You use the "group" function? I havent touched that so far, ill give it a go. Do the Selucids have onagers?

Yes, wardoggies pwn. Some say (TW.org forum) that they are perhaps too powerful, like they reappear after a battle.

Satis, i know what you mean about crushing army after army. It sure is fun, but god damn its real pain in the ass not having an enemy youre afraid of right?

Im hopping along blissfully in my Julii campaign. Slowly taking Gaul provinces while kissing the Senates ass. I really pity the fact that the Romans cant recruit pikemen. I mean, in MTW spearmen were core to my tactic, now ive had to change it to a more direct one.

Nice screens. But im using IE, when i click on the images, they look crap because the resolution is low on the Uni monitors. Therefore, IE shrinks them to the screen size and any letters are unreadable. How do i fix this?

click on the image. It'll resize it to full size.

Anyway, I always group. I'll usually group my spearmen in one group, my axeman in a second group, and my cavalry in a third (if I have multiple cavalry). If I have archers they also go in their own group.

Anyway, I'm still massacring Gaul armies. Bastards just don't know when to give up. I thought the bastards had one of my towns, actually...they brought two units of archers, which I had none there (I have maybe 6 archers all together). So I pulled way back from the wall, pikemen in front (2 units), spear chuckers behind (2 units) and then my cavalry. It was a lightly defended town. They run up to my walls/gates with their two rams and proceed to bash them down. I figured I'd visit as much pain on them as I could before being wiped out.

Morons charged me with their cavalry...my line of spears. Cavalry gets slaughtered and routs, then their infantry moves up and I spear-chuck into their asses. Archers are at the bottom of the hill shooting up at us, and probably killing more of their own men than mine. I took my general down another side of the hill and charged around, hitting their archers from the side and shattering that unit. Everyone began routing soon after and I just let my army pursue them. It was glorious.

Anyway, I'm building up my cities too, as I can afford it. Money is slowly becoming less of a problem, though the manpower needed is still hard to come by. Dogs are awesome. They're one of my main weapons now. I've found that the best way to take a city is to bust down a wall and send in 2 units of dogs...they'll get the enemy back away from the wall and usually route a unit or two. Anyway, I've begun my invasion of Briton. Should own the whole thing in another few turns.

lol...cavalry storming into phalanxes, archers shooting uphill into friendly troops, leaving archers uncovered...the Gauls sound like tactical geniuses. And Derf, wtf are you saying about no opposition being bad man? Slaughtering an army is fun, regardless of the fact that they fight back or not. Granted, it does add to the coolness if you overcome massive odds like the ones Satis mentioned.

And yeah, wardogs are powerful but they also aren't very cheap in production. And take two turns to train. If you want powerful tho, wait till you play a faction with armoured war elephants. That's insane. In my biggest city all my units get 'gold' armour and weapons, plus 2 bronze stripes of experience. So the elephants that roll out there are ridiculous.

Remember how I said that I was curious how I would fare against roman troops, fearing my shock tactics might not be as effective? Well, they are. I sent an elite army towards Scipii territory and it literally butchered one army after the other...like, Roman armies, disciplined and balanced, not some hoplites greeks. Their pathetic lines couldn't hold against the power of my heavy cavalry. 9 times out of 10 they didn't even reach my lines of pikemen. Some pics attached of fights with Romans, plus mebbe a pic of my standard tactic (in open field). I have never been beaten in this campaign with it.

So, here two other pics...one of an army I prepared for a looting Tour through Parthia (took ages to assemble), other one a very crude presentation of my standard tactic.


A little explanation on the tactics:

the pikemen are the wall in front of the onagers (duh) and are there to receive the first blow, if necessary. After the initial shock the 2 first chorts of silver shield legionnairs move in from behind, followed by the other two if necessary.

What usually happens is that, after a while of onager fire, I send in the scythed chariots from the left and right. They rip open enemy formations and create the initial tremor...they're often suicidal too, seldom get out alive.

Straight after I send in the cataphracts, 2 cohorts to each flank, to weed out the flank cover. They usually wipe it out with one charge, such tough bastards...And then it's time for the elephants to attack through the center. The cataphracts regroup and charge in their back, with the elepahtns keeping them busy up front.

