Fighting Cavalry in the Early Game

[fedos]

Am I missing something? It seems that there's no spearmen available until you've upgraded your barracks to level 4, which takes quite a while. In my first campaign (as Julii), my triarii lasted 3 or 4 battles before they were sufficiently reduced in number to no longer be effective. Then I was without spearmen and at the mercy of attacking waves of Gallic armies that each contained 1 - 3 cavalry units.

What am I missing here?

[Schloney]

Maybe Rome wasn't meant to have anti-cavalry units early on. But, your regular infantry should do okay against cav as long as they aren't surrounded and the cav is bogged down. And, of course, you can always use archers. I can't imagine Gaul having tons of heavy cav before you have the Marian reforms.

[Inquisitor Germanicus]

Barbarian, Samnite and Hoplite mercenaries provide good defense against cavalry. Other than that, use your own cavalry to counter their horsemen. Historically, the Romans counted on their allies to provide spearmen and good cavalry. While they concentrated their focus on the main body of infatry. They did that in order to win fast and efficiently. Up until they met up against the Parthians, later Sassanids and Germanic Tribes. These enemies fielded large numbers of heavy cavalry which would overwhelm the Roman heavy infantry on an open battlefield. Against the Parthians and Sassanids they concentrated on sieges, where they had the edge.

[prince_of_arfon]

Yes (to both above answers). Also, Gallic cav is pretty weak, so as long as you can stop them, even with Hastati, and flank or surround them, they should die very quickly without causing much damage. Just keep them away from your archers and skirmishers, and protect your flanks. And retrain your units, especially rare elite ones like Triarii! They should be gaining lots of experience if they survive many battles.

[Koboldnation]

2x battlelines usually do the trick for me against early cav, keep 2+ hastati behind the front ready to take re-enforce weak spots in the line and help against flanks from enemy cav, your own cavalry units can be used this way too, just dont let the enemy cav in your rear and once they are bogged down in combat, you hit them with your own cav/infantry

[SU]

The AI is really dumb in this game, and they just charge whatever they have at you. They charge their strongest units, which are the Generals, who are VERY strong and overpowered. This is good if you can handle the charge well. To kill enemy cavalry units, we should flank them and crush them in a hammer and anvil strike ith infantry. With Pre-Marian Hastati army, it really isn't too hard to fight enemy cavalry if you know how. The most ideal enemy you will be facing who has strong cavalry are the Macedonians or the Carthaginians. One tacitic I use to defeat cavalry charges is to deploy my units in 3 lines. Then, I spot which unit the cavalry is charging at, and retreat that unit. The cavalry will follow, and as soon as they get in between your lines, you should move your two flanking units to attck the cavalry. This might be a bit hard to explain, so I'll you another tactic. Basically use your range units (velites) as cannon fodder and watch the cavallry get bogged down by the fight, and take the cavalry out with your flanking units. All the while, if there is enemy infantry coming, you should send out a few hastati units to attack them and wait for your other units to finish the cavalry. I hope this helps!

[jgminglis]

Everyone's cav sucks at the biginning of the games anyways... who are you facing with good cav?

[Poth0s]

There shouldn't be any cav good enough to destroy hastati and principes this early in the game. Just have your legions in a 4-5 rank formation, not moving, facing the cav directly. Pila off. Then flank around with another unit.

Also, Romans should be able to recruit Samnite Mercs and maybe Merc Hoplites, which can destroy cav. Most mercenaries have spears and will be a good anti-cav force.

Also, you can place a cheap unit like Town Guard (which have spears, and are slightly more effective vs cav, though not much) or peasents or Velites at the front to absorb the charge (make sure the velites are near so the legionary pila can hit the cav). Charge in your infantry after that. Cav attack is good, but they have crap defense.