Nephtys wrote:What's the use of javelin troops? Archers fire so much farther, enough to get in two or three more volleys potentially.
Javelins are more effective against armoured foes and they're better at melee fighting. They're not going to stand up against heavy infantry, but if it's touch-and-go, they just might be enough to tip the scales in your favour. I've used javelineers as reserve forces before, with some success. They're fast and they can be enough to rattle an enemy unit which is engaged with one of your heavy infantry units if they flank them. They also have a melee bonus against cavalry and elephants.
Is there ever a reason not to use pilums before charging infantry in to combat?
Sure: when there are friendlies in the way. You don't want to have too many friendly fire casualties if you can help it, although the pilum-throwing AI seems to have improved in recent versions. Without patches, RTW legionaries will cause heavy friendly-fire casualties with their pila unless you micromanage them.
How can I fight a Phalanx if I'm unable to flank them? Romans have crap-all for spear troops. I've never been able to train Triariai, and Auxilla don't seem that good compared to normal legions. Arrows also seem to bounce off them, even the cruddy barbarian spearmen.
You might be surprised at how effective crappy light infantry can be as a flanking force; see my earlier comments about javelin troops. Another tactic you can use against phalanxes is to split your army into two separate units, like this:
The enemy will often split his line to attack both armies, like this:
And if your timing is right, you can maneuver one of your half-armies to avoid the phalanxes heading toward it (not difficult since phalanxes are slower than molasses) and swing it around to crush the phalanxes which are engaged with your other half-army, like this:
Basically, this tactic relies upon the fact that the enemy AI really has no idea how to deal with this unconventional maneuver (and to be fair, no real general in antiquity could have pulled it off for various reasons; it only works because of the particular scales and godlike coordination abilities in RTW).
How can I reduce squalor in my cities? I've built the highest level sewer, and that almost always contributes 90 percent of my discontent in major cities.
Believe it or not, you have to simply live with high squalor in your largest cities, and compensate for it with numerous happiness-generating structures.
Is Artillery like Scorpions and Balistae worth it? I've never really killed more than three or four enemies per shot with a group of 4 Balista units.
I don't know if it's worth the slot that you could have otherwise used for heavy infantry or cavalry, especially since artillery reduces your army's movement range per turn. But they do come in handy if the enemy has some particularly tough units and you'd like to whittle them down at a distance. And artillery can also damage enemy morale, which makes it easier to route them when they engage your forces.
How do you kill Elephants reliably without mounted skirmishers?
Phalanxes work well. If you can't build phalanxes or hire mercenary phalanxes, foot skirmishers aren't bad either. Just make sure you set them to a loose formation so the elephants can't take out too many men with a single charge. You might also be able to rattle them with flaming arrows if you have lots of archer units; I've found that four units of archers concentrating fire on a single unit of elephants will usually make the animals panic before too long.
