Chariot tactics
Here's an analysis of how to best use Chariots in RSII... primarily it concerns the Celtic light chariots though generally it appllies to the other chariots as well.
Stats wise:
the good : 4 HP, high armour, high damage javelin with a much larger ammo than other javelin units. pretty fast moving.
the bad : small # of men per unit.
Special attributes :
The good : demoralize all infantries just by being around, abosalutely massacer cavalries in open field frontal attacks.
The bad : abosalutely useless in woods, even slingers and such will butcher them in such situation. to make matters worse they also have a hard time getting out of woods in messy situations. in another word, if they're caught in a bad melee in the woods they're as good as gone.
General Tactics suggestions:
1. bait arrows: with thier combination of 4HP + high armor + fast moving and natually spread out, they're one of the best units to draw arrow fires with. slingers and javelins could still be quite threatening though, but arrows are really quite useless against them.
2. demoralizer : it is highly unadvised to charge into infantries with chariots unless it's of the peltast / slinger / archer variety. (and must not be in woods). they simply don't have much impact and while they're toughter to kill than cavalires they get entagled much more easily and obviously have less men to take casualties from. The best approach vs line infantries is to run around their back and just shoot javelins into them. only charge if they're wavering. if the melee is still not completely developed keeping them behind your own infantry helps too.
3. Cavalry slayer : the chariot's ramming attack for some reason abosalutely pwn cavalires, if you run a light chariot vs the best cataprhact avalible in completely open terrain and the chariot's still likely going to win quite convincingly. This can be tricky though. since if they get entagled and don't do their special attack then cavalries will beat them. so you need to make sure you find the perfect spot to do this. though obviously if successful this manuver can be very rewarding and can even swing a battle by itself. (especially try to catch their generals with chariots)
In battles, deploy them on your flank is obvious, always keep in mind of their massive suck in woods and try to keep them around the open terrain as much as possible.
My favorite deployment style is to generally keep them in front of my other cavalries, this way they can help protect my cavalries from both arrows and other cavalries, both situation they are very good against. in battle your general objective is to seek and intercept opposing cavalries.
They are basically useless in siege though, basically all their good for is the demoralising aspect.
In the end, they're a great tool but with extreme limitations, when properly utilized they fill a really big nitch, but it doesn't take much for them to be totally useless.
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Originally Posted by Ferdiad
