Chariots, too waek and too strong?

[Epidemais]

In RTR VI the description of the chariots of Pontus says, that they can kill light infantry easy but when I tested it I realised that they had only killed one soldier and the cariots loose fore of the twelve chariots.

But chariots can kill cavalry easily.

Thats not very realistic. Is that really so or did I something false while running in the infantry?



btw: I know that my english is bad.

[Caesar Augustus]

Hi,

I've not had an opportunity to fight against chariots in RTR yet.

From what I remember of vanilla RTW they were excellent against cavalry but extremely vulnerable against missile units.

How are you using them, and against what type of troops (ie legionaries / hoplites / phalanx)?

[Epidemais]

I used the chariots of Pontus against the persian sata...äh...I exactly don't know how they called.

But I fight with the chariots against light infantry with the spears and they only looses one unit.
When I fight against a phalanx I ran in the bakc of them while they fiht against anothe phalanx of mine. Then the chariots makes panic and kill some soldiers but not many.

But the most unrealistic is, that chariots are so good against cavalry. I think the problem is, that the chariots threw the soldiers away and the cavalry don't stand up again, but in RTR the infantry stands often up. :/

[MatrixStorm]

I'm now playing als Germania, and when I fought the Bhrytonic chariots, they made some casualties to my units, but not mutch...
After that attack I attacked another group of chariots with my general and Gallic Noble cavalry and boom;
My Noble cavalry is vanquished from the field and my general has only 9 more units left!
If you look to the stats of those chariots, it says that it has a massive melee attack of 56 (!), 10 missile attack and 25 defence.
The problem is that they attack like cavalry units:
Striking for damage and then killing some units with spears ore something.
And here's the problem:
They don't have melee weapons!
Only a guy with bow and arrows.
So if you want to make big casualties you must attack, retreat, attack and so on.
Beware that your chariots don't get stuck in an enemy unit, then they're dead.
The reason why they kill cavalry units is that they have free movement space in the cavalry units so they can attack with melee, a thing that not could be done in a packed unit like a warband, were they must use their bow and arrows; missile attack

For the realism, it might have been possible to block a chariot in the past (e.g.: putting a spear in the wheels) and then you could kill the men inside the chariots, if not already dead by the crash...
The cavalry is a case of doubt...


Oh, and a valuable tip:
Don't use chariots in your army!
To mutch disadvantages, they just can't make a difference in an army between win or lose...

[dragoon47]

You guys may not be using your chariots correctly as far as the game mechanics go.

The best way to use them for instance is to put them in a parallel line to an enemy line of say light units, then tell them to attack the other end of the line. They will charge the entire length of it and benefit from the charge bonus until they reach the other side and engage.

You can use elephants in this same way to good effect as well, tried it in TIC and it worked very well to keep those less reliable units mobile and therefore less vulnerable to mishaps.

Hoped this helped.

I will admit the ellies need more numbers to be effective as a shock arm though.