SPQR Guide: Battle Tactics & Formations

[S u l l a]

SPQR Guide: Battle Tactics & Formations

For download in PDF: Attachment 57005

Introduction
This is our guide to SPQR battle tactics and formations. We take into consideration the “House Rules” by LT1956 and the “Unit Addon”. The guide is based on our experience and preferences, and does not necessarily fit with the readers’ style.

1. Army Composition
We have a few general guidelines to whatever army we deploy, regular (legion) as well as irregular armies. The first rule is to appoint one General for each army or legion. Secondly, we attach a spy for every army/legion. Attaching a spy should prevent your General from being assassinated as well as improving the visibility and reconnaissance of the army.

1.1 Pre Marius Legions
The standard Pre-Marius legion composition looks like this:
1 General
5 Hastati
5 Princepes
3 Triarii
3 Velites
1 Slingers
2 Cavalry

Attachment 56592

Depending on the type of enemy we face, one “Velites” and the “Slingers” we might replace with two “Archers” instead. This could be the case if we are defending against Germania and when we do not need the third “Velites” as when fighting against elephants (Carthage). In such a case, we might as well replace the lighter “Equites” with “Mercenary Cavalry”.

1.2 Post Marius Legions
The standard Post Marius legion composition, Republican as well as Imperial legions, looks like this:

1 General
1 First Legionary Cohort
9 Legionary Cohorts
3 Spear Auxilia
3 Light Auxilia
2 Cavalry

We keep one open slot in our armies in reserve for any special troop type that might be needed depending upon the type of enemy we face.

Attachment 56593

The “Light Auxlia” could be replaced by “Archers” if those are available as mercenaries for example, and should be replaced by “Syrian Archers” for those legions operating on the eastern frontier. Against the Barbarians however, the “Light Auxilia” are in general more useful adding to the initial shock hammer blow together with the pilas from the “Legionary Cohorts”.

We all have our own preferences when it comes to cavalry. Either we rely on speed or on heavy shock. If you need fast moving cavalry then try to get “Cavalry Auxilia” where supported logistically. Sometimes however, the Cavalry might require different skills, and therefore, “Mercenary Cavalry” could be a good replacement satisfying specific needs. For legions operating close to Italy we usually have the “Roman Cavalry” instead (again for logistic reasons).

When the “Legionary Cohorts” gets depleted, their place are filled with “Sword Auxilia” until time to re-fit the legion every fifth year. The “Sword Auxilia” could of course be replaced by similar region specific auxiliary troops, or comparable mercenaries.

Attachment 56594

Flexibility is important for managing an empire with different weather and geographical conditions. Therefore, for the desert for example, the “Roman Cavalry” should be replaced by “Numidian Mercenary Cavalry”, which are faster and better in hot climate:

Attachment 56595

1.3 Auxiliaries
When a region is conquered by the legions, we deploy smaller irregular auxiliary armies for policing duties, relieving the legions for other more important tasks conquering other regions. These smaller irregular armies are relatively flexible either guarding the borders or moving across a region fighting rebels. A typical Irregular Gallic Army would look like the below two examples:

Attachment 56596

Attachment 56597

For every two or three legions working together, we attach a so called Basic Support Army with the following typical composition:

1 General
4 Cavalry
4 Archers
2 Artillery
4 Spear Infantry
4 Light Missile

Attachment 56598

This basic support army support the legions during campaigns, and is particularly useful for siege battles, initiating the attack before the legion enters to finish the job and conquering the settlement. It should be placed in a fort whilst not on the move together with the legions. Such an army can defend itself extremely well and effectively in a fort, decimating the enemy though repeated breakouts (retreating back into the fort).

On the eastern frontier and Asia Minor, the “Garrison Archers” are replaced by “Syrian Archers” or “Cretan Archers” (long range missiles), and in the north east with “Sarmatian Archers”. Here we make sure to use “Cavalry Auxilia” (fast moving missile) instead of “Roman Cavalry” (medium spear), or even better, local mercenary cavalry such as the “Eastern Horse Archers”, if we can afford them:

Attachment 56599

1.4 Imitation Legions
Where the Imitation legions are available, we basically make similar composition as for the legions. We do not restrict the number of such imitation legions we deploy but rather look at what we need, as well as what our economy can afford, to support those legions operating far from Italy.

