Greek fire is awesome

**Meneth** · August 28, 2010, 04:59 PM

Greek fire is now officially my favorite weapon.
This video says it all:

Anything that can kill almost 200 men in a few seconds is awesome IMO.
Edit:

**strife1013** · August 28, 2010, 05:26 PM

Omg, Greek fire has always been amazing. Kinda blows their fuel empties so quickly, also it can be hard to set it up where they can use it without burning your own units. Any tips? Can they be used on walls of castles and buildings to shoot downwards? I've tired that once long ago to no avail, they just stood there looking dumb.

Since upkeep is so low I am going to station one or two units at each settlement or just important ones.

**Sanderlicious** · August 28, 2010, 05:30 PM

Originally Posted by strife1013

Can they be used on walls of castles and buildings to shoot downwards? I've tired that once long ago to no avail, they just stood there looking dumb.

For me, this is where they have worked best: Siege. I don't know what must have been wrong for you before.

**Meneth** · August 28, 2010, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by strife1013

Omg, Greek fire has always been amazing. Kinda blows their fuel empties so quickly, also it can be hard to set it up where they can use it without burning your own units. Any tips? Can they be used on walls of castles and buildings to shoot downwards? I've tired that once long ago to no avail, they just stood there looking dumb.

Since upkeep is so low I am going to station one or two units at each settlement or just important ones.

I find the best way to use them is putting them right in front of your infantry, shooting one volley, then retreating. If the enemy general attacks your infantry, it's usually worth losing a few dozen soldiers to kill off 2/3 of his bodyguards, as they'd probably kill more than that anyway.
I think their range is too short, and their minimum angle too high, for them to shoot off of walls (I haven't tested, though). Archers often run into the same thing (so they shoot straight up instead of straight down) when the enemies are close to the wall.
What you could do in sieges, though, is kill most of the people who rush in after the gates fall, by making a sort of a bucket with your units inside the gates, with the greek fire unit at the end.

**luciferleigh** · August 28, 2010, 06:02 PM

Originally Posted by Meneth

I find the best way to use them is putting them right in front of your infantry, shooting one volley, then retreating. If the enemy general attacks your infantry, it's usually worth losing a few dozen soldiers to kill off 2/3 of his bodyguards, as they'd probably kill more than that anyway.
I think their range is too short, and their minimum angle too high, for them to shoot off of walls (I haven't tested, though). Archers often run into the same thing (so they shoot straight up instead of straight down) when the enemies are close to the wall.
What you could do in sieges, though, is kill most of the people who rush in after the gates fall, by making a sort of a bucket with your units inside the gates, with the greek fire unit at the end.

lower walls allow them to shoot down on the enemy

i disagree about their range, something so effective should have a downside to them, but i do agree on how to use them, most settlements have the main route to the square offset to the gate, basically making the AI favor either going left or right after their through the gate, ill block of their path with lower xp troops (expendable) and place the flamethrowers on the other side with a unit of decent infantry behind them (varagnians/sparthii mostly) for an exit strategy if they get into trouble, once the trap is set (meneth's bucket) let them fire a short burst, being careful about their range, just far enough to not reach your own troops on the other side, ive had one unit of them reach from 0 xp to 1 gold chevron in one siege with just 2 decent bursts

on field battles i use em as special forces, having their own grouping with their own dedicated spear and sword units as their bodyguards, with a flanking unit of medium cavalry just in case, once the lines are joined, either flank them left or right, making a whole wing rout in an instant ^^

**Meneth** · August 28, 2010, 06:06 PM

Originally Posted by luciferleigh

lower walls allow them to shoot down on the enemy

i disagree about their range, something so effective should have a downside to them

I didn't mean that it should be longer, only that it's too short to fire very far off of walls

Any much longer range, and they'd be overpowered IMO.
That tactic for open field battles sounds like a pretty good idea. At the very least, it should kill loads of soldiers. (though there'll probably be some collateral damage)

**luciferleigh** · August 28, 2010, 06:20 PM

that depends on how far you flank and how deep your flamethrower formation is, a wide formation will usually have the guys on the ends angle back into your own troops, and yeah, there usually is some collateral damage but a 30:1 ratio is acceptable to me xD

**Meneth** · August 28, 2010, 06:22 PM

Originally Posted by luciferleigh

that depends on how far you flank and how deep your flamethrower formation is, a wide formation will usually have the guys on the ends angle back into your own troops, and yeah, there usually is some collateral damage but a 30:1 ratio is acceptable to me xD

Yeah, it's acceptable as long as one prevents more deaths on one's own side than one causes.

**RabidSheepLegion** · August 29, 2010, 01:02 AM

i like to do this

put inf in front with gaps wide enuff to fire thru but not enuff for enemy to get trhu and shoot em

or hit them directly from flanks, one volley can usually take out entire unit or more if grouped together lol i remember one battle in a town i had my inf at intersection where enemy grouped on them and firemen on the next corner.... yea that flame thrower got like over 1200 kills in that battle... can you say 0 val to 9?

__I_I__
___E_F_
__IMI__

crude pic of intersection, E is enemy in middle of crossroads enaging M my troops where F firemen are on flank

EDIT: Will send pic soon for all to see a nice barbeque

**crsutton** · August 29, 2010, 01:56 PM

Yes, I have notice in 6.3 that the are even more powerful than in 6.1. Plus you can retrain the one early unit you get in Constanople. So, be careful not to lose it.

**RabidSheepLegion** · August 29, 2010, 06:19 PM

Yes it is....

Town and castle garrions, this is all you need for teh byz

By don_sky_mh at 2010-08-29

**strife1013** · August 29, 2010, 06:32 PM

That's sick!! Okay time to go play the game and use my guys! Can't wait + rep for the awesome screen shots.

**RabidSheepLegion** · August 29, 2010, 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by strife1013

That's sick!! Okay time to go play the game and use my guys! Can't wait + rep for the awesome screen shots.

lol i know, 1100 plus kills in one battle with one unit, none captured. Try that with cav lol 6 exp too, altho you can probably get quite a bit of val from chargin and capturing guys with cav in one battle

I think that custom battle lasted all like 7 minutes lol maybe 5 as I 6x speed the ram

**Alpha Zeke** · August 29, 2010, 09:30 PM

Wow. Just wow.

**Spartan90** · August 29, 2010, 09:36 PM

Beautiful screenshots, but apart from siege defense (which seldom happens IMO), I find their use to be very limited. I cannot get them in position fast enough in the field for them to be of much use. Nevertheless, the few times I've used them against Jihad armies when they broke through Constantinople's gates, they were flippin' badass.

**Meneth** · August 30, 2010, 12:31 AM

@RabidSheepLegion: Awesome pictures. +rep
Ofc, I got 190 kills with normal unit sizes, which would be about 380 kills at the size you're running (huge?), but that's still awesome.