Originally Posted by
Maroslav
Yes, and how much of that is friendly fire, really man. or you just do crazy micro in battles, that is not something i enjoy. in narrow streets + katapeltai lithoboloi, they may do even more, pure enemy kills.
Not much micro, and if you pay attention, you won't cause FF.
It's simple positioning. Let me demonstrate. The battle is on hard difficulty, on completely flat terrain, against top notch Romani polybian army, consisting of roughly 50% Roman troops, 50% high quality/elite allied (pedites extraordinarii, cohors sociorum, sabelli and tarantine cavalry, balearic slingers).
Initial positioning. Four phalanx units, five ranks deep as front line. On each flank, recessed heavy spearmen unit to protect the flanks of phalanx, and unit of thracian colonists to act as reserve. Notice how the two oxybeles units are positioned-I used two in this battle to demonstrate, usually my offensive armies have one lithoboloi unit and one oxybeles. They're a bit behind friendly troops to get some cleareance, and aiming at the opposite flank.
After some initial bombardment as armies close, here we see how it works once lines close. The oxybeles aims at opposite flank, shooting nearly parallel to its phalanx line into narrow, elliptical beaten zone in front of the phalanx unit at the flank. At this range, oxybeles is accurate enough to avoid FF unless you mess up and target unit that's charging into your phalanx, in which case the oxybeles might improperly compensate for their movement and send a bolt into own ranks, or unit too close, so there isn't enough clearance to lob the shot over your troops.
The results are quite impressive. Notice the unusual killed/captured ratio, I let the battle grind on a bit longer before decisive action, and did not pay attention to cavalry when taking screenshots and stuff, to demonstrate the damage. You can see part of one "beaten zone" that was against my right flank...Pontic Fried Romans.
And that concludes brief introduction to the art of artillery.