Fighting the Gaesatae

[SwordsMaster]

I'm just curious, but Gaesatae seem to be one of the most popular units to pop up in rebellions in central Italy. I mean if they are elite mercenaries and all, shouldn't they be rare for the rebels too?

[Ranika]

SwordsMaster; I've already noted that concern elsewhere, and yes, they show up too often.

BKB; that sounds about right. They don't take much damage in a melee usually, and hence why softening them with javelins is important. However, it also sounds about right with javelins, depending on which units; they shouldn't lose too many that quickly. Were these two seperate incidents or one? If it was one incident, it was a fluke, if it was two seperate incidents, those are what should have happened.

[Conqueror]

I've only faced them once, in a custom battle. I was playing Getai vs the Aedui, who had 1 unit of Gaesatae. First, I thought about using a Sarmatian merc unit to lure them to a chase, but that turned out impossible because they were surrounded by so much other gallic infantry that I could never get cavalry anywhere near them. What I did was order all my archers to focus fire on the Gaesatae. It worked very well, for they spent quite some time lugging javelins before finally closing to melee with my line. By the time they did so, they had been shot so full of arrows that they routed very soon after attacking my phalanx. They didn't seem overpowered to me, and like I said I never even had the chance to use cavalry against them.