Beating a noob circle

[Drustan]

I was wondering if there were any tactics that people could share for dealing with these things.

In MP games, I either use Germania or TSE to battle. My TSE armies tend to consist of a few phalanxes, with legionaires /cataphracts defending the flanks and archers/ elephants behind.

My Germania army usually consists of mainly spear warbands (people usually dont expect this so it works quite well), with night raiders and gothic cavalry on the flanks, and three or four beserker units which I send in when the fighting gets tough.

Both do pretty well, except when I'm playing a greek faction which decides to use a noob circle. My archers can take a few troops down, but unless I have a brilliant fully trained archer unit (which is difficult to afford when you are playing 10,000 denarii games), I can never take out enough to create a hole which I can break through with cavalry.

Help pl0x?

[Paggers]

Have the archers aim at the backs of the troops furthest away.

[War lord]

Have the archers aim at the backs of the troops furthest away.

Thats a n00b box I think he's talking about a n00b heap.

[Paggers]

Thats a n00b box I think he's talking about a n00b heap.

Thread title mentions circle so somewhere there are units with their back to your archers.

[War lord]

If the Hoplites are back to back it's near impossable to win.

[HanatielHawk]

use the side where there're no spears. Cavalery (bad choice) in a wedge formation and if you play with the romans use the following:

Legionary first cohorts, surround the circle with the cohorts (no fire at will). Like in a square, 2 each side.
If you have archers indeed let them use fire and fire at the back of a phalanxed hoplite.
When the cohorts are in formation, order them to fire at will until they have no pilums left. This weakens the enemy alot.
No pilums left, say your prayer and fully charge them all into your spears.
IF YOU HAVE CAVALERY, let them wedge first and wedge into a zone without spears, directly after that fully charge the cohorts. This will do it.

Back to back formation? Attack the flanks.

[War lord]

Back to back formation? Attack the flanks.

Thats the point,It's all overlapped there are no flanks.

[daxypoo]

the problem w/ "noob boxes" is its stacity
it refuses to move...
therefore you need to focus your fire on a very specific point of the box
if you are facing a noob box you are likely only fighting one phalanx at a time; the owner of the noob box will unlikely maneuver units unless absolutely necessary
this is the fatal flaw of stacity... you can gain numerical superiority with 2 or 3 legions versus 1 phalanx... this is what you want

when i use pila armies i never fire at will... you never know what the hell they are going to throw at
take a pila unit select the default attack that 1st throws some javelins and attack- fight a little bit
then pull back the unit and do it again w/ another pila attack and rinse and repeat
get enough units to hit a point and you will hopefully get that breach you want so badly

they key is to pick an army that fits your enemy
pila = phalanx destruction

dont fart around w/ archers or cav versus greek armies just spam pila infantry units

[Toern]

dont fart around w/ archers or cav versus greek armies just spam pila infantry units

It due respect that was one of the most stupid things i ever read regarding rome multiplayer, is even worse than that guy who writed that praetorians beat cataphracts.

[|Sith| Max]

Personally i have never had a problem in dealing with these morons. and even if theyre back to back you can still hit em with your archers. archers, unlike slings fire in a ballistic trajectory. ofcouse i can understand that you have problems fighting a box since i know how you play, so i will advise you this: first you use every missile in your arsenal, and secondly dont spam pila inf like Daxypoo, the newest addition to my huntlist just suggested. even though the urban cohort is very effective against boxes you musnt forget about the rest of the battle. if he has a good ally and you got all inf you probably wont make it to the box. assuming you have about 4 cav, 6 arch and 5 inf i advise you to target the sides or flanks with your archers and surround it half of it with inf. try breaching one section and he will have to divert troops to that side of the heap. eventually he will turn most or all of his spears towards your infantry and you can charge your cavalry into his rear. its basic noob psychology. if you surround him you disperse your strength. if you hit him at one side hard he will turn his focus there and you can hit his rear with cav and arch.

[|Sith| Max]

also dont stick to just two factions. expand your retinue of factions. if you want to kill greece, use rome, seleucia, parthia, armenia or scythia. you should have no problems. also Carthaginian phalanxes are tougher than armored hoplites. Carthage can thus be a good counter. better inf and better cav.

[War lord]

Catas also work since they charge thourge anything that isn't spartan.

