your tactics

[Last Roman]

when in battle, what (if any) tactic(s) do you use?

When I attack usually go the simple route. Weaken the enemy with some missiles (arrows mostly), followed by a frontal attack by my heavy infantry (unless facing a phanlanx), try to flank and/or attack the rear with some cavalry, while keeping some infantry and cavalry in reserve if needed.

It isnt much different when I'm defending. I weaken the enemy with as much as possible (arrows, artillery etc) and then usually wait for the enemy come to me.

so, what's yours?

[cavvie]

Yeah, my tactics are pretty thin. I want to read about some battles and the tactics used then. The Battle-planning sub-forum does have some interesting discussions on this plus somebody has great tactic overviews for some of his battles.

[Blaven]

If I'm pretty much equal in numbers with the enemy, I group my infantry and advance on theirs, having my cavalry fight theirs, and if they win, attack the rest of the enemy in the rear.

If I'm outnumbered, I take all troops and move them on one of the far corners of the map, so I can't get flanked. I keep my infantry in a tight line, with archers behind them. I put the infantry in guard mode to minimize my casualties. Then hopefully after the enemy has routed I chase them down with my cavalry.

[Decimus Equitius]

I have been using this one tactic for a while now as the Romans. I don't know what to call it...

First I organize all my infantry into three lines; 4 units in the first line 3 units in the second line and 4 units in the third in a checkerboard pattern. Behind my infantry I will put my archers (3 units) in a single line formation. On my right flank I'll put all of my Cavalry (3 units) in single line formation. And on my left flank I'll put my Velites or Auxilary spearsmen (2 units). When I start the battle I'll look at the opposing army and see where their strong side is. Whatever side is the strongest is where I'll put my archers; either behind my auxilia or in front of my Cavalry. This changes their attention to my archers, and they send people to take them out. When they do that, I run my infantry forward until they are close enough to throw their pila. While my infantry are throwing their pila. I run my cavalry way around to avoid eveyone so they can flank the center of their army directly from the rear. At the same time this is happening I'll run all my infantry to hit their main line, while also running my missile troops to either side to hit them in the side with their javelins and arrows. As long as my main line holds until the cavalry flank I can win, but if not then I lose. I'll post pictures later to clear things up.

[Proximus]

Moved to ze battle planning.

[Slimshoom]

It depends on the type of troops im using, the faction im playing, and of course whether i or the enemy have a numerical advantage. Im going to share a nice new tactic i thought up last night. Its called sharpsooters. Line up your infantry in 2 lines in a clearing in a heavily wooded area, preferably a clearing surrounded completely by forest. Then, on each flank, far enough out to be hidden, but not to far, or theyll be found, put units of a high level archer unit, such as cretan archers or forester. Then, as the enemy engages your line of infantry, wheel the archers around the back of the enemy and fire flaming arrows into their back, causing, in my experiences, almost complete and instant panic.

[HunKiller]

i usually group my infantry into 2 lines one light one heavy, take any missile calvary and put them way out to the sides along with regular cavalry to flank the enemy. regular missile troops are centered behind infantry and then the general is all the way in the back to use as shock cavalry late in the battle mainly for fighting the enemy general if i have no phalanxes

[milns]

I usually crush the enemy with my cavalry (hevy in RTW and general bodyguard units in BI), I use infantry as reinforcements only. Whith 6 or 7 generals its easy to win

[God]

I usually crush the enemy with my cavalry (hevy in RTW and general bodyguard units in BI), I use infantry as reinforcements only. Whith 6 or 7 generals its easy to win

Yep. Just get a huge cavalry army, group them topgether and charge at anything that moves!

Is it cheating? Maybe.
Do I care? No.

[MasterAdnin]

If I'm equal in number, I stay put until my onagers or any artillery are in range, then my troops move, all of them, under artillery support. Then once my archers are in range, I stop the advance. Then my velite or other skirmisher units move out and attack and then retreat when they're out of ammo.

My Hastati are then set to guard mode and fire at will. Then the enemy charges and my hastati hold them off, my princeps circle around and flank the enemy. Then when my hastati are steady or shaken, i move my triarii to assist, and move my cavalry to full encircle the enemy. Also, by the time they charge, my artillery stops firing.

For offensive, it's the same as if I'm equal in number.

For defensive I hold my ground and set all my units to fire at will, and make a cresent with the hastati at the flanks with triarii directly behind them and princeps concentrated in the middle. That's basicly it.

