Tactics against Pyrrhus

[lelouchx99]

Hey all, are there any tips or perhaps strategies fighting against Pyrrhus? I'm playing as the Roman on H/H and it's about 277 BC right now. However, both sides seem to be having a deadlock, and my hastasi/principe is far inferior as compare with Pyrrhus's hoplite... I've been trying to avoid Pyrrhus's army for a while now, and even tried to confront him on bridge and failed miserably...

[Arbitrary Crusader]

Hey all, are there any tips or perhaps strategies fighting against Pyrrhus? I'm playing as the Roman on H/H and it's about 277 BC right now. However, both sides seem to be having a deadlock, and my hastasi/principe is far inferior as compare with Pyrrhus's hoplite... I've been trying to avoid Pyrrhus's army for a while now, and even tried to confront him on bridge and failed miserably...

Your suppose to lose...anyway i kill Pyrrhus,but lose 50% but kill 1/3 of their.

[Arkaeyn]

The easiest way to beat Pyrrhos' elite hoplites is to stick 'em in a city and starve them with a siege or let the riots do their business. If that's not working, then:

You're going to lose to them in a pitched battle. But you also have a significant strategic advantage with several local cities for reinforcements, where they only have two. So grind them down. Don't avoid them, but don't let them beat you directly. Attack them when you know you'll be able to do significant damage.

Also, the biggest reason why they kick your butt at Heraklea isn't that the troops are so much better inherently. It's because they have experience and armor/weapon upgrades. As soon as you can get your troops upgraded, you won't lose to terribly to them again. They're still likely to be better, but not so much that they're invincible.

[joecool250]

i was on M/H and i starved Phyrrus out at Cannae (ironically). he took it the first turn and so i went in and sieged it. for some reason the AI wont try and break the siege from inside, so when it came to one turn left i would lift the siege and begin it again, it resupplies them with food but keeps phyrrus bottled up. it takes many years but he loses men progressively and after a while i had two full armies attack his small group, i won but barely, but i got him defeated and was able to start my campaign to take southern Italy. i though concede Rhegion for the first part of the game. its difficult to defend against Epriots. i rather take it back and defend central Italy.

[lelouchx99]

I noticed how you guys chose the option of starving the besieged... That's very ironic

[gaius valerius]

Hey all, are there any tips or perhaps strategies fighting against Pyrrhus? I'm playing as the Roman on H/H and it's about 277 BC right now. However, both sides seem to be having a deadlock, and my hastasi/principe is far inferior as compare with Pyrrhus's hoplite... I've been trying to avoid Pyrrhus's army for a while now, and even tried to confront him on bridge and failed miserably...

Same hear... I've thrown in all I had on about 4 different large battles with full stacks and still got my butt kicked. Fighting on the good side of a slope, fighting on a bridge, using an ambush, etc everything failed the minute elephants and elite phalanxes kicked in. The trick as mentioned above is "easy" though: you as Rome can support those multiple stacks turn after turn and replace a destroyed army, Pyrrhus doesn't have that luxury, I finally ended up starving him to death in Tarente, served him right. (and taking mercenary phalanxes also increases your battle odds)

[Alavaria]

If you can get him to sit in a settlement with stone walls (ie: controllable towers) you can easily kill him that way.

The reason being that the AI will tend to put troops in front of a captured gateway (to block your way in), but that AI doesn't notice said gateway can shoot those troops and has infinite ammo. The Roman and Greek settlements are prone to this, though Carthage's settlements have gatehouses that cannot shoot inwards...

Oh, and also that it doesn't move it's wall defenders. So park all your army at one side of the deployment area and have one unit with ladders on the opposite side. Capture a gate (with no resistance) and walk your army around the city to that point. In the meantime, the AI will get itself shot up. For best effects, have a general unit run into and out of the city via your captured gatehouse(s) to encourage troops to chase him around all the towers. Eventually, the enemy will remove the wall defenders, and you can do the same to get them killed as well...

[lelouchx99]

A miracle happened, Pyrrhus went to guard its new capital south from heraklea. I took this chance to relocate my stack in the north to the south and captured Heraklea along with Tarentum... Pyrrhus then left Italy on sea and went to Sicily Syracuse.

[sirfiggin]

that happened in history

[Wambat]

The key to taking out hoplites is to out-maneuver them. As the Romans you will need to make sacrifices on the battlefield. Draw out the Epirus cavalry with your (inferior) cavalry. You will lose your cavalry units, but this will give your infantry the breathing space to flank the hoplites.

You infantry have the advantage of being widely spaced compared with the holpite units, so you can engage more than one of the hoplite units with one of your own. Set your pricipes unit hold its ground then manualy bring the unit up to just in front of the enemy's spears; do not order your units to attack the hoplites head-on, you want the hoplites to attack, and your units to defend. If the hoplites do not engage they will be stuck in place, not daring to turn their backs to the enemy. If they do engage, the principes's heavier armour and defensive stance will let them hold the line a lot longer, giving your lighter units the time to clear out any defending skirmishers and get around behind the hoplites. Try to have at least one unit gaurding the backs of the units attacking the backs of the hoplites; triarii are ideal for this.

