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4.3.1 General
4.3.2 Formations and tactics
4.3.3 Turtle formation
4.3.4 Praetorians

4.3.1 General

Roman units are characterised by organisation and defense. Entity comments: "Romans have strong defence so, with a healer, your men survive a bunch more battles." They are well suited to many of the campaign missions where the player initially starts without a base or any means of recruiting additional troops. In many campaign scenarios there is no particular need to rush, which allows short sharp battles to be followed by a period of healing. The same time can also be used for scouting.

From nitroace30: "I think the Legionaries are the best standard fighting unit in the game - their turtle formation looks so good." Turtle formation is discussed below. From xtend13: "The Romans are the most balanced, and the square formations are easy to control." From Centurion: "Slingers are great for destroying siege weapons and wearing down the enemy so they can't charge. And don't forget the 30 troops to a unit either - makes their spearmen the best in my eyes." Basic regular Roman units generally have about twice as many men as other civilizations. In the case of Spearmen this is clearly an advantage, since the more Spearmen one has, the easier it is to hold a line with them. Having more men per unit should logically make the unit more combat effective. This is in part true - Romans are certainly better than most Egyptians man for man. However, the same logic does not always follow when compared to Barbarians - in offensive combat a smaller total number of Barbarian warriors can be quite effective, as discussed further below.

Shadow_Praetorian writes: "The Romans are the exact opposite to the Egyptians: They have awesome infantry but they lack in the cavalry department." FV Constantinus writes: "I love the speed of the Equites, very good for speeding to the aid of a failing attack." Superdroideka adds: "Never use them [Equites] for frontal assaults. They are best used to attack archers when your infantry are fighting enemy infantry." The minor speed advantage of the Equites is about their only advantage, especially when compared to the special cavalry of other civilizations (German Cavalry, Parthian Cavalry and War Chariots). The Roman commander must use native cavalry very carefully. From nitroace30: "Sure, the Romans ain't got the best cavalry, but what they lack in mounted units they make up for in infantry." Centurion writes: "Problems with the Romans are that their Legionaries are slow, and man for man they can't take Barbarians."

4.3.2 Formations and tactics

While the game punishes those who, for example, put archers in front of heavy infantry when entering battle, there is no single correct formation. Often formations need to be adapted for particular terrain or circumstances. Galen's suggested Roman formation:

Telemach's suggestion is particularly useful when defending or ambushing:

RogueImpaler writes: "Have 9 sets of Legionaries stand in a cube form. Send sets of archers in that cube and line them up nicely. Have your Centurion and medics in the middle and line them up. Spearmen can form in the cube too. Now give all of these troops a CTRL key assignment... It's awesome to see what happens if you get rushed with this mega formation and you go to turtle formation."

Centurion writes: "When I'm moving to engage the enemy on open ground I have 2 Legionaries at the front and 2 archers behind them with a slight space so they don't get drawn into the melee. Then I have at the back another Legionaire unit to be thrown into the fight as reinforcements. Protecting the rear of the archers I have Auxillary Infantry."

From Athos: "I think the best use of formations in this game is when it comes to luring the enemy upon your stationary army. Three spearmen troops up front, with 2 ballistas on each flank. Then legionaries behind in standard formation, with archers in front of the Legionaries and behind the spearmen in stationary position. Then catapults behind all that with medics and leader. Cavalry to the right or left to sweep behind the enemy assault for archers or artillery (so they don't take out your stationary spearmen)."

Loki writes: "Don't move all your units at the same time. If you suspect an archer ambush in the woods along the roads, send your legions in turtle mode - they can't harm you much. When you encounter the enemy, use your legions to block enemy pikemen, then send your cavalry (which you had previously hot-keyed) to slaughter enemy archers who stand behind the pikemen. You really need to master the turtle/archers/cavalry routines if you want to travel with minimal damage. If the enemy archers are in the forest, your best bet is to send a turtled legion to attack them or 'deturtle' a legion and RUN to attack them. It's a lot bloodier, but archers are very nasty and can wipe cavalry/pikemen in no time when protected by forests. Of course, the same tactics apply to you when you are attacked - put your archers in forests, but ALWAYS leave a legion with them to protect them."

4.3.3 Turtle formation

Centurion writes: "Turtle formation makes your Legionaries practically invulnerable to a small amount of missile fire (even Balaeric Slingers). When in turtle formation advance towards the archers. When near, come out of the turtle formation and charge. In turtle formation Legionaries' fighting capacity is severely lessened than in standard formation, so if an enemy is coming at you stay in standard formation. It's also a good idea to have a medic to accompany them, in case there is much missile fire." With modest arrow-fire, a healer can keep alive a few turtled Legionaries for several minutes. The healer is gerenally not fired upon, so long as he remains behind the Legionaries.

From Random: "I use turtle formation whenever possible. Use standard formation when walking across the map or it will take forever, but in combat it's best to use turtle formation. Especially if the enemy has archers, since the turtle is almost invincible against arrows." Loki adds: "Send a turtled legion if you suspect an archer ambush. Using the scouts, you send a turtled legion because you KNOW there is an archer ambush."

From superdroideka: "How to counter turtle formation? Move your archers to water or attack the turtle with melee warriors." Ballistas are also rather effective against turtled Legionaries - the target is slow moving, so easy to hit, and the troops are close together so casualties will be high.

4.3.4 Praetorians

From superdroideka: "Praetorians are extremely powerful melee troops. Use them to aid Legionaries against melee warriors. The only thing they are afraid of are archers using hit and run attacks." Athos writes: "The Romans may be boring, but when you see a unit of Praetorians fight their way out of overwhelming odds because of their immense defense, well, that is amazing." From Centurion: "The Praetorian unit pretty much destroys anything in its path. I use Praetorians to burst through stationary spearmen lines followed with Legionaries and my own spearmen."

Prefect comments: "Praetorians are easily defeated by Berserkers, and Chariots." Mark OHearn writes: "There is no single unit capable of destroying a Praetorian troop. German Calvary are great but won't kill the troop, even with a charge. And the Bersekers simply don't have enough defence to last. Ranged attacks are great while melee troops engage. A troop of Praetorians with a medic is very difficult to stop. While I still love the fast-pace and aggressive nature of the Barbarians, and can certainly appreciate War Chariots and Nubian Archers, there is a good reason why the game was named after the Praetorian unit - they are the best single unit."