Online I usually substitute Silver Shields for the Phalanx Pikemen, as in multiplayer I don't have to climb up the tech tree. Throw in some Armoured Elephants/Legionnaires for flanking attacks.

Spartans vs. Silver Shield Pikemen - Spartans won with 61 men alive, the Silver Shields routed with 20 men left.

Armoured Hoplites vs. Shilver Shield Pikemen - Armoured Hoplites won with 40 men alive, the Silver Shields routed with 13 men left.

Don't underestimate the Greek Supremacy in phalanxes.

I played a guy online (i was egyptians, pre-patch) and bought about 5 Pharoahs Bowmen. I concentrated fire at his archers, and killed them. He sent forward scythed chariots and cataphracts, but the Chariots ran amok, killing most of the cataphracts and his elephant general.

Then it was simply up to my archers to pick away at his phlanxes and legionarries.

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house won this

Quote:

Map: Sahara Desert. Match one was Spartan Hoplites vs. Silver Shield Pikemen on medium difficulty, a simple unit vs. unit test. It was a head-on confrontation, both phalanxes engaged in a frontal fight, and those were the results in my previous post. The test was, of course, in singleplayer. Note that when only one phalanx advances and the other stays put, the defensive side has the advantage of not allowing the other person through the line of spear points. In this case, the Silver Shields would gain the upper hand, but not in my test, in which 2 phalanxes attacked eachother.

Perhaps it was you that were doing quite well in the multiplayer match that you had other factors affect the outcome of the match-up. I need not tell you that this is true, for you can always check it yourself as you please.

[This message has been edited by Xorhas EL Malek (edited 02-06-2005 @ 10:40 PM).]

What was your point by saying that if I were the Spartans, and if I lost, I should be ashamed? Weren't you arguing the other way a few posts earlier? Confusing

[This message has been edited by Xorhas EL Malek (edited 02-07-2005 @ 04:35 PM).]

You would need to go range against the Seleucids. Many inexperienced Seleucid Players would be beaten by Spartans/Cretans/Onagers. Or Pharoah's Bowmen with Desert Cav and Desert Axeman, since the Desert Cav's AP axe will take away a lot of Cataphacts's Armor. or Unique Strategy from Numidians, Pontus, Armenians would beat them by surprise too.

I'm fairly certain Spartan's have the most powerful charge in the game. As a note, it's better than Cataphracts at least. No mount bonus though so the numbers are deceptive though, still, it is a powerful charge.

For Selucids I would say they're not the best race, nor are they bad. They have the core units of many races, this is true, what they lack is specialist units, 'elite elite' infantry, and mid-range cavalry. And of course archers. They have across-the-board talents but they don't reach the same heights as focused civs.

They have amazing infantry but nothing to compete with the likes of Bezerks, Chosen Axemen, Elite Cohorts and Spartan Hoplites. They lack specialist units such as Night Raiders, War Dogs, Gladiators, etc.

Their cavalry are good but setting aside Greek Cavalry and Militia Cavalry (both rubbish) they have two choices: Heavy or Superheavy. No light, fast horse archers or AP swarmers like Head Hunters or Desert Cav, no specialist cav like Camel Lancers or Cataphract Camels. No solid mid-range cav like Long Sheilds or Macedonian Cavalry.

On the campaign map they suffer further as they can't get any good temple upgrades. Hephastus is nice, but nothing like the Macedonians (Artemis and Ares) or the Greeks (Nike) etc. Which only serves to increase the 'good at everything but awesome at nothing,' gap.

Quote:

The Companion has a charge bonus of 16 with spears.

[This message has been edited by Firefox (edited 02-08-2005 @ 01:30 AM).]

16, 4 charge.

7, 15.

Only by 2 points. And for all that their basic attack is almost half that of Spartan's (better with maces, true, though still lower) Just as a note as well Cataphracts have 8 morale, Spartan's have 14

Not entirely sure how the Phalanx spear charge bonus works. I think perhaps it counts if they are charged, that would seem correct but it's hard to test.