ShieldWall
Legionary
posted 01 June 2014 03:40
EDT (US)
2 / 3
Thrace and the Britons have some very good heavy infantry so you will have losses fighting them. The main strength of the Britons are chariots, and the best way to fix them are to have some archers shooting at them to sap their hit points and start bringing them down. Other than that, stand your army at the top of a good hill, throw pila at the infantry as they come forward and run them off the field with your cavalry. It might be worth having a few spearmen in there in case the chariots become a problem - so some triarii or auxilia, depending on whether you've reached the Marian Reforms or not, or even just hire some barbarian mercenaries to do the job.
Thrace can be difficult in the open. They have falxmen and basternae which can make a mess of your infantry in melee. They also have phalanxes. Chances are you'll be confronted with a mixture of these and it's difficult to not lose many people when you're on the defensive against that. Again, lots of archers to hit the basternae and falxmen as they're vulnerable to it, and throw your pila at close range at anything else. If in doubt, put all your infantry into guard mode, I've always found they seem to defend better against a phalanx that way, also they won't go running off after routing enemy units and leave you with bits and pieces of an army all over the place. The best thing to do though is attack the Thracians in the open, they'll stand on the defensive then. Send forward your cavalry and use them in a collective mass to charge any skirmishers and cavalry and especially generals off the field. Once that's done, advance the infantry forward and halt a reasonable distance away from their line. If you're lucky, that line will start to break up as they advance towards you in one's and two's. Absorb the impact with one unit, charge them in the rear with another.