Role of Iphikrates Hoplites

[ooji]

I can't seem to find the specific role for these type of soldiers. Heavy hoplites are better vs legionnaires and light hoplites take care of the skirmisher. So my question here is, what's the use of iphikratean hoplites? On another note, theuroporoi seems to be better than traditional hoplites in that they're more flexible and have ranged attacks. I am confused by all these different hoplite units, can anyone help give me specifics as to when to use what units? Thanks

[Boriak]

Since I'm the guy who cherishes unit variety in EB, I thought I should speak up.

Because Koinon Hellenon doesn't have the typical Successor plethora of units, it's an extra challenge to defeat all those phalanxes with funky units. In my Koinon campaign, I'm using all the varities of hoplites to RP the evolution of battlefield tactics. I began with the old-fashioned hoplite phalanx, comprised of Levy Hoplites, Classical Hoplites and FM units, with skirmishers for support (took me nearly 40 battles to finally drive Makedonia out of Greece). At the moment, I'm trying to stop using Levy Hoplites and build my main battle line with Light Hoplites and Iphikrateans, with the Classics and FMs in reserve. After this, I will move on to using Thureophoroi and eventually Thorakitai to get a more Roman-esque feel to the Koinon's armies.

The bad thing about Light Hoplites and Iphikrateans is that their unit spacing is so large they can't hold a line in the same way as Levy and Classical Hoplites can. The best (and only) advantage of such deployment that I see at the moment is to put Light Hoplites in the front to stop the incoming foe and then use the Iphikrateans to charge THROUGH your own line. In RP terms, this will be an attempt to neutralize the tight phalanx's obvious rigidness. Open spacing means that Iphikrateans will be able to pass through the ranks of Light Hoplites without disrupting their formation too much. I hope this will give me some impossible tactical advantage against the never ending onslaught of Seleukid phalanxes. If this doesn't work out, failed battles will give my generals incentive to look for a new solution which they will find battling Roman armies and will create a fusion of the phalanx and checkerboard formations.

And let's not forget that Iphikrateans have swords as secondary weapons. Apart from Heavy Skirmishers, they are the only native Koinon unit that has a sword (OK, I forgot the Thorakitai Hoplitai).

[ooji]

Just curious, what difficulty are you playing on? I played on very hard campaign difficulty with medium battle difficulty and it took me about 8 (major and minor) battles to drive Makedonia out of Greece. I fought against them on 5 major battles where I was heavily outnumbered and won heroic victory for all of them (spartans sure do their job well). I am now thinking of expanding towards Sicily since Epeirotes seem content where they are now (I am allied to them, but we all know diplomacy never works in Rome Total War). Only thing I noticed in EB is that AI is a lot less aggressive than the vanilla RTW. That's good in a way that it gives the feeling of historical conquests, but it's also bad in a way that major factions like Selecuids and Ptolemy never get attacked all that much by other AI's. They seem to have public order bonus too since they keep their farther territories with minimum garrison. Anyway, dealing with Selecuids later on in the game is a real pain. Their population bonus gives them large income, allowing them to build full stacks of pezatheroi (wrong spelling).
As for iphikratean hoplites, I guess they don't have much role in greek army then. I don't think going through your own light hoplites formation would work since phalanx formations would let hardly anyone get close.

[Ryoga84]

Iphikratean hoplites?
They are good against barbarians and not regimented units, simply let the barbarian come and the hoplites do they're job. If they're outmanouvered or the formation is broken, switch to swords and turn them in some low-tech Hastati.

[Principe Alessandro]

Well they compensate for their lack of armor being cheaper. Also they have more stamina. Anyway as soon I can I use them to replace the old fashioned hoplitai.

[athanaric]

Since the KH lacks dedicated swordsmen, the Iphikrateans are the #1 choice for fighting on walls, especially against light units. Thorakitai Hoplitai are also good on walls, especially against armoured enemies.
Although it is worth mentioning that Peltastai do very well on walls, punching way above their weight, so to speak.

You could also use Iphikrateans for ambushing, since they're fast and equipped to deal with most enemies.

[Principe Alessandro]

Also they have a spear with longer reach. In theory they should be your primary choice when fighting against pike phalanxes, barbarians and running down skirmishers.The hoplitai are very good at holding their ground but I don't like a unit being good only in stationary defense and at the same time being so expensive, even normal levies can perform well in defense unless they are flanked by cavalry or AP units.