Early legion

[SavageFeat]

Hey what is everybody line up for an early legion?(pre-Marian)

I would like to know and also what is successful against Carthage I am having some difficulties against them.

[TheJim]

I use:

1x General
9x Polybian/Allied Cohort
4x Republican/Allied Triarii

Which leaves space for 6 other units, which vary depending on location and who I'm fighting. Typically:

2x Archers
2x Skirmishers
2x Cavalry

For fighting Carthage I would want to gain the cavalry advantage, so I would change this to 2x Campanian cav, 2x Numidian cav, 2x Balearic slingers/Cretan/Corsico-Sardinian archers. If you're going to be fighting elephants, use more skirmishers and numidian cav and leave the heavy cav out. The best way to replicate Scipio's anti-elephant tactic at Zama, I've found, is to put skirmishers behind the front rank, fire at will off, skirmish mode off, and put the cohort that's about to be charged into loose formation. They'll take fewer casualties, and the elephants will run into gaps between the skirmishers and cohort, and then you can have them hurl their javelins.

[Basileus Antiochus]

Would you mind the ultra unrealistic and very gamey solution of spamming campanian cavalry? It is deadly against Carthage

[Dramatic Cat]

Welp mine is a multitask and practically unstoppable army of:

1 gen
9 cohorts
3 triarii
5 cavalry
2 missile/skirmish

I honestly can't concieve how can people win a battle in less than one hour with as little as one unit of cavalry (or some "peculiar" players that don't even use cavarly ). That leaves a senseless long infantry grindown with unnecessary casualties on your side.

And plus with my army composition you can make the famous "checkerboard" formation, which is the formation, with a 5 cohort front line, 4 cohort second line and the 3 triarii at the very back.

[draig glas cysefin]

See Picture...

Composition:
1 General {red in picture}
4 Cavalry, as powerful as you can find them {blue}
8 Cohorts {maroon}
2 Spearmen (I actually prefer Merc. phalangites or long-speared hoplites if you can get them, but triarii work also). {pink/purple}
2 Skirmishers {green}
3 Archers {orange}

Use the second line of cohorts to reinforce/fill gaps as they appear. Save the spearmen for anytime cavalry or elephants charge directly into your main line, then impale them. Keep fire at will OFF for all skirmishers/archers and ON for your cohorts. Use skirmishers to fire volleys into targets of opportunity (i.e. units that are committed to but haven't yet engaged your line) from behind your infantry. Use archers to bring down cavalry and elephants from a distance (before most of them reach the rest of your lines)

Tip: if you fire enough missiles (especially if you can use fire) at elephants, you probably won't wipe them out, but you can make them run amok. Do this while they are still behind enemy lines, and they will do a lot of your work for you.

Use your left flank of cavalry in wedge formation to skirt around behind enemy lines and flank units committed to your lines, doing your best to hit them hard from their right rear (the most vulnerable spot) and pull back for repeated charges (DO NOT let your cavalry idle in a melee fight with infantry - they will be murdered).

And use your general and one unit of cavalry on the right flank to keep the enemy from doing this to you with their cavalry; using this right-flank guard offensively is a move of desperation, so try not to unless you KNOW your flank is secure. However, if your general is way out to the right of your lines by himself, often the AI will target him. You can use this to bait enemy units to your right, exposing their soft spot to your archers.

As long as your numbers are at least comparable, you should do well; you're almost sure to win against a single stack.