Swords, Spears, Maces, Axes, ...

[Fluvius Camillus]

About Romans defending against cavalry attacks...

Roman Cavalry Repel formation reenactment:

The order to repel cavalry by Roman army officers brought about a defensive formation, in which the front rank formed a tight wall of shields with their pila protruding to form a line of spearheads ahead of the wall. Undoubtedly it would be very hard to bring a horse to break into that formation. The most likely occurrence would be that it would come to a halt of its own will ahead of the spearheads. It was at that moment that horse and rider would be at their most vulnerable against the ranks behind the first line of infantry which would then hurl their spears at them. Given the short distance and the training legionaries received, it is likely such halted cavalry, frantically trying to turn their horses around to retreat, whilst colliding with horses following in the charge, would prove very easy targets.
If one further considers the likely possibility of archers being present, the effect of this formation could indeed be devastating.

Taken from http://www.roman-empire.net

~Fluvius

[antisocialmunky]

You can actually do that in RTW if your micro and timing are up to snuff but legionaires need a mount bonus for them to be useful against horse.

[Whatever Scortamareva]

You can actually do that in RTW if your micro and timing are up to snuff but legionaires need a mount bonus for them to be useful against horse.

How? Even with precision timing it's impossible to make a legionnaire use the pila as a spear or gain any bonus from it even if they are half way through the throwing animation, the only time when a legionnaire might look like a spearman. With no bonuses it'd just be exactly the same as cavalry charging into a standard unit.

Correct me if i'm wrong, maybe i misunderstood what you meant..

Also apologies moonburn, I didn't realise you were talking about using the pila as a spear when I replied, I thought you were suggesting it wasn't a great javelin so much for speed-reading

[moonburn]

i must bow to bobbin indeed such a formation would be hard to counter

Whatever Scortamareva no biggie

and really cool composite bows always liked the thing (i assume the legionaries where using composite bows)