Keep two or more skirmisher units in reserve just behind and to either side of your line. You can usually use these to bluff enemy skirmishers into backing off without releasing their javelins, but try to hold onto your own javelins until the enemy's elephants are sent forward. Two skirmisher units should have more than enough ammo to devastate the elephants.

Try to concentrate your pila attacks on the a few holpite units, the ones with the greatest likelihood of breaking, as their retreat will have a greater effect on the more disciplined units's moral than direct assaults.

[Conqistador]

i've used a singular tactic: i provoked'em with skirmisher and slingers, their phalanxes spreaded to attack my army, and soon they concentrated their forces on my center, leaving room for my troops to flank'em, easy kill. But the ellies caused many deaths to me..

[Heir Of Carthago]

i had around 700 troops left at the end of the battle of Heraklea against 1 pike and 1 asian elephant my men were all tired they were exuaghsted :S and i reformed to a legion but they routed evry 1 in 1 charge ??????

[Mythos_Ruler]

Whoa, wait... Starvation? Is that something new for RTRVII?

[Arkaeyn]

No, it's the normal siege casualties.

[TKainZero]

Nothing is more fun then fighting that initial battle against him... (I play VH/VH on HUGE Settings)

There are several options,

Avoid war in the short term, go get a cease fire with the greeks, and then capture the 5 rebel cities on the Italian penisulia.

Or...

Bypass the Rebel cities, combine your 2 starting armies, build a couple turns worth of heavy infantry (for holding the line) or some more veleties (for killing elephants), and fight him head on.

I like bypassing the rebel cities, and going straight after Pyrrhus.



Try to get as many troops as you can.

The goal will be to enguage his main line, while keeping your skrimishers ready to fire as soon as the elephants move in, while sending troops around on one or both edges, to encircle the enemy, all while making sure that your inferiour calvery out manuvers their calvery into some of your spearmen.


Everything is predicated on getting those elephants within range of your skirmishers.
I like to have 4-6 units of the skirmishers for this battle, one or two good vollys should get the elephants to rout, and then smash into everything in sight.

As soon as the elephants rout, the rest of the enemy infanty will get a moral negative. The plan is, as soon as the elephants rout, bring units in on the flank and rear, to capitilize on the moral loss.


Heres a bad diagram on battle plans.
H= Heavy Infanty
L = Light infantry
Sk= Skirmishers
SP= Spears
LH= Light Horses
G= General

HH
Sp Sp LHLHHLHL Sp
Sk Sk Sk Sk Sk
Lh G




have a main battle line that is not too Deep (4-6 guys deep should be enough, the main line will not be doing the most work), with spears on the ends, with skirmishers behind (With Fire at will OFF (save ammo for elephants))
In front of the main battle line, have a couple units of Infanty (with Fire at will ON), when these units start to throw their pillum at the enemy, let them get a few vollys, then move them back thru the main line, and out towards the flanks, these units will do the main flanking, and reenforce the flanks if need be, and inflict damage onto the main enemy line, without fautiging our main line.


While waiting for the enemy main line to move up, protect flanks from calvery charges, and try to bait enemy calvery into a charge into our spears. Enemy calvery might also look to flank around and hit skirmishers.


Right when the main enemy line is enguaging, your lines should have reformed to look like this, with your light calvery and some spear units enguaging their calvery.



Sp LHLHHLHL Sp
H Sk Sk Sk Sk Sk H
G


Make sure Skirmishers are ready when the elephants get close.
As soon as you see the elephants moving in, give the order for the skirmishers to attack the elephants, and then ring the Horn of your general for a bonus.

The Phanlanx of your enemy should be pushing your main line in the middle backwards, and, this should make sweeping around on your enemies easier.

The Heavy infantry that had started out in front, should, with the spearmen, and Skirmisher Flankers, be able to outflank the enemy on both sides and have a good semi encirclement by the time the elephants break.

Remember to keep you battle line THIN so as to have more troops for outflanking their phalanx.




The Keys to this battle is are simple.
Protect your skrimishers from their calvery
Get enemy elephants in close, and have skirmisher kill
Out flank the Phalanxs


You are going to take loses, just make sure you have enough skirmishers to hit the elephants, or the General himself if he comes close enough, and that should make the battle simple.



I have done this battle SO MANY times.
I love it.

[Pat89]

The thread is actually about RTR VII: FoE... I suppose you're playing RTR Gold, Platinum or ExRM?

[TKainZero]

The thread is actually about RTR VII: FoE... I suppose you're playing RTR Gold, Platinum or ExRM?

Indeed...

I am not playing RTR FoE...

I guess i am behind...

Either way, either way, i do not see why the tatics would not work either way though.

[mcantu]

Indeed...

I am not playing RTR FoE...

I guess i am behind...

Either way, either way, i do not see why the tatics would not work either way though.

i'd love to hear how these tactics work in the FoE opening battle...

[Caesar Augustus]

Dude, the principle is right, but from what I understand for this first battle is that Pyrrhus' army is frighteningly powerful and has a huge advantage compared to your initial army so you simply may not survive long enough to complete the envelopment.

[Geleco]

Well, I would post my strategy.

But I usually play as Pyrrhus anyway, so...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

DIE, ROMAN DOGS!