Ranged units a bit overpowered

[Venom]

I don't think this is a flaw specific to XGM, but I've fought and won several large battles with only a few units of archers. They cause insane casualties, partly due to the AI's dumb habit of standing around while arrows, javelins, etc rain down on them. If there is a way to somewhat reduce the potency of projectiles for most units, I would be all for it.

[Zarax]

I never had this problem with 1.5, most units are quite impervious to missile fire at least from the front...

[Venom]

That leads me to something else I wanted to bring up, actually. I noticed that the AI will often inexplicably run their units back and forth on the battlefield, breaking formation and leaving their flanks vulnerable just before battle is joined. This also leaves them wide open to ranged attacks, as their shields will offer no defense.

[DimeBagHo]

Slingers and archers have been toned down quite a bit in XGM. Units with large shields and good armour will suffer relatively few casualties. But units with small or no shields and less armour (like levey phalangites for example) can still be cut up pretty badly, especially if you have lots of ranged units. I think that is about the way it should be, although I advise against having more than 2 units of slingers or archers in your army. The combination of phalanx and massed archers is still much more effctive than it should be.

[Zarax]

That's dependant on the AI, and unless extensive formation modding is done they'll keep working like that...

[Venom]

Guess I've been spoiled by Darth Formations. I've used them for a long time now, but I don't think theyr'e included with XGM.

[DimeBagHo]

There isn't a lot that can be done about that, although you could try some of the formation mods and see if that helps.

[Zarax]

I think you can add them to XGM without too many problems, I heard of other people who did...

[DimeBagHo]

Yep, they work fine with XGM (although personally I don't like the Theban formation much). Just make sure you put them in xgm\data, not in the main data directory.

[Zarax]

Well, that's because the theban formation is designed for hoplite style units rather than phalangites, while possible it's not going to give the same benefits with a macedonian style army...

[Venom]

What version of Darth Formations should I use for XGM? Darth Formations for BI 2.0? The readme for that made it sound like it was strictly made for factions from BI.

[DimeBagHo]

Use this one: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=46330

[Venom]

Cool. I really want to thank you for all your help. You're a one-man tech support team.

[shadowarmy75]

I don't think the Theban formation will be a problem as it is only used by the Greek Cities. The Macedonians have their own formation.

[DimeBagHo]

I don't think the Theban formation will be a problem as it is only used by the Greek Cities. The Macedonians have their own formation.

It is a problem if you play the Greek Cities. The thing is that in XGM all of the Greek factions are supposed to be using the Macedonian style phalanx. I might talk to Darth, or Sinhuet about adding a tweaked version of their formations to the Extras in XGM.

[Locky]

Once i was fighting selicuid and my Spartan Royal guard suffered pretty nasty damage from those Grapashtpes(spelling), ouch it hurt. And they were stationary behind my Phalanx. Of course i wasn't plaing XGM-BI, otheriwse they'd be in shield wall, lol.

[Zarax]

Gastraphetes are nasty things, more than once they managed to kill my general with very short notice... Honestly, I'm almost tempted to reduce their number and make them more of a "sniper2 unit rather than regular archers, I don't think they have ever been employed en masse historically...

[DimeBagHo]

I have come across a couple of games and war-game scenarios that gave the Seleucids gastraphetes, but I have yet to find any historical reference to them using gastraphetes. As far as I can tell they had simply fallen out of use in favour of larger seige weapons, so they really are a 'what-if" unit. I did tone them down considerably in recent releases. They now have a much lower attack, and a somewhat lower range (still better than any regular bow).

It's really a pity that there is no way to control rate of fire for ranged units, because that would be the most realitic way to limit their power.

[Zarax]

Well, gastraphetes were basically replaced by ballista like siege weapons by the game timeframe, they might have had their use as special purpose units (basically something easier to place on a wall and fire than bigger weapons) but not mass usage so that you might want to convert them into something like arcani...

[DimeBagHo]

I might aim for something more like a ballista unit - less effective but with mobility to make up for it.