It seems like spearmen have become nearly useless. They have almost no effect on cavalry except a very slightly higher kill rate. Of course, that doesnt matter because the cavalry will usually kill/route ALL of them, making them near-useless for classical tasks for spearmen, EX: Lining up in front of a gate and not letting those dirty smelly (nationality) through.
In this game it seems like anything which attacks spearmen, even braced spearmen in defence mode, gets a huge advantage.
I miss the days when I could rely on a single unit of Triarii and two Hastati to hold back (literaly!) an entire Carthagenian army. I tried that once in this game and my poor spears lasted about thirty seconds. Or the even older days (sort of :P) when a single unit of spearmen held back a vast Papal army at the gates of Rome.
So, anybody have advice on defending towns? My strategy has always been a defensive-type unit across the streets and, in general, it worked quite well. Now it seems that Ill get steamrolled if I dont do something different. The question is, what? Previously the defender always had an advantage in their chokepoint control, now it seems that particular ability has vanished, and leaving garrisons in all my towns and cities large enough to defeat an attacking army on the field would quickly bog down my production, no?
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