Roman tactics against Barbarians.

[Fluvius Camillus]

@Athanaric
That last bit is new to me! Thanks for the info!

Now if the AI were smart enough to recruit them.....

~Fluvius

[Cute Wolf]

@Athanaric
That last bit is new to me! Thanks for the info!

Now if the AI were smart enough to recruit them.....

~Fluvius

Mistophoroi Thureophoroi are quite common, had huge spawning rate, and you can recruit 3 or 4 of them at a time in most hellenic provinces... but once you got galatian provinces and start pumping out Kuraothoroi... they will be just emergency soldiers.

[Fluvius Camillus]

Mistophoroi Thureophoroi are quite common, had huge spawning rate, and you can recruit 3 or 4 of them at a time in most hellenic provinces... but once you got galatian provinces and start pumping out Kuraothoroi... they will be just emergency soldiers.

I was referring to the Imperialist hint of the week, SPQR can't recruit Spendonethai Rhodioi but they can BRIBE them!

~Fluvius

[Centurio Nixalsverdrus]

But life before romans were savage, decadent and/or uncivilized, we have to thank the Romans for all the technological and cultural legacies they've left us. (I know english is germanic, but it has been civilized with a lot of latin-root words. Heck, even German needs latin alphabet to be useable.)

:) It's nice to play in my own hands the rise of the greatest civilization on earth.

Yo homie, come over to my place one day and we're gonna talk a bit...

[athanaric]

I was referring to the Imperialist hint of the week, SPQR can't recruit Spendonethai Rhodioi but they can BRIBE them!

~Fluvius

Here is proof from my current campaign:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This is but a part of my Foreign Legion, which I'm assembling for prestige purposes. I like to do so in every campaign. Right now, I have a stack of Skythians and Slavs (bribed around Moscow) heading for Sicily, with the purpose of aiding my main field General Bergawulfáz in the upcoming assimilation of Carthage.

[teoman10]

I cannot really see how the thing with the hastati in front, principes back and triarii back there (with auxilaries here and there) isn`t applied very much here. Personally i find it working perfectly in my SPQR campaign since I can have descent heavy infantry in the front line. If they don`t do the trick I will have stronger units to replace them and i can do this two times. Even though the Hastati suffers some losses, the enemy will be nearly euxsausted when i replace them with the even better soldiers in the rear line. It will usually slaughter any "barbarian" enemy (at least when not in a forest).
When talking about the pilum i usually place the principes so close to the Hastati so that they can throw their pilums over them before the enemy reaches my lines. Really devestating.

[J.R.M]

First: Pikeman, welcome to the Forum, hope u have a great time playing EB, btw just try playing some Barbarian factions and maybe u will discover how barbaric and savage the non romans were. Or maybe u were just trying to provoke someone? i can imagine what Satalexton would have responded.
Or were u using sarcasm maybe?

Second: I remember the Hastati - Principes - Triari line and some skirmishers and allied infantry at both sides worked perfectly against almost everything.

[jirisys]

Never lost a battle with it (almost, with epeiros, i was depleted and they had a fullstack and reinforcing armies) army is facing towards the bottom

~Jirisys (VAE VICTRIX!)

[Hannibal Khan the Great]

Woe to the victors?

[pikeman]

@ Jirisys (I just read your sig)

The problem I found was that my line can never be as wide as say... the Greeks'. Unless it's unarmoured rabble that charges towards me, the Pilum is ineffective when thrown frontally. Then my front 'checker tiles' usually gets beaten up (but not defeated, due to Roman valour) because they're receiving attacks from three sides. It's less so now that I have Polybian Hastati though.

I don't know what I've done, but the RTW AI seems to be on rabies, Carthage sent a stack to Sardinia and Sicily each (2 african elephants!!!) BY SEA. What remained of Epeiros actually sent a half Stack at Taras, and as I move down Illyria Makedonia attacked me! Not to mention, the bloody barbarians in gaul keep besieging Mediolanum.

edit: I checked with toggle_fow cheat (does the oliphant cheat still work?) and I found the Germans have taken the Eastern Alps.

[jirisys]

@ Jirisys (I just read your sig)

The problem I found was that my line can never be as wide as say... the Greeks'. Unless it's unarmoured rabble that charges towards me, the Pilum is ineffective when thrown frontally. Then my front 'checker tiles' usually gets beaten up (but not defeated, due to Roman valour) because they're receiving attacks from three sides. It's less so now that I have Polybian Hastati though.

