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Rome Total War Tactics - The NON-cheese variety
#1
For enjoyment lets post of some strategies for RTW that people have found work well.

One rule though. Do not post anything that takes advantage of game mechanics or AI stupidity. Anyone who posts how they kick AI butt by placing their army in the back corner of the map at the red line so it cannot be flanked will get a resounding berated and beaten with a RTW manual. :lol:

One strategy I use quite often is a double scorpion formation. center of my line is held by light inexpensive troops. To each side of this is good quality heavy infantry. Even further out and angled to look inward is velite or similar skirmish troops. Finally cavalry goes beyond the skirmishers.

The light troops move forward and engage the enemy head on. Since you fight so many phalanx troops (at least I do since I love Illyrians, Pontis, and Bactria) I find that there is no point in good quality troops here. In fact troops that will be slowly forced back are the best.

At the same time the heavier troops on the flanks swing around the hit the flanks of the enemy formations.

The skirmishers run forward then inward to either throw at the rear of the enemy formations or skirmish with the 2nd wave with help of the cavalry.

The cavalry waits a few minutes then make a charge straight into the rear of the enemy force. This normally breaks enemy moral very quickly.

At this point the lighter troops are fast enough to chase down the fleeing troops while the heavy infantry re-aline to take on the second wave. Also the skirmishers come off skirmish role as they are often out of missles and they become the new wings and engage the flanks and rear of forces that the heavy infantry smash head on into.

If you try to keep the heavy infantry on the wings and have the skirmishers replace the light infantry you generally get slaughtered velites who do not hold the line long enough and everything just breaks down into a messy melee.
Timothy Hanna
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#2
I try to use a 'triple acies' with veliti in between ranks, cavelry on the flanks, slingers to the fore, and any artillery on my left flank, with the cavelry beyond and possibly some skirmishers as protection for them.

If you leave the light troops and artillery alone, they are attacked by enemy cavelry and other formations, while the rest go for your main lines.

Its usually the AI who use the red lines as their flank defenses! :wink:
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
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#3
An age old tactic that works great in RTW is when dealign with defeated forces.

Never totally envelop an enemy force and then stay that way. Once you see the enemy troops start to break you need to give them an exit to flee through.

If you dont give them an escape route they will fight to the death and you will take casualties. If you pull out from one or two sides and give them somewhere to flee through then they will go into full flight and you can send those very fast and very fragile light cav units we all hate/love to run them down with no losses.

This has two benefits. First it obviously reduces your casualties and two it gathers easy experience for light cav units that normally take damage so easily in battle.
Timothy Hanna
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#4
It can be a exasperating to see them charge the heavies...when you have given them orders to pursue... :roll: You have to watch them like a hawk until they have committed to the pursuit.
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
Reply
#5
I have seen sometimes (in greek armies controled by the AI) that phalanx can move back and they keep their lines facing the enemy. This is a very interesting movement that I don't know how to do... Cry
Javier Sánchez

"A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient"
[Image: 76946975ce3.png]
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#6
I know at times the infantry will open their ranks and allow other formations to pass through and then close ranks again. Then other times they barge through and knock the odd guys down......very inconsistent.....

Same with the pursuit.....sometimes they destroy the unit they are chasing, then another time they just escort them to the edge of the field....hmmmmm
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
Reply
#7
When playing RS as Rome, my legion tactics follow a pseudo-historical tactic formulated to my needs.

Ten cohorts of my legion are placed in battle groups of 5 (Select units in game and hit "G" to group them, then "shift+1-8" to select a formation, shift+1 being a line), with the two lines directly lined up, so I have two lines of five cohorts spread 4 ranks deep each. Then I place Fire At will (historic oxymoron, since 'fire' is a terribly 18th century term... so 'release at will...) for the first line, and Guard mode ("D" key) on. This means that when the first lines engage, the rear two ranks will continue to rain Pila on their enemy.

