Greek Cities vs Brutii

[brollysan]

Just finished the campaign on medium difficulty as the Brutii, I found that to be too easy (had 3 million money and 200k ticking per turn) untill I assaulted Rome.

Now I am playing as the Greek Cities on hard difficulty, 14 turns, have all of the rebel cities near the starting area and initiated diplomacies with the Brutii, next turn they attacked me with 3 units, oh well I thought and slaughtered them.

Then the next turn 3 ships land near sparta with 6-8units x 3 stacks and generals, I thought they would be an easy match for my hoplites (I have mostly militia hoplites, kinda rushing it) but they are absolutely slaughtering me, I have no other cavalry than my generals so I can't counter their cavalry flanks, my units are so damn slow (hoplites) they get killed by the throwspears of the roman legions by the time they reach them, if I go out of phalanax to rush them and then turn into phalanax I get flanked by their cavalry. I have no units of archers either except one unit of cretin archer who is busy near Constantinople.

TLDR: What do I do vs the romans as the greek cities? Their legions are way overpowered, they hardly rout and I have no cavalry to flank them and am usually outnumbered so I can't flank with infantry either! How do I use the hoplites?

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Sounds as though your campaign has descended in chaos....

When playing the Greeks you embrace the phalanx but you must also carry the auxiliary troops to support in. Playing as the Greeks I always hire mercenarries....Cretan archers & non-pike mêlée units especially. Also embracing your Jav-cav {Javelin Cavalry} is essential. How far into the campaign were you when the invasion happened? What settings are you playing? Having you invested in archery and cavalry buildings yet?

Also, did you run the Romans out of Sicily? Where do you stand with the Macedonians?

[brollysan]

I am at 16 turns now, got slaughtered again by a brutii army, is it just me or are their generals much more powerful than mine? I went in with 8 star general vs his lowstar, both faction heirs, his general tried to flank me so I sent out mine, he slaughtered mine so fast, are my generals fighting naked? I don't think I have any stables upgraded, I just thought I would kick ass with phalanxes, I am on the defensive now and thankfully my cities bring in alot of gold so I am gonna upgrade my units/cities.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Right then..."The Phalanx" an impenetrable wall of spears....

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

How to use the.....A stack should have...

1. up to three archers {fire arrows to bust morale},
2. jav-cav on the wings, {for routers, distracting units away from the battle, using their superior speed to keep safe. When ready lead the units to get pinned on your spear.},
3. mêlée units to support pikes and flanks,
4. a general units for leadership.{ beware Greek generals are week and need support when committing to battle. Best call charge at the rear with supporting units..

The idea is to pin and destroy the enemy on your pikes. Pike maneuvering is very slow and require constant micromanagement. The mêlée units & cav used to encircle and rout the enemy. Archers pulled back behind pikes then concentrating on isolated enemy units...

Once you get the hang of this, you'll crush them. Once you gain Armored Hoplites the enemy is doomed....

[wierdo5000]

Or you could do what I do and just put all your guys in a corner on the map. that way if you get defeated, you have the quickest route for retreat. However it is also strong because by using the borders of the map, you can effectively protect your flanks (remember units that are fighting cannot run outside the red border!). However if you did this in real life... you would be pwneeed

[empr guy]

If you want to get rid of those pesky pila, you can always bring an extra unit or two of jav calv and have them run in front, or two or so units of peasents and just put them infront of their infantry. careful with peasents though, they rout easily and might effect your army.

[Emperor Tom]

Actuall I find it easy to crush roman armies with lots of cavalry!

[cursedronin]

Greek campaign is one of the easiest if you ask me.

Get alot of hoplites and try to do as much city battles as possible.

Hastati and principes suck vs. hoplites and have no chance in hell vs. armoured hoplites from the front.

I always steamroll italy first when playing as greece.

Macedon isn't that big a threat, pontus is just lol, seleucids get pwned anyway by egyptians/parthians/armenians/pontics.

That only leaves the romans, that are only dangerous if you allow em to get marian reforms.

Either that, or maybe phalanx combat just isn't your thing ...

[Legio]

Greek general's bodyguard are weaker than Roman ones. Also, always try to be on the defensive with vanilla phalanxes. Try to do as many city battles as possible, for you can't get outflanked and any enemy cavalry is severely hampered, if not neutralized. Also, Greek Archers are very useful.

[brollysan]

Allright, getting a bit more used to using the phalanx now and wow it is very powerful but only with good use of support units, sending in peasants to empty javelins etc otherwise roman legionaires own half my infantry with javelins before I reach them.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Sounds like your starting to get the hang of it... Remember to hire as many Cretan Archers as you can get. They will serve you well.

[nhinhonhinho]

Well I can help you with this formation:I base on full stack and you can chance it.I found this formation is impenetrable from the West to East

First you need 5 Hoplite or stronger armored hoplite (in mid and late you only use armored hoplite) Place them in the front.Then 10 archer (the more Cretan archer the better) in the real.Deploy them to 2 rank with each rank is 5.Remember shooter you line.You will need 2 more Armored hoplite to cover two flank and these man must be your strongest,most experience unit because they will often fight like hypapist or sword hoplite.The last thing is your general and 2 cavalry unit Greek cavalry.Cavalry will chase down routing troop

Try to keep these formation with all cost especially when moving.With your super fire power you don't have to worry about enemy missile unit event horse archer,chariot or elephant.If the enemy come close use your archer form the right flank fire the enemy left and from archer from the left fire right enemy.

To protect your two flank.Have your "sword hoplite" hold the enemy and cavalry charge from behind.If the enemy come close to your archer have them run to the good position and fire.If your archer run out arrow and the enemy still not broken.Use them charge from behind.Thought your archer is weak but they'll still fresh and your opponent troop is very tired and when the enemy rout your fresh archer can quickly chase them down.When their front line be destroy by your front hoplite turn them to flank and finish the job

That's all.have fun with these formation

[Steve2295]

Try use this formation

** -------------------------------- ------------------------ **

with the -- being the phlanxes. Also make that line wide as possible, you shouldn't be bothered about depth in the phlanx, you want the first line to hold and you want to limit the flanking range. Romans don't use their cavalry much so stick a few archers just behind your impenatrable wall of spears #

- = phlanx
* = archers/peltasts

[mattgoby]

Greeks are easy if you attempt to just fight defensively i remember killing about 1500 bruttii hastati in a seige battle with only 3 spartan hoplites [it was multiplayer against a mate who said i couldnt do it]

If in a field battle just form a your phalanxes into a circle and remember some cavalry to waste their pila your cavalry will be wiped out but your phalanxes will lose hardly any men.

[Change]

try this formation:
'''''''''/\/\/\/\
^^ | *** | ^^

|, / and \ : phalanx
* : missile
^^: cav/ missile cav
': just to keep the formations in place

or
^^''\' '''' '/ ^^
'''** '\ ' / **
'''''''''''''\/
just not so sharp as these!

[nhinhonhinho]

Oh no the huge weakness of Greek is their cavalry.

Javelin cavalry is good to cause some damage and pursing basic skimisher,horse archer (just horse archer,not heavy horse archer like Persian cavalry)

Greek cavalry just use for the same thing and they can't win Equites unless their number is greater.

So you can't hope your cavalry to break through Roman heavy infantry.

[Nicolaos]

thats why i like macedon.
they have good phalanx units, good cav and standard greek skirmishers
and they live in the area where you can recrute thrace mercenaries to have some close melee units