Pharoahs bowmen BS (glitch?)

**Angrychris** · June 04, 2008, 10:24 PM

got some more stuff to complain about, pharoahs bowmen. i was destroying full stacks of egyption armys untill i came upon the 4th one in 2 turns. i have been using 1 single full stack with only 1 merc as the new addition added while i been creating havoc. anyways i pretty much destroyed the army untill about 3 or 4 stack of pharoahs bowmen came and tryed to go heads up with my catas/general. my army consisted of almost all horse archers and 3 catas+general. anyways i charged with my catas/general into the bowmen and not only did they destroy my calv+general but made them route. the same bowmen made the rest of my horses route because they had no more arrows. i can do a surround tactic with my horse that made their spearmen route but not their bowmen. they were on steroids and faught unlike anything i ever saw. to boot i made their general route prior to all this bs occuring. boy was i pissed that they defeated my great army with stupid bowmen. huge glitch in the game and totaly destroyed the fun factor. seeing them run around exhausted with daggers and my horses dying/running was a kick in the pants to boot.

**King_StuvartiniusIII** · June 05, 2008, 10:12 AM

At least you know what unit to use if you play as Egypt!

**Cluny the Scourge** · June 05, 2008, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by Angrychris

got some more stuff to complain about, pharoahs bowmen. i was destroying full stacks of egyption armys untill i came upon the 4th one in 2 turns. i have been using 1 single full stack with only 1 merc as the new addition added while i been creating havoc. anyways i pretty much destroyed the army untill about 3 or 4 stack of pharoahs bowmen came and tryed to go heads up with my catas/general. my army consisted of almost all horse archers and 3 catas+general. anyways i charged with my catas/general into the bowmen and not only did they destroy my calv+general but made them route. the same bowmen made the rest of my horses route because they had no more arrows. i can do a surround tactic with my horse that made their spearmen route but not their bowmen. they were on steroids and faught unlike anything i ever saw. to boot i made their general route prior to all this bs occuring. boy was i pissed that they defeated my great army with stupid bowmen. huge glitch in the game and totaly destroyed the fun factor. seeing them run around exhausted with daggers and my horses dying/running was a kick in the pants to boot.

No, this is exactly as it should be.

Pharaoh's Bowmen are the second best archers in the game (after Gaul's Forester Warband) and they are such because they combine striking power with resilience against cavalry.

If you want to defeat them then don't use unsupported cavalry again. An army composed ENTIRELY of cavalry? I can tell you're used to playing against the single-player AI, because online you'd be beaten every time. You need foot archers and heavy infantry.

Have no doubt, the result that you describe is exactly what you can expect would happen if you had charged Gallic Forester Warbands also - except you'd get routed even faster, because Forester's are equipped with spears as their secondary weapon. I love using this against people online, because they always underestimate them. Just like you in this case, they say to themselves "Ah! Archers! I'll just send my cavalry and they'll be massacred..." Heh heh heh. Oh, how I love to rout cataphracts with Gallic Foresters. It works like a charm every time.

**Xavier Dragnesi** · June 05, 2008, 12:18 PM

You should never use fully cavalry composed armies. They have many weaknesses, and basically if you run into one type of trouble, then you're dead. So that should have taught you a lesson about cavalry.

**NobleNick** · June 05, 2008, 12:22 PM

Not only do I agree with everything Cluny said (especially regarding Gaul Warband); but, IIRC, Pharoah's Bowmen get a combat bonus when fighting in the desert.

You need Heavy Infantry, or a combo of light infantry/spears backed by archers, to prevail against Pharoah's Bowmen (which are often accompanied by the very capable Desert Axemen).

Egypt typically does very well in field battles. They do not typically do nearly so well in a siege assault. Hole up with a good mix of archers and infantry and let them come after you...

In reply to Xavier's advice --> I often use all-cav forces with excellent results. --IF-- playing against the AI, a human player can use the excellent stamina of the horse to routinely pull off heroic victories against virtually any mix the AI throws at you. It is great fun to slaughter full stacks of armored Hoplites using only a half stack of heavy cav. HOWEVER, there are three things which can spoil this fun: AI stacks with lots of cav; AI stacks with lots of capable archers (ESPECIALLY Pharoah's or Forresters); and desert heat. You ran into 2 of these 3. Bad news for your cav.

**htismaqe** · June 05, 2008, 12:30 PM

Based on previous discussion threads, I'm guessing Angrychris is still playing as the Parthians, which means he probably isn't building anything but cavalry.

Even then, the bulk of his forces should be HA's.

**Angrychris** · June 05, 2008, 01:40 PM

ya im still finishing my parthian campagn. anything with daggers should never have the upper hand on a general plus 2 lesser stacks of catas. though the scenario has never occured again in similar battles afterwards (i booted egypt back to their capital), it is still awkward and unexpected.

**Mithradates** · June 05, 2008, 07:11 PM

Cataphracts can destroy even legionaires 1vs1 with repeated charges, they can destroy practicaly every non-spear infantry, just dont let them stop to melee and always use the charge bonus.

As Parthia the full cavalry army is the best choice.