Chariot Tactics

[Gryphon]

I've gotten pretty good with most unit battle tactics, but I can never seem to get my chariots to be very effective.

I was so bad with them as Egypt that I gave up on playing that campaign.

What works for you?

[Vanquisher]

I only use my chariots to harras the enemy and get them dis-organised and scared so that my infantry can close in and take them out, then use the chariots to continue harrasing weak units etc untill they break. Remember that chariots have a bad affect on the enemy's morale, they can be pretty good at taking out light infantry/skirmishers too.

[vikrant]

check it out SPQR mod
they have made chariots pretty powerful

[GodNeptune]

Chariots are best used to flank against non-spear infantry and to fight heavy cavalry head on. You need to keep them moving in order for them to be effective because of their terrible defensive stats. After you hit some infantry with chariots, move them on to another target so they don't get slowed down. You should also try to keep them a good distance away from missle units, spear/pike units, and also elephants. Elephants and phalanx units absolutely murder chariots, and I don't even use chariots to flank against those units. And with chariots you need to keep them away from your infantry, as they tend to get stuck in infantry formations easily. I have had a lot of success with chariots playing as the Brits.

[Werner]

The strengh of chariots is movement, if they stop they die. So when you want them to attack a unit, double-click behind the unit you want to attack. They will then run through the enemy, cause casualties and not stop after the charge, instead they will continue running, and then repeat.

Good luck.


EDIT: GodNeptune typed faster than me.

[Gryphon]

I used a unit of scythed chariots to take out one unit of rebel peasants recently.

I tried telling the chariots to move through the enemy repeatedly instead of attacking.

The chariots definitely took fewer casualties when they kept moving, and lots of the peasants were launched in the air, but most of them stood back up. Each pass of an 18 chairiot unit through the peasants only resulted in one or two casualties to the peasants. The rest would just stand back up.

Charging throught the peasants was so ineffective I got bored and started telling the chariots to charge-attack, and then as soon as they hit the mass of enemy, telling them to charge the rest of the way past the enemy and repeating. It was more effective, but took way too much micromanaging to do in any kind of large battle.

I'm playing darthmod if that might have something to do with it.

[penance_of_discord]

well, i enjoy all chariot armies. the first thing i discovered playing egypt is that melee chariots really stink. so when i play a 10k multiplayer match, and i want to be mean, i take 2-4 general chariot squads and the rest all chariot archers. the chariots totally own any cav that they send at you, have tons of ammo, and make it easier to rout the enemy. makes for longer battles, but done right you can own pretty much anything. long range archers are a pain, as are horse archers. But you should totally outnumber those units unless you are fighting a partian army or something. the only problem when you take this strategy onto the campaign map is that chariots totally stink inside towns. the way i ran egyptian campaigns was have well divided 'anti-personel' chariot armies, and then large phalanx/archer/cav armies for sieging. maybe id throw a coupla units of melee chariots into the anti-town armies, cause its fun to double click through a single road and watch the entire packed enemy army get knocked over...

and yes, phalanxes own chariots mercilessly. as my awesome greek campaign, i remember 3 squads worth of chariots do a full on frontal charge on my Spartan hoplites. from 12 chariots they dropped to four, instantly. suicide. :p i do like chariots tho, im just now experimenting with Carraige Balistae....... fun!

[Mesamedasu]

Charging throught the peasants was so ineffective I got bored and started telling the chariots to charge-attack, and then as soon as they hit the mass of enemy, telling them to charge the rest of the way past the enemy and repeating. It was more effective, but took way too much micromanaging to do in any kind of large battle.

I'm playing darthmod if that might have something to do with it.

I know the feeling. Never been too impressed with scythed chariots. You'd think they are terror killing machines but they seem "about as effective as a catflap in an elephant house". Even without darthmod.

On the other hand, I was quite succesfull with British general chariot units. I used them in pairs, charging at isolated enemy warbands or cavalry. Leave a gap between the two units (laterally), rush at the target, swing in at both flanks simultaniously. Sandwiching, basically. There's a good chance the warband will rout instantly. Get out if they don't. Or plow the first general through the warband, turn around, charge again, while the second general unit follows up from the other side. Again, a sandwich.

I never used these twin tactics with scythed chariots. Maybe they'll perform better also. But there are just so much good archer and phalanx units around in arabia and asia minor and a good chariot should stear clear from a spear.

M

[maartenfabre]

i liked the britain chariot archers, i had whole stacks of em, they teared up about anything without having losses themselves. Only negative sideeffect on the chariots was when my general was in a chariot. The general then was always killed very soon, mostly by archer. 9 times out of 10 my general(family member) was the only unit killed

[Mesamedasu]

Only negative sideeffect on the chariots was when my general was in a chariot. The general then was always killed very soon, mostly by archer. 9 times out of 10 my general(family member) was the only unit killed

Why not keep the general at a safe distance of the archers then?