I don't know what I've done, but the RTW AI seems to be on rabies, Carthage sent a stack to Sardinia and Sicily each (2 african elephants!!!) BY SEA. What remained of Epeiros actually sent a half Stack at Taras, and as I move down Illyria Makedonia attacked me! Not to mention, the bloody barbarians in gaul keep besieging Mediolanum.

edit: I checked with toggle_fow cheat (does the oliphant cheat still work?) and I found the Germans have taken the Eastern Alps.

That is why there's a Campanian (can be any allied or mercenary cavalry, check the how to be a true roman guide) and two consulares (or a consulares and a equites romani) to charge the fronts that aren't succumbing to the meatgrinders (aka Hastati) the campanians are there for the elephants and chariots, no the oliphant doesn't work here, what difficulty are you playing on? the pilum is not that unnefective, besides that's why there is a SKIRMISHER (archer, slinger, javelineer) checkerboard in the front, to reduce the enemy at long range, and retreat when too close to the enemy, so that you might get them more demoralized

P.S.: Stop insulting barbarian scum, or else some god-haters (aka romaioktonoi, roman haters) are going to spam, put the moderators against you (except ludens) and troll you to death, because they know that you can only kill a roman man with cheats and sacrilege and uncivilized acts
But really stop, all of the above is true

~Jirisys (Woe to the victors, because i told you in my post that i have always won with the quinqunx formation every time)

[athanaric]

I don't know what I've done, but the RTW AI seems to be on rabies, Carthage sent a stack to Sardinia and Sicily each (2 african elephants!!!) BY SEA. What remained of Epeiros actually sent a half Stack at Taras, and as I move down Illyria Makedonia attacked me! Not to mention, the bloody barbarians in gaul keep besieging Mediolanum.

What difficulty are you playing on?

Regarding those elephants, what kind of elephants are they? If they're called Pilei Ya'ar Libim, you can bribe them. Will take a lot of money though.
You can also recruit them in Northern Africa.

(does the oliphant cheat still work?)

IIRC it makes EB crash, so better don't try it.

[Macilrille]

And the insane AI is a well-known problem, nothing to do about it. You can search for advice on dealing with it in the forum.

Back to doing EB II and an insane exam :-(

[Mulceber]

Just to bring some grammar in - woe to the victors should be vae victoribus. vae victrix seems to mean something to the effect of "conquering woe."

Oh and Pikeman, definitely stop insulting the other factions. It'll break what little peace exists between the Romaioktonoi and the Romaiophiloi and will give away the moral high ground in the next conflict (whenever they hate on the Romans we can usually point out that the point of this mod is to give EVERY faction its due: if you go around defaming the other cultures it'll be far more difficult to claim that we believe that). -M

[Rahwana]

Oh and Pikeman, definitely stop insulting the other factions.

yeah, don't try to do what those lowly spammers of Romaioktonoi do, they always think their own faction in too high regards, and faction they depise (romans) are especially low and barbaric... that kind of mindset are actually a very screwed one, coming from outright idiocy and ignorance, as they are refusing to acknowledge any kind of Roman archevement, and spam about how barbaric the Romans is... in mindless way like what Satalexton do.

BTW, try to respect every other faction's archievement, and try to put a good academic discussion about that. not to spam like the spamming group known as romaioktonoi.

[Ludens]

That's enough Romaioktonoi-bashing, guys.

Most Romaioktonoi haven't spammed or caused trouble in a long time. Don't blame the behaviour of a couple of individuals on the entire group.

Now, let's get back to topic.

[antisocialmunky]

And the insane AI is a well-known problem, nothing to do about it. You can search for advice on dealing with it in the forum.

Back to doing EB II and an insane exam :-(

Do Multiplayer :)

[Jebivjetar]

I agree with Ludens, there's no need to bash Romaioktonoi in every occasion, while uncultured street lingo used to offend someone on a personal level is not welcomed in this forum and it represents nothing but a pea-brained, primitive spam.

