Cataphracts: The Seleucid Abrams Tank

[Artannis Wolfrunner]

Well, I just played about my 5th battle where a unit of Cataphracts just crashed through a phalanx head on and destroyed it. This time, a unit of 100 Cataphracts crashed head on into my unit of Misthophori Phalangitai. I was stunned to see that not only were 150 of the Misthophori's killed in the initial charge, but after the ordeal was over and the entire unit was dead...the unit of Cataphracts was still at 100 men.

How on the ancient earth can cataphracts charge into a phalanx head on, destroy it, and not lose a single man? That doesn't seem to make sense. I know the Misthophori were mercenary units and all, but come on.

Another good example. I was fighting a bridge battle, so I figured, easy, right? All I have to do is stick a unit or two of Pezhetairoi on my end of the bridge and they'll stop anything. Not so. The Seleucids charged across with two units of Cataphracts leading the charge. I lost 5 full units of pezhetairoi before the FIRST Cataphract unit was dead. I didn't say rout, because they never routed, they fought to the last man. I just kept creating line after line of pezhetairoi to stop their advance, but each time my phalanx lines were shattered. In other words, that means I lost about 1200 phalanx infantry before I killed 100 of their cataphracts. I think something is wrong with this picture. I know cataphracts were strong and all, but they are just absurd as they are now.

[invictus]

What are you playing on vh/vh? On vh the ai gets a HUGE boost, atleast from what iv seen. I only play vh/vh but im used to it, so if this was your 1st or so go at it, i suggest you tone it down some, and perhaps have calvary to flank them as well? -Leon

[Artannis Wolfrunner]

I only play on VH/VH. I was surprised by this because when using Cataphracts as Baktria, they weren't NEARLY that effective. They can't just roll through a phalanx head on, at least when I used them. I thought that on VH the AI only gets a morale boost, do they get an attack/defense boost on all their units too?

[Captian Marcus Cornelius]

they get both an attack/defense and morale boost , put on a couple exp points and then there uints are far better than yours..

[Last Roman]

I only play on VH/VH. I was surprised by this because when using Cataphracts as Baktria, they weren't NEARLY that effective. They can't just roll through a phalanx head on, at least when I used them. I thought that on VH the AI only gets a morale boost, do they get an attack/defense boost on all their units too?

perhaps the seleucid cataphracts get a bigger boost because the Seleucid Empire was famous for their powerful cataphracts (trying to recreate a realistic unit)

[LorDBulA]

They can't just roll through a phalanx head on, at least when I used them.

Well VH is your problem. AI gets quite a attack/deffence boost on VH. It unbalances game very much leading to rediciulous results (like much worst unit killing better one, or elite unit killing evrything else).
I would suggest you try Hard battle level. Sure AI still gets stat boost but its more subtel.

[Trajan]

Moved to EB Gameplay Guides & Discussion.

[QwertyMIDX]

On VH the AI gets huge stat bonuses, becuase of this we recomend you play EB on VH/M (campaign/battle) to avoid that sort of thing. There's nothing I can do stat wise to prevent the VH battle setting from messing up stat balancing. If you don't play on medium expect some odd things to happen.