The use of pillum...

[tadswana]

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!

[YAKOBU]

Hi tadswana

Am at work so will make this brief .

I tend to use grouping which helps alleviate this problem for me.

As Romans my first line infantry would be grouped and set on fire-at-will.

My second line infantry (reserves) would be grouped and set on fire-at-will. Once the enemy had closed to melee with my first line I would hit the second line infantry group and turn off fire-at-will.

My third line of archers would be grouped and set on fire-at-will.
Once the enemy had closed to melee with my first line I would then manually target my archers to fire on units that were not in melee.

If you were earlier in the campaign then velites would replace archers and be your first line. You can still use the same grouping idea but hopefully you would retreat your velites behind your infantry before melee began.

Hope this helps.

[tadswana]

Yeah thanks Yakobu, I'll give that a try with the different grouping when I get a chance to play tonight!

Do you also try and run your first line in and out to get off more pillums? Or do you just leave them keeping in formation on fire at will?

[Avicenna]

I just leave them in a line, and they usually use the pila up fast. They don't get charged by cav because my cav take care of the enemy's, so my infantry are free to throw pila at the advancing enemy line.

[Garvanko]

Hi tadswana

Am at work so will make this brief .

I tend to use grouping which helps alleviate this problem for me.

As Romans my first line infantry would be grouped and set on fire-at-will.

My second line infantry (reserves) would be grouped and set on fire-at-will. Once the enemy had closed to melee with my first line I would hit the second line infantry group and turn off fire-at-will.

My third line of archers would be grouped and set on fire-at-will.
Once the enemy had closed to melee with my first line I would then manually target my archers to fire on units that were not in melee.

If you were earlier in the campaign then velites would replace archers and be your first line. You can still use the same grouping idea but hopefully you would retreat your velites behind your infantry before melee began.

Hope this helps.

This works a treat.

[Severous]

tadswana

I play as Romans and have often have the same issue you describe...being charged before I can fire off a round of pilum.

I dint think there is any solution to prevent this.

I tend to play like you do...double click my roman infantry into attack, fire, then manual 'halt' before issuing new orders. My targets tend to be an enemy who is distracted with another target. This way I dont risk the counter charge whilst my troops throw their pila.

[Neco]

I usually have my first line set at fire-at-will. I'll march them close towards the enemy. Then I will stop good distance away and try to lure the enemy into attacking me, then I tear them up when they charge me.

If you go straight up to the enemy, then you can really only get one volley of pila off before the enemy will charge. Sometimes, though, if you outnumber or just have better units than the enemy, you can get all 3 volleys off.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

The pillum are VERY useful in decimating enemy formations. It brings down their morale.

[tadswana]

Well, I put Yakobu's tactics to the test last night in my RTW VH/VH campaign!

Was attacked by the Gaul's in the north, and held a defensive line with two grouped hastati formations and a triari on the flank. As they approached the first line fired their pillum off which actually made them hesitate and slowed their attack down, that let my second group take a shot. By the time we were on melee my second group were launching over the front line into the Gallic reserves... worked very well.

I also noted how much of an effect the pilla has on their morale, they were quite shaken by the time it came to the melee charge. The simple 'hammer and anvil' strategy with my general hitting them from the rear easily routed the Gallic army - despite their large superiority.

Thanks for all the advice! It may be a little trickier when on the assault however I'll play around with this tactic over the next few days and post the results!

[x-dANGEr]

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!

Just put Fire at Will on and don't worry. Make the other 'free' soldiers go around the flank and throw their pillums their, that works quite fine.

[Monarch]

Well this is from a multiplayer point of view, so it depends on what sort of army you can muster in sp.

Recruit some cheap units that'll hold at least for a while, I usually play BI so I use limatanie, I guess you could use Town Watch for rtw. As they're cheap, it doesn't matter if you hit them with friendly fire, just chuck them at the enemy so they hold them up and then with your decent guys set fire at will on. When they've thrown their pillia, engage them into melee :)