sparta has got to be the most boring faction...

[DrwHem]

ive tried a few times now to play a sparta campaign. i always get about 50 turns into it and realise that the units i have will pretty much be the only units i get to use. sparta has the best hoplites in the game...and thats it. hoplites are a great defensive unit but they arnt much for attacking.
their cavalry is terrible. their skirmishers are terrible. theyr pikemen are average.
pitted against a well balanced athens army i only manage to get phyric victories. my hoplite wall will hold but my skirmishers get wiped out by the much better peltats. my cavalry flanking manuvers get destroyed by the superior shock cavalry.
There had to be more tto sprtan warfare than hoplites wasnt there?

[Futurama Fan]

Unfortunately, Sparta is a defensive heavy infantry faction with no cav or archers to really speak of. sorry 'bout that.

[Führer]

Originally posted by DrwHem:

ive tried a few times now to play a sparta campaign. i always get about 50 turns into it and realise that the units i have will pretty much be the only units i get to use. sparta has the best hoplites in the game...and thats it. hoplites are a great defensive unit but they arnt much for attacking.
their cavalry is terrible. their skirmishers are terrible. theyr pikemen are average.
pitted against a well balanced athens army i only manage to get phyric victories. my hoplite wall will hold but my skirmishers get wiped out by the much better peltats. my cavalry flanking manuvers get destroyed by the superior shock cavalry.
There had to be more tto sprtan warfare than hoplites wasnt there?

haha yeah sparta doesnt have much unit variety. Im playing a legendary campaign with them and they have the worst start by far. As for losing, i havent fought many hellenic factions, i managed to get every hellenic faction to join me and fight carthage and her allies, making a world war. I drea that i got to fight macedon, they have so many armies

[☆ Ag1ad ☆]

That's why you should play with some mods which add more unit variety.

[Swimming Samurai]

Pikes are average? arnt they the only guys with 60 healths and carry pikes? they are atleast better than normal pikemen by a long shot.

Other than that, yes they suck balls

[Fear2288]

From a historical perspective the Spartan faction's roster in Rome 2 makes perfect sense.

In a nutshell, Greeks from the 8th up through the 5th century BC idolized and relied upon the hoplite - though they certainly knew about and occastionally used skirmishers and cavalry. There was nothing more heroic and "manly" then being a hoplite and since most city-states' forces were hoplite-centric it brought an air of competitive "equality" to the battlefield. Just like any athletic sport (which the Greeks LOVED), victory or defeat was decided by the strength, skill, intelligence, willpower, and bravery of the men - not by military tech or who had the better arms and armor.

The hoplite and specifically the phalanx also became a respresentation of the evolving polis socio-political culture but that's another matter.

This style worked for the Greeks for a couple hundred years until Phillip II/Alexander and the Macedonians came along and wiped the floor with the known world with a new style of warfare that introduced pikes and re-emphasized a varied military force composed of heavy infantry, skirmishers, light infantry, and cavalry.

From that point forward the hoplite started to lose its dominant favor in Greek militaries as more and more city-states started to experiment with and use skimishers, horsemen, and light infantry. And while most made the transition to the new breed of warfare Sparta, as was their conservative nature, continued to rely on the hoplite and kept that idolized and heroic status alive for their Spartiates (Spartan citizens). So while citizens were first-and-foremost hoplites the Spartans relegated the new and different roles to the less deserving - i.e. the Helots and the Perioikoi.

Thus, that is why the Spartans in Rome 2 have the best hoplites but weaker skirmisher and cavalry units.

[Kayeka]

And knowing is half the battle!

Which doesn't make the Spartans any better, unfortunately. Their inability to field anything decent other than hoplites basically turns them into very resilient punching bags.

You might be able to add a little more unit variety during the campaign using mercenaries and client states, but that's hardly an ideal solution.

[Jonboy]

Why dont you use some mods OP? There are tons of good ones that turn the Spartans into the coolest and deadliest faction.

[CaptGasworthy]

i find sparta easy to play, and i play on very hard,

[[EU]DrTruman]

This is why i play Macedon and find big satisfaction from combining phalanxes with good cavalry, usually 2/3 pikemen phalanxes and 1/3 cavalry. I use hammer and anvil tacti which is totally historical and works so well against enemies even double or triple my numbers. Then, last but not least, i like to see big stacks of pike phalanxes marching in order with that "uh ah uh ah" (from a mod i guess).

[CaptGasworthy]

Originally posted by DrTruman:

This is why i play Macedon and find big satisfaction from combining phalanxes with good cavalry, usually 2/3 pikemen phalanxes and 1/3 cavalry. I use hammer and anvil tacti which is totally historical and works so well against enemies even double or triple my numbers. Then, last but not least, i like to see big stacks of pike phalanxes marching in order with that "uh ah uh ah" (from a mod i guess).

I want a mod to make hoplites, pikes and etc do that cheer from the movie Alexander in the battle of guagemela, that was an epic scene

[Beef Supreme]

Originally posted by Fear2288:

From a historical perspective the Spartan faction's roster in Rome 2 makes perfect sense.

In a nutshell, Greeks from the 8th up through the 5th century BC idolized and relied upon the hoplite - though they certainly knew about and occastionally used skirmishers and cavalry. There was nothing more heroic and "manly" then being a hoplite and since most city-states' forces were hoplite-centric it brought an air of competitive "equality" to the battlefield. Just like any athletic sport (which the Greeks LOVED), victory or defeat was decided by the strength, skill, intelligence, willpower, and bravery of the men - not by military tech or who had the better arms and armor.

The hoplite and specifically the phalanx also became a respresentation of the evolving polis socio-political culture but that's another matter.

This style worked for the Greeks for a couple hundred years until Phillip II/Alexander and the Macedonians came along and wiped the floor with the known world with a new style of warfare that introduced pikes and re-emphasized a varied military force composed of heavy infantry, skirmishers, light infantry, and cavalry.

From that point forward the hoplite started to lose its dominant favor in Greek militaries as more and more city-states started to experiment with and use skimishers, horsemen, and light infantry. And while most made the transition to the new breed of warfare Sparta, as was their conservative nature, continued to rely on the hoplite and kept that idolized and heroic status alive for their Spartiates (Spartan citizens). So while citizens were first-and-foremost hoplites the Spartans relegated the new and different roles to the less deserving - i.e. the Helots and the Perioikoi.

Thus, that is why the Spartans in Rome 2 have the best hoplites but weaker skirmisher and cavalry units.

yeh, nobody cares, this is a game