Are Cataphracts the only unit with an alternate attack?

[drive car]

Excluding using alt on archers to force them to use their daggers.

[Myrmidon]

What do you mean by alternate attack? Every unit that uses projectile weapons can engage with their melee weapons by hold Alt-Attack. Which alternative attack for Cataphracts do you speak of? Regular Cataphracts are only melee.

[drive car]

Originally posted by Myrmidon:

What do you mean by alternate attack? Every unit that uses projectile weapons can engage with their melee weapons by hold Alt-Attack. Which alternative attack for Cataphracts do you speak of? Regular Cataphracts are only melee.

If you hold alt while right clicking with cataphracts they use maces instead of spears.

[Khorps]

Originally posted by Myrmidon:

What do you mean by alternate attack? Every unit that uses projectile weapons can engage with their melee weapons by hold Alt-Attack. Which alternative attack for Cataphracts do you speak of? Regular Cataphracts are only melee.

cataphracts can switch to maces

[Myrmidon]

Wow apologies I had no idea! Owned the game 13 years but have never really commited to a Parthia or Selucia campaign for any great length of time.

[The Bean Master]

I had no idea either, what benefit do they get from using maces? Does it improve their attack while in combat?

[Myrmidon]

Originally posted by Legalise Gay Marijuana!:

I had no idea either, what benefit do they get from using maces? Does it improve their attack while in combat?

Generally they would use them once they were in or stuck in the thick of the melee but then in game terms why would they not just switch automatically? When archers or peltasts are engaged in melee they draw their short swords automatically and can be given the order to deliberately close into melee with alt-attack but with cataphrats it's melee/melee. Maces are typically anti-armour but who knows if that's reflected.

[drive car]

Originally posted by Legalise Gay Marijuana!:

I had no idea either, what benefit do they get from using maces? Does it improve their attack while in combat?

Spears have a better charge bonus but maces do better damage if I remember correctly, so generally charge with spears and use maces if you're using them for a regular fight.

[76561198322384215]

Primary weapons do indeed have a better intital attack due to the charge bonus. Secondary attacks, for the units that have them, usually have a higher attack value as it matters towards landing a blow on the enemy. They also usually have a bettter defense value than the primary weapon. For those reasons you should always switch to secondaries in melee.

Maces, in addition to the higher hit chance, also do AP damage (armour piercing), which ignores half of the enemy armor value. Cataphracts are beast in melee not only because of their armour, but also because not many units can boast such a potent secondary, or even primary attack.

Finally, not all units have a secondary attack. Just play around a while to see which do and which don't. You can also find this information in the export_descr_units file located in the RTW data folder.