Slitherine

okay, i am fighting the etruscans, they come with alot of archers with only a few hill tribesman or hoplites against me, my several legions and hoplites tear through those guys, but when i try go for the archers, even though they are firing at me, all of my men break and run instantly, why if they outnumber and 5 more seconds and they would take them out would they break and run?

Joe

Hi

Don't have Legion, but I had the same problem in Chariots Of War: I could handle the enemy infantry units but the skirmishers were too hard for my poor soldiers.

It is possible to edit some file (.txt) to reduce the archers/skirmishers ammo...I'll find the exact info for you...

By Honvedseg (not my idea)

made a simple mod to the squads.txt file to reduce the effectiveness of skirmishers in the early parts of the game. Using a text editor (Wordpad will work), reduce the ammo to 5 for javelinmen and around 10 for the bowmen. This is probably a lot more historically accurate, since the typical javelin load was usually either two or three, and 5 allows for the possibility that they may have had additional javelins carried with the supplies. With only two or three shots, they would be only marginally effective at best, which might be historically accurate, but then they'd be way overpriced.

Even 5 javelins per man can still demolish a unit of peasant levy, or severely punish light infantry, but skirmishers will no longer dominate the early stages of the game. The other advantage to this is that they will run out of ammo shortly after your own melee troops get thoroughly entangled with the enemy, so it reduces "friendly fire" casualties.

The only other way to beat skirmishers in the early stages of the game is to send one unit of "cannon-fodder" a little ways ahead of the main attack, to soak up some of the enemy's ammo, so the rest can close without getting torn up too badly. Spread your other troops out as much as possible. Bunching them (especially one right behind the other) gives the enemy a lot more targets to hit with each volley.

Alternatively recruit a couple of cavalry units and ride the archers down. With legion I found it worked most of the time!

Hi Joepking,

I also encountered that problem of "sudden panic" while playing Legion. It is really a disturbing feature when all your untis break and run instantly. However, I got a different solution for you in order to handle that problem. Just alter the panic effectors for the infantry units in the squad.txt file. If you don't want them to break and run instantly set them to 0. I guess that also works well with infantry vs Cavalry attacks in that game, where defeat because of sudden break and run is also quite common.

Best Greetings,

Aurelian