General Calvary are too Powerful

[Chester]

I guess the topic says it all.

I've had armies of phalanx routed by general's bodygaurd. The are impervious to the Phalanx. They are slow to die and it seems that they scare away ground infantry.

Is this intentional?

[Mujalumbo]

On H/H, playing as the Ptolemaioi, I've routed a huge, 52-man, Seleucid family member's bodyguards with a single unit of pezhetairoi.

Using the default formation the mod gives you makes your phalanx ranks too thin, methinks. With a unit size of 120 for pezhetairoi, I set my men to 8 or more ranks deep, depending on my need for frontage. The general's bodyguard will inevitable push it's way through the front ranks, but if your phalanx is deep enough, he'll just be surrounded by more spearpoints. Too shallow, and he can push right through and disrupt the integrity of the phalanx.

[Chester]

How do you deepen your rank?

I'm playing vh/vh. Bodyguards are very powerful. I think it might have to do with the AI general's suicidial attacks. Inorder to make them last longer, they've been given more stats.

[Antagonist]

Can't help getting the impression from my experiences and others' feedback that bodyguard units are not created equal. Personally I haven't found them overpowered, but my campaign experience is limited to northern Europe. Playing through custom battles though, there do seem to be some noticable differences - some bodyguards, like Carthaginians, feel very powerful, while others like the Pontic general feel kind of underpowered.

I think the fact that some bodyguard units have 2 HP and others have only 1 might have something to do with this.

Antagonist

[AggonyDuck]

Well I actually think the Generals Bodyguards are just about right. They might be damn strong, but when facing a proper spear unit, they will usually start dropping rather quickly. The real reason why they might appear overpowered is due to the fact that they often tend to be silver or gold chevroned, but even they they're hardly unstoppable.

[Mujalumbo]

There's no doubt, the 2-HP bodyguard are tough buggers.

@Chester:
When you select a unit, left-click anywhere on the battlefield ground and drag; you should see a formation of arrows indicating which direction the men in that unit will face. They'll be in a rectangular formation; so shortening their front will increase their depth.

Now, I don't actually count how many ranks deep, just kind of eyeball it. I play the game to watch the fun battles, not count how many ranks deep my phalantagies are. ;)

[Spendios]

Well, in my experience Pontic bodyguards are weak if you compare them with Hetairoi but even these guys don't seem to be overpowered, playing Pontos I can say that I was able to rout them with Pantodapoi Phalangitai who are not an elite unit...they are very strong but not invicible that's the point of bodyguard...

[jedispongee]

Pontic generals have only 1 hp compared with most other mounted generals that have 2 hp.

[galathas]

the casse generals are real crappy. More important than the combat skill of the general is his ability to give the morale bonus to nearby troops. Have you ever tried to bring your chariot riding maniac of a casse general into a city to support his troops. The guy and his wild bunch of crazy hotwheels crash against every building in the city and there is no way you can form them anywhere.

If it is possible cant the casse general be in a unit of brihetin. pleeeeeeaaaaaassssssseeeee,

[pezhetairoi]

I'm sorry, but I don't really understand the rationale behind letting some generals have only 1HP and others having 2... Can the unit stats balancer comment on this?

[Antagonist]

Well, it's mentioned in the Bug List, so I assumed it's a bug.

Antagonist

[Chester]

Mujalumbo, thanks a ton man. I can't believe I never noticed that. Todate, I've never read an instruction manuel for a game.

The only time I've looked at one is when I bought my first video game, mega man 1, for NES. I opened the book and it started telling me in painstaking detail how to put the game in the machine. Never again did I consult the manuel.

[Kashaaz]

Carthaginian generals are single handedly causing me to tear my hair out. i sent an army against a small cartho force, and send my two units of disposable mercs forward, a phalanx (plenty deep enough) against their general and a unit of some sword guys against their peltastai. Their general has a 22 man bodyguard, and is standing stationary while my merc phalanx charges in, proceeds to do no damage, routs, then gets charged down and mauled. so i fire 480 pila at the unit while it is just standing there, and only 5 go down to this barrage. So i charge my three units of hastati in and they aren't doing much damage at all. The final thign that got the general et al was 100 equites rearending them.

then in other battles i can usually beat their armies, but i take ALOT of casualties where their 25 man unit of cavalry punches into the line, except for this last battle which was an absolute joke. i had the centre of my line as merc phalanxes (once again, sufficiently deep) with roman infantry on the wings and in reserve. My equites were flanking him to take out the numerous skirmishers. His battle line was no where near mine, and his unit of elephants was on my left so i sent 2 units of skirmishers to deal with them (they were holding them off and killing them well), when 2 general units (45 and 30 men strong) charged into my phalanx line. I backed up with my reserve infantry (there was no WAY a cavalry unit could have gotten through that. Oh, but these are the uber carthaginian cavalry, and they punched their way through the line, causing a massive rout and destroying my general's bodyguard. In all i think i killed 4 cartho bodyguards...this should NOT happen.

[QwertyMIDX]

In the next patch they will only have 1 HP, so it should help. They'll just be normal elite heavy cav.

[Eaglefirst]

I thought they were fine till the seleucid faction leader and faction heir about 80 single silver chevron cavalry besieged my walless city with around 1000 Ershanar Arsthaba or however its spelled. I put all of them into the city square and laughed only too have all 1000 killed by the two genrals units I later edited all generals so they only have 1 hitpoint .

[Kashaaz]

I thought they were fine till the seleucid faction leader and faction heir about 80 single silver chevron cavalry besieged my walless city with around 1000 Ershanar Arsthaba or however its spelled. I put all of them into the city square and laughed only too have all 1000 killed by the two genrals units I later edited all generals so they only have 1 hitpoint .

how did you edit that?