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Thread: Roman formations... er.... are not effective

  1. #1

    Default Roman formations... er.... are not effective

    I love the look of the blocky formation and historically it might of worked..... am I the only one who can absolutley CLOBBER the romans every time? They keep way too many troops in reserve, usually twice as many as are fighting....


    In real life this worked because they had better weapons, armor, training and organization then most of their enemies..... they even moved the FRONT line to the back of a formation while still fighting(very cool, the t.v. show Rome shows this being done if anyone has seen it) and swapped units in a similar war....

    The blocky formations with huge #s in reserve though because

    A. They have no good way to swap out units-nor do they.
    B. The advantage of having fresh troops, both the physical and psychological advantage is much, much, much less in RTW.

    Love the mod, just the romans er... suck.
    Last edited by Vesa; July 06, 2006 at 08:40 AM.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Roman formations... er.... are not effective

    I initially played vanilla and there indeed I never found any use of blocky formations. Now however I find it much more useful. I do , however, make blocks much wider and less deep than default and never more than 2 rows (not counting missiles/cavalry) . I usually separate army in 2 parts, which have a relatively wide gap between the, one of the parts is smaller and I try to use it as flanking force . Each part has several blocks(no less than 3, wiht big armies -5-8 ) . Triarri in first line ,principes/hastati second row . That absolulutely decimates any cavalry/chariot rush since they end running between blocks and caught on flanks by infantry without a way to run back.

    Against phalanxes I move sides wider apart so their line break and becomes more jagged -that allows better flanking. Blocked formation with roman infantry in other cases is generally more flexible for maneuvring ,especially against superior forces. It allows do 90 degree turns a lot faster ( you keep centre in place moving just back rows and flank)

  3. #3

    Default Re: Roman formations... er.... are not effective

    The AI does not know how to do it intelligently.

    Large reserves can actually work very well.... but the AI has no idea how to use the massive reserves it keeps building up.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Roman formations... er.... are not effective

    anyone here think that the romans are just plain underpowered? the hastati have attack of 5, with the princepes and triarii have attack ratings that arent much higher. meanwhile, the barbarian warbands hae attack ratings much higher. what gives?? did anyone edit their EDU files to make the roman infantry better?

  5. #5

    Default Re: Roman formations... er.... are not effective

    In upcoming DM_8 roman formations are even better so you will have to see it there. As for roman underpower...they are not but for DM_8.0 have given them more fatality and morale. I think they are perfect now.

    Check also this:

    http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=53438

  6. #6

    Default Re: Roman formations... er.... are not effective

    cool. i play on VH battle difficulty and i was getting my behind handed to me by gallic swordsmen and even basic warbands. i had my infantry in defensive mode while attacking, then i switched to non-defensive mode so i could see if there was a difference, but i was losing thousands of men and not getting anywhere in the campaign. also, why use short spears for some hoplite/carthiginan units in plalanx formation? they cant really kill much.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Roman formations... er.... are not effective

    For my part, I have very great success using a completely historical republican deployment in defense. I have never put myself in a position where I needed to attack Gauls - not sure what I would do.

    I'll make explicit what Darth said, that attack values are not everything. Gladius troops all have "armor piercing" which halves the enemy's armor value (my falxmen didn't mind this, relying entirely on skill, and therefore slaughtered legionaries like lambs), as well as (I think) a slightly faster attack rate, and some business involving either mass or "area" - something like that.

    Furthermore, roman troops have uniformly infuriating morale scores.

    All that said, I too clobber Rome pretty consistently. I look forward to a more difficult Thracian conquest in 8.0.

    btw I strongly recommend against VH battle difficulty. Perhaps fans could offer out-of-game batch files to stack the odds against a a chosen faction (as several high-profile mods are doing), but VH is such an ugly, unrealistic solution.
    Last edited by Eird-Way; July 07, 2006 at 10:05 PM.

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