So ...

[Puzz3D]

I had a senate mission to take a Macedonian city with wooden walls, and had to assault since there wasn't enough time to siege. The difficulty level is medium, and the year was around 245 BC. I had about 1000 men, 7 hastati, 1 principe, 4 velites and 2 equites under a 3 star general. The Macedonian garrison had about 700 men and something like 4 light cav, 2 skirmishers, 1 hoplite and 3 levi spearmen (they have long pikes) under a 2 star general. I broke through the wall with 2 rams and defeated the Macedonian light cav which made several aggressive attacks on the units I sent in. The hoplite and levi spearmen proved to be very difficult to defeat in the city streets. My velites damaged the hoplite enough that my infantry was able to finish it off. On a wide street, two hastati were eventually able to defeat one levi spearmen by getting at its flanks. On a narrow street, the principe, in engage-at-will, lost to a second levi spearman, but the spearmen lost to a hastati and velite when it advanced out of the narrow street into a wide street. That hastati advanced up the narrow street along with a second hastati, and they were able to kill the Macedonian general in some very hard fighting in the narrow street. That Macedonia general was killing an hastati on almost every swing of his sword. The surviving hastati from that fight was destroyed when it tried to rush the plaza, and was flanked by some light cav and attacked by the 3rd levi spearman. This triggered the 3 minute timer. I sent an equite charging at the back of the levi speamen as they withdrew back to the plaza, but the spearmen turned at the last second, and the equite ran right into the spears and was destroyed. I remember it had 16 men left out of 54, and I don't think a single spearman was killed. The time expired and I failed to take the city, and the time also ran out to complete the mission.

I attacked the city again, but had to build more rams before I was allowed to attack eventhough there was a hole in the wall. This time the AI stayed at the plaza with 1 levi spearman and 2 cav. I was just able to win at the plaza with heavy losses using 3 hastati and 2 velites. So, it seems to me that taking cities defended by pikemen is going to be very difficult since you won't be able to dislodge these units with cav charges. Incidentally, the levi spearmen pushed the principes back quite a bit.