A haiku for the Armenian cavalry!

[dominique]

A summer storm comes
Men and horses like damas steel
the Phalanx folds, quits


I'm playing Hayasdan. I've won my first fight against the Grey Death. I've tried a tactic which works very weel and filled my heart with pride for the boys!

I don't know how to call it? The cavalry square?

I let the Phalanxes get close to my poor spearmen while my archers shoots fire arrows on the badguys. When they encroach with my line, I pull the poor buggers back. By this time, I've manoeuvred my cavalry on the AS flank and try something that needs a lot of micromanagement.

I line up the bodyguards then I launch 4 successive charges and as soon as they contact I pull them out and bring them to their original position. Then I apply the shampoo rule: Repeat if Necessary.

So the Phalanx gets 4+ charges on it's flank in less than a minute while it's moving and receiving fire arrows. It folds quickly and then it's baby seal hunting time!

I've got an heroic victory. No pics though because I was so euphoric/unbelieving I went through the after battle menu like a robot.

Anybody else tried that tactic, or something close?

[Mouzafphaerre]

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Having fought (and defeated ) the Golder Horde in MTW, pinning down heavy cavalry with spears to manoeuvre and hit the flank/rear is somewhat intuitive in me, the triumphant strategos.

Multiple charges followed by immediate pull-backs, I've been experimenting in my Lusotana campaign. Combining the two and doing the multi-charge in a Mexico '86 manner is a good idea, for which I must give credit to you.
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[Landwalker]

A summer storm comes
Men and horses like damas steel
the Phalanx folds, quits

Looks like your meter's off on the second line. I'm getting eight syllables instead of seven.

/Nitpicking.


Fire Arrows are really the only reason I would ever choose archers over slingers. Being effective against armor is nice, but I'd rather run down and kill a hundred fleeing enemies than kill in battle 75 fighting ones, with 25 of them having succumbed to sling bullets but the rest still having dandy morale. My EB battles have rapidly caused me to change my strategy from "Kill efficiency" to "Rout efficiency", and flaming arrows are definitely a player in that approach. Just be careful you don't shoot your "bait" spearmen in the back, because they'll get even more demoralized by it than the enemy phalanxes.

Cheers.

[overweightninja]

Fire Arrows are really the only reason I would ever choose archers over slingers. Being effective against armor is nice, but I'd rather run down and kill a hundred fleeing enemies than kill in battle 75 fighting ones, with 25 of them having succumbed to sling bullets but the rest still having dandy morale.

I may be imagining it but they always appear to last longer ammo wise than regular arrows too.
Anyone know for sure?

[Landwalker]

I may be imagining it but they always appear to last longer ammo wise than regular arrows too.
Anyone know for sure?

That's odd: I've always suspected the exact opposite.

Cheers.

[Pharnakes]

Surely not, I mean why?

Prehaps they have a reduced rate of fire to simulate the time required to light the arrow, ect?

[Rhipsaspis]

Selecting "fire arrows" makes your units fire slower, I only use fire arrows in sieges to burn towers and rams.