Try Oagers + scorpions

Use the onagers to hit the chariots from some distance out, and then scorpions when they get closer. With the onagers one hit takes out at least one chariot. Another advantage of this is that the general tends to be on one of the heavy chariots and you get to take him out too.

If its any consolation, Julius Caesar got very frustrated with chariots in Britain, though these were used more as a high-speed battlefield taxi service.

Lol what I do is run Barbarian Mercenaries to them, yay!

And how do you protect the onagers and scorpions against the chariot archers? If you look at their stats, they've got very high missile attack and will decimate your artillery. Not meaning to sound aggressive or anything but I got murdered and this usually doesn't happen.

I was thinking armoured hoplites to hold the heavy chariots off and archers to take them out when they come into range. Very defensive I know but I don't see how you can attack against such a mobile foe who can decimate your cav with ease.

Fire arrows for some reason hurt the chariots more than regular arrows, so be sure to use them.

The missile attacks of the chariots are really negligible, since even though they have high attack numbers, they have small numbers and their archers are very unconcentrated. If you just ignore them they'd eventually run out of arrows and have to charge into your infantry.

The most important thing when fighting chariots is to keep your cavalry safe, that means your general too. If you can keep your cavalry safe, then chariots shouldn't ever be a problem.

I've found that if you are Germania and use have sacred circle of Woden, you can get quite experienced warriors. Combine this with a good general to encourage your troops and recruit about 6 units of peasants! Yay! Peasants! They act as your great big human sleeping policeman. They will get the chariots bogged down, and as they slow down counterattack with your cavalry. You need your general near them to stop them routing. Then send in your cavalry and archers after the chariot archers.

Elephants will eat chariots for lunch.
You can guard archers with them.
Ballistae are also good against chariots since they can outrange them and will generally take out one chariot per hit.

Yes, armoured hoplites and archers (preferably Cretian ) could just do it. I would recommend to go even more defensive and deploy yourself in one corner of the battlefield (if you play against the AI of course), so they cannot flank you. If you are lucky, they'll have to attack up the hill. Stretch out your phalanxes and put your archers behind them. Fire arrows sure is a must.

I'd appreciate if you tried it out and told whether it was some use.

I find chariots a terrible annoyance myself, but have never had to fight entire army of them, so I am usually able to dogpile them with some good javelin troops (velite gladiators or such; even experienced Illyrian mercs or Velites will do). This "bonus fighting chariots" sure means something, though they take more casualties than I'd like.

As a matter of fact, I became so intrigued, I tried it out myself - Greeks: 1 general, 1 heavy onager, 6 cretan archers, 2 militia cavalry, 2 heavy peltasts, 8 armoured hoplites vs Egyptians: 10 heavy chariots, 10 chariot archers. (hard difficulty, 20 000 denarii, so everybody had minor upgrades) Worked out splendidly, however, I'd now replace general with another heavy onager, peltasts with archers and cavalry with hoplites - as they all were of little use and were mostly killed, making up greater part of my casualties (which were about 1/5 of my army). Could be my poor generalship though :/

Still, this was AI... I don't think any human opponent would rush his chariots up the hill right into my phalanxes to see them drop dead in a second

[This message has been edited by Yeekim (edited 12-19-2005 @ 06:24 PM).]

btw what faction are you using? Chariot countering is often very faction specific.

and if you have noticed that all javlin throwing units have a bonus v.s. chariots AND eles.

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Romans. Julii. Not the best suited to taking on a mobile all chariot army which can both hit you at range and up close. I remember thinking while my men were slaughtered that the battle was very similar to Carrahe [sp?].
Btw this was online folks.

Best way to find a counter is to use the 10 chariot archer/10 heavy chariot army myself online and see who beats me.

The thing about british light chariots is that they have very high attack values and when massed, their firepower is awesome. Upgrading makes them even more dangerous.

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Fair point but they can hit those skirmishers with arrows from a longer range and the heavy chariots will chew them up when they attack.

[This message has been edited by Gaius Colinius (edited 12-20-2005 @ 07:41 AM).]

The guy used 20 chariot units?! LOL, all I can think of is just get 20 slingers.

...wich would be charged and slaughtered by heavy chariots.

And friendly fire casualties would kill quite a few of them. Slingers can't fire over the heads of friendly units.

I've never played with or against partia but I can appreciate how difficult they might be to beat after this. Where's Firefox when you need him?

