Rally Point

[apo_hd]

I hope they cost a lot to recruit and maintain... cause they are killing machine.

[Raimeken]

They better not, phalangites are the bread and butter of literally half the map, and due to the OPness of legionaries, you're gonna need alot of them and cavalry to defeat the Romans.

[agnes69]

Сombat mechanics phalanx bears no resemblance to what happens in Shogun 2. Specially recorded fight Oda ashigaru with pikes against the portuguese thirds with pikes.

[Destraex]

Did cavalry really go under handed without the kontos?
Also brian blessed is in game somehow? He was in war of the roses recently.

[Asuryan]

Looks slightly different from the first game, but looks more like historical paintings on the wall.

[agnes69]

I'm one guy wrote that de lined clip proves nothing, for in units not include the ability to "Pike Wall". Okay, here's a clip of the same battle units with included "Pike Wall". All the same, with a phalanx there is no resemblance ...

[Captain Arrrgh!]

Screeching women would have torn that phalanx apart.
But srsly, the animations are well done, the game looks like it'll still look pretty on a pc that can run Shogun 2 well, and the phalanx works.

No complaints about the game itself, CA have always made excellent initial releases. It's the post release DLC milking and endless sweeping changes made to the original game that is vexing. But then, since Shogun 2, the whole industry has gotten progressively worse to nigh criminal degree: EU charging for DLC's just for music and faction appearances that blatantly should be in-game, for example.

So, so long as DLC's for Rome 2 aren't lazy reskins this title may go a long way in improving the franchises image.

CA/SEGA take my mom's money please!

Okay, this is just getting old and silly. Please stop.

[agnes69]

Shogun 2: pikemen against cavalry, this is not the phalanx Rome II!

[Dan113112]

Shogun 2: pikemen against cavalry, this is not the phalanx Rome II!

The two formations are similar but they are not the same. It's quite obvious that they aren't the same. However, CA said that the phalanx would use a similar formation to the ashigaru unit in TWS2. Honestly, one pike block doesn't vary much from another.

[d4g4n]

Liked the animations. Phalanx vs Phalanx was over in 18 seconds though...bit fast; looks like a moral boost is heavily needed.

[nord13]

Liked the animations. Phalanx vs Phalanx was over in 18 seconds though...bit fast; looks like a moral boost is heavily needed.

you guys must be watchin video with sounds off i think...elite vs levy...

[MrOuija]

It looks like it's going to be easier to use the pike phalanx offensively. In the original Rome they seemed to break formation far too easily when out of guard mode. Now, they can deal some serious damage.

I also like the stat granularity they've introduced. Instead of a weak unit like a levy having 10 morale, and elite one having 15, now that weak levy has 15 and the elite has 70 or 80. This change is going to mean that highly trained units will be worth their weight in gold, so no more hiring swarms of ashigaru-like units because they are cost effective.

[Augus]

Quality stuff CA !!! , will we see anything else in the next two weeks i wonder ? id love to see a complete unit review but im pretty sure that wont happen .

http://youtu.be/MFnmT82yGpk

[perifanosEllinas]

1. What do you mean ? Should the next rank be positioned exactly behind the other one ? That doesn't seem very feasible as the men in the second and third ranks would have to extend their arms to avoid poking the men in front of them, which IMO would be way to tiring with a pike that size.

4. This has been discussed extensively in this very thread, maybe you should join the discussion instead of repeating the same complaint we have been discussing ?

5. I don't know on what unit size this was played on though I know 160 is the maximum supported size. I'm certain you can tweak some files to atleast double the number of men, at the expense of pathfinding of course.

6. I agree, let's just hope CA will fix this soon.

7. Al played a battle with hoplite phalanxes just a couple of days ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_9qkAC4b5c

There is a video of two yari walls fighting each other just above. If you don't see the difference between Rome 2 and that or claim it is reskinned you must indeed be trolling.


AND FOR ALL THOSE SAYING ROME I WAS SLOWER: I timed a custom battle between a royal pikemen unit and a levy pikemen unit, the fight was over in les then 10 seconds.