Peace,
Adnan

[Slimshoom]

For defense when im outnumbered by a significant margin (more than 200 men), i use a three line defensive square. I put the hastati on the outside, principes in the second line, and triarii, any other heavy infantry, or any mercenaries in the 3rd line. I also have archers and my general in the inside of the square. For maximum advantage, place the square on a hill with an equal slope all around. Usually, the enemy wont get through, if they do, open up part of the square, let the general and any other valuable cavalry to get away, while your infantry holds the enemy up enough to let your general escape.

[Shadows]

My main tactic is to always be the defender. I would much rather make the enemy come to me so I can destroy him on my own terms. as for in battles, my tactics usually include a surprise attack by hidden cavalry, just like in the historical battle of the River Trebia. Also, I have archers placed in fron of my lines with skirmish mode on. That way they can pelt the enemy before they get to my lines and then retreat back where they can still fire upon them. Also I always try to extend my main battleline beyond the enemy's. Within reason of course, if I am unable to do so I have a different tactic. So I have my main battleline attack and I spring the trap. Simple and effective. You can use it with any faction and against any army. Back to the other tactic. When I know that I am outnumbered or that the enemy has far superioir infantry. I prefer to punch a hole in teh center of the enemy line. Like Alexander did, I go for the enemy general. Because in the game, a captain stack is easier to defeat/bribe thana general is, right?? Anyways, I will let the enemy approach me, all the while using my ranged attacks and then Iwill proceed to charge home my most elite untis into the center. The rest of my infantry will follow and keep the enemy flanks from surrounding me. Any cavalry will flank the enemy and charge from the rear after the infantry is engaged. Not very difficult tactics, I know, but they work well and have won me many a battle.

[Tacticalwithdrawal]

hammer and anvil (loads of different varioations). When Roman I put a front line of Hastati backed up by Velites behind them. The front line then ties down the enemy and then I overload one flank (sometimes both) with Principes and cavalry. Start the rout and roll up the line.

I've done some walkthroughs if that helps:

=== Battle of Larissa - Brutii vs. Macedon ===
=== Battle walkthrough - Rome vs. Carthage (144 armoured ellies!)===
=== Battle against the Gladiators - a walkthrough ===

[Filippo the Great]

I usually keep them busy with my heavy infantry and archers then i go around the rear and attack them wit my cavalry. I'm pretty thin with tactics too i need to work on it.

[IamthePope]

when in battle, what (if any) tactic(s) do you use?

When I attack usually go the simple route. Weaken the enemy with some missiles (arrows mostly), followed by a frontal attack by my heavy infantry (unless facing a phanlanx), try to flank and/or attack the rear with some cavalry, while keeping some infantry and cavalry in reserve if needed.

It isnt much different when I'm defending. I weaken the enemy with as much as possible (arrows, artillery etc) and then usually wait for the enemy come to me.

so, what's yours?

I'd have to say that I do pretty much the same thing but with a few differences. First, I usually keep about half of my infantry in reserve in a second line (usually the lesser quality ones so that what quality they have can be decisive). And instead of keeping my cavalry on the flanks, I retain it at my rear to be used to strike the enemy at the decisive moment. My battles are not so much planned in advance but involve ingame changes to adapt to the situation.

This is a generalization though, I have been known for an occassional stroke of genius.

[Sétanta]

When using a full legion I have the hastati and princepes in the middle and divide the Triarii to both sides. Archers behind the hastati and general behind the princepes.

The Hastati and Princepes throw their pila and the Hastati Charge into battle. The Pricepes go where needed, plugging holes.

The triarii flank around either side and close with the enemies flanks. When the enemy flanks rout everybody attacks their center. My calvary I use to counter theirs and chase down the routers.

[IamthePope]

The triarii flank around either side and close with the enemies flanks. When the enemy flanks rout everybody attacks their center. My calvary I use to counter theirs and chase down the routers.

ooow, I love chasing down routers. It may just be the best part of the game. Sometime I'll even keeps an extra set of light cavalry in reserve for the sole purpose of chasing down routers to maximum effect. Julius Caesar did this extensively in the gallic wars contributing a large part to his battlefield kills.

[NobleNick]

Yep. Just get a huge cavalry army, group them topgether and charge at anything that moves!

It depends on who you are, and who you are fighting; but this all-cav tactic is typically a powerful one. Of the major factions I have had to fight, so far; it is most effective against the Gauls and Spaniards, and least effective against the Egyptians. I can say from experience that the Romans and Carthaginians can use this tactic to very good effect; and I see no reason why the Gauls and Egyptians can't do it either: basically any faction that has decent cav.

