Wow, just... wow.... (theres one image here.)

[Spoofa]

Today, i was playing as my all time Favorite ancient faction, the Macedonians, and i had captured epidamnos, while the epirotes held ambrakia and the town above epidamnos (i dont know because i havent scouted that area out yet, but i saw the green borderline)

The point is, i had a little less then a stack of men in epidamnos, 3 Phalangitai Deuteroi, and one unit of merc Phalangitai ( i think they were the lesser kind, because they had better armor then my deuteroi but werent Pezhetairoi), 1 classic hoplite group with 2 experience, 1 Thessalonian Cavalry unit with 3 experience and 2 peltastai.

So out of the blue comes this 3/4 stack of epirotes, probably the army i saw Pyrrhus lead northwards after the first turn or so. I assume Pyrrhus had died somewhere or was governing that province in the north, since it was led by one of his son's.

He had decided to retake Epidamnos, and this town held a large portion of my army, i was determined to hold it and repel the epirotes even with lesser numbers.

He had made 4 battering rams, and i had 4 Phalangitai, so I started thinking i might be able to hold them off if i use my Phalangitai wisely. Little did i know when my general had finished his riveting speech, that they had brought Elephants along with them

The elephants were of little use, besides becoming cannon fodder for my peltastai.

Saddly, his numerical advantage was barely enough to beat my heroic defenders of the gate, and several points in the wall, no matter how hard i tried i could not hold them back, my militia Phalangitai were not trained to hold back so many men, allthough for militia i have to say they fought bravely.

Also what frustrated me is the cavalry's pathfinding, I tried to charge the enemy many times but my cavalry always stopped short or didnt drop their spears in time, they didnt suffer many casualties thankfully, but were of little effect to the enemy.

As my forces started to slowly fail to attrition, I started to realized i could not turn this battle around. Saddly, my general (who was on the far left side of the wall to assist the forces there) realized this too, and rode outside of the wall. (after riding through enemy formations of course.) and tried again to charge into the flank of the enemy in hope of routing them to free up my forces a little bit, but to no avail, the pathfinding was horrible. but i dealt with it. soon my right most defense crumbled, and the men routed, then in a chain reaction the inner right defense failed and the gate assault(gaurded by only the BRAVE classic hoplites who were the only one's left) was delayed by the brave efforts of the Hoplites, who fought to the last man. Alas, this was also to no avail, the enemy broke through and arrived at my town square nearly undefended, Only my general and 18 Thessalonian men were left standing, After coming back into the city from the gate, he witnessed the carnage...

The Epirotes, aware of my generals actions of retaking the gate, filled with rage of their slaughtered brethren decided to charge at my general, tiring themselves out from running, while my general looked around at his bodygaurd, and his loyal Thessalonians, he knew they would follow him to death, so he charged, charged into the front of the entire epirote force, but THIS time, the Pathfinding was true, and the spears were lowered, fully prepared to impale the first man that came within range.

(Saddly, lol the stupid timer when the enemy controls the square ran out after my general had routed several units of their men single handedly, so i didnt get to use him to full effect.)

Thus was the end of Asphalion Ilopoki (i prly messed up the spelling on the name)


His name will be remembered throughout history, as the man who stood alone to defend his country against the Hound of Greece.



Asphalion Ilopoki and his men, standing at the gates amongst the carnage, prepare to charge into the oncoming wave of death.

[vonsch]

Yeah, I love to hate city pathfinding. It's murder on cavalry since they can't charge (and don't even skirmish back properly in the case of horse archers). Even moving around the edges of unwalled towns is very hard and charges are near impossible. The no-move zones are invisible, but they stop a charge dead if you clip them. Very annoying as Saka.

I find I have to sucker them out into the open field, but then I see what you did when defending, they sneak some unit in to stand in MY square. B@%#$!@rds! I would never do something like that! (unless I could trick them all far enough out of town...)

[Spoofa]

if i may as a few questions, how do i turn off banners and the triangles, and how do i save replays of battles and view them later? to take screen shots more proper like, rather then by chance.

[edyzmedieval]

You should have kept a big portion of your phalanxes in the city centre. They get a big morale boost there, and they fight to the death.

[CaesarAugustus]

if i may as a few questions, how do i turn off banners and the triangles, and how do i save replays of battles and view them later? to take screen shots more proper like, rather then by chance.

Go to "C:/Program Files/The Creative Assembly/your root folder/EB/Preferences/preferences.txt

change: DISABLE_ARROW_MARKERS:FALSE to DISABLE_ARROW_MARKERS:TRUE

change: SHOW_BANNERS:TRUE to SHOW_BANNERS:FALSE (though I dont recommend you do this.)

I think that you can only save replays of custom battles.

[antisocialmunky]

Defend in the streets next time. The same thing happened to me in XGM as the Romans, against the Gauls.

The streets are the best places to defend. One unit of phalangites(or anything that dies slowly) can hold off several different units. Deply in the four streets leading to the center. If one of the streets is not attacked, take your men and general, run around the perimeter and attack them form behind. It'll then get messy for them.

I remember slaughtering a whole stack of Carthaginians that way: my hastati managed to flank the enemy in one of the uber cramped semetic towns, the Samnites and Principles(defense is awesome for saving fatigue) holding the square refused to budge, and then my general routed one unit. This routed everyone else who couldn't rout(as they were exhausted and surrounded) and thus everyone tried to fight to the death and were handily slaughtered to the man.

[Ludens]

Yeah, I love to hate city pathfinding. It's murder on cavalry since they can't charge (and don't even skirmish back properly in the case of horse archers). Even moving around the edges of unwalled towns is very hard and charges are near impossible. The no-move zones are invisible, but they stop a charge dead if you clip them. Very annoying as Saka.

Actually, cavalry can charge; they just need a long run up and their formation needs to as wide as, or slightly less wide than, the actual street (the pavement, that is). This is especially tricky around the city center or in barbarian towns, but it is possible.

[vonsch]

Actually, cavalry can charge; they just need a long run up and their formation needs to as wide as, or slightly less wide than, the actual street (the pavement, that is). This is especially tricky around the city center or in barbarian towns, but it is possible.

Hey, I AM a barbarian. And I find the city center clipping makes charges there impossible (for me, so far) too. Just not enough of a straight run-up.

But you're right that adjusting formation width helps. If nothing else they get around a lot better in those twisty little mazes of twisty streets.

[Watchman]

In my experience it is practically impossible to charge into the central city squares properly, nevermind with cavalry and their long "wind-up" requirements. The pathfinding is just nutty there.
If they're deployed narrowly enough most units, cavalry and the damn phalanxes included, can maneuver and charge well enough on the streets though.

[alatar]

Thats nothing, once I over came the walls (on vanilla tw) while the enemy general slaughterd any units he saw routing them. But eventuly the roman invaders killed most of the macedonians, and the general only had his bodygaurd slain around him.
My trirai moved to kill him, and he charged strait into them, through the first, ssecond, and third rank, before he was killed.