1.Yes.In reality they just deployed about 4-5 cm more on the right than the man in the front and that enabled them both to see what's going on instead of seeing the head of the man in the front and to have the extra space to hold their sarissas comfortably without poking the man in the front.And they basically were right at the back of the man in front and not randomly in between the front lines.

That's a good presentation of what I'm saying.In reality they used 5 ranks in normal density and 6 in increased density,which pretty much was the emergency formation.



4.So by expressing my opinion about something that is being discussed in this thread I'm not joining the discussion? Interesting way of thinking

5.My impression is that the setting in the video is on normal size,but I wouldn't bet on it.I agree with the rest.

6.Yes,let's hope so.

7.And yet he didn't zoom at all in action,so we can only see the hoplites fighting from a long distance.I think that we can still see the way they operate,even from that distance,but we can only be certain if we see them in such zoom as we saw the phalangites in this episode.

I saw the video of the Yari and I still think the phalangites in Rome 2 operate like Yari and not like proper phalangites.They both engage with 3 ranks,they both have messed up ranks and they both have more or less the same density.

The 2 differences that I saw in this video compared to this Rally Point have nothing to do with the way they operate.The Yari don't march like their backs are in pain and they also don't rout in a few seconds.

So if you see more differences about the way they operate go ahead and tell me what they are,because I can't see them.

And just because I have a different opinion about them than you do it means that I'm trolling,right?

And lastly,about the speed of RTW I remember clearly that in the vanilla version the light units routed quite fast indeed when they fought against heavy units.The mods fixed it however.

[Yayattasa]

I must say CA gained some of my confidence back with this Rally Point episode, really enjoyed it

[|Sith|Galvanized Iron]

I know why the SNES was in...

[jsully16]

Keep in mind this is testing the weakest pike phalanx unit in the game. When they did phalanx vs. phalanx, it was a Levy unit (the one in white tunics) vs. a much better one, with bronze helmets. A good phalanx unit will shred through a levy, and the speed looked pretty good. This isn't how I expect a match between Sacred Band and Silver Shields.

[Dan113112]

Keep in mind this is testing the weakest pike phalanx unit in the game. When they did phalanx vs. phalanx, it was a Levy unit (the one in white tunics) vs. a much better one, with bronze helmets. A good phalanx unit will shred through a levy, and the speed looked pretty good. This isn't how I expect a match between Sacred Band and Silver Shields.

Phalangites are men with giant-ass spears. When phalanxes meet, it was a bloody affair. None of the "oh just poke repetitively" stuff from the first Rome Total War - if a well-armoured and well-trained phalanx unit met another phalanx made up of men who were fresh recruits with little armour (and many phalanxes were made of such men), the battle wouldn't last particularly long. Considering that, I am fine with the "battle speed", provided that the unit that routed was a levy unit. They called levy pikemen the weakest in the game, so presumably they are closer to the "militia pikemen" (as opposed to the levy pikemen) from Rome Total War, who would also get slaughtered pretty quickly.

What's funny is that linothorax (composite linen cuirasses) armor is more than capable of stopping an arrow and most weapon strikes. It's actually easier to penetrate bronze plate with arrows.

[eighthgear]

Phalangites are men with giant-ass spears. When phalanxes meet, it was a bloody affair. None of the "oh just poke repetitively" stuff from the first Rome Total War - if a well-armoured and well-trained phalanx unit met another phalanx made up of men who were fresh recruits with little armour (and many phalanxes were made of such men), the battle wouldn't last particularly long. Considering that, I am fine with the "battle speed", provided that the unit that routed was a levy unit. They called levy pikemen the weakest in the game, so presumably they are closer to the "militia pikemen" (as opposed to the levy pikemen) from Rome Total War, who would also get slaughtered pretty quickly.

Hoplite phalanxes are obviously different than Makedonian phalanxes, but the basic principles are the same, and the way ancient writers describe battles between Greek armies, it often does seem that inferior infantry often turned tail pretty quickly against superior opponents. Hell, many instances are described when one side's men just flees due to the enemy charging them.

[Archilles]

as i said before - try it in rome 1... silver shields vs levy pikes the battle was over in 5 seconds
but when there are two big armies they will get a morale bonus and the battle last longer !