New to beta testing,so bear with me if so good battles are now the norm for you.
I recently had the greatest battle i have ever played,either against human or the AI!
I play with Macedon in Alexander H/H
There was a stack of the greek city states in Eastern Greece. It was composed of a general,two elite archer units, around 5 units of heavy thorakitae and thureophoroi and all the rest was hoplites,vast majority Naupactian hoplites. An excellent army,their big disadvantage: They didn't have cavalry. Their total: 4330 men
I had composed an army with Bottian phalangites,two hoplte units,two Agrianians, and five units of cavalry. And my general. I didn't have long range missiles. Total: 4053 men
The ground was not even. When the battle started i wasn't in favorable position,but neither was the enemy. There was a ridge separating us. On our left there was quite a big and very steep hill. I was fearing they would make their defence there,and then i would be in trable. Instead, because they had superior numbers,and quite an elite army without one unreliable unit,they oposed me face on. We both run for the ridge. I managed to reach on top of it first,but anyway the ground was almost equal for both of us. In order to prevent me from moving even further and fighting them in much steper and favorable ground,they attacked my center with all the thorakites and thureoforoi. It worked. I did have more units than those needed to stop this front line of theirs,but i preffered keeping my formation intact. So i remained still, closing any gaps caused by the march up the ridge. At this point the enemy did something that amazed me: They united all their hoplites and formed one single line in reserve. And they waited there! None of their units broke their line, even when i moved one phalanx unit from the right flank to the left (behind my lines),or when i moved three cavalry units to the steep hill side overlooking the battle. They remained there waiting the outcome of their heavy Thorakites massively attacking my center.
What efect did this stance have? None of my many free units could help my center without exposing itself to the enemy hoplites and archers. Some the battle went on for quite some time both of us waiting the outcome in the center. And the battle looked like this:
So the battle of the center was slowly won. The enemy faught almost to the last! It was impressive. The performance of the phalanx was superbe. Most of the units that took part of the battle lost no more than 4 men! Of cource they were all exhausted. This is something i was fearing,since i hadn't ever faught the Naupactians before,nor had tested the phalanx. Only when the last thorakites and thureuforoi fell or fled did the hoplites advance. They charged all together engaging from their left towards their right.
They preffered to put more pressure to my center, and this gave me the chance to do a flanking maneuvering with the hoplites and Agrianians to my left. It may seem a silly movement from the AI,and probably a human player wouldn't ever do this,but if by doing so my center couldn't withstand the pressure,being already exhausted,the battle would have been lost.
My flanking maneuver:
Only when i made sure that each one of their units had engaged in battle i did my flanking with my cavalry from both sides.
The battle with the phalanx was like Hell! The concentrated troops pushed their way through the sarissae,and i don't know what would happen if my cavalry wasn't already finishing off their archers in their backs.
Their general,like a true Greek,faught bravely for the freedom of his city. His bodyguard had been eliminated. Firstly because he was the first that attacked my marching uphill to slow me down,and then by fighting my flaniking forces. Now he was among his troops,alone on his horse in the center of my phalanx line.
But the battle had to end as quickly as possible. I ordered the flanking force of my right(one unit of hoplites,Agrianians and an unengaged phalanx) to make their attack. So did all my cavalry forces! Every part of the enemy line was covered both in the front and back. The Enemy general left the front line and ran to the (ironically) other front line in the back of his troops,and there met his glorious death.
His troops lasted only very little after he fell. Almost none of those soldiers survived the slaughter that followed,since they were surround by all sides. I would really rather not kill them,if there was a way to ensure i wouldn't have to fight them again. After all,they didn't have to reach the nearby city that i had to take afterwards.
In all,i saw AI performance like i had never seen before. Very tidy battle,it lasted for very long and till the end,i really didn't know which the outcome would be. If i had just waited the enemy to attack me i might have lost the battle. However i was the attacking force,so i did the attack,and there were strategical positions to capture. To do this it needed quite some fixing of positions while paused(in reality the phalanx lochagoi would place their units where they should,and many orders would have been given at the same time,so it's actually ok if you give orders while paused).
Even though my infantry outflanked the enemy(this was because although they had more men,they didn't attack all together,and because they put more pressure in some areas),the battle was judged by the (lack of) cavalry. Had my cavalry lost to the enemy cavalry,or had i not have cavalry, my center might have colapsed.
Also,my general was constantly there encouraging them continueously. His only casualties were cause by missiles that reached him over my phalanx lines.
In the end it was a triumph as the statistics show:
Quite an experience!!!
Regards
Giannis
Great battle Macedon-Greeks
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