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Lucius on Tactics Part 1, 2, & 3 - Compass Rose - 11-26-2013 Lucius on Tactics – by Paul Bruffell Part 1 Use of Elephants Elephants are particularly vulnerable to enemy light infantry (LI) with javelins. To protect them it is recommended they are always surrounded and supported by your own LI missile units. Normally the elephants and LI are assigned as one group. Used in an Attacking manner - Elephants can assault large infantry formations and cause significant losses to such a body of men but this tends to be a suicide mission. Frontal assault on a Roman Legionary formation is more effective than one on a Macedonian Phalanx formation. If you have large numbers assign 8 per unit and place each unit adjacent to the other, no gaps, and charge the main enemy formation for maximum impact. If this is done, keep your other units well to the rear in case the elephants go on a rampage and turn towards your own line. Used in a Defensive manner - Personally I prefer to place my elephants on the flanks - to prevent enemy cavalry outflanking my main infantry body and circling to attack the army rear. Elephants disorganize cavalry units and prevent them from entering adjacent hexes. By stationing a few elephant units on the flanks you can neutralize the enemy’s attempt to win the flank with his cavalry. Similarly, placing an elephant group at the rear of your main body gives you a reserve that can hold off any enemy cavalry that may have won the flank battle. Lucius on Tactics Part 2 The best use of Gallic Light Chariots Light chariots are really skirmishing platforms. Ensure the chariot is armed with a javelin man or archer. If so, use the skirmishing command to keep one step away from your enemy and wear them down. The chariot is highly mobile in the flat open terrain and can tie down a large enemy unit. Continual missile fire will disrupt the enemy formation and make it susceptible to the main attack with your infantry. Always keep the chariot unit at strength 4 or less to ensure the ‘Over Stacking’ rule does not stop your movement. Chariots are no good against formed organized infantry units. However, if they come across undefended enemy light infantry then they can run them down. Keep the chariots away from enemy missile units as they can eliminate the chariots quickly. If chariots encounter enemy LI then issue the command to charge them immediately instead of trading missile fire. Lucius on Tactics Part 3 Macedonian Phalangites As in history, the Macedonian phalanx in the game can be an awesome weapon. Unless faced by another formation of pike men, the experienced phalanx will literally run over the opposition. However, you need to be careful, the phalanx is very brittle and easily routes if attacked in the rear. To appreciate just how impressive the phalanx can be and how exposed it is to the rear, we will look at the combat modifiers in the game:- For a phalanx of pike men 256 men deep in one unit, the game allows the first 3 ranks to be in combat. This means 24 x 3 ranks = 72 men attacking with modifier – +1 if troops armed with pike with 8-12 ranks deep (that is with a unit strength of >255 and <385 ) This would typically result in an enemy HI unit loosing 30 men in one turn. If a phalanx is hit in the rear by say a enemy HC unit, the combat modifier is – +3 if attacking the rear, right rear or left rear of a pike or long thrusting spear unit. This would typically result in a phalangite unit loosing 70 men in one turn. Losses such as this would result in the defensive unit routing after 1 or 2 turns. How do you get your unit to reach the rear of a phalanx. The most effective way is to pin it facing forward with an equally strong infantry force then loop round a mobile shock unit capable of charging in. A pike phalanx gains positive combat modifiers when increasing the number of men in a unit but the morale positive modifier of placing a friendly unit to the rear and sides of a unit is more favorable. Therefore I prefer to have 2 rows of units each of 256 pike men rather than a single row of 512 men per unit.