Tactics questions thread

[The10thLegion]

oooh, ill have to try that! thx for the tip!

 

[avesta]

yeah Steven the Victor's tactic is the best way to use archers. It is better to concentrate fire on one flank or one unit rather than spreading out the fire. If you use flaming arrows on their weakest unit, it won't be long before that unit routs, causing panic and morale drop within the entire army. However, sometimes I find that certain units such as gold silver or gold chevron armoured hoplites will not rout until their unit has like 15 soldiers left in it. In this case it is better to concentrate fire where there are masses of men, making for the most kills.

If you are severely outnumbered though, a rout of a single unit won't have a huge effect on the enemy army as they have numerical advantage. In this case, I'd recommend the 'weaken-one flank' tactic, so that you can free up some of your soldiers.

I do have 1 question though, when a unit with a lowered morale (ie shaken or wavering) is fighting an 'eager' unit, do they cause less casualties than if they were also 'eager'? Or does the kill rate not change in this scenario?

 

[The10thLegion]

im pretty sure that the eager unit will kill more men if the enemy is wavering. Shaken i dont think has an effect.

 

[czePowerslave]

getting all my archers to shoot at one flank has never failed me. with that one flank weakened, the legionaires should turn the flank, and the ownage begins.

thats mean but I like it, never thought of this - usually did go for full frontal

 

[Hesus de bodemloze]

flanks are the easyest way to kill a lot of enemies but keep your archers proteckted if the enemie cavalerie spots them thy are going for the run.

 

[Steven the Victor]

thats mean but I like it, never thought of this - usually did go for full frontal

all's fair in love and war rite? and i rarerly lose either.

 

[czePowerslave]

all's fair in love and war rite? and i rarerly lose either.

war aint fair war is bloody

 

[S u l l a]

archers always fire at my first cohort! I hate it. But archers make it much hard for me, especially dacian's chosen archers.

See my basic formation earlier in this thread - put 1st legion cohort in testudo for a while.

 

[S u l l a]

A formation I sometimes use against eastern factions that mostly consist of fast moving missile units. Have a spear auxilia ready at the rear for enemy cavalry.

View attachment 9772

 

[The10thLegion]

hmmmm, how much spacing (like how many rows of soldiers should be in between cohorts?) Great formation- another one that we should add, if we can to custom formations.

 

[Hesus de bodemloze]

do you guys place your cohorts in 3 lines ore more? as the romans always did it in a 3 line setup.

 

[24Gamer]

I found this about the roman battle formation ( it's in german ):

www.buchplus.de/bilder/legio22.jpg

Personally i form my Legions ( not the pre-marian ) like this:

........2. cohort........3. cohort........4. cohort........5. cohort........

.................6. cohort........1. cohort........7. cohort...................

.................8. cohort........9. cohort........10. cohort.................

 

[24Gamer]

I made a few pics of my formations:

Pre-Marian









_________________________________________________________________________

Post-Marian

 

[S u l l a]

hmmmm, how much spacing (like how many rows of soldiers should be in between cohorts?) Great formation- another one that we should add, if we can to custom formations.

I will take a screen from a battle to illustrate better. This is a formation I do not use often, only against eastern enemy with majority of fast moving missile and horse archers. It works quite well in those situations, but only those since it requires a lot of baby sitting and micromanagement ... and I always rely on speed in my battles. If you test it, let me know how it works out for you?

 

[Hesus de bodemloze]

missile cav units should get attackt by light cav ore hire some cav archers.

 

[The10thLegion]

missile calvary are very effective vs. the macedonians and selucids.

 

[Elodman]

Greetz generals!

*bit off topic*, but could you tell me:

when you mention 18 000+ men battles, do you mean the computer controlls those of your units that can't be fitted to the given (about 20) unit slots (alltogether maybe 4000 men) in an army?


thanx. E

 

[24Gamer]

when you mention 18 000+ men battles, do you mean the computer controlls those of your units that can't be fitted to the given (about 20) unit slots (alltogether maybe 4000 men) in an army?

I never let the AI control any of my armies except Merc's armies or later Auxiliar armies. I would never let the stupid AI control one of my legions, especially because they always let the generals die^^

Btw i try to avoid having 2 armies/legions next to each other...

 

[Hesus de bodemloze]

i think when you go on huge settings you will get like 18 000 men in the game but when you use large settings it wil be around 3 to 4000

 

[68 Powers]

But you should still play on huge cause its awesome.

 

[Hesus de bodemloze]

hahaha never did that i like detail and i think my pc will freeze when i play on huge

 

[The10thLegion]

I never let the AI control any of my armies except Merc's armies or later Auxiliar armies. I would never let the stupid AI control one of my legions, especially because they always let the generals die^^

Btw i try to avoid having 2 armies/legions next to each other...

wonder if Darth Vader's formation mod would fix that?

 

[68 Powers]

HaHa. buy a new one like i did so i can enjoy those battles.
anyways.

i dont think darth's mod would help any because its just editing formations and such not how the AI works.

 

[The10thLegion]

no, ive looked at it, it helps the AI be tougher. If you saw my formation thread it explains it there.

 

[68 Powers]

hm.. never actully tried that mod.
Will it work with SPQR? then again i might not want it SPQR is hard on its own haha.

 

[Elodman]

i think when you go on huge settings you will get like 18 000 men in the game but when you use large settings it wil be around 3 to 4000

Thanx,
yeah, I use HUGE army settings, and still cant imagine how can 18 000+ men assemble?
My pre-marian army of 3000 and i.e. Gauls of 4000.

How did you have the chance to have 18 000 men battles?
How do you control your army above approx 3000 men, having all unit slots filled?

 

[68 Powers]

for your side i think they do it like this, one army dies or is routed a second army comes in then it repeates itself inless you let the AI controll the army then all of them will show at the same time.

But for the AI their armies will show at the same time.

 

[The10thLegion]

hm.. never actully tried that mod.
Will it work with SPQR? then again i might not want it SPQR is hard on its own haha.

it has its own mod "with" it. Im sure Lt could ask for permission.

 

[24Gamer]

How did you have the chance to have 18 000 men battles?
How do you control your army above approx 3000 men, having all unit slots filled?

You might now that every army which stands next to the defender on the strategy map will appear on the field ( if you have Unlimited_men_on_battlefield=TRUE in the preferences.txt ).

An example:

________E_______
______E_R_E_____
________R_R_____

E= An army of your Enemy
R= One of your own Roman Armies

In this case there are 3 Roman Armies facing 3 enemy forces.
If we consider that the Roman armies consist out of arround 3000 men and the hostile armies arround 4000 there will be arround 21000 people on the field
Of course you need a good PC to handle that...

BTW i guess the absolut total number of men on a battlefield would be 43200 ( 9 armies, every army consist out of 20units with 240men )...

 

[Samariten]

Before i upgraded my computer i always turned down grass, terrain, buildings and anti-lashing and remain high detail on units. It might help you to play such big battles.