Post your demo pics:

[Theredintheskyisours]

O.k. to capture a screenshot, press the Print Screen button on your keyboard in battle. Then go to paint (or a similar program) and paste the pic. Go to www.imageshack.usto host it. Then copy the picture link and paste your image onto your reply.

Here's a couple of my battles. Notice the frames per second in the upper left hand corner!

My big Cavalry battle:

 

[Theredintheskyisours]

Here's my morning archer battle:

 

[TB666]

damn 7 fps About the same as me then.

 

[Theredintheskyisours]

This guy couldn't wait to get into battle so bad that he leaped over everyone to get into the action. I tried to press the print screen as fast as I could turn the pause off. I failed. I lost this battle even though it was on easy. I made my general do a suicide charge and he died. I was winning the battle, but immedietly after that all my units routed and I lost. But I put the Roman valour up way too high so it's almost impossible to beat them. Even if I outnumber them 2 to 1. Oh yeah my monitor really sucks, and I cannot turn the brightness up anymore.

 

[TB666]

Carthage vs the senate about 1000 troops on each side and 0 on valour and 0 upgrades on both armies.

Spears up

Spear down

My sacred band cavalry taking a walk through the park

My archers giving those roman bastards hell

Yep

First sacred band infantry over the bridge but they fucked up and didn't stay in formation(those guys still fought to the death)

Well I sent in 3 more units and they fucked up as well even worse then the first but this is the 4th unit I sent in.

Well the 4th unit fought even better then the first and romans get a taste of friendly fire.

The battle raged on until the 4th unit was destroyed but the romans suffered with terrible casualties.

After that I sent in the cavalry and they got rid off the rest of the romans.
I lost half of my army tho

 

[TB666]

Gauls vs Romans I got 2631 men under my command and the romans about 1000 and this battle neither of us had any valour nor upgrades.

An overview of my wonderful army(I got 4 fps when viewing my army )

They are eager to fight it seems

I used my spearman to draw out the romans and the plan worked but the gauls can't fight for shit against a trained army such as the romans

I got beaten pretty badly.

 

[Theredintheskyisours]

That last one with the Gauls is beautiful.

I'll post pics a little bit later on, because I screwed up the image I had saved by accidently pressing the print screen button instead of the ctrl+v (paste) button. It was a good one IMO too.

 

[TB666]

Use FRAPS to take screenshots.
It is alot better.

 

[Theredintheskyisours]

Oh o.k.

 

[TB666]

But sometimes it may cause the camera to move so be ready for it.
But it beats print screen.

 

[TB666]

Carthage vs romans, both 0 upgrades and exprience with me being carthage.

Ok it is a bridge battle so I form my sacred band infantry in phalanx formation on the foot of the bridge.

Ain't it beautiful

They are coming.

They hit me with cavalry first causing my left flank to move but the horses got badly beaten.

And my cretan archers are firing fire arrows down on the romans that are getting stuck on the bridge

Another wave

well nothing last forever, one of the 3 sacred band units got destroyed and they others could hold it anymore so I sent in my cavalry.

The carnage on the bridge

Awesome score

 

[Theredintheskyisours]

Nice.

I'm going off to play RTW right now, and I'll edit this post and post the pics I took once I get done.

O.k. here was my battle plan. It actually worked too surprisingly.

I am still testing out how all the units fair in battle. That is why no two units are the same.

 

[TB666]

very nice but you left too much gap for the enemy

 

[Pancakes]

I'm too lazy to DL mods.

http://img49.exs.cx/img49/2311/cart3.jpg
http://img76.exs.cx/img76/930/rome2004-08-3116-35-49-21.jpg

NO, NO, NO. Joints = weak spots, joints in a phalanx are BAD. BAD BAD BAD.

Jesus, haven't you guys ever watched any time commanders episodes? joints either way are bad, even if you are using it like a bowl for your enemy. At least make it square, phalanx can't effectively attack as a single unit if they're hitting at an angle and they're not really mobile enough to effectively circle with speed to hit the flanks of an oponent.

So instead of organizing like this

\_/

organize like this

| _ |

and get the enemy to engage the phalanx in the middle, then get the two sides to come straight in

Also, I hope you're not using your phalanxes as strictly defensive units, letting the enemy to come to them, back off a bit and charge as they reach where you want the confrontation to take place

EDIT: I'm pretty sure that Hannibal used the tactic of the |_| on a much larger scale in one of his battles, Cannae maybe. I don't know, I have a book about it somewhere, maybe I should check.

EDIT2: at least TB666 seemed to keep his units close together (although it looks like the only reason you won that battle was because the stupid romans sent their cavalry in first, right onto your spears), Theredintheskyisyours has his units spread all over hell, and it's alot harder for a phalanx to charge from a \/ formation than a \_/ formation. They have to turn before charging.

EDIT's 3 and 4: spelling

 

[TB666]

well I put my troops as close as I could.
I had a reserve close by in case the phalanx would break.
And yes I used the phalanx as a defensive move because the enemy has now where to go expect right into my spears.

 

[Pancakes]

The risk of the phalanx breaking would be much lesser with no joints, but it's goot to have reserves.

Am I right in thinking that the dummies attacked with their cavalry first?

EDIT: http://img49.exs.cx/img49/6883/cart5.jpg

See what I mean? In that pic, even though the cavalry attacked first, there was a huge gap in the line, if they'd gone through (looks like they could have) and hit your phalangists from the side or back then retreated and regrouped, while legions moved in on the front and the cavalry attacked from behind again...blah blah blah I can't fucking wait for this game to fucking be released :hotjump:

 

[TB666]

That pic looks far worse then it actually was.
Yes my left flank went nuts and walked into the water and drowned but the center and the right held their ground and did so for 30 minutes before my cavalry went in.

 

[Theredintheskyisours]

very nice but you left too much gap for the enemy

Actually, I charged them just as they were crossing the bridge. They did not get very far and I sent in my horsies on both flanks right after. Then the middle horsie charged in and I killed the general. The army ran off and I chased after them. It ruled. Yup.

Pancakes: Yes, Hannibal did use that technique. I wasn't really using strategy for my battle, I was just testing out the units. But like I said, I charged the enemy.

Provided you have adequate support, joints in the formation of the Phalanx' can work. This is a major downside when you do not have (or have inadequate) support. You cannot do the joint formations effectively alone. True, with support, there's going to be more Phalanx casualties, but so long as you outflank the enemy with your cavalry and provide extra support in the back of your Phalanx, you can easily win the battle against the Romans; in bridge battles only however.

You see, what you probably saw in TC was that they used the joint formation on open land. That is definetly a bad idea, because both flanks then become vulnerable. And you are basically screwed if you do that in an open battle.

In an open battle it is best to try and use the meat-grinder effect, and just plow straight on through. It's simple, but as long as you have you flanks and middle covered, you are in good shape. Unless the enemy has elephants. But let's just say they don't, because most armies never had elephants in their army anyways. You know how much upkeep it takes to hold elephants in your army?

 

[Pancakes]

I was also probably assuming that R:TW was a bit to realistic (just from a matter of the spears getting tangled and shit) about the joints. I also never fight bridge battles if I can avoid it, much more a fan of open land battles.

But yes, with adequate support to fill in the joints and to preform effective flanking maneuvers, I guess it would be ok.

 

[TB666]

Yeah I don't wanna play bridge battles either.
It kills your computer.