[S u l l a]

2. Formations

2.1 S u l l a’s “broad wedge” formation
This formation requires some manual deployment of the units into their starting position, but once practiced a few times it does not take too long. The formation relies on speed more than anything. If speed is not applied, you might be ending up in serious trouble. No matter whether attacking or defending, this formation is normally giving 10/90 losses if used properly. One legion can normally take on two, sometimes three, full enemy armies at the same time, of course with higher rate of casualties. It works against Carthage, Gauls, Germania, Greece etc, basically all enemies except eastern armies having a majority of missile and cavalry units.

Attachment 56618

• Velites should be in guard mode to be used for specific targets such as Elephants (Carthage) or Heavy Spear (Gauls)
• When the full front line of Hastati is fighting, unclick guard mode on all Hastati and Princepes
• No it is time to flank and attack from the sides with the two Princepes on the sides and work them towards the center
• Send one of the two Cavalry against enemy archers/missile troops, join the other Cavalry with a flanking Princepes to attack the enemy infantry in the rear
• The two Triarii on the sides first objective is to fight enemy cavalry. After that is taken care of, they should join the flanking Princepes on the sides. It is normally here the enemy routs …
• The one Triarii in reserve behind the General is used to reinforce any unit in trouble (or against enemy cavalry charging the Hastati front line)

Attachment 56619

A similar formation for the Post-Marius legions basically working in the same way as the Pre-Marius formation above although somewhat more effectively with the “Spear Auxilia” at the front normally being the only unit taking heavy casualties.

Attachment 56620

Below an illustration of a battle facing two defending enemy armies.

1 Starting position
Attachment 56606

2 Move forward “as one” to engage before enemy reinforcement arrives
Attachment 56607


3 Put the enemy skirmishers out of business and thereafter engage the enemy infantry
Attachment 56608

4 The powerful impact of the pila …
Attachment 56609

5 Turn around “as one” to face the enemy reinforcements
Attachment 56610

6 Do not break formation, move forward “as one”. Speed, discipline and enemy rout!
Attachment 56611

[S u l l a]

2.2 The "barbarian" formation
As we all know fighting Gauls will be a major part of the first turns in your campaign so here are some tactics when facing Gauls, or any other barbarian faction. Fighting Gauls will be relatively easy at the start because they will produce units with only 2 experience points, which makes them quite easy to kill. The trouble will start when they get around 5 experience points.

When facing barbarians there are some features in the game that will help you to reduce your casualties. You probably already noticed that barbarians fight in loose formation most of the time, this is to represent their way of fighting. Barbarians never fought in an orderly manner like most civilized nations did, and Rome. They fought in huge masses deployed by tribe ...

Something very useful against attacking enemy troops in loose formation, is the Shield wall. This will bring your men closer together preventing the barbarian units to get within your units formation and “kill from within”. Now how do we activate this shield wall? Just click the "set unit formation to lose" and you will notice how they will stand closer to each other.

You will notice the formation does not really change that much from the standard pre set formation in the game, except for how we deploy our Cavalry and Slinger units. We place our cavalry behind our general because it is easier to move them to one of the flanks. We also use both of them together as one unit at the same time.

The tactics on cavalry are very simple, when the battle takes place and the enemy has used up all his units and has non in reserve except for his missile units, we order the cavalry to make an outflanking maneuver. If there are missile units present in the enemy army, these will be the first targets. Thereafter, out next target is the weakest flank of the main enemy infantry. Charging in with both cavalry units together will make the enemy rout much faster. Remember not to charge in directly, first give your infantry some time to weaken them before you attack. When one of the flanks has been rounded up you will have some extra infantry units to help out the rest of the line.

We place the slingers behind the Triarii on the flanks. The Triarii are there to protect them against any cavalry. Again when all the enemy units are fighting move your slingers to the flanks and order them to pepper the enemies flanks, they will do damage (a lot more damage when they have like 5 experience) to the enemy, also reducing moral and help removing pressure that has been brought on to the flank by the mass of men pushing your line back.

Side note, a useful thing is to play with minimal_UI. That will give you a larger survey on the battle map, and you can remove the mini map, command screen and units cards by pressing F5, F6 and F7. Group selecting units is very useful in that you are able to make groups to your fitting for fast selection. This helps managing the battles in an easier way.


Attachment 56861

This is the standard formation, as you can see it is somewhat of a compact formation. The Princepes, Triarii and Velites are somewhat close to ensure their safety with no unit being cut off. Triarii are placed on the flanks to protect against Cavalry charges.

