Am I using phalanxes wrong

[Darth Caesar]

My phalanxes literally disintegrate after a few seconds of combat, lose formation and become a blob...am I doing something wrong or is it a bug? If so any mods out there that are recommended so that my phalanxes remain..well...a phalanx?

[rob_church]

I belive only the pike phalanax will keep its shape when clicking on a target the hoplites will blob ..im sure wont be to long till one of the talented modders here fix it though

[Revan The Great]

If by Phalanx, you're referring to the Hoplite phalanx then no, I'm afraid there's nothing to be done. The formation is bugged and we're waiting on CA to fix it. If your problem is with the Macedonian style, pike Phalanx, then just make sure your guys are facing the enemy on contact.

[Darth Caesar]

Strange, was the macedonian pikemen that collapsed when facing the enemy. I had them standing their ground, they were charged by light infantry I think it was and within seconds the pikes were gone and it was a blob. I still won but I would have liked a phalanx

[68 Powers]

haven't played with the pikes very much, but i feel like you have to be almost standing still for them to work properly. They seem to do massive damage if they are attacked rather than attacking. Maybe you are stretching their line too thin, i know that phalanxes usually have to be pretty deep in ranks in order to be effective. good luck to you

[krisslanza]

Phalanxes do NOT have Formation Attack - if they charge, or run, their formation will crumble. You MUST be sure they walk to their destination, only charge a short distance, or if they must run, they have to have time to reform their lines. Keep in mind, as they lack Formation Attack, their formation may still crumble, they aren't trained to keep it.

[DarthShizNit]

Umm I don't know what these people are talking about, but all of my Pike Phalanx's keep their formation fine, even when attacking. Never had problems with mine holding. Yes, I do feel like guys are able to move past the pikes to easily, but even if the first few ranks are using their swords, the guys behind them just lower their pikes and poke people to death

[Raimeken]

With a few mods, the pike phalanx is actually ridiculously strong in certain situations. I tested this is a custom battle using the Close Combat mod.

Armored Legionaries vs Spartan Pikemen. Everything says that the Pikemen should just disintegrate due to stats and the flexibility of Legionaries, but in a 1v1 fight, Pikemen annihilate them.

In a regular battle there is currently no reason to use a phalanx because in the presence of multiple units doing many things, the speed of battle, and the overall clumping that happens to even disciplined units, it is hard to keep a decent phalanx line.

I think the most important thing to fix right now about the pike phalanx is the fact that, pikemen will move forward in a very stupid fashion if you are attacking a unit, creating a situation in which the enemy units can surround sections of the formation and win the battle. Another important thing is that when you are attacking another unit with a phalanx, at about 10 seconds into the fight, the pikemen will suddenly tighten their formation and make the fight messy, further adding to the chaos caused by the phalanx stupidly moving forward.

[beksibeksi]

Unfortunately, the only way to use phalanxes on offense right now is to click walk them.
Target attacking makes them break formation immediately.

[Cyclops]

My levy pikes (Pontos/Hard) hold their line very well, only denting when Armenian cats or stepope lancers madly front rush them, and otherwise mowing neat rows of enemies with minimal losses. I use ctrl-click to make sure they walk when advancing, there was one seige where they rushed the gate (oops) and my general (bronze sheild) had to slowly walk up the ramp to save them. Those suckers clear entire cities almost by themselves, and if it wasn't for the risk of general death they'd be my frontline. Can't wait to get the top barracks to build them.

[Deathcake]

One way to get around it is you could try ctrl clicking behind the unit instead of on the unit.
I have not used any phalanxes yet, but have had some success getting other factions units to hold better formation by having them walk into the unit you want them to attack, rather than attacking the unit directly (if you understand what I am saying? i hope so lol)
(actually looking up i think thats the same thing beksibeksi is saying)

[beksibeksi]

One way to get around it is you could try ctrl clicking behind the unit instead of on the unit.
I have not used any phalanxes yet, but have had some success getting other factions units to hold better formation by having them walk into the unit you want them to attack, rather than attacking the unit directly (if you understand what I am saying? i hope so lol)
(actually looking up i think thats the same thing beksibeksi is saying)

This is what I do, but it's not a perfect work around.
The unit doesn't hold formation perfectly since it's always trying to walk through the unit.
Of course it doesn't do that because it's in phalanx, but I'd rather just be able to target attack a unit instead of trying to click behind it all the time.
Is it just me, or does the front line constantly hold their spears up and not forward?
Is it supposed to be like that?

[Raimeken]

I actually disagree, pike phalanx units actually hold onto a formation decently until the opposition starts thinning out and the phalangites start moving forward for no apparent reason. Walking into units does not work well, unlike Rome, pikes don't physically isolate pikemen, meaning this method actually causes the formation to break even easier.

