The Greek Cities

[Byakkotai]

So far I am enjoying this mod, apart from the AI charging with cavalry on a suicide mission into spears and for some reason archers seem to not fire or fire less if they are stacked upon each other. But anyhow, is there any particular reason that the best units of the Greek cities can't form a phalanx ? I find it rather strange.

[despot_of_rhodes]

You mean the macedonian style phalanx? Well, this wasn´t actually the way, the greek phalanx ( = a tight formation of spearmen ) used to fight. Greek hoplites had no long sarissa spears but shorter pikes to stab the enemy while pushing their ranks with their large hoplon shields. Briefly: Macs got phalangitai and Greeks got hoplites. Phalangitais needed more and excessive training to coordinate their actions, wich means longer recruitment time ( 2 turns in game, except the veterans wich take only 1 but cost about double in upkeep ). On the other side, the greek hoplites were more flexible on the battlefield, but better armoured and with larger shields. The higher pushing mass and the charge bonus of a greek phalanx compared with macedonian phalangitai is the result.
I´m refering to ExRM however, not sure, if those changes are all integrated in RTR PE

[Byakkotai]

Ok thanks that seems to make sense. I'm fairly new to RTR and only played vanilla where they could be in a phalanx formation. And I didn't know until know that the phalangitai and hoplites were different because of vanilla lol.