It is extremely effective when you are defending and you are also in the open fields: The enemy chases your cav. Your cav run away and rest: Chase, chase, chase. Run, rest, run, rest, run, rest. About halfway through (assuming timed battle) the entire enemy army is "Tired" to "Exhausted;" and your cav are all still "Fresh." Somewhere along the way the enemy lines can get a bit fragmented. Find an opening (typically near the ends of the enemy lines) where an enemy unit gets isolated, and run 3 of your cav units in from 3 different directions. At least 2 of the cav attacks will be flank/rear attacks; and with practice in timing you can make at least the first 2 be flank attacks (if the enemy unit is infantry), and often all 3. This typically yields instant enemy rout and often instant wipeout of the enemy unit. Rinse and repeat.

Contraindications: Don't try this against an Egyptian army with lots of heavy chariots: You'll get creamed. It is also a bit tough against an Egyptian army with a good mix of Pharaoh's Bowmen and heavy infantry protection. Also, Forester Warbands are a problem, since they are excellent archers with a very long range -AND- they stand up to cav charges almost as well as phalanx -AND- they typically have awesome morale. Also, this tactic does not work well when sieging a city; BUT often works very well when defending in a seige (sally forth from a side gate).

Other tricks (that I have verified while playing on H/H or VH/H):

1.) Park a stack of 6 Phalanx units, 8 Archer units, and an Onager on a well-used bridge in the campaign map; and wait. Hopefully you see this coming: When attacked, position 5 Archers far to your left (the enemy's right, which is their non-shield side) and on the bank, and 3 Archer units to your right, in the same manner. Position the Onager back a ways and aligned so that it has a straight shot up the bridge. March the first Phalanx up so that the points of their spears are well onto the bridge, and set them to "Guard." Two Phalanx flank the first one, and the last three form a line immediately behind the first three. The first Phalanx forms the stopper, and the last five are there for moral support/backup. The Archers and Onager will do the killing. Target the Onager to a unit that is 3/4 of the way back on the bridge; and remember to keep re-targeting to keep stray shot from hitting your own men. EDIT: True confessions time --> ALthough I've done many bridge defenses using Archers, and Phalanx or heavy infantry as the stopper; I haven't actually tried this as described, with the Onager (but I intend to soon). This is the only technique in this post that I haven't done myself. Most of the techniques, below, I have used many times.

2.) When sieging a stone-walled city: If you have the time, build enough towers to get your heavy infantry and plenty of archers onto the walls. If (as is often the case) the enemy neglects to put men on their walls, run two adjacent siege towers up to the walls. Even with Epic walls, at least one of your towers should make it. Then run your unit along the walls, in the direction that you have more siege towers waiting. As each of the city's towers is captured, move your siege towers up to the wall, without harrassment from the city towers (which now belong to you). With your archers on the walls, the defenders will retreat towards the center. You can bring your other troops in through the gate; and the city is your oyster. This technique gets you inside the city WITHOUT damaging the walls and gates! This is very important if you expect an enemy re-attack.

3.) When sieging a stone-walled city: If outgunned by quality NON-RANGED defenders, you can play cat and mouse: Keep most archers on the walls. Run one archer unit up to where they can shoot at defenders in the square from over some protecting buildings. The defenders chase your archers, which (since they have a shorter distance to run) go up onto the wall before the pursuers get there. Meanwhile, the enemy chasers run into a volley from your other archers that are already positioned and waiting on the wall, and quickly retreat, taking serious casualties as they turn their backs to your archers. Repeat as necessary.

4.) When being besieged in a stone-walled city: Put archers on the walls in force, concentrating force out to one side or another. (I always try to have AT LEAST 6 archer units in EVERY city that stands any reasonable chance of being assaulted.) Target battering ram crews, if needed. Otherwise concentrate all fire on a single enemy archer unit.

5.) When being besieged in a stone-walled city: Figure out where you want your Heavy Infantry (H.I.) to be on the walls WHEN the siege towers arrive, and place them ON THE GROUND near a stairway that will get them to the desired point. As soon as the siege towers get to the walls, IMMEDIATELY rush your H.I. up to position. (This tactic keeps them from standing on the wall and taking arrow fire while waiting for the towers to arrive.)

6.) When being besieged in a stone-walled city: Placing 2 H.I. on the wall, one on either side of the dropping siege tower gate, is very effective: Since the enemy troops must face one way or the other after they get onto the wall, one of your H.I will always be attacking a flank. I've seen a pair of Legionary Cohorts happily chew through EVERY infantry unit the enemy had to offer (6 to 8 high quality units) using this technique.

