Phalanx V-formation...exploit?

[dominique]

It is certainly possible in the game (IF it is a bridge battle, anything else is guaranteed loss) if you position the 2 units right and micromanage very carefully because the phalanxes tend to "slip" while fighting.....

...I have destroyed worse AS armies using just 3 Pantodapoi Phalangitai...among the dead were
-a full unit of hellenic cataphracts
-the general and his bodyguard
-2 or 3 units of hellenic medium phalanx
-1 unit of levy phalanx
-1 or 2 units of peltasts, and some other regional skirmisher type.
- a full unit of tindanotae mercs.

SOoooooo.......

Well, I didn't account for personal skill in my post. Being sharp and skilled in a game isn't an exploit! It's an achievement.



(I bow before you! And I will reap you off in my games, if you don't mind!)

I will reformulate a bit. If a AI army attacks 2 AI Phalanxes in that formation and always lose, there's a problem!

The thing is, when you put your phalanx in a V-formation the sarrisas do not point straight at the enemy. When your spears do point straight at the enemy, some troops will manage to clear the initial line of sarissas by passing trough the small space between them and they will engange your soldiers in hand to hand combat. When you have your sarrisas pointing sideways the enemy soldiers cannot get closer, because the poles of the sarrisas are blocking them. This way no enemy soldiers can pass the first sarrisas to get within range of your soldiers. See illustration:

Nice explanation!

(I think though that if we play with the BI version of the game, this tactic is less usefull since the battle maps have less bottlenecks.)


In my games however, AI seems reluctant to engage my armies if they are at a bridge... Anybody had that too?

[bovi]

The V-phalanx seems really unwieldy. The intercrossing spears would make it very hard to use the spear, there would be 5-6 others blocking movement in any direction but thrust and recoil.

[antisocialmunky]

I like the standard semi-circle of death more.

[Leão magno]

Always use the Phalanx in line, do not use semi circles since the Vanillas wars...can you post pictures of your approaches

[gurakshun]

I like the standard semi-circle of death more.

the semicircle is actually less effective and less efficient than the v-formation. i have tried and tested both many times...and although it may seem that 3 units instead of 2 is better, it is not the case with the v-formation.