Notice the gap between the Hastati and the Princepes line. This is done on purpose to make the Princepes more maneuverable not running into the front line with the Hastati when you try to bring them around the line to attack the back of the Gauls.

Another reason why this gap is there is that the first line of Hastati will hold of the Gaul attack so that the line of Princepes and the two Velites can shower their missiles on the approaching enemy without any interference from hostile units.

If enemy cavalry charges your flanks you will have Triarii nearby to counter them. Let the enemy charge your line of Hastati and order your Triari to attack the Cavalry. If there is no cavalry in their army you will be able to use them to as extra reinforcements or as flank assault units.

[S u l l a]

2.3 The “eastern square” formation
Fighting campaigns on the eastern frontier whilst using the formations presented above can be a very unpleasant experience. Your legion could be severely decimated or even annihilated …! As one will learn very fast is that the heavy infantry in the legions are not the best suitable facing eastern armies that are dominated by missile cavalry. This is particularly true when you face Armenia, Parthia and Scythia.

If your regular legion is facing an eastern enemy dominated by missile and fast moving units, and you have no possibility to strengthen your army with additional archers or cavalry, then you may try the “eastern square” formation. This formation is based upon having Cavalry Auxilia and Syrian Archers, alternatively Cretan or Sarmatian Archers as described above in chapter 1.2.

For this formation, your main force is still your legion cohorts. You will need to protect them from the enemy missile and your best option would probably be the testudo. Important to keep in mind is that a unit in testudo will not move very fast. Therefore, we will keep our long range archers and skirmishers just behind our legion cohorts. Our cavalry we keep in the back for now. If possible we reinforce with horse archers or similar. In any case, you will need to focus on being on the move until the enemy is forced to engage his infantry. Your primary objective is to take the out the enemy infantry. Only after that you should focus on the missile cavalry or you will lose.

Move as one (group all units) and "pressure" the enemy to engage. Do not allow enemy to relax and shoot from distance - keep him on the move:

Attachment 56997

Below an illustration with an eastern imitation legion facing an Armenian army with majority of horse archer units.

Starting position

Attachment 56998

The enemy ”Horse Archers” can decimate a unit not in testudo within no time. Several of these units working together and you are in serious trouble. Do not break your “square” formation letting any of your units break off.

Attachment 56999

The enemy is showering and peppering but you need to keep moving “as one”. Your first objective is to engage the enemy infantry in battle.

Attachment 57000

Sooner or later you will catch up with the enemy infantry and when that happens things will change on the battle field. The tight formation of the testudo together with your missile on “fire at will”, will easily take care of the enemy infantry. At this point in time, when the enemy is cornered and engaged, the enemy missile cavalry quite often engages in melee and you have a chance taking them out. But, very important, do not pursue this until all enemy infantry is taken care of.

Attachment 57004

You will notice, that any type of enemy infantry have problems facing this formation.

Attachment 57001

You will also notice very low casualties for the legion cohorts despite being under missile fire for a long time throughout their march. The main casualties are normally taken by the “Spear Auxilia” at the front, the skirmishers, as well as any unit engaging the enemy cavalry in melee.

Attachment 57002

To be continued ...

[S u l l a]

reserved just in case

[Darcane]

Move as one (group all units)

Oh my god, I didn't know how to move my whole legion and make it face where I want... they always disorganized and I got pwned every time the ennemy army moved wherever else than in front of me.

I only had to put them in the same groupe

Thanks a lot for that, and for the tactics and formations too

[S u l l a]

Thanks! Yeah, "move as one" can also make enemy units rout faster, assuming your battle line is engaged but only two cohorts, let them fight a short while and then move as one your whole army forward just a little bit, so that the one or two enemy units are surrounded on the sides

Works for non elite units, i.e. nopt chosen swords or the gallic heavy spear

[Hesus de bodemloze]

Well done, really useful stuff in here. When i get in Asia minor i will try this formation.

[S u l l a]

Well done, really useful stuff in here. When i get in Asia minor i will try this formation.

Well, thank YOU for all the input and help!

Great post - thanks Sulla. Spooky to see that I developed exactly the same formation as your broad wedge one as my standard set up.
Other than that, definately some ideas I hadn't thought of in there. One question re eastern square - how do the cohorts fare in melee whilst in testudo? I thought they received a penalty trying to melee in that formation.

This should be considered for a sticky me thinks

Glad you like it! And happy to see someone else using similar "broad wedge" formation! Welcome to SPQR btw!

