Quote Originally Posted by salemty
i would like if gaul have
2 barbarian cavalry
5 swordsmen
1 warlord
2 skirmishers
and if i am the romans and i have
3 hastati
3 principes
3 velites
2 equites
1 general
what formation should i put them in?
I would probably reccomend lining two Hastatii and all your Principles in a row on the second line. Switch on fire at will and guard mode to keep them held in place. By doing this the enemy will find it difficult to flank with their swordsmen - for every unit of them, there is a unit on the front line to combat them.

In front of them place the Velites so they can begin the skirmish.

Behind them, I would advise assigning your unit of Hastatii to guard the flanks. Barbarian Cavalry are slightly better than Equites, so may need a little help if they do try to attack them.

Place the equites behind the hastatii and principle line with one on the left flank and one on the right. Place the general on one flank also.

The formation now looks like this:

v v v
h h p p p
e g h e

When the enemy charge forward, get the velites out of the way and to the back of the line, exposing the enemy to fire from your principles and hastatii. The foes will then charge onto your line of infantry.

When the enemy try to attack your units on the flanks (equites and/or equites and general), and all enemy cavalry units are safley out of the way. Send your velites around to flank the barbarian infantry which should be in contact with your current front line. You could leave one unit of velites around that area to help the hastatii/equites/general which are already there should they need any help. The general is your most powerful unit, so use him where the combat is going roughly or lines are collapsing.

Eventually a mass wave of routes should occur, leaving you to chase down the remaining barbarians!