Skirmishers, share your opinions.

RickFGS

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Skirmishers are a cheap unit, there are many types, they can be hired as mercenaries and tend to be used a lot by the AI.

Do you like them :) , dislike them :( ?

If so, why?

And how do you like to use them? :mischief:

I´ve seen some experienced skirmshires do some pretty impressive things, share your tales.

Wich ones are the best? :strength:

What should their overall role on the battle tactic be?

Give me all your thoughts on the matter, i anger for knowledge :D
 
I use Velites in front of my Hasteti on offense and defense. On offense I just plummet the enemy a lot, on defense I kill them as they advace, then pull them behind my troops.

I like Militia Cavalry though....mounted skirmishers... :)
 
Thats the classic way to use them, and prob the most effective.

Ive noticed that a rapid movement into the flank side of an enemy unit (after that unit is pinned down by your center), then holding it at a fair distance, and let the skirmishers fire, will kill more then from a front facing, because the darts will pick the enemy on their sides, also and more importantly, the side dart firing will making them route after one volley or two.

Militia cavalry is excellent for harrasing the enemy but if he as heavy infantry or cavalry holding the flanks it can become an useless unit....
 
I'm not a big fan of skirmishers. Unless the enemy has poorly armored troops--in which case you're likely to be easily victorious anyway--they don't do that much damage. They also require more babysitting than other missile troops. Bottom line, I prefer archers.

It probably is easier to get at an advantageous angle with skirmishers, though, as they're more expendable and (usually) better in melee than Cretans (which I have if I can get them). Because the shields of units only affect attacks from the front and left, maneuvering your skirmishers to the left of the enemy line after they're engaged could perhaps make them more effective.
 
With the Romans I almost never use skirmishers... I use Hastati or the cheaper Legion Cohorts to do the firing part.
If they´re Illyrians or Spaniards/Scutarii you can do pretty awesome charges in the early game... if you put them flanking a unit, they´ll first fire until they´ve run out of ammo -and not hit them on the shields, that somehow seems to hit them more- and then they´ll charge with swords. Nice!
I´ve also used Illyrians against the ram-carriers while defending palisaded cities. They can fire at them while they´re maneuvring their ram into position and they can also fire at the rearmost fighters in a breach fight. As an extreme means, they can hodl the line as well...
Militia Cavalry is good for sallying out, either of a walled city or a deep-ranked close formation like a square... they do more damage than ordinary horse archers but also have less missiles, so it´s for an in-and-out.
 
1- "I use Velites in front of my Hasteti on offense and defense. On offense I just plummet the enemy a lot, on defense I kill them as they advace, then pull them behind my troops."

2-"Because the shields of units only affect attacks from the front and left, maneuvering your skirmishers to the left of the enemy line after they're engaged could perhaps make them more effective."

3-"I´ve also used Illyrians against the ram-carriers while defending palisaded cities. They can fire at them while they´re maneuvring their ram into position and they can also fire at the rearmost fighters in a breach fight. As an extreme means, they can hodl the line as well..."

And i would like to had a 4th and for that i must illustrate it (the quality could be better, but hey, im no computer designer)

Red - enemy
Blue - You
Green- your skirmshires
X - Fighting
-> Movements
- - - Darts

In the second phase you put your skirmishers on a column formations and pass rapidly between the gaps, going for a dart launching from the rear, beiing even able to snipe out the general or just meelle attack the rear after all ammo is spent.
 

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Dreadnought said:
Nice :lol:

Only problem is if you can't fit them between the companies....

Against phalanx formations you can for sure, i ve managed it many times because they tend to open spaces while advancing, against others you just have to wait and see how it goes....
 
101rstImperial said:
Thats awesome RickFGS, I'm off to try it now, thanks & good job! :D

Thks Imperial ;) Hope you find good use for it, scutarri/hastati/principes can be used in the samme manner while the center holding line can be composed by crappy units, wich can make this a phalanx killing army on the beginning of the game.
 
Heh, actually, I play M:TW, not R:TW. It works just as good, I just need to find some god forsaken flatland..
 
Find it on a custom battle.
Why do you start with your skirmishers in the rear? I do see that our styles are different
 
Are slingers better than archers? The stats say hey are...plus I was Seleucids, hired some slingers, and the Egyptian Pharoah charged em....one volley and he was killed :lol:
 
Takhisis said:
Find it on a custom battle.
Why do you start with your skirmishers in the rear? I do see that our styles are different

They start on the rear on this tactic for 2 reasons:
1-To avoid getting tired as they will be doing a lot of movement during the main battle as you can see by the pictures, and i tend to value freshnesss a lot because i believe an weaker unit less tired withe moral up can make a lot of damage on a better one. Because even when flanked from behind, most heavy infantry can still hold the shock.

2-i only want to spend one volley or 2 at most of darts on the initial phase to soften up the charging of the enemies, saving the rest of the enemy to play on their background. But this one is discussable, because if they where droping like flies since the inital volley i wouldnt want to interrupt their fine work :) - but this doesnt seem to happen a lot.

3-(not really a reason) if i pute them starting front its not a bad ideia at all since they could lure the enemy, but then again, they would get tired.

Heavy pelstats are so good for this type of manuever ;)
 
Swiss Bezerker said:
militia cavalry is all i use, plus ballearic sligers.

Ballearic slingers are great, since you can have 2 or 4 from the intial campaign and they can kill well, on multiplayer battles i prefer archers, they kill more i think (cretan archers ahh :)), longer range, and the fire abbility is a must to scare/kill off elephants/chariots, snipe out the general and even burn down enemy onagers/scorpions or attacking siege towers/batering rams.

Of course you cant make archers up from the start , so ballearic will rule the field for quite some time.
 
Dreadnought said:
Are slingers better than archers? The stats say hey are...plus I was Seleucids, hired some slingers, and the Egyptian Pharoah charged em....one volley and he was killed :lol:

You prob hired Rhodian Slingers, they come as the ballearic, already charged up with 3 bronze experience, very good for early game.
 
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