In the game, the Phalangites are obviously stronger than the Hoplites.
However does anyone know if 2 hoplites units would generally beat 1 Phalangites unit?
Just asking because when your Macedon, and you conquer non-native cities, you can't recruit Phlanagite units anymore, but Hoplite units instead.
Therefore I'm wondering, if people think it's best to recruit 2 hoplites units (70 Gold), from the non-native city, or instead simply recruit 1 Phalangite unit (80 Gold), from 1 of your native cities, and simply bring that Phalangite unit down south, to join your invading force.
Just taken my 1st non-native city, so I'm in this position now.

Would be nice if this game had a quickbattle mode, where you can simply fight units against each other, like Total War has, to compare which units are stronger
____________________________________________


On an off topic note, just bought this game a week ago and really enjoying it :)
Hadn't heard of it till I saw it on the shop shelf by luck, and decided to buy it. Wrapped I did.
This game should be advertised more, and have it's own wikipedia page, so more people find out about this awesome game. The seemless zooming in and out is the best feature. I would always wonder while playing Total War, 'imagine if this game, had a seemless zooming in/out' between the map and battles. Well finally found a game that does that, which is great. Definetly my favourite game. It's a perfect mix/inbetween of 'Age of Empires' and 'Total War', and being Greek makes me like this Greece based game even more :)

Also abit off topic,

I noticed that the Phalangites units have:
150 HP and
80 attack

While the Hoplites have
100 HP and
150 attack

The hoplites are more heavily armoured yet have weaker HP than the Phalangites?

and the Phalangites have longer spears, but weaker attack than the Hoplites?

Does anyone else think it's abit odd? Just wondering...

The idea is phalangites have long reach. They're hard to break. In fact I think sometimes the hoplites can't get past the ends of the spears.

Also, there's melee defense and missile defense, the phalangites are bad at taking shots from enemy ballista turrets.

I think one unit of phalangites can take two of hoplites, but some AIs love spamming ranged troops, so watch out for that.

The idea is phalangites have long reach. They're hard to break. In fact I think sometimes the hoplites can't get past the ends of the spears.

Ok that makes sense. That must explain why their HP is much higher than the Hoplites.



I think one unit of phalangites can take two of hoplites, but some AIs love spamming ranged troops, so watch out for that.


Makes sense. Thanks for that.

What about flanking bonuses? Obviously that's impossible with the one Phalangite brigade, but does the bonus trump raw combat power? Just to confirm - there is a flanking bonus right? I see the envelopment icon, but does that translate to an attack bonus for the flanker or defense penalty to defender? Maybe just for morale?

Its also nice to have your allies do some of the smaller fighting, saving your native manpower for the set-piece battles as a campaign against a fresh opponent begins. But there's normally more going on elsewhere when you're dealing with smaller detachments at border provinces, so its nice to have the Phalangites to send into battle knowing they'll fair relatively well, and turn your attention to another front rather than have to coordinate a flanking maneuver.

Flanking seems to be a penalty to morale of the unit being flanked.

Using infantry to flank is pretty hard and annoying. The AI is bad at it, and what will tend to "get" you is when the AI shoves 5 units of hoplites down the throat of your phalangite brigade, as they don't get stacking penalties. It only gets worse when you fight the 30-strong tribal horsemen and even worse still the 36-strong uber Persian Cavalry.

-----------

After you expand a bit, you'll have more than enough Macedonians to stock all the garrisons you want with spearmen, and more phalangites than you'll be able to feed. Getting some tribal archers, tribal/thessalian cavalry and catapaults and you're about set.

After playing the game several times imo i find it best to just go native :) since your units gain exp. I just move the phalangites to the front lines followed by a army of sheep to help quell rebellions. After a new town is taken i garrison with either native or allied spearman since the cost is 15 gold vs 30 which makes a noticeable difference when your kingdom becomes larger. Once the surrounding area is controlled the walls get torn down to reduce garisson requirements which in some cases can be 0 thus significantly reducing gold maintenance cost.

But I am sure there are multiple ways of playing the game. Have fun :).

After playing the game several times imo i find it best to just go native :) since your units gain exp. I just move the phalangites to the front lines followed by a army of sheep to help quell rebellions. After a new town is taken i garrison with either native or allied spearman since the cost is 15 gold vs 30 which makes a noticeable difference when your kingdom becomes larger. Once the surrounding area is controlled the walls get torn down to reduce garisson requirements which in some cases can be 0 thus significantly reducing gold maintenance cost.

But I am sure there are multiple ways of playing the game. Have fun :).

Thanks man.
The knocking down of the walls of non-native factions seems like a good idea. Thanks for the help. :)

The hoplites are more heavily armoured yet have weaker HP than the Phalangites?

and the Phalangites have longer spears, but weaker attack than the Hoplites?

Does anyone else think it's abit odd? Just wondering...

AFAIK, by Philipp's time, greek hoplites were quite lightly armored. The front ranks of a formation would wear linothorax and greaves, while the other usually had no real armor. The same applies to the early phalangites.