Head-On Infantry Charges.

[Beans Master]

Hi guys. In movies and TV programmes you normally see Romans v The Enemy engage in head on infantry charges, where the Romans will raise their shields and try to hold them off etc. What I am wondering is, in Rome Total War, is it possible just to have your units stand their while the enemy charge, and still win the battle without too many casualties??

Thanks, Beans Master.

[hyperballa]

yeah, just put ur infantry on guard and dont do anything, they will fight back

[Legio]

And make sure to put fire at will off so they do not throw their pilae.

[hyperballa]

woops, i forgot about that

thnx for reminding me

[Amaranth]

Putting your unit to guard mode will allow them to stand still on the clash with enemy. If you zoom to your unit just when the enemy starts to charge you can see that they're holding their shields and stand ready with raised swords.

But, Guard Mode forces your units to Hold a place or line as long as they can. They will engage with enemy only if they're attacked. What I'm trying to say is; when you attack the enemy (normally) your every men in the units will try to contact with enemy. If your unit has more men, they will try to circle the enemy from it's flanks. (especially for effective close combat units like Preatorian Cohorts etc) This will allow them to eliminate their enemy much easily and quickly.
But in Guard mode your units will not attack with all men, only attack with men that engaged the enemy. I hope I could explain it.

For phalanxes, which are on Guard mode for default, I put them on normal mode before the battle begins. Cause crowded phalanx units like Royals or Silvers will not attack with their rear units (on standart phalanx formation, rear ones are those holding the spears up high towards to enemy) and don't touch the enemy which are not in reach. In normal mode they will slowly approach the enemy while they're pinning them down with their spears and therefore causing more casualties in a shorter time. (But their defense tends to be less effective while doing this so it should be best used against light infantry etc)

You can expect to win like this, but remember your units will not be able to take advantage from their "Charge Bonus" while stand still and waiting to be charged by the enemy.

[Beans Master]

Ahh nice advice guys. I wanted to try it but didn't want to loads loads of men in the process!

[hyperballa]

good point amarath, but if phalanx is not in guard mode, they will switch to swords faster, which means theyll get owned. they try to keep their spears out as long as possible in guard

[Amaranth]

good point amarath, but if phalanx is not in guard mode, they will switch to swords faster, which means theyll get owned. they try to keep their spears out as long as possible in guard

That's right, but while fighting against a rather weak foe (which they don't have to keep keep a strong line) swithcing to close combat is not that much of a problem, cause they don't usually do that unless they're formation is broken by the enemy, which can be done only by a hard fighting heavy infantary, or a charging heavy heavy cavalary (stupid enough to charge at phalanxes.. and such stupidty is what AI loves to death)
If you're (especially) trying to hold a line while outnumbered, Guard mode should be safer.

But Beans Master specificly asked this for Roman Factions which lack phalanx units, so he shouldn't have to worry about that much =)

[Lord Thesaurian]

yep, just put em on guard and fire at will. Even with fire at will on they will fight back. theyre not that stupid. The advantage here is that the front rank will guard while the others throw pilae.