[Sanatyr]

My levy pikes (Pontos/Hard) hold their line very well, only denting when Armenian cats or stepope lancers madly front rush them, and otherwise mowing neat rows of enemies with minimal losses. I use ctrl-click to make sure they walk when advancing, there was one seige where they rushed the gate (oops) and my general (bronze sheild) had to slowly walk up the ramp to save them. Those suckers clear entire cities almost by themselves, and if it wasn't for the risk of general death they'd be my frontline. Can't wait to get the top barracks to build them.

Yeah, Chalkaspides are my favorite pikemen as history buff, but I hate having to wait for a royal barracks for what is essentially fancy medium pikemen. While youre waiting, built a maxed out armory to compensate for their low armor, lol.

[vietanh797]

Just had a battle Carthage vs SpartaI sent in 10 african pikeman units Sparta use all their troops included 4 generals(royal spartan for sure), 2 Perioikoi pikeman and 4 Spartan hoplites, 4 helot slingers, bunch of Perioikoi hoplites(about 1 full stack of those guys) and a lot Perioikoi spearman to back them upEnd of battle I win a heroic victory with about 600 casualties while Sparta lost 3600 troops with about 800 prisoners only couple hundred of Perioikoi soldiers able to escape. It proved that with elite pike phalanx of Pontus, Egypt or Macedon things will be even easier

[perifanosEllinas]

Both versions of the phalanx formation are broken.Both hoplites and phalangites break formation and turn into a mass as soon as they engage in melee combat.It doesn't matter if you attack or defend,they break formation in both situations.This has to be fixed by CA as soon as possible.It makes all the Hellenic and Hellenistic armies fight like barbarians.And the formations themselves have to be fixed.The phalangites should engage with 5 ranks and the hoplites should form a much denser phalanx and engage with 3 ranks of spears.The phalangites should be able to hold the enemy at distance,but that never happens now.

[Mangalore]

My levy pikes (Pontos/Hard) hold their line very well, only denting when Armenian cats or stepope lancers madly front rush them, and otherwise mowing neat rows of enemies with minimal losses. I use ctrl-click to make sure they walk when advancing, there was one seige where they rushed the gate (oops) and my general (bronze sheild) had to slowly walk up the ramp to save them. Those suckers clear entire cities almost by themselves, and if it wasn't for the risk of general death they'd be my frontline. Can't wait to get the top barracks to build them.

I find them suffering quite badly at the hands of enemy missile fire. How do you cope with those slinger heavy armies? At least one or two pike units usually get plastered for being open on one side. Otherwise they do hold their own quite well, it just gets bad when one of them gets mauled by missile fire and then charged.

[Gunfreak]

My pikes work just fine, I've played hours and hours as, Carthage, Macedonia and Selucids, hoplites suck, but phalangites are good, even levi pikemen are usefull if you upgrade their armor and make sure they have a few vertran bars on them.

To makre sure the pikes work you have to have deep formation, so they can absorb the enemy charge, So try and make square formations about as deep as wide, remember they were called pike blocks for a reason. They were 16 ranks deep.
They work fine for attacking too if they are deep enough.

[craziii]

in rome 2 you have to form up before enemies. default = charging = zero formation. I usually run close to units and form up before the attack, they work really well. compare to rome 1, it is just extra micro in battles. but when working right, they are really powerful.

[nameless]

With a few mods, the pike phalanx is actually ridiculously strong in certain situations. I tested this is a custom battle using the Close Combat mod.

Armored Legionaries vs Spartan Pikemen. Everything says that the Pikemen should just disintegrate due to stats and the flexibility of Legionaries, but in a 1v1 fight, Pikemen annihilate them.

In a regular battle there is currently no reason to use a phalanx because in the presence of multiple units doing many things, the speed of battle, and the overall clumping that happens to even disciplined units, it is hard to keep a decent phalanx line.

I think the most important thing to fix right now about the pike phalanx is the fact that, pikemen will move forward in a very stupid fashion if you are attacking a unit, creating a situation in which the enemy units can surround sections of the formation and win the battle. Another important thing is that when you are attacking another unit with a phalanx, at about 10 seconds into the fight, the pikemen will suddenly tighten their formation and make the fight messy, further adding to the chaos caused by the phalanx stupidly moving forward.

Really? You don't need mods for Pikemen they do a pretty damn good job as it is. I can rely on them to hold the line against mass charges and on the offensive I just right click on an enemy unit and they march slowly with pikes leveled and then engage. As for the movement forward that's a first I've heard about it. They hold formation pretty well and when they engage they hold it too or are you talking about just sending one pikemen against an entire army where it gets surrounded?