7.) When being besieged: Often the enemy will put a few troops far out to a flank to take a side gate with a battering ram or to run a sapping operation. If you have lots of cav, set them at the side gate, and take out the flank operation. If you have overwhelming cav (e.g. 3:1 against spears, Foresters and enemy heavy cav) and manage your charges correctly, this will be almost no cost to you in casualties, since the enemy will quickly rout: free kills.

8.) When being besieged: If the enemy comes to the party with few missile and cav AND you have lots of cav; use your cav to take out the enemy cav and missiles. Then run your cav around near the walls with their infantry chasing. Your archers and the wall towers will steadily deplete their ranks until annihilated.

9.) When being besieged: If you need just a few more seconds to wipe out the crew of an enemy ram, and it looks like your archers can't quite win the race, run cav out the front gate JUST BEFORE the ram gets there. The enemy ram will stop and sometimes back up. After a few seconds, run the cav back in the gates.

10.) When being besieged: Run light cav out and flank attack any light enemy unit (one that won't immediately rout your cav). This will bait enemy cav into chasing your cav. Run your cav around to a side gate and enter. The pursuing cav, unable to continue the chase and too stupid to retreat, will often lounge around right at the gate and get annihilated by tower arrow fire.

11.) When being besieged in a stone-walled city: If you have excellent archer-power (like 6 full gold-sword-gold-shield archer units [yes, this is possible in vanilla RTW] or 8 silver-sword units) and at least one cav unit; but are low on other units and are afraid the enemy force is overwhelming... ATTACK!! Sally forth before the enemy culminates their siege with their own attack. If you do this, the enemy has NO siege towers, rams, etc. Thus, your archers on the walls are untouchable by non-ranged units. Bait enemy units in with your cav, and annihilate them with your overwhelming archer and tower fire. Kill ranged units first, to keep your own archer power intact. Sometimes bait is not needed: I have had entire armies start the battle by marching right up to the gates and dutifully stand there for the slaughter.

12.) Out in the open field: When not using all cav stacks, I use stacks of roughly 1/3 Heavy Cav, 1/3 Archers and 1/3 H.I. As the enemy approaches your archers range, let the archers nibble away at the enemy if you have superior archer power. Once the enemy decides they've had enough, and charge, run ALL your cav up the flanks into the enemy backfield and overwhelm enemy cav and ranged units. (Be careful not to engage enemy H.I. unless you have local 3-on-1 superiority.) Then harass all other infantry from behind with fake charges and attacks, to keep them in the archers' killing zone for as long as possible. An effective method is to harrass all units except one, and then target all your archers onto that one: fewer friendly fire casualties that way

13.) If general is a cav unit, and all other units are hideable: Hide all your units except the general. Run the enemy army around in circles until they are very tired. End your cat and mouse game near your hiding place. Then spring your fresh troops onto them.

14.) When defending in the open, with no place to hide: Place troops in the most remote and HIGH terrain you can, giving preference to HIGH terrain with steep approaches.

15.) When attacking in the open, with no place to hide: Study the terrain for remote and easily defended high terrain in the enemy's territory. 90% of the time, the enemy will start the battle at the highest terrain available. Use this information when you make your pre-battle set-up.

16.) Getting the most routing kills (Tip A): If you have overwhelming superiority, only rout units as fast as you can kill them off.

17.) Getting the most routing kills (Tip B): Use the best unit for the kill (typically H.I. or Heavy Cav) but use a unit that is faster than the routed unit for the cleanup (e.g., Archers or cav chase heavy infantry, light cav chases heavy cav, etc.)

18.) Getting the most routing kills (Tip C): You can slow down a routing unit if you have a friendly unit between the routers and the out-of-bounds line. Run your interfering unit so that it is always between the routers and their freedom, but do not allow the units to make contact. The routers will often change direction to avoid your interferring unit, allowing the chasing unit to catch and maximize their contact time with the routers. This is more effective when just attacking with the interfering unit, when all you have is units that are the same speed as the routing unit; because the attacking unit will often just fall in line behind the routers and escort them to the boundary, with no enemy casualties.

