why? (formation disruption question)

[Comemnus]

Why when I tell my pike men, who are defending in a city, to attack; they decide to break formation and attack with their piddly little daggers?? its infuriating, I have lost several crucial battles because my men just seem to ignore common sense. Its truly infuriating to see an expensive unit of Argyraspidai get cut to pieces by cavalry because they refuse to use their spears.

[Bellum]

Are you sure your not talking about M2TW? :/

[Sarkiss]

Why when I tell my pike men, who are defending in a city, to attack; they decide to break formation and attack with their piddly little daggers?? its infuriating, I have lost several crucial battles because my men just seem to ignore common sense. Its truly infuriating to see an expensive unit of Argyraspidai get cut to pieces by cavalry because they refuse to use their spears.

when u see them breaking into hand to hand ignoring pikes hit "Back Space". they will reform. worked wonders for me. the trick is not to forget the "BS" after ordering attack. it also prevents soldiers wandering off formation, and so called moon walk.

[blank]

It's an RTW bug, nothing to do with EB

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Never attack, just ram.

[Spoofa]

my guy's always get owned when i "ram"

[antisocialmunky]

March them up to charge range and backspace. Let them come to you. I mean.. if its a siege, they have to.

[Spoofa]

if your attacking an army... they dont move.

[blank]

if your attacking an army... they dont move.

well yes the AI likes to cower in their town square because there they have perfect morale

[antisocialmunky]

I always order my pikemen to walk up to the enemy or behind and it usually works out for me. The only times I really order attack is if I'm fighting other phalanxes.

If you're fighting in a city battles, then you're kinda screwed if they out number you with high quality melee units. That doesn't mean you're totally screwed because we're talking about the AI here. But I if you're only assaulting a town with phalanxes, then you're just asking for higher casualites.

Whenever I siege and have phalanxes(which is 50% of the time with my greek campaigns), I surround the entrance to the town center one one to three sides with phalanxes and have my mobile units(unphalanx phalanx, horsies, hoplites, etc) run around behind and to the other side. Then I order one of my phalanxes to form up(hold drag) on the edge of the town center. The enemy attacks them and then I swarm in on my other sides. On rare occasions I end up with the enemy units caught between two phalanxes at which point I take them off defense and let them squish the guys in the middle.

If you have slingers and start bombarding the enemy AI in the city center, they'll chase you. If you retreat through your phalanx they'll start attacking it. Then you can get behind them with some mroe phalanxes and kill them or if they have multiple units win through attrition.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

my guy's always get owned when i "ram"

Oh, in cities I don't know... but on the open field, ram them, and when they start to get "squeezed", press Backspace. And don't turn your phalanxes more than 5° while ramming, that won't work. Oh and ramming works better with deep formations.

[NightStar]

I mostly just sacrifice the ram before the battle, for good luck you know!

[NeoSpartan]

Oh, in cities I don't know... but on the open field, ram them, and when they start to get "squeezed", press Backspace. And don't turn your phalanxes more than 5° while ramming, that won't work. Oh and ramming works better with deep formations.

true u can also join 2 pikes and ram with them. HOWEVER, its hard to ram the elite pikes and shortpikes so use it wisesely.

[Tellos Athenaios]

First get some units to pin the enemy line; then ram...

[TWFanatic]

What is ramming? I've never heard of it.

[bovi]

Ram=Collide with force. You can ram a ship into an enemy ship, ram a battering... ram into a gate, or ram a phalanx into the enemy line. What he actually means here, I think, is order the phalanx to move beyond the enemy and eventually they will collide with the enemy and start poking.

[TWFanatic]

Ram=Collide with force. You can ram a ship into an enemy ship, ram a battering... ram into a gate, or ram a phalanx into the enemy line.

Knew that.

What he actually means here, I think, is order the phalanx to move beyond the enemy and eventually they will collide with the enemy and start poking.

Didn't know that. Thanks.

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

Yes. Order your Phalanx in a line in front of the enemy line. Then order them to a point behind the enemy. Use spacebar to control where the phalanx will go. As soon as the phalanx has contact with the enemy, it'll stop. Then I normally order them again to move to a point behind the enemy. The phalanx will move and get a bit "squeezed", but normally not losing more than 2 men. When it is squeezed, press backspace.

[Bellum]

I don't use phalanx units much in EB, but I can't remember ever having problems with them in RTW. At least nowhere near on the level I did in M2. But then, in EB, I rarely fight city battles. Theres so much extra time, I usual starve the garison until they give up or sally forth.