Chariot archers can be very effective indeed, and, like all archer units, gain experience easily. Which is nice.

[Severous]

Like Penance_of_discord I found Egypt great fun.

The Chariot based generals were the first units I ever developed to gold chevrons of experience. Awesome killing machines...used patiently.

They are not bulldozers or tanks..they are mobile missile platforms made of flimsey wood. And their rear wheels have spikes...ideal for use cutting down any cavalry that are foolish enough to chase you....of course you have to run away at just the right speed so the enemy briefly catch up to those spikes.

I didnt use many mellee chariots..mainly generals and archer chariots.

Great for cutting down routers..but not as good as light cavalry.


In this sally from a fort the Chariot general runs around outside the fort gaining height advantage to shoot up the enemy. Pontus scythed chariots running amok from the Egyptian arrows are most satisfying as they cut up their own troops. Cleary a warning to a player using chariots prone to run amok (egyptian chariots dont run amok)


As Seleucid commander in a sucession game I found scythed chariots running through dispersed formations of cavalry and infantry were good provided mounted troops, like a general, followed up on the chaos caused. When you sally the beseiging AI will often run to one corner of the map. Thats an ideal chance to rush the enemy as they try to reform. Many a roman regreted being commanded by the AI. Shows the results of the cavalry/chariot combination.

[penance_of_discord]

hmmm... an interesting concept for chariot use. Never thought of a 'follow up' with cavalry..... *gives thumbs up*

nice work there with your general too, by the way.

[Legionary Jezza]

Just asw other people said use them to harass the enemy and ****** them off especially with archers on the chariots enable skirmish and fire at will have them fire at the enemy they can't touch you and when they run out of ammo use them like normal chariots there almost as effective. Also you have more chariots in a unit that uses missile with them; then the ones that don't use missile just think about that.

[Korinthos Hoplites]

This is all there's to it:

CA made infantry resist a lot to cavalry, they just stand up after being thrown down, they act like real men with shields would, problem is, even without shields they're very hard to kill.

Cavalry are MASSACRED by chariots, completely MASSACRED, but this is realistic (horse-leg cut) except in the case of cataphracts.

[Shaio]

syhted chariots i find are the best, charge them into the unit behind the one you want to hit.. that way you get the charge bonus and still keep moving.

of corse i always use them with light cav support.

besides.. theres nothing more fun then assassinating enemy generals with sythed chariots.

[paratrooper]

i dont like using chariots they are only good against calvary

[Erwin Rommel]

chariots are only bad-ass pursuers but to make them effective hit the enemy at the back then get out! do it again then get out till all you chariots are gone!

[Fenris]

Haha... chariots are the most badass units! I usually prefer Britain's chariots though, but one good trick is not to charge in the middle of a compact unit, but on the side so your chariots wont get stuck, and the best is to send your chariots back a phalanx line:


OOOOOOOOOOOOO

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
------------------C


O=Own units
E=Enemy units (phalanxs, for example)
C=Own chariot(s)
-=Movement of the chariot

So you usually wont take any casaulties if you do it right, there will be a big moral drop for the enemies, and you will kill quite a few units. Especially in the case of a phalanx it will be nearly impossible to turn around in time, if he does just turn back the chariot, and a gap has been created for your own units. And as for enemy cavalry, well like it was already said, there's no problem since chariots totally destroy cavalry.

When charging cavalry, try to charge like this:

CC
CC

ChChChCh

C=Enemy cavalry
Ch= Chariots

So when the contact is made the chariots on the side will just turn around and attack the flank and rear of cavalry, because two chariots at the same spot are as good as 1, so you have to spread them as much as possible. Then as soon as the contact is made and the chariots stop moving (they'll always move but not a lot and they'll often stay without moving), then you order them to move away, and this is another advantage of the chariots, when retreating, they still kill a lot of units, so usually when you retreat a nit, you will take casaulties in the process, but in the case of chariots, the enemy will probably take more casaulties, usually only the last chariots to leave the ladt one or 2 last will die, but not without taking a few lives with them.


Love the chariots, they are your friends.

*I forgot to mention, if you have a few chariots units and make them all charge the flank or rear of a unit who is already engaged in combat (especially good against long lines of romans, for example) it will make the unit flee and then you just tell to charge the opposite side of the line and they will simply make every unit flee one after the other.

[Erwin Rommel]

make a full stack chariot army not for battle but for show! then let it be your badass scout in the campaign map!