Tactic that actually works?

[samoja]

I have been playing RS2 for a few days now, i love all the legions and auxilias and stuff but i have a bit of a problem, no regular tactic from original RTW really works, i had enemy armies completely encircled and they still held on, in my last battle i was fighting Belgae and my army was massacred even though i killed their general and flanked their forces constantly, even famous hammer and anvil tactic had little effect apart from getting my horsemen killed, is there anything i can actually do to swing the odds in my favor because right now it seems like the recipe is bring a lot of legionaries, even arrows are useless, i had two units of archers and they did little to no damage to the enemy.

[Alavaria]

Archers aren't too effective if you're going to shoot right into the enemy shields, they're for flanking with.

[Grimbold]

You're telling us that, playing as Rome, you encircled a Belgian army and you had your army nearly wiped out? You're gonna have to provided some more context because suffering major losses i can accept, but losing to a surrounded army, that i find quite unlikely.

Why? You've just told us that you killed their general, surrounded the rest of the army, made cavalry charges and still lost. I dunno about the rest of the folks here, but a dead enemy general followed by cavalry charges is a guaranteed win most of the time. There are very few factions that will actually fight on after their leader is dead, hell, i can only recall the romans, specially imperial legions...those will keep on fighting even with their head cut off.

As Alavaria mentioned, skirmishing troops are used to hit the enemy on the flank and/or rear. Hell, battles are pretty straight forward unless you'd like to try something different for the sake of it. Your main line engages theirs, you send troops around the flanks to hit them in the rear, all the while killing off the enemy cav and skirmishers with your own. Since the AI is dumb, you'll most likely manage to kill the enemy general early in the battle and from there on it's a domino effect.

[samoja]

I was fighting to break a siege (note it was not in fact a siege defense since i attacked with another army) it was an auxiliary army i intended to use to defend my borders, i had 15 cohors III Batavorum (heav infantry), 2 cohortes thracium archers and 2 ala 1 Batavorum equita (missile cav, that was a little blunder on my part since i did not see they were missile), plus general of course, one important detail i did not mention is that the enemy took position on a hill, i set up my lines into 3 lines of infantry each having 5 cohors Batavorum, i opened with archers, when i saw they had no effect whatsoever i set them to fire arrows hoping to score at least some kills as well as drain some morale from the enemy, then i advanced with the first line and enticed about half his army into charging me, then i sent half of my second line in to bolster the front and the other half i sent into flanking maneuver, the third line i sent to swing around and attack from behind, this was only partially effective but i am certain at least 5 enemy units were completely encircled, once my cav ran out of missiles i alternated between distracting enemy cav (which was more numerous) and charging in the back of the enemy, about half way trough i noticed my cav engaging the enemy general and sent my own general in to assist, since by this time enemy general had about 15 troops left (and my general after i used him a few times to charge and demoralize enemy troop still had 35) and killed him, by this time most of the enemy army was encircled and some units he used early had only about 20 men left but they were still eager even after being exhausted, encircled, loosing 90% of their number and their general, in the end i was drowned in sheer numbers since the enemy had significantly larger units (inherent to barbarian factions) while the hill surely gave my enemy some advantage i believed i offset that by sending some of my troops to attack his troops from the rear so the same penalties my troops suffered from below would be suffered by his troops i attacked from behind.

[Battlus Lostus]

Speaking about tactics, where is the best place to position ballistas and scorpions? When I position them in the first line they can only shoot for a few second before the enemy charges in and destroys them. When I position them behind my lines they shoot my own troops in the back.

[ur-Lord Tedric]

Two things to bear in mind whilst more information is elicited....

1. Archers are very uncommon in Roman armies of the earlier periods (more than two units and there are way too many)

2. 'Artillery' usage on the open field battle is even less common

[dvk901]

Too be blatantly honest, I myself do not use them at all for the exact reasons you cited. I'd rather use archers when and 'if' they are available.
However, I could offer the advice of positioning them off to one side of your line, and protect them with cavalry.

[ur-Lord Tedric]

Understood...

Historically the Roman Auxilia (at least as far as the available written evidence supports - and here we're talking post-Augustan) was rarely used in set-piece battles. The obvious exception to that rule is Mons Grapius in the late first century AD/CE, where we can surmise that sending them in first whilst the legions looked on was mainly down to the type of terrain. The normal conclusion to draw is that when you want to fight real battles then you take the legions!

In game, a comparison of the stats will support the differences between the Late Auxilia and the Late Legions (which, indeed, should really have very little differences throughout our period) that also support the evidence above.

Attacking uphill as you did does indeed give the enemy some advantages - what you perhaps could have tried more is getting them to come down to you, preferably piecemeal. The main 'mistake' I believe you made, however, is a common one. Surrounded enemy have no where to flee to and therefore stay and fight to the bitter end. One effect this has is to also tire out your troops and tired troops (who can flee) may not do so well. Having 'reserves' and even rotating troops out of the battle line can help. Particularly when advancing uphill, though, keep an eye on their tiredness - and stop the advance whilst they recover! I suspect that your troops started fighting whilst 'Tired' or even already 'Exhausted' - which is a bad idea.....

As an aside - I find the missile cavalry (which is the most common type of the period and the mainstay of the Late Roman Auxilia) is by far and away the best type of cavalry to have. I use them lots and lots; the 'Heavy Cavalry' being rare in my armies and normally restricted to a single unit.