In my spipii campaign I try to just get alot more archers and simply out-shoot them if they stay at range an slughter them with my urbans if they charge. But I also hope that there is a better way to do it, I don't like this one.

EDIT: another way to do it could be to go for only cohorts and stay in testudo untill the enemy runs out of ammo and is forced to charge.

[This message has been edited by steace43 (edited 11-15-2005 @ 05:58 PM).]

But then again, testudo makes your legionaries tired, and vulnerable to melee combat.

steace43, that sounds good, but i don't know if you are a history buff or not but when the roman army of constantinople [consisted of 30,000 troops], went into battle, they were wiped out by SYRIAN HORSE ARCHERS-? they withstood the first barrage, but the horse archers got more ammo and slaughtered the army. watch your flanks if you attempet this. good luck.

won't it be better just to use light calvery instead to have troops killed because they are just standing there and didn't kill anything. i would rather have my troops fan out and just try to kill then be targets asking to be shot. aren't chariots good against horse archers?

Even heavy cav get slaugtered by the Egyptian chariots at close combat. The chariots never stop moving and just cut down the cav with their scythes.

And I only do that testeudo thing in situations where I have no archers and no cav, but the enemy has archers. Then I have no option but to go in testeudo or withdraw. And urbans in testeudo can resist ANY missiles sent against them, except for those from the towers on a Epic Wall.

Cavalry are weak against chariots. use lots of infafntry to bog them down.

But infantry can't catch them. If you try to chase the, they just run away while bombarding you with arrows.

USE LIGHT CAVALRY THEY ARE GOOD AGAINST THE CHARIOTS .

I usually use archers (any foot type). They will kill the chariots in a matter of momemts. You’ll have to protect them from a direct charge, of course. The only trouble in archery duels with egyptian chariots is, of course, that they are usually backed up by Pharao’s archers... So I try to kill the chariots real quick and then charge the archers.

i never ment to say to charge the chariots, what i said was to charge infantry. charge the chariots with light calvery. you might as well as take some of them with you, ha.

Chariots are anti cavalry in this game (screw history anyway). Sending any cavalry = suicide.

Rigth.

Please stop telling people to charge chariots with light cavalry unless you are intentionally misleading them....light cavalry is murdered by most chariots.

If you're facing chariots in the open field, you could always hop on a ship, sail to the nearest city, and take it. You wouldn't have to fight them in the open that way.

Archer Auxillia with fire /pwms chariots

sorry guys if it were a misleading statement on sending the light cav to kill the chariots but i have beaten them thrice by sending the light lancers . sry again if it harmed your campaign in any ways

The best counters to chariots for Rome are all mercenary units. Chariots are slaughtered by Mercenary Hoplites, Eastern Mercenaries and Barbarian Mercenaries make great roadblocks and swarm the chariots, Rhodian and Balearic slingers are a ranged option that do huge damage to chariots (Cretans and Archer Auxilia also work, but not as well). Mercenary War Elephants make matchwood of Chariots if you can get hold of them.

With any infantry, you will wipe out chariots if you can get them to stop. Allow them to charge, don't allow them to get away. Using a general as bait to get four units of Scythed Chariots into my Hastati/Barbarian Merc/Thracian Merc/ Merc Hoplite semicircle was very effective, but the infantry took huge losses due to their inate crappiness.

Uh oh. I can see some are not going to like this post. It is in early game context. The way I most often defeat chariots is with cavalry... light cavalry, plus generals.

Make no mistake... light cavalry can get butchered by the scythed chariots in particular, but like all battles, one must know the enemy, terrain, and self.

Chariots get top attention in most cases, and since I run an army built on cavalry and mobility, I have the units maneuvered and ready to attack. The stategy is failry simple in concept, but sometimes difficult in execution: attack in large numbers from many directions, simultaneously, and get the h*ll out of the way then they run amok, or dogpile them and kill immediately. I usually do the latter. Hesitation, or non-committal, and your cavalry get butchered (Equites, in the case of Romans). I also use any nearby infantry units to zero in and attack. In essense, it's really just a "everyone dogpile the chariots" strategy, but it works, and it works with relatively few casualties. If you nibble at chariots, then your losses go way up. Dogpile.

There is one case I've found that really does not work even when implementing the dogpile method with cav, and thats when you dogpile elephants. Heck, Equites even die when pursuing routing elephants. But for chariots, it works... if you properly commit and execute.

PS, If you are new to the game, do not use cav in the way I describe unless you are willing to risk the high casualties others have posted about. It does take a few times of experience to minimize losses...

Light cavalry works if it's the right one. Not Equites, but Cavalry Auxilia, Numidian Mercenaries, etc. They can run in, pelt the chariots with their missiles, which are good against the chariots, then retreat away and lead them into other forces. Triarii also work if you're still Pre-Marius, and Auxilia work if the Marian Reforms happened.

To tell you the truth I always found the desert axman tougher then the chariots.

But if you can go get slingers, or just dont face them in terain suitable for chariots, like in a city or something

What about gladiators, don't they have bonus against chariots? I never really used gladiators, but i think the brutii ones have a bonus against chariots and elephants...

Urrgh.. chariots...
Chariots are the worst thing in Rome- They smash a fair bit if you force to pieces with teh AI, but die fairly easy when you use them.
For me it was quite simple- Pretonian cavelry for archers, archers for sythed and last but not least a combo of infantry, cavelry and elephants for the normal eygption chariots. A strange thing happened the other day- I was parthia and had nearly captured secleuda and all they had was 1 genral and 1 sythed chariot unit. I thought great and my easern infantry charged. They all broke about 2 mins later. I thought 'Oh no, i'm not going to let this happen to me! not so close!' and promtly charged 1 unit of arab mercanries (my captain), 3 archer units, 4 horse archers and 2 parthian cavelry (all with skirmish and fire at will off). They won. That's odd I thought. What can these guys do what 1200 eastern infantry can't? I put it down to moral...

Quote:

You discovered the 'dogpile'! It works...

Whatever you do dont chase the chariots with cavalry!
Either u have to shoot em down, or meet them face to face, which will make em stop, and when they stop they are easily killed. Best is to flood em with cavalry or even better, cohorts.