Your army Compositions and tactics.

[innocex]

A basic battle plan that is enormously effective against AI armies. Not too good against a patient human. I used it to defeat an army of 700-800 Eastern Infantry with around 100 hoplites, 60 archers, and 40 cavalry. They lost around 600 men and I lost around 40. Basically



xxxx____________________
xxx/*^^^^^^^^^^^^^*\
xx/^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^\
x/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx\
x<xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
x<xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>


The straight lines are pike men, the asterisks are heavy skirmisher infantry , the ^s are missile units, and the <s & >s are cavalry to sweep around and flank. The x's are placeholders.

Essentially you let the enemy charge into your main front and sweep around with the cavalry and side guards to flank the enemy. Then when they run you simply go out of phalanx and chase them down.

this is a really good plan for not only hellinistic armies, but also eastern armies. if you can get a decent spearman front with the pick of the eastern litter, imagine if you have cataphrats patroling the sides of such a formation. they would beat any cav. and while everyone is bogged down in the middle of the battle with the phalanx/spears , they could charge in the enemies flank.
i basically do this same formation, but with a few more archers to weaken the advancing army and some swordsmen to react to emergencies in the spear wall.
it can also work against some patient humans who dont rush in, if you know enough of the hotkeys to advance the army in formation. the spearman on the left and right sides face front during the forward march, but if you can focus on getting them ready for flank attacks quickly, you will be fine.