Phalanx Superiority

[Amaranth]

Are they the best melee infantary type in RTW ?

They are almost immovable when holding a battle line against other foot units, perfect against cavalary and most other unit types.

I'm a fan of phalanx units, first I used them with Greek Cities, admired them, then Played Seleucids and I adored them. Cause Silver Shield Pikemen seems to be the best Phalanx unit in RTW. (As much as I experienced so far.)

I made a little test. Took Silver Shield Pikemen and put them in a fight with another faction's best unit (1 vs 1 at Large Unit scale, 121men in single unit of Silver Shield Pikemen). I started with Silver Shields against Spartan Hoplites. Silvers has more men in a single unit therefore they're better at forming an effective phalanx formation, even the perfect morale of Spartans fades when fighting while exhausted and eventually they run away.
I also tried, other phalanx units against Silvers and also non-phalanx like Berserkers and Urban Cohort, Bull Warriors etc.
Silvers succeeded beating all others.

What are your opinions about Phalanx Units ?
Do you like them or not ?
If you like them which faction's phalanx is the best ?

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Phalanx units are quite good defensively, however, offensive is not their best factor, because of their slow movement and their uselessness without their spears. They are, of course, great against almost all types of cavalry, apart from missile ones which just stay away. I like them quite much, and they are favourable units. IMO, the most powerful of them would be the Spartans, as they are made to be one of the strongest RTW units, but in terms of quality for price, then the Macedonian Royal Pikemen are wonderful.

[Legio]

In vanilla phalanxes are excellent troops. I conquered the map with armored hops once and with phalanx pikemen another time.
Berserkers do not fare well against phalanxes in my tests.:hmmm:

[Amaranth]

That's right, They are much more useful in defensive situations, however, most of the time you can quickly reform them with shortcuts, and note that they should be always move in an arc like axis to forward, like forming a half circle, that helps facing enemy from the front and preventing them to enter blade fight which they're weak. And should always be supported by some quicker and versatile units to avoid flank attacks.

[Legio]

They steamroll in siege situations, especially, where they take up the whole street and cannot be outflanked.
I always use archers or thracian mercs to guard flanks.
I prefer the straight-line phalanx, with archers behind and thracians on each flank. When the lines meet, the thracians rol up the enemy with their high attack and especially from behind.

[Amaranth]

Ah yes, Thracian Mercs or better Bastarnean Mercs (I might mispelled that- you got what i mean), those guys have a real-deal charge ^^

[Prince_of_Macedon]

Moving to Battle Planning.

[GeneralChaos]

Phalanxes are good, but watch 'em cope with last minute redeployments.

I thought for some reason Royals beat Silver Shield Pikes, but that could have been due to upgrades or something.

Anyone know how to make them shuffle backwards? I can't figure this out, though I've seen it happen.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Never yet heard of that happening, though that would be extremely helpful

[sumaznguy]

I love phalanx units, but they aren't that great for offensive tactics. That's why most of my battles are defensive.

I have a line of phalanxes in the front, then behind them is a line of skirmishers, and behind them are a line of archers/slingers. Works well in smaller battles, but in huge battles where the enemy has multiple lines of infantry, its not that great since my missile troops run out of ammo due to all those enemy troops, and if they try to flank the enemy, they get routed by the enemy reserve lines.

[Amaranth]

Here's how I usually play on a field battle(especially against barbarian armies );

6 line phalanx on the front
3 archers behind phalanx line
about 4 Scythed Chariots placed 2 unit to left of the phalanx line and another 2 unit to right side.
some elephant units in the middle.
cavalary and commander behind elephant units (if there are none, cavalary directly behind the archers.) note that I usually use mass cavalary in my battles. most of my commanders has master horseman trait.

when the battle begins I march with phalanxes and draw the enemy on me, at that time before contact, archers inflicts as much as casualties as they can, and elephant approaches slowly and takes place behind phalanx line.

When enemy starts to charge, I send chariots from two sides, to surround the enemy and I also charge elephants to cause a shock and disorder in emeny lines, making the job for phalanxes a lot easier and I also charge cavalary on enemy's strongest units.

When chariots surrounds the enemy and collides in the middle, most of the time enemy immediately starts to rout, then I reform phalanxes to startard formation and chase the running enemy, and chariots also cuts through them, leaving the enemy with none survivor.

[hyperballa]

royal pikemen are actualy stronger, cause they have attack of 10 and defense of 17, while silver shield pikemen have attack of 10 and defense of 14.

[Amaranth]

royal pikemen are actualy stronger, cause they have attack of 10 and defense of 17, while silver shield pikemen have attack of 10 and defense of 14.

I've tested them against silvers, several times, silvers won at every time.
It may change depending the user, I don't know, but that's my result.

[Legio]

Silvers have better armor I think.
I still like Armored Hoplites. :ian:

[Yojimbo]

Try phals online. they are far, far from the best unit tho i still love using them.

[Amaranth]

Silvers have better armor I think.
I still like Armored Hoplites. :ian:

Nope, I checked it out again, Royals (hence their significantly larger shields) have better armour but Silvers (maybe because that they carry longer spears) have better attack.

[Yojimbo]

Nope, I checked it out again, Royals (hence their significantly larger shields) have better armour but Silvers (maybe because that they carry longer spears) have better attack.

Sacred bands kill both as they have 23 def and 12 attack They also have 12 armour and large shields.

[Amaranth]

Sacred bands kill both as they have 23 def and 12 attack They also have 12 armour and large shields.

I tried, they couldn't.
The only units was close to beat Silvers was Urban Cohort and Bull Warriors, cause they throw javelins before charge. And I found a tactic for that too (Loose formation then form phalanx. wait for the javelins, then attack. after inflicting some casualties return to standart formation, and retreat at double speed then tight formation, turn back and face the enemy in phalanx form again, it works quite well) after 3-4 try, they were beaten also. (Maybe it depends on the player or the version of the game. I don't know.)

[Legio]

Armored hoplites still kill sacred bands in my experience. I besieged Carthage as Greeks, and he ha dmore unit sthan I did (4 sb's to my 3 armored hops), and I still won.

[hyperballa]

usually, if the human controls the unit, it does better head to head with the ai unit. when i used sacred band in my carthage campaign, i destroyed armored hoplites while only taking 10-15 casualties(in one unit)