i too am playing the macedonian campaignand i have all of rome and greece. i think the best fromation of the pikes is the V u can have it reversed too.this is the V formation cavalry for the decicive blow and the pikes to engage and hold the enemy lines. this is a very powerful formation.you can have the pikes in Reverse V to it is also good. Have the pikemen in a complete V and then have the cavalry on both the flanks or make one flank the strongest.and the archers behind the pikes.the pikes will engage in hand combat and then charge the cav from the flank the enemy will be instantly wiped out.

[This message has been edited by I_Alexander (edited 11-25-2005 @ 11:29 AM).]

hm... I tried a "Checkered" V formation, but the pikemen just ran into a line formation again! is this bacause I grouped them?

before the start of the battle you can arrage the units randomly as you like . you have to make the formation from there. dont group them befor the battle begins. have them grouped when they are engaged.

OK, thanks. Any other tactics?

Just line up your pikes in a straight line, archers behind and cav on each side. Wait until the enemy engages your pikes, then send your cav around each flank and hit them from behind. Easy.

Macedonia gets boring after a while since almost every battle is the same.

[This message has been edited by Centy (edited 11-25-2005 @ 03:20 PM).]

I found that on one of my old Thracian campaigns. I went through Greece and much of europe with a few units of phalanx pikemen and some greek cavalry, and killed anyone who attacked. I might have enjoyed phalanx based nations more if the AI would have acted differently once in a while when faced with phalanxes.

I've been playing BI more than vanilla recently though, and, with its lack of phalanxes i've not had a chance to see whether 1.3 has made a difference to the AI in this respect. Has anyone else noticed any significant change?

[This message has been edited by Xygr (edited 11-25-2005 @ 03:55 PM).]

Use Ares and Artemis to make super-archers, and they can take on most enemies before they reach your phalanxes. If not, charge in with swarms of light lancers but don't let them get bogged down in the melee because they're very fragile.