At that point usually everything is already routing. But if necessary the companion cavalry will join in...they're the elite cavalry: combination of power and mobility.

I think it's a fairly balanced whole, and it hasn't failed me so far. I use variations on it with archers etc. too, if I lack onagers.

Anyway, here's the pics

that second pic sure looks familiar. *cough*

lol...crap. That's what you get for posting in the middle of the night. Here's the right one top go with my tactical blabla:

ahh...very nice. So, I have come back with my counter.

lol, so basically your army is built around wardogs? I can't really judge the worth of the spearmen and the axemen, but I'll go and create a custom game with them to check them out. And is the general's bodyguard worth anything in barbaric armies? Or just a fancy bastard on a horse.

Did a custom battle with germania, was fun. The chosen axemen and especially the berserkers are awesome. And the spearmen did their job perfectly. What stood out most was the fact that nearly no one routed...amazing morale. (well, they were all 'veterans' but still) Good stuff. Might take up a barbarian tribe later myself.

yea, my usual army is like 4-5 units of spears, 2 units of dogs, my heavy general cav, maybe a few units of light cav, and 2 units of axemen.

The spears are my wall. Once they engage the enemy, I let the dogs loose against any light infantry...that'll typically route them and start the enemy's destruction. Once a unit routes, I swing that unit of spearman around to hit the enemy from a second side. Axemen I'll have charge into any heavy infantry the enemy has...right now I'm using mainly regular axemen, not chosen axemen, but they're still extremely effective against virtually all enemy troops.

The cavalry don't typically end up doing much. If the enemy has missiles, then I'll try to slip my cav in behind the enemy lines and smash their missile troops. Most of the people I fight have either few missiles, or none at all.

The tactic is very good against most armies. However, it sucks if the enemy has a large number of archers. My spearmen get absolutely slaughtered, and I lack the cavalry to do a good archer butchering. And dogs aren't easily controlled...they're likely to attack the nearest people, rather than the archers I clicked on.

Still, very effective tactic for what I'm fighting. I'm training my own chosen archers now....by the time I fight the romans, I plan on having an army of spearmen with major archer support, and maybe some chosen axemen for the power hitters.

How the hell do you command an army of 2500 soldiers? I'm having problems with 800

Hmm, anyway, missile troops are always present in my armies. Preferrably archers, since they have a longer range than spear throwing units. I put them in the front line when the battle begins so they can fire away at the enemy infantry. As soon as they get too near, they skirmish behind my infantry so they can finish them off. Usually put my cavalry far away from my main force and use them to attack the enemy at their flank. Hmm, that brings me to another questions: my Roman infantry rarely throws their pila, was it something I said?

if you select them and double-click an enemy, they should throw one pila and charge. If you set them to 'fire at will' or whatever and don't do anything, they'll throw all 3 pila and then attack. You probably don't have them on fire at will is all.

heh...I usually don't want them to throw their spears, barring some situations. (like when cavalry is being stalled by pikemen and they have a clear shot) I don't want to risk them leaving themselves vulnerable while waving around a spear if an enemy charges.

@ Satis...looks like you've mastered the barbarian-type armies pretty much, cool. And chosen archers did wonders in that custom battle I mentioned, so I bet you'll enjoy them. I like they way arrows rain down on troops, the sound they make, how they stick into the ground...everything really. It's very nicely done.

@ Dark Archer: they're just as hard/easy to command as regular armies, cos only the number of men/animals in a cohort increases, and you command the cohorts...so it only looks more impressive.

I'm working off the Historical Battles in the meantime..only did two so far, I know from experience that some are diabolically hard.

@ Ox

Thats one seriously 1337 army! I can only think of one way to beat it...Lots of pikes! Historical battles are gay.

@ DA

Are you having problems getting used to the controls?
Your romans probably arent throwing their pila because you many not have the Fire at Will button on (lower right). Switch this on, and when an enemy comes in range of a cohort, theyll throw as many times as possible. If you click to throw, they will throw, but after they do, theyll charge.

My tactics ATM, roman julii.