Best Defensive Formation/Unit

[spiers]

Hi,

Im trying to find out the best units for defencsive duties. I started a campaign as Macedon beleiving than the Royal Pikemen with their very long spears would be impossible to defeat. Infact this is not happening. The one way i acheive what i feel is reasonable results while defending, such as 10-1 kills to losses, is when the enemy only attacks using 3/4 rams. I then use two Hoplite units on each breach and cross the spears over each other, causing the enemy to just be grinded. Normally in cities if too many rams are used or if i have a stone wall i would block the streets. Firstly i just place one Royal Pikemen unit in the street and widened the formation so there was no space on the flanks. This didnt work, the formation eventually broke. SO then i tried two units squezzed together in one street. They are very deep and still the formation bends, especially under calvary attack, which shouldnt happen, im just wondering why this happens and how to prevent it. It happenes against all enemies from Greek Hoplites to Dacia hordes.

I just thought the royal pikemen would be more efficient at defending then the Roman Shield Wall but it doesnt seem to be happening. Any ideas on what to do? Or is the Shieldwall the best defensive formation there is?
Thanks.

[Altimis]

If ask for defensive.

I choose "Turtle wall" or "Roman shield wall", press "D" to active guard mode and "F" to active special ability so they will very hard to break! even missile can't do any damage on them, even cavarly will very hard to break them.

Only their weak point was "Rear guard" only. Their rear guard was the position of "No shield protection" however no any troops/unit can stand againts enemy force attack from the rear guard.

Disadvantage : when they form "Turtle wall" they will walk slow but defensive. Yes, watch your rear guard too.

They still can fight with enemy that walk into their wall defend and they fight very good like "sword and shield" battle style.

For "phalanx forming", I think it was very great defensive and offensive, they fight and defend at once in front of them, no enemy break them from the front of "phalanx form" even elephant charging into them...

But they have weakpoint too, their formation can disorder easily that mean if "phalanx form" not become discipline so they will less effective to use this form. not like "turtle wall", no matter what your enemy try to surround them. They will stand closed and together in square formation with their defensive shield even their rear guard will not have the shield defend, they still can fight back all direction of enemy attack.

[spiers]

Just attacked a Greek City, the one just North of Sparta and just West of Athens. About 800 Kills to 300 losses, totally not acceptable. I can say alot of my deaths were due to the cheap towers, i always say, i can capture that tower when ive breached the walls, but then remember the wall is no longer there to walk over , They had loads of misile units like Militida Calvary,very annoying. They also had a unit of Spartans, but i peppered them from behind with my Pelasts and they died quite quicky. Still the Royal Pikemen are doing so poor for their stats. One unit of them actually lost more men, than they killed.

I will get another chance at it though, because after i won and pressed the tick, it CTD.

What i do now is, if the enemy has about 5-20 men left of a unit, is just go to normal formation, turn guard mode off and attack that way, much quicker to kill them.

[Barbarian-Bob]

I will get another chance at it though, because after i won and pressed the tick, it CTD.

Not trying to hijack the thread or anything, but do you have any idea why this happens? I also get CTDs (randomly as far as I can tell) when EXITING battles. Really annoying, especially when you've done a really good battle that took long.

[Konig]

Not trying to hijack the thread or anything, but do you have any idea why this happens? I also get CTDs (randomly as far as I can tell) when EXITING battles. Really annoying, especially when you've done a really good battle that took long.

it happens to me as well but only when fighting carthage and when elephants r involved

Still the Royal Pikemen are doing so poor for their stats. One unit of them actually lost more men, than they killed.

i think (and dont quote me on this one) Lt might of purposely made it like that to highlight the fact that Macedonians rely more on numbers than on quality.

[Hoffman]

Whenever I fight the Macedonians, the Royal Pikeman are always the last to break and run like little girls before my Roman Cavalry hunt them down like rabbits.
However, if you had a core of about 5 Royal Pikemen, 5 Phalanx Pikemen, 3 Light Lancers, 2 Archers, 4 Sword Hoplites and the General that mix should do extremely well in the field.
Use the Royal Pikemen to pin down an enemies' center, the Phalanx to roll up the flank, and the Sword to rush past the Phalanx pikemen in a maneuver column and smash into the enemy rear. Use archers to decimate the other flank and the Cavalry to add the final punch.
I'd recommend attacking the left flank (your right) of an enemy army, leaving your left flank vulnerable to a similar attack, but opening any attack troops up to archers. (The enemy carries the shield in the left arm, if they want to flank the Royal pikemen they have to expose their sword arm.)

This is called an attack en echelon, with a wide flank around the echelon.
Basically you set the Royals in a line with one unit right beside, but just behind the other, order them to advance towards the enemy and once the first one his the computer will attack forward. Keep the Phalanx pikemen in standard formation in order to move them quickly to support the right flank of the Royals, don't be shy to send 1 or 2 Phalanx pikement to back up your left flank and keep your men from getting enveloped.
The Royals should pin down the majority of an enemy army, the Phalanx endanger and force them to commit any reserves/cav and then once that happens rush the swordsmen forward and around the right form a quick battle line and charge the entire enemy army.

Should be a victory inside 10-15 minutes once you get the timing right.
I find that the computer uses the Macedonian Armies more flexibly then anyone else, fight them a couple times as the Romans to get a good idea of the capabilities of a Macedonian army, once more, after you evolve a little bit you should be able to recruit Gold Chevroned units... a bit cheating but the difficulties of Macedon at the start, and the same relatively inflexible units(war with Greece, backstabbing Dacians, Gauls, Scythians, Armenians, Pontus, possible Germanic expansions) it should be of equal difficulty to a Roman Campaign.

[spiers]

Hi,

I just thought that because they had very long spears/pikes they would be world class at defending. They shouldnt be able to get attacked because the enemy is too far away. This happens initially but then after while (get tired) they no-longer are in a line and the formation breaks, the men dont rout but the formation breaks, meaning its useless. I dont know why it does it or how anyone can push a long pike using just weight to make it do this.

In field battles i normally would form 1 single line of Pikemen and then just advance on the enemy. They would charge into the Phalanx and then be pinned, i then try to move my archers and calvary round the back to attack them. I seem to do beter in field battles than cities unless the enemy has skirmishers, which should be the other way round, since when defending you can block streets etc.

About the CTD its something to do with memory leaks someone told me. It is very annoying but you cant do much about it.

In the campaign i found the start the easiest, i now have like 500,000 Denrii + and its not even 240BC. Now ive built loads of armies im losing money, i just cant advance, the Thracians have too many men. Ive seen afew bridges i can take advantage of. I remeber playing the RTW demo and i was Cathage with their Sacred Band (they had the Phalanx ability at the time) and i hammered the Romans.

[MasterAdnin]

Well you're playing as Macedon right? The great strength of Macedon are not their infantry, it's the cavalry. Use the cavalry in city battles to flank and destroy the enemy. Use the winding streets to your advantage. Pin them with the Royal Pikemen, and then use the Companion Cavalry to surround, rout, and destroy them. You see, you're thinking like a Roman general when you should be thinking like a Macedonian general.

Hope this helps.
Adnan