To the front I post my Archers, Skirmish mode OFF (you'll have to micro manage them, but when Skirmish is ON they will not obey orders, and you'll find one unit of archers across the map running from some Bastarnae half way through the battle!). If I have artillery, I place some Auxiliaries protecting them on a flank, and my cavalry generally is split into two forces, with one squadron on the artillery's flank and 3 on the other, or however many I have; If I'm fighting a more phalangite heavy enemy I'll generally have more light Auxilia or Velites than cavalry.

This is a good layout because you have 5 cohorts in reserve, and you have cavalry able to flank the enemy and hit their rear. Nothing routes barbarians as much as a (I hate to say it... :oops: ) Gladiator style charge into their rear after they are engaged. Once the enemy comes in close, I fall my archer back behind the line and if the flanks are not threatened I place them there with Auxiliary support to fire into the enemy flanks. I leave fire arrows off as they are less accurate and so it will result in friendly fire to your poor legionnaires.

I then counter charge with my infantry once the enemy is closing in, and then coupled with the cavalry charge to the rear they will usually break.

This usually leaves five casualty-free cohorts, so the next battle around you can use your battle- hardened cohorts as the reserves and have a full-strength front to show your enemy!
"Marcus Hortensius Castus"
or, to those interested,
"Kyle Horton"

formerly Horton III
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#8
in RTW and RTR i use an age old tactic...

One single extremely long line of Principes, Triarii behind them, skirmishers between every unit, cavalry behind the lines till there are retreating enemy units to kill off....

works all the time! the beauty of it being (in this case the Greek) forces always attacking the center of the line, and my wings folding them up big time.......

However..... with my current game the Greek state is a little large......

so i keep picking my fights carefully to kill off all of their family members one by one, keeping my own Roman family safe........

M.VIB.M.
Bushido wa watashi no shuukyou de gozaru.

Katte Kabuto no O wo shimeyo!

H.J.Vrielink.
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#9
I typiclly use the Seleucid Empire. The tactics vary depening on who the enemy is. When I fight all the north eastern armies I find it quicker to just go head on since none of there forces can withstand the phalanx. I always have chariots on hand that I hold in reserve until I see what the other calvary are doing. Ill even send them on suicide missions to kill the enemy general since chariots wipe out calvary with ease.
Romans however are only difficult to defeat later in the game so I use artillary to rain fireballs on them to reduce their ranks in large clumps. When they get in range Ill send in some armoured war elephants to disrupt there infantry formations and chariots to take out their calvary and catapracts to run down archers or artillery. I retain very little archers because their range kinda blows. Ill send in my phalanx and mop up what is left.
The cons are chariots and elephants. Anyone who has used them only hope they dont panic. If they do then it could turn out very bad.
Marcus Flavius Germanicus
2nd Cohort 2nd Legion "Traiana Fortis"
aka Jason Smith
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#10
Yes Jason, this is true, (about elephants and chariots) and when I employ them (usually as Rome, as mercenaries)I generally have my elephants in reserve on a flank.

My main line engages, and any enemy force that is attempting to flank me I send in my elephants and cavalry. Then I send them against enemy archers and reserves, and that way if they start going berserk I can count on them doing more damage to the enemy than me Wink !
"Marcus Hortensius Castus"
or, to those interested,
"Kyle Horton"

formerly Horton III
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#11
I just installed the Roma Serectum mod and must say that I love it. It has though required me to change how I play since last time I played I was playing RTR as the Illyriums.

Now I am playing as the Bosporus Greeks and it is much different. Every foe I face is very cav heavy and also easily outdoes me in missle troops.

Having lost several armies in battle I have found that the best way to use my infantry and win is to stick to fighting within heavily wooded regions of the map. Do that and the missle/cav advantage melts away some.

