The Greek tactics guide ~ by lolgast

[lolgast]

With all the new guides everyone is making. I thought I will make one to. In this guide I will get through some battlefield tactics I use with the greek cities. It isn't historical, it are just ones I created when playing the game. There's only one now but soon there will come more tactics.
Also I didn't reference any specific units but just unit types because now you would be allowed to use them with different army compositions an troopqualities. The transparant blocks you see on the pictures are how the units stood at the previous stage. At some points this is messed up a bit but I will try to fix that with the next strategyAlso Remember this is how the strategy works optimal. And it can go wrong if a soldier had less pushing power than expected. But let's stop this talk and here it is

[Alkarin]

how many casualties do you usualy take this way? 8%?

[lolgast]

That really depends on the composition of your own and the enemies army. But If it goes really well it will probably be around the 8-12%.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

I'm in, though I can never get my Battle lines to perform that well. Excellent presentation. +Rep {IOU}{paid Tuesday 6:26pm}

[Kátz]

Excellent presentation, though people had different ways of playing. +rep!

[torzsoktamas]

Great guide!

[machomai 11]

Excellent, the one thing I really love about the way RTW battles work is how you can turn guard mode off and watch the units push forward, even better for a classical phalanx. Great guide!

[lolgast]

Thanx for the kindness
I'm now working on 3 anti-phalanx strategies. It goes pretty well Here's the outcome of all the 3 strategies I'm working on. There all heroic

[I_dunno]

Nice guide I will ahve to gvethat formation a go

[Avtomat Kalishnikov]

anti phalanx just get a missile unit behind their line

[PopePopo]

If u say hoplites , do u mean hoplites who aren't able to do phalanx ? I guess so , but still need to be sure

Anyway , nice job , thinking about making one of those

[EternalSlayer]

I try to do it that way, but I find that on ALX the AI is less likely to attempt a headlong suicidal mass rush into my phalanx.

[chaplainDMK]

Against phalanxes i used a divide and qonquer tactic.
I have this "Anti Macadonian Task Force" thing.
Its a single army i take care of and constantly reinforce.
I have 8 Athenian hoplites (best i can have at the moment) witch are awsome since they make evreyone fight harder plus theres currently no hoplite better then them (myb armored hoplite but i aint sure) 4 Javelin platoons, 2 greek archer, 1 or more medium calvary plus general). I always got 2 hoplite swordsmen as flank pluggers.
So its something like this:
AH: Athenian hoplite
SH: Sword hoplite
J: Javelins
A: Archers
MC: Medium calvary
G: General

--G--
----MC---- ----A---- ----A---- ----MC----
----SH---------SH----
---AH------AH------AH------AH------AH------AH------AH------AH---
---------J-----------------J-----------------J-----------------J--------



EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

So the javelins attack the approaching phalanxes, calvary makes a charge to the back of the enemy line as the phalanx closes in and attacks their archers and javelins (myb the enemy general) to start getting some routing units (witch affect the rest) by that time the phalanx would probably be thuruly in a fight so id charge into each one till they break.
Tada... Just remember to wait since i think that if the phalanx is at full strenght the AI will instantly turn them against the calvary witch i dont think i need to explain what happans.
Also try to have your troops go to the side of a phalanx instead of the front.
Chasing them down is easy since they are slow.
Also use the sword hoplite as a flanking force not a line fighter.

[d010060002]

is there any benefit to guard mode besides keeping your lines intact?

[Julius Barca the Great]

Well, Gaurd Mode is great for keeping your line intact, as you said. But it also prevents your men from chasing routing units and will keep your men from fighting back against an enemy unless a large portion of the line is engaged or you order the attack. This is nice if you are running, say, cavalry or archer around the enemy line and one soldier clips the enemy. Without gaurd mode, the entire unit would engage. Not fun if said enemy is a phalanx and you are sending light cav around.
Interesting guide, by the way. I may try this out. It is only useful for a few factions though, and places a lot of reliance on holding/pushing power of your units, as you mentioned. It also is very dependant on your foe rushing straight into the funnel there, and not flanking or using his own cavalry to stop yours.

[Dafuge]

Guard mode means that only the individual soldiers that are attacked will move and use their attack back. So if it wasn't in guard mode you see your whole unit trying to attack, whilst only little numbers do in guard mode.

[Grouchio]

Great guide! +rep!

[xXEsotericXx]

hard for me to rep this guide , but its very much a basic rape with calvary, push phalanx against there wall of infantry/phalanx, then retreat your archer/skirmishers behind the shield wall.. . run around attk there archers/skrimishers.. then make a close the box push from behind with calavry and with some sword man and whola.

Like picture 1, the collition with the front shield wall

picture 2 the surrounding, then jej u win , and almost no casualties, even on VH mode its easly done.

but ill rep u because its good for less talented generals here on TWC.

[Sire Brenshar]

Also while in guard mode your troops won't tire as fast (in fact very slowly) and casualties on both the fighting units will be lower because it's more as if the units are having one on one duels rather than an all out brawl.

It might be little too good, me thinks, especially when the player knows how to use it properly;

All you have too do is put a unit on guard mode when facing a slightly superior foe and wait for them to tire themselves out. When they are, just turn it off and you should be able to win the melee.

Also it is the best way to avoid high casualties when facing phalanxes. My tactics would be like this:

So I'm using a roman (early rep.) legion, vs a phalanx heavy army. I deploy my hastati in thin columns, with lots of space between them (with guard mode on).

The pincipes should deploy a bit back behind them (with lots of room to maneuver) in nice square formations, while the tararii go on the flanks of the legion, but not in front of the principes as to allow them room to move.

The velites go behind them.

When battle starts, I try to destroy the enemy cavalry by whatever means (though not by using the hastati and principes, or with missile attacks {very important})

Once the enemy cavalry are dead, I can start. Let the phalanx engage your front line, and as soon as they do, send all the principes and velites to their rear, and give commands to fire at the enemy (when using the legionnaires a good tactic is right after the legion. fires their javs. , order them to halt, so they don't charge yet. Then you repeat.)

If the enemy (somehow still have troops that haven't routed, send the principes to charge them in the rear (and make sure guard mode is off for them)

Sorry for it being rather badly written, but I'm in a hurry. I might write a better post on it some day, but at least I hope you understand it now.




I was inspired to do this after reading the Roman account of the battle of Pydna, and have been using this for years. It has never fails (then again, I haven't lost a big battle in a very long time)

Basically the trick is to do anything to try and reach missile troops or pila legionaries to the enemies rear, avoiding all combat or only engaging with expendable troops with guard mode on , using advantage of your troops superior mobility. And don't forget to not waste ammo by firing at the enemies front.

EDIT: Perhaps some units have guard mode disabled as a trait? To represent their impetuousness or their lack of training/discipline, or just their nature of fighting. (this was a suggestion for RS2 btw.)

It would be really cool of only some cultures could use Guard mode, as it would create a new way of fighting battles with some factions.

[Grouchio]

would this strategem work with Macedon?