19.) When being besieged, and (almost) hopelessly outnumbered, but the enemy can only enter through a chokepoint (such as a gate or a breach in the wall: Set H.I. facing the chokepoint but back a bit. When the first enemy unit comes through, hit them from both sides with cav (or other units, H.I. is best, if you don't have cav) at the same time that you attack with your H.I. The enemy unit will typically rout immediately. The routers have nowhere to go but back out the chokepoint, through the crush of their buddies behind them. This slows down and breaks up the formation of the units trying to get to your defending units. Also, the enemy units are intermixed with the routing unit, and it affects their morale. You can expect multiple routs Allow your units to kill a good number of the retreating (but trapped) enemy, so that there will be fewer of them to face when they regain their morale and return. But don't let your guys follow them out the gate! Instead, quick-march all 3 of your units back to their original positions. The routers will keep the other enemy units from attacking your units while you get them set. Then repeat for the next unit bold enough to come through the gate. You should get multiple unit routs on the second round, if you did not on the first. Again, allow enough chase to kill lots of routers, but do not go through the gate (or other chokepoint); and reset your trap while there are still routers between your units and non-routing enemy. Using this technique, you can easily hold out even when outnumbered 3:1 by high quality troops (e.g., Desert Axemen, Pharaoh's Bowmen, Spearmen/Phalanx, and Heavy Chariots), assuming your troops are also high quality and have good morale (e.g. silver or gold sword/shield Legionary Cohort and Legionary Cav).

20.) When defending in the open, with no place to hide: This is most effective if the enemy has lots of slow units, or all of yours are fast (like if you have an all-cav force). Divide your force unevenly and go separate ways, trying to get a large portion of the enemy to follow your smaller force. Keep your small force on the move, drawing the larger enemy force away, while your larger force now deals with the smaller enemy force. After defeating the small portion of the enemy's force, try to split the remainder of the enemy, using the same technique. Divide and conquer.

21.) When besieged in a stone-walled city: Archers, archers, archers! Six archer units is the bare minimum. If the enemy force is small and you use your archers correctly, you can expect half the enemy force to be gone before they even get to the walls! I recently fought a battle aginst the Egyptians: The numbers were about 2400 attackers (two stacks) against my 950 defenders. I had Epic walls. I also had 4 x 69 gold sword/shield archer units and 2 x 69 silver sword/shield archers (wanted more, but got besieged before I could reinforce/retrain). The enemy lost 1/4 of their army before the siege towers or rams could even get to the walls, all from arrow fire. Every one of the archer units used up their entire ammo supply.

22.) When besieged in a stone-walled city: If low on infantry to combat attackers coming off of siege towers, pair up H.I. with 3 or 4 archer units. Keep the H.I on one side of the ramp and the archers far down the wall on the other side. Tough enemy infantry may decide to rush your archers; but your H.I. can just rush their flanks if they do this. Otherwise the enemy engages your H.I. and turns their backs to your arrows. Either way = quick enemy rout.

[Severous]

Kill the enemy whilst taking as few casualties as I can. Avoid hand to hand except when favourable odds.

Missiles and cavalry do the trick. Cavalry to take down the enemy cavalry. Then shoot with the archers running away when the enemy infantry gets too close. Cavalry run down weak skirmishers and missile troops if they have the opportunity. Cavalry tempt the enemy infantry making it turn away from the archers who can now fire into enemy backs. The tactics of micromanagement. Love artillery if it can keep up with the frontline troops.

[LSJ]

I have some tactics that I like to use, and others that I don't but sometimes have to.

My favourite as the Romans:
princeps (P) in the front line, with some triarii (T) at each flank
velites (V) behind them, with archers (A) behind that
triarii on each side of the archers
two units of hastati (H) at the back of the archers
light cavalry (LC) at the backline toward the left side
heavy cavalry (HC) and missile cavalry (MC) at the right

T-P-P-P-T
--V-V-V--
T--A-A--T---MC
---H-H-----HC
LC-LC

With this, the formation is safe from cavalry flank attacks except by cataphracts. Phalanxes can be flanked, if the light cavalry run around the edge of the "box".
Heavy infantry can be attacked with pila and javelins as they fight.
Elephants are taken out easily with the volley of pila and javs.
This is a defensive position, as I prefer defense. As the enemy line meets mine, my cavalry can be flank protectors, and are close enough that if they are charged by enemy cavalry, triarii can mutilate them.
The hastati are my runners, to go around the edge of the unit once the battle is in place, and I can see what the enemy cavalry is doing. If I had hastati at the front, they could be broken before the back unit arrived to lift the fight off their shoulders.
Usually, the enemy sees units of light cavalry and infantry at my left flank with their backs to their cavalry, and therefor charge them to reduce my army's size and morale. My heavy and missile cavalry run around the enemy army, running over their missile units and surrounding enemy cavalry. Its a sacrifice...
Experienced players have good tactics and will find a way to beat me, but for less tactical players or AI, they can be crushed.

I like when I get to choose the weather and terrain, because it allows for better tactics, but a lot of the time in multiplayer people choose field battles. I also like when there are less restrictions as to how many of what type of unit I can use.