I also found that Falxmen have been reduced in power. In RTR they were these unstoppable killing machines with no end in sight. Now they are more mortal. Sure they maul enemy troops when they mix it up and woe to the cav unit that gets hit by one, but the men die very quickly to any sort of missle barrage. I find that they are a waste to build unless I also build large numbers of heavily armored hoplites and keep the falxmen well back in reserve and use them to charge into the flanks of occupied enemies. But then in that position just about any troop will do and if I just have more hoplites then they live longer if the enemy gets missle troops closer.


Has anyone found a way to make falxmen live long enough to be worth the effort?
Timothy Hanna
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#12
Has anyone managed to make javelin skirmishers worth the trouble? They hardly have any time to throw before they have to run away because the AI isn't smart enough to have them throw so that the enemy will run into the javelins. In the base rules, archers have better range, more shots, and the same attack value. In EB, this is still true if you have access to decent (missile attack 4+) bowmen. They don't even get a better defense due to their shield any more! Their ability to hide in long grass is pretty specialized.

I'm playing EB as Armenia right now. I like a line of Caucasian Spearmen and Pandotopoi Pikemen on a hilltop in the center, with an equal number of units of slingers and composite bowmen providing ranged support in front. Some horse archers harrass the unweildy Ptolemaic and Seleucid forces, and bodyguard cataphracts smash into their flanks when they finally engage after being shot and worried to pieces or kill their general if I can lure him into chasing my light horse.
Nullis in verba

I have not checked this forum frequently since 2013, but I hope that these old posts have some value. I now have a blog on books, swords, and the curious things humans do with them.
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#13
Quote:Has anyone managed to make javelin skirmishers worth the trouble?

the first thing I normally do is disabling the "skirmish"-option. But if I use them that way (very seldom), I just press "pause" and assign their targets manually and pull them back afterwards. I do this only to lure single units from the enemy formation (mostly phalanx) in order to break it up and take them piecemeal

but a better solution is to put the skirmishers in the rear, so they can fire their volleys over the heads of the first line. so they are not at risk and it's far more comfortable to handle.
[size=85:2j3qgc52]- Carsten -[/size]
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#14
Currently I'm playing in RTR the Roman faction and the formation I use most consists of six heavy infantry cohorts in the first line. Two further heavy infantry cohorts at the left and right flank, stand a unit-depht backwards and form with the six in the first line a flat U with the opening facing away from the enemy. Inside that U are four units of slingers and two or three missile troops.
In the back I have my general and a cavalry unit either on the right or left flank. It's normally better to have them attack downwards. In case the enemy has artillery I try with the cavallery to bypass the main body of the enemy and finish the artillery, which is marching slower and therefore mostly alone in the back without much protection.
btw it's always a good idea to have a cavalry squadron operating in the back of the enemy as he will send single units towards it, thus exhausting his troops, dividing and breaking its formation
If I have them, I use two scorpion units, mixing them in the center of the first line. The scorpions are pretty effective against phalanx troops and should be used until out of ammo (then I usually let them retrat from the battle field in order to save the men)
Sometimes I use a thin line of merc's (cannon fodder ;-) ) ...) before the first line to break the impetus of the enemy charge.


thin line of mercs (mostly speartroops)

HI HI Sc HI HI Sc HI HI

HI Mi Sl Sl Mi Sl Sl Mi HI

Gen Cav

p.s. I usually direct missile troops to attack the right side of an enemy unit, because the shield protects primarily the left side of the body... to be honest, I dunno if RTW or any of its mods takes this into account, but may be ... :?
[size=85:2j3qgc52]- Carsten -[/size]
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#15
I use similar tactics, as I am sure the effectiveness is reducedwhen you attack the shielded sides of enemies.
Visne partem mei capere? Comminus agamus! * Me semper rogo, Quid faceret Iulius Caesar? * Confidence is a good thing! Overconfidence is too much of a good thing.
[b]Legio XIIII GMV. (Q. Magivs)RMRS Remember Atuatuca! Vengence will be ours!
Titus Flavius Germanus
Batavian Coh I
Byron Angel
Reply


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