Phalanx

[General Appo]

I don´t think it´s true that the RTW phalanx is unbreakable from the front, at least not in EB. Once in a custom battle I gave myself 3 Pezhetairoi´s with full experience, armour and arms, and the enemy Giusim Aravim 'im Garzenim (Red Sea Light Infantry). I was defending a fort a so set up my guys around the gate in a box, hoping to catch the attackers in a deathzone between my pikes. They smash open the gate, rush through, and within seconds they have broken the phalanx facing the gate! They just smashed right through the pikes, albeit taking many casualties. It was only thanks to my flanking phalanxes that I survived, as they killed hundreds of arabians as they poured trough the gate, and eventually my enemy routed, and I retreated to the plaza. After some rather weak attempts to take the plaza from me I had won the day, but I had taken far greater casualites than expected. I had expected to take maybe just 2 or 3 casualties, inasted I lost well over 100 men, just because sheer wieght of the enemy allowed them to push through my phalanx. I have found this to happen several times in EB, that the phalanx simply can´t hold out against as long as the enemy applies enough pressure.

[Perturabo]

The lower order Phalanx are certainly not unbreakable from the front. It is however, very difficult. Really only Kataphractoi, FM bodyguard (generally Leader/Heir) and certain heavy infantry with high experience ratings can do it. Oddly enough, also the early KH short-pikemen (sorry, didn't have time to look in game for correct name) are one of the more effective units at doing this, particularly for the AI in towns. They form up into a narrow block and simply push through the pike formation quite easily.

Bar the last example in my opinion its really the way it should be. The phalanx are not invincible, but don't expect militia or light cavalry to do it from the front. That should be suicide to low level units and cost too much for even the elite units to try unless at last resort.

The phalanx in vanilla MTW2 on the other hand, are pathetic, unless micromanaged in which case they reach the 'unsatisfactory' rating

edit: Gateways into towns etc are a special case. with the amount of troops attempting to push through at the same time it is akin to a stampede at a football match. Don't expect any troops to handle that too well to be honest.

[Abokasee]

The MTW:2 pikemen are pathetic, the only worth while ones are, Scots noble pikemen, Adventuros (Not to be confused with Aventuriers, there French crossbowmen) Tercio Pikemen (Pushing it now slightly) Swiss Pikemen (If you can find them!)

Halberds are little better, I rarely use these, the only good ones are, Swiss Guard (But only papal states get them!) Janissary Heavy Infantry (Ok ok, they can't do the phalanx but they still kick ass) Voulgiers (If there upgrad as best you can and don't rout then they'll be ok) all the others will suck, I am Forgetting sword-staff militia because... there just not very good in phalanx

[antisocialmunky]

M2TW phalanxes suck so badly that its not even funny. Also, is there any way to revert it back to RTW style by changing hte animation, I don't want my pez looking forming up like the swiss.

[The Wicked]

Well the guys in Broken crecent have done a very good job with the pikemen except their stats which are worst than peasants

[mAIOR]

I'm getting scared about hearing people using FM to charge pikes from the front... I think that's suicidal. If you get unlucky your FM will die faster than you can tell.

I always flank the phalanxes in EB. In MTWII I don't bother. I just send some heavy infantry (like Varingian guard) and they'll shop them to poeces.


Cheers...

[Perturabo]

I'm getting scared about hearing people using FM to charge pikes from the front... I think that's suicidal. If you get unlucky your FM will die faster than you can tell.

I always flank the phalanxes in EB. In MTWII I don't bother. I just send some heavy infantry (like Varingian guard) and they'll shop them to poeces.


Cheers...

I said that it was possible, not that it was a good idea