Question about the hoplites

[Degnan]

In which formation the hoplites fight better? If I will use "close oder" or without that?
But I could see that if the hoplites fighting without formation they have much better contact with the enemy infantry.

[Sun Jetzu]

Hoplite phalanx is only good against defense, chokepoints in town streets, or on hills. If on open field I say use normal formation.

[Degnan]

You mean exactly phalanx formation or just close oder formation?

[g. agalder]

You mean exactly phalanx formation or just close oder formation?

I'm assuming you're not referring to the phalanx formation and instead referring to the option where you can order units to fight spaced out. If you read the tooltip when hovering over this option in game you'll see that it tells you that it leaves you vulnerable when in melee. So no. Keep them tight.

[AgentGB]

Personnally how i use hoplites, is to "lock group" them in there hoplite wall* in a wall of spear, 5 ranks deep, hold down "ctrl" to ensure walk and not cancelling the hoplite wall*, and click behind the enemy front line as again not to disrupt the hoplite wall* . Support the flanks if needed. But once your middle section of your phalanx breaks through, provided your outer flanks hold, your free to attack normally without the hoplite wall* . Use skirmishers up front to asorb missle blows, since your phalanx will take some punishment otherwise from missles.

By locking group, it ensures all units stay at a equal pace when marching, and not opening up gaps between your phalanx.

Control - holding down CTRL makes sure that the hoplite wall* abilitiy doesn't get over written by making sure they walk.

Clicking behind the enemy line - is better, less micro managment, and does the same thing as if clicking on them, instead of having to re-activate the ability, while keeping better cohesion.

If your talking about guard mode/formed attack, use that to wrap around the flanks, but in patch 9, its no longer an advantage, your men have better survivability with guard mode/formed attack on. Hardly ever toggle it off tbh - sorry if i confused you there. If your winning a flank, and you want to enicrle, in a 2 on 1 situation, then have one unit with formation attack off (guard mode is what i use to call it) But tbh chances are the unit will be routed by this point. Units get a bonus to survivability i believe when formed attack is on, so its always better to leave on imo. Sorry for confusion.