can work out.

Lastly, do use the pause button liberally to execute orders.

[gardibolt]

Maybe that's why I'm doing so badly at this; using the Pause button felt like a cheat so I've been trying to fight the battles in real time, but the AI, dumb as it is, can obviously react a heckuva lot faster than I can. Are you supposed to use the Pause button?

[Dutch_guy]

no , well at least I don't

However if you need to give orders to multiple units and fast, then pause is your friend.

[The Stranger]

you should really get a well balanced army and then make a strategie. i never field an army without thinking about wich units i shall put in.

use this 8 hastati (or other pilum throwing infantry)
4 merc warbands (or other spear inf)
4 velites (or other missile units)
the rest is upt to you

field it like this. 4 hastati (1)
2 spearmen 4 hastati (2) 2 spearmen on the flanks in a diagonal line
4 missile units

and the rest depends on the units you pick. this way you'll cream every army even when it outnumbers you 1:5

[Marquis of Roland]

Do this:

I am assuming that the stupidly predictable AI will charge all three generals at you as their opening move. Meet the charge with one unit of hastati (unless the experience difference is too big, then you might have to use two); have 4-5 other units behind the one taking the charge (have ALL of your cav hanging close by too) and leave rear hastati on "fire at will". Hopefully your 4-5 hastati behind the one unit being charged will get off all their pila before the scarificial unit breaks. When this happens, charge in all 4-5 hastati AND all your cavalry from opposite directions. Try to kill as many as possible before they route; DO NOT follow, their main force should be close at hand now, but make SURE the 6-7 star general goes down. If he doesn't die in the pila storm and the charge after, send ONE equite (your weakest one) to chase him down. If he does not die and you're saying the Gallic army has both experience AND weapons/armor superiority to your army, you will lose. Probably bad (which is probably what happened, eh?).

Quickly rearrange your army into whatever formation you like, except you're going to overload ONE of the flanks, and leave the opposite flank weak. Keep all your cav on the weak flank (you will need your general there for moral and cav support).

Use your hastati units with least amount of pila to hold a SHORT front opposite the AI's weaker flank. Again, I am going to assume the insanely predictable AI will move all of their men on their other flank to attack your weak side, while attacking on a broad front on the strong side. Keep as few units of infantry to hold their troops and have all remaining pila-armed hastati throw pilas until they're out, and then sidestep into flanking position. Then charge all units on the strong side and start rolling up their flank.

Meanwhile, your weak side will be sorely pressed by the Gaul's lesser troops. Repeated charges by your cav should break the first couple units as they make contact with your infantry, and the rest should route if their general is DEAD.

If they have any remaining cav running around, see where they attack, and then match their movement with your own cav.

That should do it.

[Total War Merc]

All you need really is to kill the enemy genral with an assasin. The only reason you are losing is because of the genrals.

[Sir Chauncy]

Hmm to be honest I never really struggled against the Gauls until I played them on Very Hard, then they just seemed to skyrocket in hardosity. Perhaps because their heavy Cavalry actually has 2 (count 'em) hit points or life points or whatever you want to call them. This make is really very very hard for any Budding Roman General type to actually take them on seeing as all the Gaulish princelings are in super hard units. So you have a few options available:

Throw a complete paddy and when you lose, turn the computer off and shout at it, gaining a small but very significant moral victory.

Get as many spear based units as you can get your sticky hands on either by teching as quickly as possible to Triarii or buy buying them as mercs. (Even I can admit that "quickly teching to triarii" is not as easy as that)

Cavalry lose out in the woods see if your light cav can distract a unit and lure it into the forested glade that looks so peaceful from the outside but inside it is a scary place filled with dead horsies.

Finally if all else fails, cry like a child that has lost his ball and squeal "I'm a haemophiliac!!". When they turn away in disgust, kick them in the back.

To be fair before the Marius reforms the roman units are a bit poo against the units that the computer seems to have from the off.

Anyway, hope this helps.

[gardibolt]

Is there a keyboard shortcut for pause? The cursor is so unresponsive that getting to the pause button is a feat in and of itself.

[antisocialmunky]

Probably 'P'

Playing a RTS with Mouse Lag, oh my.

[Auctoritas]

Killer recommendations. Thanks to all.
For background: I have been playing on hard/hard (skipped medium after the Prologue). I noticed that most of my problems with either the Spanish or the Gauls are when I am facing their uber-generals. When it is their stock troops against my stock troops, I have been doing pretty well.

I believe that one of my mistakes is not paying close enough attention to how the AI operates. Another is that I bring very few missle troops to the battle as a rule. (MAYBE one or two units max...)

My standard gig up till now has been to line up the infantry in a long line in the center. Usually with Merc spearmen anchoring the ends. Cavalry evenly split on both flanks, archers in rear and General behind them. I think that I have been making a mistake by sending my cavalry out too early to try and engage their cavalry with the intent of routing them from the field. I think that I need to hold them back to be ready to shore up my weak spots. I also need to work on managing the fire at will function of my hastati. Based on the inputs on this thread, I think that alone will make a big difference.

KPB