The testudo is there to protect your cohorts from the "missile rain", lol. When enemy infantry taken care of, by other units than your Legion Cohorts, and when the Legion Cohorts have reached the enemy cavalry, you need to unclick testudo for melee fighting. This formation is for the the general legion set up. I have another preferred one for fighting these enemy armies but that require a different composition.

As for the sticky, I think we can put this in the index later on, but we should not have it stickied since then people tend to pass by without seeing it. Also, it is still WIP and we expect more feedback and maybe other ideas to include ...? We thought about including Siege formation and tactics ...

[Rogue Warrior]

Great post - thanks Sulla. Spooky to see that I developed exactly the same formation as your broad wedge one as my standard set up.
Other than that, definately some ideas I hadn't thought of in there. One question re eastern square - how do the cohorts fare in melee whilst in testudo? I thought they received a penalty trying to melee in that formation.

This should be considered for a sticky me thinks

[Hesus de bodemloze]

I think you have to undo testudo when the enemy infantry attacks you. It's all about timing and reaction from your side.

[Ejergard]

I don't know if you've noticed, I learned it the hard way during a SPQR multiplayer battle... Your men get fatigued QUICK if you march them around while in testudo, so only put them in testudo when in danger of missiles and you have other mobile forces to deal with the missile threat, or wait for them to run out of ammo.

[S u l l a]

I don't know if you've noticed, I learned it the hard way during a SPQR multiplayer battle... Your men get fatigued QUICK if you march them around while in testudo, so only put them in testudo when in danger of missiles and you have other mobile forces to deal with the missile threat, or wait for them to run out of ammo.

You are right on the fatigue Ejergard. The main a drawback is the fatigue with the testudo. However, it helps saving your cohorts and when you finally hit melee with enemy cavalry all enemy infantry is more or less gone, which makes things much easier. Then the low fatigue is not THAT important. Also, I normally make sure I have those Cilician Pirates (with missile/axes) instead of Light Auxilia (missile/sword) - they take most of the casualties together with the Spear Auxilia. You probably did notice the low casulaties for the Legion Cohorts on the last picture? What I have also noticed is that enemy are hiting the Legion Cohorts in testudo like pouring water on rocks. I let them stay in testudo and have my missile do the work on the enemy infantry, as shown in the pictures.

This formation require A LOT of practise with micro management, and it is more to be used when you do not have alternative units available and you wish to preserve/protect your Legion Cohorts. I lost several full legions testing a number of other formations against the eastern missile/cavalry enemy armies, before going for this one. This is the only one so far for me that keeps the Legion Cohorts protected from being severely decimated or even annihilated. I am interested in keeping losses at a minimum and I rely on speed. This formation help me with the first objective but is not the best formation for me when it comes to the latter. The eastern square is a slow formation.

Anyway, good remark! Would be intersting to see other peoples formations when fighting on the eastern frontier.

[Hesus de bodemloze]

Are you planning to get some extra tactics in here?

[S u l l a]

Yes, I do. Was thinking of Siege battles or something else.

Btw, was reading Roman Battle Tactics by Ross Cowan, about the battle of Carrhae in 53BC where Crassus deployed his legions unsuccessfully in a hollow square formation like the one described above. The Romans outnumbered the Parthians 3 to 1 in that battle and still they lost ... it does not appear that the Romans used testudo but shieldwall ...

There are however, numerous accounts of battles where the Romans did use this square formation successfully and to great effect. Apparently used by Marc Anthony also against the Parthians. Main reason being the rapid charge out from testudo and also the mobile skirmimishers/lanciarii moving in and out from the hollow square formation. I tested this in a SPQR battle and it worked surprisingly well ...

[Ejergard]

Hehe, its always cool when you stumble upon a real life tactic that works ingame aswell

EDIT: post nr 500

[Ciisar]

Thank you Sulla! Very useful tutorial for all.I did not know about half of legions composition anything.Now i know,
And I'm gonna use them!
Thank you Sulla very much!

[wafflezboy]

Bump for great justice. I believe more people should see this amazing guide.

Btw, do you plan on adding more tactics? I've found the broad wedge formation very useful fighting the barbarian factions since they deploy very widely, whilst the preset manipular formation is very thin. I would also like to see how you besiege cities and such.

[S u l l a]

Thanks! Yes, I have in mind to expand it with other stuff including siege battles.

[xccam]

Nice thread