Anyway, Pikeman

You said that you have problems in your campaign because few enemy factions are attacking you at the same time. First of all, sooner or later you'll find out what is the optimal expansion behavior for your faction, that is for the Romans. Keep in mind that you're surrounded by the AI controlled factions (AI hates human players, and it's very possible that AI faction will attack you whenever you share a border with it). You must also know that some declarations of war are inevitable (because they are scripted). If you, let's say, attack Messana, Carthage will declare war on you by default.
Choose your expansion route wisely, don't expand in many different directions at the same time (that way you'll only have a lot of war zones with a lot of AI factions, and thus the trouble, especially for a newbie in EB, like you). If you, let's say, start to expand into Sicily, Gaul, Illyria at the same time, you'll probably get involved in too many wars. Go slowly, don't hurry.

[Ibn-Khaldun]

edit: I checked with toggle_fow cheat (does the oliphant cheat still work?) and I found the Germans have taken the Eastern Alps.

No, it doesn't.

[Ophiokhos]

A Camillian army isn't the best army to deal with Gauls, in my experience. I had a better time dealing with them when the Polybian reforms came in, but that was when I was a newbie to EB. Try to avoid fighting on too many fronts, especially early on in the game. You could also play as the Arveni or Aedui for a little while to learn more about how their forces work.

[Hannibal Khan the Great]

Go slowly, don't hurry.

That's what she said.

Taking a fairly historical time to conquer other factions with your 'lings might make things easier, in fact unless the Gray or Yellow death appears, then the stupid AI will make your job fairly easy.

[Duguntz]

Anyone got ideas to help me? Every barbarian blood is worth less than 1 drop of Roman blood. ROMA VICTRIX!!!

haaaa, just when Romaioktonoi calmed it's ardor in the forum, someone had to come and make a statement as bold as that. Tell me, how would you like to die? in a burning Barbaropolis, or along with your entire legions in a Teutoberg style?

Sorry, i don't wanna start a romaioktonoi fire... just answering to provocation...

Now, on a related note, if you want to beat your ennemy, you must KNOW your ennemy. There are plenty of thread about barbarian tactics. Read them, I wrote a quiet extensive tactic guide for sweboz in a post, can be useful for you. I know that AI dosen't use such ''advence tactics'', but by reading all what you can about your ebnnemies, you might just find weaknesses to exploit, and assure your ''Roma Victrix'' (Oooohhh, those words have a bitter taste on my tongue...)

[Cute Wolf]

Please don't confuse Pikemen... it was a normal thing a newbie player start assuming the Romans are everything in the world, and they mistook some other factions... give him time to play Aedui and repeat the Sack of Roma... or as Karthadast, and emulate Hannibal's conquest of Italy. That will change his mind.

[Duguntz]

True, the aim was not to confuse him (btw, welcome to the forum Pikemen!), but he won't bash without being answered! pikemen, I think that, while having trouble with gauls, you'll live hell when you'll encounter Sweboz. They're all hardy, many MANY AP (armour percing) weapons, and better stamina than... well, all units you can produce, meaning that if you run, they'll catch you XD so the best trick is to pepper them with missiles and javelins...

[Rahwana]

True, the aim was not to confuse him (btw, welcome to the forum Pikemen!), but he won't bash without being answered! pikemen, I think that, while having trouble with gauls, you'll live hell when you'll encounter Sweboz. They're all hardy, many MANY AP (armour percing) weapons, and better stamina than... well, all units you can produce, meaning that if you run, they'll catch you XD so the best trick is to pepper them with missiles and javelins...

and don't forget that Sweboz hate Roman pila.

[Duguntz]

Well as most of them are from half to fully naked, it is understandable :)) Still, no units can better define the words TRUE WARRIOR!

[Cute Wolf]

Well as most of them are from half to fully naked, it is understandable :)) Still, no units can better define the words TRUE WARRIOR!

too bad, RTW had no stats to define "dodging" statistics... while in fact, half nude, or nudist warriors could easily evade javelins in loose formations... but not in dense formations like the Sweboz had... oh, Jugundiz are for that job... soaking javelins so their Duguntz can finish the Romans off...

[Ca Putt]

well 9 out of 10 sweboz units are allergic to any kind of ranged projectile no matter if it's a Sotroas' arrow, a Rhodian lead bullet, or a Legionaries Pilum.

[Duguntz]

That's why they come in bunch of 201 guys. Yes, they get pepperes pretty hard at the begining of any engagement if they're outnumbered in missile troops, but once they make contact they generaly still have enough guys left to offer a fair fight.

[Cute Wolf]

so far, I agree that this trait alone made Reidonez and Curepos are very2 important in any Sweboz army... at least, they could give time to bleed enemy missile troops, and let the melee troops come in better shape!