when they enter testudo charge whith headhunting maidens they are efective against armour and i always find those very usefull.

yepp just made a short test on hard dif 2 horsearchers and 4 maidens vs 4 urbans same unit amount same cost and i had 450 units left enemy had none (both had 630 units from start)and they didnt enter testudo but the maidens did most of the killing

if they do enter testudo charge w maidens in wedge formation cous they cant defend themself much in testudo.

Edit:
Yep tryed it as the romans first to see what happen when they charge u while in testudo... Its bad news i tell u one charge and one unit was gone

And after a while of brave fighting i lost the day, rather crushingly...

2nd try
I tryed my best as the romans they sent the horse archers both units on the left flank i put the unit closest towards them and etered testudo. he started shoting an other target afther a while and i put that in testudo.

At the same time i noticed the maidens closeing slowly kept the closest (to archers) in testudo restored the other one Maidens charged me and, not much they fled rather shortly. he continued skirmish so all in testudo untill he was out of arrows and cought me by suprise w a charge but still managed to take em ending w a close wictory...

and his maidens charge full fron im guessing u wont do that.

[This message has been edited by meenos (edited 03-29-2006 @ 02:03 PM).]

What temple do you need to get the female units? I know there has to be some special combo of temple and stable to get them, but which one is it?

whatever horse unit you have, just charge it in- This will make the Romans break formation, then you just retreat and start shooting again.

Api for maidens Kolkajev or something for chevrons
horsearchers fom basic barack!

Is it just a matter of way that the tustedo is attacked that will decide if they break formation or not? I had two tustedos against one chariot general from britannia and the first time the chariots attacked he was killed instantly, but the second go around broke the formation and slaughtered the legionary cohorts

Maneuver your cavalry(prefferably Scythian Nobles) around the testudo and hit them from behind. I've found the back of Testudos to be very weak. If you hit them hard from behind, they should break easily.

[This message has been edited by Alexander332 (edited 03-29-2006 @ 10:16 PM).]

Assuming the dumbass AI will actually do the Testudo.

If you are not in a hurry, then you can just wait them out. They tire quickly while in the formation, and the AI is too stupid to use the time they have before their troops are exausted properly. Of course, you can always use the vairious heavier cavalry that other people have mentioned to break their formation.

Note: By giving advice for cavalry archer tactics, I am in no way condoning these actions. I shall, forever and always, consider cavalry archers the lowest form of cowardice.

They may be cowards Ruthless, but they kill efficiently and with fewer casualties. I'd think someone called RuthlessGeneral5 would appreciate that.

"Eagles may soar, but weasels aren't sucked into jet engines!"

TacCovert4

In that case you may want to rename him pansygeneral.

Get in there and fight like a man.

just charge cav into them. thay are very week againt any kind of attack (other thatn missle ofcourse) in testudo formation.

^Which is easy with the Scythians. They have plenty of 10 charge cavalry.
But I've never seen the AI use the Testudo formation.

Smash axemen into the testudo. They are anti-armor.

^ I thought that the Scythian axemen weren't AP. I'll have to look into that.

Quote:

I must admit that you have a point. However, I feel that I must draw the line somewhere. I consider said cowardice to be below the dignity of digital humanity.

If it were an option, I would kill any captured soldiers who weren't previously cavalry archers quickly and fairly painlessly, as opposed to the crusifiction that would face former cavalry archers, barring the discovery of a worse form of execution.

Yes, I hate them that much.
(thank you for the support, lmao)

I thought all axemen were anti-armor

EDIT: Onagers can rip up a testudo. You don't even need flaming ammo.

[This message has been edited by spartan2 (edited 04-02-2006 @ 00:40 AM).]

You get a lot more kills if you use it though.

Testudo is amazing against missiles, but if you charge it with massed cavalry (I am talking about 5 units of Scythian Nobles here), then you will break it faster than you can say "Jack Robinson."

If you want to use chariots against a testudo, then charge along next to it so that the blades on the outermost chariot shave the line of men along the edge off. The AI never replaces them, so it is theoretically possible (although I have never tried it) to take all three sides off, then just shoot them to death with slingers.

Shave the formation? Thats so crazy it might just work. Unless they brought toiletpaper with them, then youre just wasting your time :P