Steace43, sounds like you understand my problem completely.

How about fighting fire with fire? How do chariots fare against other chariots?

[This message has been edited by Gaius Colinius (edited 12-20-2005 @ 12:17 PM).]

^^With an roman army, try getting an army of urban cohorts, backed up by a few units of archer auxilia with flaming arrows. If the enemy stands at a distance and tries to kill you with the light chariots, go into testeudo and then their arrows won't do you anything, unless they aim for your archers, in wich case they will get killed (flaming arrows are very efective against chariots). If they charge with heavy chariots, dogpile them with urban cohorts. If you are prepared to change civ, take greece. Then you get alot of spartans and cretan archers (again, flaming ammo) and you will slaughter the heavy chariots if they try to charge you (attacking spartans from the front is no good idea), and if he stays at a distance and kill you with arrows, your cretans will both out-range them and out-shoot them. Also get a few onagers if art is allowed, in case he adjust his tactic by using onagers to kill your spartans before charging.

About chariots against chariots, then it will ofcourse be about numbers and quality on them.

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Actually, they can. I used to avoid slingers because of this common statement, and how I accidentally slaughtered my own phalanx units when I first began playing.

But now in fact (speaking in SP context), I prize them almost as much as Cretan Archers... in very specific situations, moreso than Cretan Archers. I go scoop up the usual stashes of merc Baleric & Cretan Slingers early in the game, and they are totally dominant when deployed in pairs or triplets in early game. Often, the major problem is the AI enemy fleeing the field (not routing, but fleeing) before my small groups of early cav are strong enough to force the fight on the battlefield of choice (e.g., terrain and location relative to exit routes).

If you want to test it, try using slingers to hurl over wooden walls, before you bust the gate down. You will get an exact idea of the arc, and can follow the stones too, if you want. Normally, I keep my units about 50 meters ahead of the slingers to avoid casualties. You must cease fire (due to the much flatter arc as compared to arrows) once the enemy closes on that friendly unit. In a fast paced, or quickly changing battle, I move them to the flanks, and open fire on specified units, which can then more easily be routed with a cav charge. Slingers are very effective agains Phalanx, and ensuring low cav losses when slamming into the early game Phalanx (except the Spartan unit, which takes special attention & flank maneuvering in early game).

Slingers also decimate dense town center defenders, and slaughter most enemy units that will come down narrow city streets to reply, in early game. Position your troops under the arc of stone, and cease fire when that arc intersects your intervening infantry, as the enemy closes... or pull the slingers to the sides (lateral maneuver), and retarget.

Slingers are best utilized for shooting from the flanks or for shooting at soldiers farther away. When slingers fire at units that are engaging your men, you can't expect them to fire over...not even archers do that.

Slingers are extremely effective against chariots. I've had Balearic Slingers break a charge by Egyptian Heavy Chariots. Of course, sometimes they're not always so fortunate. Of course the best counter would be spamming Spartans, Rhodians, and Heavy Peltasts one the edge of the map.

Damn, I was gonna say flaming missiles to make them run amok, but I remembered Egyptian ones don't. Oh well, you could try them anyway.

I would second Armoured hoplites in this case.

Or Sacred Band. They both have incredible armour & arrow resistance, and since both are spear armed, they will kill chariots/cav very quickly.

Also, they have high morale, so they are less likely to route - not until they have taken MANY casualties, which is not likely to happen from the chariot archers.

GM

Well, Chariots are certainly tough. But, not impossibel to defeat!

Generally, cavalry or archers, or even onagers are the only way to effectively kill them. When I build an army, I always have at leat 1000 to 1500 cavalry. When confronted by chariots, i use my cavalry to hunt them down. I make half of the cavalry chase them, and two other cavalry squads to run on either side of them so they can not alter their coarse. Eventually, they run to the edge of the map and try to turn. Well, my other two cavalry squads (Who aren't chasing them, but running along side them) who are running beside them cut them off and they soon just fight me, and loose to the overwhelming cavalry.

Hopefully my infantry is holding its ground though! Thats the only downfall. But once you take care of the chariots, you can rush your cavalry back and behind the enemy forces.

It usually works, might take a while, but it works, and the game is on VH/VH. Hope it helps!

You need cavalry in the desery for sure. Thats why Egypt has so much calvalry. But with infantry just use the testuto if u can and wait for the archers to run out than attack.