total war tactics talk anyone?

[noisebomb44]

so ive been starting to get into totalwar again (rome total war: barbarian invasion darth mod) and ive experimented with a few starting formations and i thought that i would share some

 

this is my balanced army (maybe a little bit too much cav on the picture) where

red = swordsmen / elites

blue = spearmen

yellow = archers

orange = general

purple = (often cheap) cav

 

and also, i found this to be extremly effective sometimes

where, if they try to get the archers, i just rush in with the swordsmen (also i didnt get the cav in the picture frame)

 

i have a few others, but these two are my main ones

 

does anyone have other starting formations to share?

[Latislapaloie]

I usually just rush my shit in like a man and hope for the best :^)

[noisebomb44]

I usually just rush my shit in like a man and hope for the best :^)

i never do that, a 2 k/d ratio (i kill 2 of them they kill one of mine) is a great loss in a battle for me, a 4 k/d ratio is acceptable, but im always aiming for a 5 or 10 k/d ratio

and belive me, that is needed when you are battling hordes of enemies in barbarian invasion, they come in packs of 5 with about 2000 men each

[blackadder]

There is another mod you should try, better than darth mods, who also made a really good game. Just for rome, all other total wars darth mod is awesome,is for rome too. What nation are you playing as? Spears should normally be a the flanks, especially the ones that throw javlins or pila. Heavy inf is a beast, use slingers from Rhodes or the ones that start on the island west of rome,To kill heavy inf. In campaign you play different than mp, you need to keep them alive so they rank up. Have a few great armies and more that are meh and can quell rebellions or sit in citys to help with unrest, peasants work great.

[noisebomb44]

There is another mod you should try, better than darth mods, who also made a really good game. Just for rome, all other total wars darth mod is awesome,is for rome too. What nation are you playing as? Spears should normally be a the flanks, especially the ones that throw javlins or pila. Heavy inf is a beast, use slingers from Rhodes or the ones that start on the island west of rome,To kill heavy inf. In campaign you play different than mp, you need to keep them alive so they rank up. Have a few great armies and more that are meh and can quell rebellions or sit in citys to help with unrest, peasants work great.

im playing as the saxons, and ive since relized that the spears are horrible, with no upgrades or anything avavible, so i pretty much replace them with more swordsmen

also, shouldnt the spears be in the front, since then they can take a cav attack more easily than others, and if you have to rush them into aid, wouldnt they be less organized?

in my empire, i have like 10 cities, and in every one of these cities there are 2 full armies of swordmen, and 2 of archers, this is to both be able to defend against sneak attacks(mainly by the vandals), but also so that i can just take from the cities to the army when i need them.

 

also, i didnt use other mods than the darth mod, because i didnt know there where any other good non totalconversion mods out there, like map extenders when i started playing. Although i might use them later

[blackadder]

http://www.europabarbarorum.comis the mods webs, i meant to link it before. Ill edit this more later too.

[Pomfinator]

im playing as the saxons, and ive since relized that the spears are horrible

The original Rome's spearmen were disgustingly bad.  The only viable spearmen in the game were hoplites and phalangites, and even they just suck against some heavy infantry, hell even hastati, maneuvered well.  People often look at Rome with rose-colored glasses, but the reality is that Rome was just like every other Creative Assembly game, buggy, weird pathfinding, and balancing issues.