Hi all,

I hoped to start a discussion thread on the use of the pillum for the romans and any other melee infantry with missile special ability (such as the Spanish bull warriors?). What's the best way to use the pillum?

If I put them on fire at will mode, then often I will have the problem in the middle of the battle that my reserves will often throw their pillum into the front line and take out my own troops - or even worse get trigger happy during subsequent mop ups.

To avoid this, I have been double right-clicking so they sprint to pillum range and fire. After they fire, I manually bring them back to reform the line and thereby preventing the subsequent charge. This seems to work well, however I have the problem that if the enemy troops charge at me whilst I am preparing for the throw I get hit before they can throw the pillum and take a large pounding!

I'd really like to be able to get my infantry to get off their three throws before they engage in hand to hand, and make the most out of the roman flexibility. Are other people using their roman infantry units as quasi-skirmershers as well, or just relying on the velites for that?

Any suggestions or alternative strategies would be much appreciated!