I bin defeated. Horribly. For the first time ever... And the AI made smart moves.

[Jobst_vonGrünungen]

I'm amazed. Somebody slap me, i must be dreaming. I just fought in Sicily, as Rome, against Carthage, with inferior troops save for 2 units of hired mercenary phalangites....

A full legion, on huge unit settings... 4 hastati, 4 principes, 2 triarii, 2 leves, 2 rorari, 2 accensi, 2 equittes, a general with great manegerial skills, massive influence, no good command traits but no bad ones either, and plenty of battle helping retinues like armorer and chirugeon...

Versus some Carthage crap units, skirmishers, cheap spearmen, 2 units of light cavalry and the two hired mercenaries with a 2 star general...

I attacked, they deployed on a hill, i had no choice but to march up the hill and attack them, they refused to be drawn down the hill by my slinger fire... The battle began, and for two hours it raged... Roughly 2700 of my men, versus about 1800 of theirs... I began by sending my hastati to fight the mercenary units which made up their first line, they quickly turned and ran after the skirmishers threw a few javelins at them. I sent in the principes, they fought for an hour alone with massive casualties, but inflicting almost none upon the phalanx... Their peltastai constantly attacked the flanks of my principes just as they began to envelope the phalanxes, and eventually the principes routed... I sent in the leves and rorari to hold the line as i rallied the cowards and formed them up once more. I attacked with a line of hastati and principes, but as before, they were beaten back by peltastai and thureopheoerieopiroeir attacking their flanks.

I recieved no opportunities to use my cavalry effectively, their flanks and rear were always protected by cheap spearmen units and a very nasty generals bodyguard of heavy cavalry with 60-odd men and quite a bit of experience that i really did NOT want to engage until i absolutely had to... I rallied everything i could and formed a long line, hoping to eventually be able to encircle some of their army and thin out their numbers.. The triarii went in, head on against the mercenary hoplites, they fought hard and for about 30 minutes while the rallied units attacked the skirmishers defending their flanks, eventually i made a breakthrough on the left... A chance to send in my cavalry and break the left flank! I sent them in, 200 equittes, charged the read of one of the phalanxes, only to have my cavalry encircled by fresh spearmen and a unit of medium cvalry and promptly slaughtered and routed... I managed to route their cavalry with my spearmen and continued to hammer away at the flank, then... Disaster... They committed their fresh spearmen and peltastai and attacked my line of reserves, which were depleted and tired units of accensi and leves, they were promptly slaughtered, their general attacked mine and their superior heavy cavalry beat his bodyguard down to nothing until he fled the battlefield, leaving the last two units still holding up, the triarii, to be encircled and slaughtered.

The end results? 2500 dead Romans, less than 1000 dead Cartheginians, an entire legion destroyed save for a few ragtag men, (Like 100 or so) that made it back to Messana. My legion in the north busy defending against the Aediu, a new one will have to be raised which will take 5 turns to make, 2 to form up and 3 to get to Sicily... Then the AI let itself down by laying siege to rebel Syracuse with their now experienced army and general, rather than attacking Messana that was defended by only a shamed general who fled from battle, 100 or so men from hastati/principe units, and a full unit of leves... It would have been a pushover, but alas, the legion is raised and ready.

CARTHAGO DELENDA EST!

Even unmodded, in both RTW and MTW2 the AI likes to camp on hills. If you don't have time-limit turned on (and if you have enough time, then even if you do) I would suggest shooting until you run out of ammo. Slingers are very nasty, sort of like ancient crossbows, and lots of ammo. I would have shot until either they broke, they attacked or I ran out of ammo, and targeted the general so that the slingshots would shoot through the main lines and maybe hit a few heavy cavalry in the process.

The Romans can't really win a frontal attack on phalanxes, unless the phalanx is a low-tier unit and the romans are legionaries or principes, and even then, frontal attacks on phalanxes with anything but other phalanxes are not a good idea unless you quickly outflank, or have really softened them up with missiles first. Carthaginian phalanxes are pretty nasty too, if they had an army built around them, you probly needed 3+ missile units as well as your slingers, or else enough cavalry to overwhelm their general.

I have stood one unit of basic greek phalanx in the hole left from a battered down gate with wooden walls and seen off hundreds of eastern infantry and one general - without breaking, and without missile troops.

Riveting account nonetheless, though. I never use the huge unit setting becaus my system can't really handle it, but this is a good illustration of how much it adds to the game.