Am I using Triplex Acies wrong?

[Teutonic Ritterin]

so my Roman army is composed of:
5 Velites
5 Hastati
5 Principes
2 Triarii
2 Equites/Auxillary Cavalry
1 General

in every battle,I put Velites in front,Hastati in Middle,Principes is behind,Triarii in left flank,and Cavalry in Right Flank.

Every time the my line of Hastati clash,I never let my principes Idle,I always keep on watch for enemy weaknesses,and my hastati statuses.

often my victories are not by how Roman Triplex Acies works (Tire the enemy with hastati,and finish them off with principes) my victories are like using principes as a versatile force,find where the enemy is weak and bring 2 Units of principes to help my hastati push the enemy back,and then keeping the pressure by hitting on their flank.

When the enemy is trying to flank from the Right (Where my Cavalry is,but they wouldn't be there as they're dealing with missile units),I just bring another 2 closest Principes to deal with them.

The Triarii in the left always hold incoming flanking enemies,and to be honest,their job are just defeat the flanking enemy,and flank themself,or join up with the Principes and hastati to encircle the enemy.

this maybe a personal experience,but most of my battles are kinda unfair,my army has the size of 2700 Men,and most of my enemies always brings 2 full stack of Cheap to Middle armies,but well...Most of my victories are just "Heroic" Victories,I didn't kill much,just trying to rout them as fast as I can.and kill their general who should be a Oathsworn,Hoplites,Elephants,or Even Royal Spartans with the remaining ammo of my velites,

[Kunta Kinte]

The formation should be Hastati then Principes and Triarii in the third line. Velites need do be in the front and cav on both flanks. Use the hastati until the enemy get tired or your Hastati loose more that 40% of thier unit, then you pull back your Hastati and put your Princepes in. Keep your Triarii for the last line of defence only. That would be how the Romans would fight thier battles.

[Die Eisenfaust am Lanzenschaft]

Also note that the game engine does not work well with these tactics. I usualy went with 2 Triarii, 4 Principes, 4 Hastati, 4 cav, 4, velites.
And don't use the games version make atleast a units distance between Hastati and put a principes in the back/middle. Beacuse the suspicion also was that when the battle lines engaged the principes would rush up in betwen the hastati and attack the enemy formation in the side.

The enemy lines usualy bend around the hastati and that allows for the principes to attack their side, that was one of the ways the romans fought, supposedly of course. If you want you could download a mod that allows for 41 units, you can make much more accurate legions.

Edit: I made a formation example out of squares, but it collapsed so i just deleted it all.


sad...

[Teutonic Ritterin]

Originally posted by Riparonni:

The formation should be Hastati then Principes and Triarii in the third line. Velites need do be in the front and cav on both flanks. Use the hastati until the enemy get tired or your Hastati loose more that 40% of thier unit, then you pull back your Hastati and put your Princepes in. Keep your Triarii for the last line of defence only. That would be how the Romans would fight thier battles.

That's the problem,I will use any units when there's an opening.
an enemy is wavering on the right side,Principe Rush!
my Triarii beat the enemy in the left flanks,Disable Formation attack,and attack from the flank.

Or I've seen many online battles in youtube.

[kekkuli]

Hmm well what i did i just went with 8 principes, 4 velites, 4 cavalry, 2 triarii, general and a ballista. Who needs hastati <.< (unless you are using them for historical reasons..?)

It's not so much about your formation in this game as it was in real life. It's about how you react to situations in battlefield and and how well you micro your troops.

[bbolto]

Looks to me like your in-game tactics are sound. No, the game doesn't exactly reflect historical tactics.

When I play Romans I use a semi-historical formation just because of roleplaying with sort of a checkered line, hastati up front, principes/ socii extraordinarii in the back, and a triarii sitting in back by the general and the siege engine if I have one. Skirmishers in front of the infantry line and cav on the flanks. The in-game triplex acies formation is too deep for my purposes.

In game it works pretty much how you're describing your fights. Eventually you'll start running into better troops (if you want to ensure this, expand at a more leisurely pace)

[Hipster Hadrian]

three rows of infantry, hastati front, Principe second and triarii third, cav to flanks. And the Velites in front