How to Beat Certain Armies

**Abokasee** · 08-18-2005, 20:57

When fighting Romans use: Archers, horse archers, skirmishers (before they get to use legionaries)heavy cavalry (when they have legionaries) Speedy in and out infantry.

When fighting Scythia and Persia: get your units in forested areas...keep them there eventually they will follow them in.

When fighting Greeks, Macedon, Seleucid sometimes Egypt: have your skirmishers attack there phalanx and your archers to rain death, on the have very high defense unit attack on front then use cavalry, speedy units and height attack unit to attack on the sides.

When fighting barbarian faction use: Morale Breakers because the barbarians realize on the bravery of the soldiers...also use heavy cavalry on frontal assaults!!!

Hopes this helps....please if you have complaints or other advice please post here.

**King Ragnar** · 08-19-2005, 16:23

best way to conter Roman Praetorain cavalry: Cataphracts, they also can destroy alot of phalanx head on.

**The Germanic Centurion** · 08-19-2005, 17:38

Good advice,
I am new to the game and started a small (15 province) epic last night.
All was well until the Senate asked me to blockade Sparta.
Since I was playing Julii this proved interesting since I had to sail all the way around Italy to get there in time, which I did with a small army on board.
Being adventurous I deployed my 133 man army in an ambush state.
When nothing happened for a few turns I moved them farther onto the Peninsula and low and behold their was a sizeable army in a nearby city that came out to greet me.
It was late and being tired I got careless.
I tried to withdraw and the Spartans kept on attacking me so I could not get back to the ships or withdraw anymore.
A fight insued between my 133 men and the Spartans 600 plus.
With three light infantry and 13 calvary I gave them a hell of a fight and after the first battle I achieved a Close Victory.
My general was promoted +3, not to bad for an adopted son in law.
But alas I had no where to run and died a Heroic death in the following battle.
My question is during the battle when all you have left is cavalry why can you not outrun the slower enemy and escape behind them?
My position in the battle map was not reflected in the campaign map?
Oh well, maybe the next patch might address that issue.

**Taurus** · 08-19-2005, 17:44

My position in the battle map was not reflected in the campaign map?

Yes it is pretty annoying at times but most of the time I hardly notice this matter.

Anyways, congratulations on your victory mate and good luck in your campaign

**Razor1952** · 08-24-2005, 00:29

If you are attacked then you can just wait out the timer for a close victory even if vastly outnumbered. Of course that depends on having a general unit which can outlast the bad guys. When playing as roman vs greek and the greeks have phalanxs ++ and you only have your general then its easy to outlast them for a close victory. A bit dodgy tactics really but if you wanted to save your hero then it might serve.

The oppostite is true of course as well and you have to be careful when attacking an enemy which has reasonable (say 2 lots of)reinforcements, chasing all over the map to defeat several lots of bad guys can be difficult, you can easily run out of time and get a close defeat.

**Helgi** · 09-04-2005, 08:48

When playing the Sycthians, I would use horse archers and rain death down on the Germans and then when they run, hit them with my Hvy Cav. As the Greeks and Pre-Marian Romans I would back up my phalanx/Triarii with archers and slingers.

**ah_dut** · 09-06-2005, 18:03

Without the patch, horse archers are amazing...they can butcher infantry. However, it appears with 1.2 that the case is not the same. You have to use the Cantabrian Circle (sp?) to get the same shoot while walking effect

**Arcanum** · 09-08-2005, 12:07

I had a multiplayer lan-game with two friends yesterday, we set the maximum costs to 25.000. We played a forest map, and my friends, understandingly, took barbarians like the Gauls or Germania. Now that I'm a fan of the great Seleucid armies, because of the order they've got, I took them.

3 of the best Phalanx units in Front, 3 of the Sword units thereafter followed by 4 troops of Archers. On the right side I placed 2 Cataphract units and on the left, my general and two other Cataphracts.

Now why I'm posting this here, is that I dont seem to find anything that could beat that army (if you set the experience/upgrades right) but maybe raging Elephants.

The Archers in the back, 4 units with the best weapon upgrade and experience, will most likely shred 80% of other Archers that might get in the way, and if not that, then the Cataphracts.

The phalanx units of the Seleucids can even hold off an attack by Warhounds (I'm not sure if thats the right word in english, as I'm using the german version), which they did without any problem.

And the Swordsmen? Well, if there will ever be Barbarian Berserkers running into your men, i think it would be good to have rather fast infantry backup, compared to these Spearmen.

In the end my Seleucid armies defeated both of my friends, as they've gone against me when I destroyed half of the Gauls units by a very lucky Cavalry strike.

Now I'd ask: How can you beat them, if not with Elephants?

**Seasoned Alcoholic** · 09-12-2005, 23:18

Cataphracts/cataphract camels' alt-attack is devastating. Those maces really hack through everthing in close combat melee. As soon as your cataphract/cataphract camels engage melee with the enemy, just use Alt+right click on the same target, and out come the maces.

Try this in custom battles, perhaps a unit of cataphracts against say cappadocian cavalry, and you will see what i mean if you've not tried it before

Originally Posted by Arcanum

The Archers in the back, 4 units with the best weapon upgrade and experience, will most likely shred 80% of other Archers that might get in the way...

I've always found that standard Greek archers always get cut to pieces due to their inferior range and damage ratings. How do you get the best out of them?

Cretan Archers/Forester Warband/Pharoah's Bowmen/Chosen Archers/Archer Auxilia etc always seem to murder standard greek archers - when they camp on hills then you've got a big problem

**Helgi** · 09-13-2005, 00:49

Originally Posted by ah_dut

Without the patch, horse archers are amazing...they can butcher infantry. However, it appears with 1.2 that the case is not the same. You have to use the Cantabrian Circle (sp?) to get the same shoot while walking effect

Never played it without the patch, and I've manhandled Germans, Gauls and small groups of Greeks, but still have a hard time with the Egyptians.

**Arcanum** · 09-18-2005, 10:53

Seasoned Alcoholic: Gonna try that...but these cataphracts really seem to be, ehm...devastating. Guess they're an all time recipe to win?

**Seasoned Alcoholic** · 09-18-2005, 19:40

Originally Posted by Arcanum

Seasoned Alcoholic: Gonna try that...but these cataphracts really seem to be, ehm...devastating. Guess they're an all time recipe to win?

Yeah they are powerful, you can do almost anything with them. Wedge formation makes them formidable against melee infantry, missiles and other cavalry. As you know, keep them away from pikes/spears, as they will receive +4 combat bonus against any mounted unit (+2 combat bonus for camels vs horses)

Elephants get +8 combat bonus against mounted units (chariots, camels, horses), so don't go near them unless you're convinced they'll rout easily.

However, they are slow moving around the battlefield, and make an easy target for archers. Don't bother chasing horse archers/light cav around the battlefield, as they won't catch them (unless they are tired).