Hastati, principies, Urban Cohort

[Veridious]

The different stages of roman infantry (Hastati, principies, then Urban Cohort) all have the ability to launch spears before their attack. Often times however, I want my infantry to keep attacking with spears, and not revert to melee. Is there any way to order them to attack with spears only? I tried putting on fire at will, but that doesn't work often. I tried taking off fire at will, and then double-right-click on the enemy, and they only sometimes launch spears.

[Slimshoom]

no what u hafta do is when they throw their spears, immediately hit the halt button, and then order them to attack again, right after they throw their spear, right as they start to charge, hit the halt button, do this until they run outta ammo.

[Angarah]

Or just turn on Fire at Will, and as long as the enemy doesn't come right up to them they'll keep using pila

[Veridious]

Yes I tried doing that method, but they rarely get 2 rounds off before the enemy charges in...

[The Apostate]

Yes I tried doing that method, but they rarely get 2 rounds off before the enemy charges in...

Is this because they only carry two each?

[John I Tzimisces]

Well, seeing as how Romans are better in melee than ranged combat...I can see what you mean. Sometimes, what I'll do, is place such infantry before my main line, and set all of them to fire at will, so that the ones up front will get a round in, but the guys behind will smash the enemies approaching with a hail of pila...

[Slimshoom]

i only use throwing the pila when i am facing a very slow, tightly packed enemy formation, such as a phalanx, or when i am facing a enemy with low morale, such as militia hoplites or peasants. Also, putting velites behind your battle line would have the same effect, except their range is bad and their attack is lower than the hastati, but they are fast and good for flanking.

[Decimus Equitius]

Or you can put one unit of velites on the front line with Skirmish mode disabled to take the brunt of your enemies charge while your cohorts through their stuff.

[Veridious]

Speaking of which, what does Skirmish mode do?

[Goscinio]

If you enable it, your skirmishers will run away if the enemy gets to close. Then, if they have enough distance between them and the enemy, they'll throw spears again, and so on until they're out of ammo. If you disable it, they won't run away and they'll continue to throw their spears until they get in melee with the enemy

[Goscinio]

I think they have about 3 rounds of javelins with them...

[hellheaven1987]

Not sure, sometime is two sometime can throw three rounds (but the last round is not full package. Not sure because some legionnaires lazy to carry or some too eager to carry...).

[The Apostate]

Its two. If the soldiers at the rear are out of range then the will not fire. This is why you sometimes get 3 volleys with the last one consisting the men who could not fire in the first volley.

[Red Harvest]

Its two. If the soldiers at the rear are out of range then the will not fire. This is why you sometimes get 3 volleys with the last one consisting the men who could not fire in the first volley.

Not quite, but close. They have two rounds, but the officers/standard bearers also have an ammo allocation. Their "residual" is added to to the unit total. So if an 80 man unit has two officers there are 4 extra pila. These are thrown in a short 3rd volley.

It is also possible to have even more vollies due to FF restrictions, blockage, distance, etc., but with officers in the unit the pila hurlers will always have more than two vollies available.

This has a big effect on certain chariot units and elephants...who have riders and drivers. If there are two riders then the unit gets 50% more missiles than is in the units file. If there is only one rider plus driver then it gets 100% more than the "nominal."
Modifying chariot units is how I uncovered all of this, although I had begun to suspect it from testing pila and other units.

[Red Harvest]

By the way, fire-at-will is the way to go with pila bearers. When in pila animation enemy charges are stopped cold virtually without losses, then the pila are hurled point blank into the enemy periodically (depending on any orders you give.) Amazingly, further vollies at point blank are often allowed. I've seen the AI get off up to FOUR vollies this way (the unused pila of the dead are given to the living and not everyone is allowed to fire.) The way it is implemented it is sort of a cheat, but the AI uses it too. Precursor units have a big edge up on their opponents because of this "feature."

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

One useful strategy is to put the hastati to fight while your principes unit fires at them. Put them near the enemy and behind the hastati and they will work as heavy skirmishers before joining battle. Then alternatively you can retreat your hastati and put them to fire at the enemy while the principes fight. This will hit them hard, but beware as your own troops may get hit too.

Or you can alternatively form a line with your legionaries and put them to fire at will. The enemy will get a lot of javelins before their soldiers clash with your lines. It works efficiently for me both with all kinds of legionaries in RTW and comitatenses and plumbatarii in BI.

[Marie Louise von Preussen]

You can rout entire units of berserkers just by throwing javelins. This happened to me in BI, I formed a single line and put everyone to fire at will and could actually rout these lombard berserkers before they could join battle (they are very dangerous on melee). In RTW, putting your units to fire at will will demoralize many enemy units, especially barbarian units who usually have giant attack rates but weak defense (Chosen Axemen, for example). Their scaring appearance is also nothing when they are being destroyed.