[daxypoo]

It due respect that was one of the most stupid things i ever read regarding rome multiplayer, is even worse than that guy who writed that praetorians beat cataphracts.

what the hell is wrong with this tactic?

greeks will put their lame archers inside the box and if you focus on getting pila infantry and outnumbering the phalanx you will win... it is my philosophy that to try and match an enemy by out missiling him will keep you playing 10k-15k games
I dont play those... so dont be so judgemental ffs

and by the way it is "with due respect..."


and what the hell is a huntlist darth max? my god... there is more than one way to fleece that phalanx box...

[daxypoo]

Personally i have never had a problem in dealing with these morons. and even if theyre back to back you can still hit em with your archers. archers, unlike slings fire in a ballistic trajectory. ofcouse i can understand that you have problems fighting a box since i know how you play, so i will advise you this: first you use every missile in your arsenal, and secondly dont spam pila inf like Daxypoo, the newest addition to my huntlist just suggested. even though the urban cohort is very effective against boxes you musnt forget about the rest of the battle. if he has a good ally and you got all inf you probably wont make it to the box. assuming you have about 4 cav, 6 arch and 5 inf i advise you to target the sides or flanks with your archers and surround it half of it with inf. try breaching one section and he will have to divert troops to that side of the heap. eventually he will turn most or all of his spears towards your infantry and you can charge your cavalry into his rear. its basic noob psychology. if you surround him you disperse your strength. if you hit him at one side hard he will turn his focus there and you can hit his rear with cav and arch.

i am not referring to a player that is skilled w/ phalanx and can maneuvre the army
noob boxes are employed by non skilled players that dont move

[Black Prince IV]

Shouldn't you just bring an onager when fighting a noob square?

[Zekey]

If your talking about multiplayer just tell the guy in the box that you arn't attacking until he comes out of the box.

If you dont have the time to outwait him just aim for the back of his pikes with fire arrows and attack the corners with cav in wedge.

[Walternat0r]

If you're Romans, it may be better to focus all your chaps on one side/area of the circle. If you through pila from all your units at say 3-4 units of hoplite types and charge them. Then he'll have to come out of his circle to counter your focused charge. Once he starts to reposition then retreat a small distance and outflank.

Bare in mind I haven't tried this, just hypothesising

[Toern]

I was wondering if there were any tactics that people could share for dealing with these things.

In MP games, I either use Germania or TSE to battle. My TSE armies tend to consist of a few phalanxes, with legionaires /cataphracts defending the flanks and archers/ elephants behind.

My Germania army usually consists of mainly spear warbands (people usually dont expect this so it works quite well), with night raiders and gothic cavalry on the flanks, and three or four beserker units which I send in when the fighting gets tough.

Both do pretty well, except when I'm playing a greek faction which decides to use a noob circle. My archers can take a few troops down, but unless I have a brilliant fully trained archer unit (which is difficult to afford when you are playing 10,000 denarii games), I can never take out enough to create a hole which I can break through with cavalry.

Help pl0x?

what the hell is wrong with this tactic?

greeks will put their lame archers inside the box and if you focus on getting pila infantry and outnumbering the phalanx you will win... it is my philosophy that to try and match an enemy by out missiling him will keep you playing 10k-15k games
I dont play those... so dont be so judgemental ffs

and by the way it is "with due respect..."


and what the hell is a huntlist darth max? my god... there is more than one way to fleece that phalanx box...

he plays 10k games, you high money, you didnt read his post and posted an useless comment to his question.

Drustan
to any 10-15k game, u can get 6 gold attack archers, for less than 1500, and they can double or triple their initial value, so get some archers and kill his archers first then his infantry, if he is greek cities else he will have few non upgrade spartans (who have only a value of armour 3), or armored hoplites who are an sacred band version with less 3 attack.
Make sure you waste all your ammo before charging too.

[crazyofengland]

Look at Clunies vid about this: HERE

[mikoli]

If you're Romans, it may be better to focus all your chaps on one side/area of the circle. If you through pila from all your units at say 3-4 units of hoplite types and charge them. Then he'll have to come out of his circle to counter your focused charge. Once he starts to reposition then retreat a small distance and outflank.

Bare in mind I haven't tried this, just hypothesising

I like your way of thinking!!!I think it will work very well!!!