mass rout

[augustusingreen]

dont u love it when one of the enemy units begins to rout, triggering a mass rout of enemy troops? i do. but i was wondering if theres a trick to that. i ussually use cavalry flank but i dont always have cavalry.....

[Spadicus]

It's just lowering their morale enough that they JSUT CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE .

Um...cavalry flanking charges, flanking charges by powerful infantry (beserkers, gladiators), being surrounded by enemy infantry, overwhelming enemy numbers, chariots, elephants, fire arrows..so many things lower unit morale. Just pick what you have available in a situation and pile it on .

[Holger Danske]

#1
if the enemy has elephants or chariots then try to make them run amok by using fire attack. I love seeing an aproaching army being ripped apart by their own pawage units.. And when they have taken enough casualties, lowered moral, and disordered, I charge with my generals cavalry, and some other expendable troops and obliterate the remaining force.

[Lucius_Galba]

Cavalry especially early Equites are great for running down fleeing enemies though any cavalry will do. I try to have some cavalry in every army coz there arn't really any other units that can successfully chase and kill most of the routing army. Infantry may get one or two units if your lucky but the remaining forces may regroup and charge your exhausted troops. That why I only adn always use cavalry and nothing else when it comes to cutting down broken units. At least then, your infantry is still fresh and ready if some of the army continues fighting or the routing guys regroup.

Cheers
LG

[Scorch]

I always bring 5-6 units of archers along with me in multiplayer. If you put half on flaming arrows and leave the other half alone, then you can do mega damage to the enemy whilste reducing their morale. If you're romans then just bring your infantry in and they'll flee soon enough.

[penance_of_discord]

the key to aceiving a mass rout is this; when one enemy unit routs, it hurts the morale of all the enemy units nearby. This means that when 1 unit routs, it makes it more likely that the rest will, which makes it more likley that the whole army will.
When i have the option, i love to leave like 2-3 men alive after decemating a squad. that way, those 2-3 men will sow confusion amoungst the enemy ranks.

One more thing, a tip ive heard is to only use 30% of your archers on fire, because once you hurt their morale b/c of fire a certain amount, it doesnt get any worse. basically, 2-3 squads of fire archers do as much morale damage as 10 squads. and the best thing to rout elephants are horse skirmishers.

[Severous]

For a mass rout I suggest:

- Kill their general
- wear them down so they are tired or worse
- have a height advantage
- shoot them up first so unhappy over casualties
- use morale attacks if you have any..fire arrows, dogs, chariots etc
- flank and rear components to attacks.
Then hit the weaker units first to rout them

That was a good tip above about leaving a few routers alive from each unit in order to retain the morale effect of them routing on the enemy.

Greeks routing a Seleucid army:

[PhalanxPhlattener]

it would kinda suck to be infantry with rapid dogs charging at you, or having the threat of setting on fire by arrows. you kinda feel sorry for the AI (not really) :wink:

[augustusingreen]

well thats enough for me