Battle tips both as Romans against Hellenic armies & as Hellenic against Romans

[twgamer20197]

I'm referring in the case when you play against the AI

When it is about a battle in the open when you play as Rome against an Hellenic faction army, what is the most simple and effective battle strategy according to your opinion? Normally the AI hellenic armies have both many pikemen/hoplites and cavalry units in campaigns you play. Specially as Romans how would you counter an hellenic army composed like that?
And the other way round as well:
When you play a battle as an Hellenic faction against a Roman army. In this case I think the Roman AI armies tend to have more melee infantry than other type of units

[Alwyn]

Pikemen and hoplites tend to be slow and they lack pre-cursor javelins. Roman swordsmen will have an advantage if they throw their javelins before going into melee. It's important to avoid a head-on fight against enemy pikemen if you can.

[LuckyPistol]

The most straightforward counter to Hellenic units as Rome are your Legionnaires. Pin down the enemy front line then flank away. Pikes obviously should be dealt with via ranged units and your Velites are baller pike killers. Countering the cavalry will be a little trickier; hear me out when I say save a handful of cheap spearmen from the early game, as they can swarm enemy cavalry pretty decently, even the big hitters like Companions. That or save the unit slots with two mercenary units worth the money like Etruscan Hoplites to protect your flanks.

Fighting the Romans as the Greeks is all about the hammer and anvil. Despite what happened historically, AI Rome doesn't fare well against pike armies. Get some pikemen (levy pikes won't cut it for multiple battles in one turn) and cavalry with heavy charge bonus and repeat the Macedonian strategy as best you can. If you feel it gets too repetitive, you can replace the pikes with hoplites to better pin the enemy and recruitment some fast ranged units like mounted skirmishers to rain hell into the backs of the bottled up Romans.

[twgamer20197]

Pikemen and hoplites tend to be slow and they lack pre-cursor javelins. Roman swordsmen will have an advantage if they throw their javelins before going into melee. It's important to avoid a head-on fight against enemy pikemen if you can.

I think some say that if you play as Rome and want to attack the hoplites or pikemen with your legionnaries or hastati or principes from the front, you should set them in loose or staggered formation.

Countering the cavalry will be a little trickier; hear me out when I say save a handful of cheap spearmen from the early game, as they can swarm enemy cavalry pretty decently, even the big hitters like Companions. That or save the unit slots with two mercenary units worth the money like Etruscan Hoplites to protect your flanks.

Maybe fast moving spearmen are better to counter enemy cavalry units. In your case, would you rather keep some spearmen or mercenary pikemen or hoplites ( and not chasing the enemy cavalry units ) close to your range units to defend them in case some enemy cavalry try to outflank your battle line to attack your range units from the sides? This happened to me in several ocassions: I had some light spearmen close to my range units ( that were behind my front line ) and some enemy cavalry units came from both sides to attack my range units. I ordered my spearmen to attack them but they ended up chasing them a bit far. And then the cavalry units outmaneuvered my spearmen and attacked my range units. Maybe the best thing is to keep your spearmen or pikemen or hoplites near your range units so that they are protected all the time...

[LuckyPistol]

Maybe fast moving spearmen are better to counter enemy cavalry units. In your case, would you rather keep some spearmen or mercenary pikemen or hoplites ( and not chasing the enemy cavalry units ) close to your range units to defend them in case some enemy cavalry try to outflank your battle line to attack your range units from the sides? This happened to me in several ocassions: I had some light spearmen close to my range units ( that were behind my front line ) and some enemy cavalry units came from both sides to attack my range units. I ordered my spearmen to attack them but they ended up chasing them a bit far. And then the cavalry units outmaneuvered my spearmen and attacked my range units. Maybe the best thing is to keep your spearmen or pikemen or hoplites near your range units so that they are protected all the time...

Just make sure the cheaper spearmen don't take on a cavalry unit 1 v 1 unless its a light melee/out of ammo ranged unit.

In my case, I tend to prefer using heavier units to defer enemy cavalry from doing exactly what you described. What you've experienced is exactly the kind of thing I love about Total War (and military history in general), and that's the chess-like element of holding off an attack, trying to draw out enemy units to disrupt their formation, etc. It's definitely a good lesson you learned on keeping your spears in formation to protect your more vulnerable units.

A very crude rule of thumb you could consider is if you plan to be on the attack, the cheaper/faster units would fare better, but on the defense you can't go wrong with a solid heavy spear/hoplite unit.

mercenary pikemen

....Mercenary pikemen exist?

[twgamer20197]

Maybe it is better to attack a cavalry unit with a light spearmen plus a cavalry unit or your general.

And as to mercenary pikemen, I don't remember well