Count HD

[Cal-FCB]

That sucks, what you going to do, wait until January sales? You should find a cheap one at a supermarket, they always have random deals on

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[House of Flies]

Haha yeh longbows are gangsta I haven't played MW2 in a while, I was England as well though, taken most of France I believe. Was playing Empire until FM came out, Russia are good fun

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I played the Marathas. My buddy and I have a replay on the web where we annihilated the opposition. People claim that Hindu swordsmen are weak but we completely proved that wrong.

http://www.gamereplays.org/empiretot...tails&id=72994

watch it if you want.

Nice battle, did not finish all of it.

I liked your teamwork, it's teamwork I have rarely been involved in or have seen, and it worked perfectly. You managed to take two factions that were almost outclassed in every category and defeated your enemy.

Props to the Maratha player for holding the French down while they destroy the British. I was a little worried at the riskiness of such a move, as you suffered heavy casualties on your line and were at risk of breaking. This leads me to my next point,

I believe you had a stroke of good luck in that your enemies lacked the iniative you two had. The British player seemed to have not been paying attention, as he allowed his cavalry to fall into range of the Ottoman infantry, did not rspond to the Ottoman cavalry breaking his Hessians on the right, and allowed his troops to be shot at by skirmishers, only attacking at the end of the engagement with a suicide rush. The French player, in my view, had the perfect opprotunity to break the Sikh line and save his British ally.

Very good playing, you two.

[Cal-FCB]

Yeh when I first got the game I was the British of course, but the game crashed at turn 25 for some reason so I had to start again. Went with the Marathas as well, really cool faction. Getting rid of the Mughals takes some time though. Started again with Russia a few weeks before FM was out, dominated pretty nicely with them. Hindu swordsmen are awesome, I like having my rifleman fire for a bit and then withdraw, followed by a charge from the swordsmen, it's carnage

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[antonnn]

Nah apparently TV's are as cheap as they have been lately, I haven't shopped properly, just had a quick look here and there. Might be cheaper in January though, who knows. I'll decide what I'll do later.

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[House of Flies]

Yeh when I first got the game I was the British of course, but the game crashed at turn 25 for some reason so I had to start again. Went with the Marathas as well, really cool faction. Getting rid of the Mughals takes some time though. Started again with Russia a few weeks before FM was out, dominated pretty nicely with them. Hindu swordsmen are awesome, I like having my rifleman fire for a bit and then withdraw, followed by a charge from the swordsmen, it's carnage

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you are probably smarter than me in Empire: Total War. I just flank with swordsmen or use them as ambushers. Best thing that I have ever seen/done is the use of lancers in between shots. Basically, you send the lancers behind the musketeers and exchange shots with the enemy and then, you charge your lancers whilst the enemy is reloading whilst telling the musketeers to stop shooting. after the charge, quickly withdraw and then fire again.

the rifle disadvantage that marathas get is quickly forgotten.

[Cal-FCB]

Haha that sounds class, I love it when you just destroy a unit in a few seconds my favourite unit is one of the Russian ones, can't remember the name, but they have really basic grenade launchers, very fun. Used them taking a Finnish fort, killed so many defenders on the fort wall!

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[House of Flies]

Haha that sounds class, I love it when you just destroy a unit in a few seconds my favourite unit is one of the Russian ones, can't remember the name, but they have really basic grenade launchers, very fun. Used them taking a Finnish fort, killed so many defenders on the fort wall!

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greande launchers?? woah!

you mean grenadiers? or an actual grenade launching machine?

never have come across russia in online or in single player battles.

[Cal-FCB]

Hand Mortar Company, I found the name of the unit. Totally awesome, they take a while to reload but when they do.. boom! Russia are pretty cool, worth giving a go if you start a new campaign. Plenty of directions to expand. Right I'm off to bed, catch you later

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[IrvDizzle]

ok ... so I did one post, and then I decided to delete it and re-do it. because it was so jumbled. the success of the Roman manipular army vs the Spartan phalanx would depend on three things:

1. Leadership: After Alex the Great, you would be hard pressed to find a Greek/Macedonian general who could go toe to toe with the likes of Marc Antony, Julius Caesar, Sulla, or any of the generals from the Scipio family (most notably, Scipio Africanus).

2. Terrain: the phalanx was developed in the wide open fields of middle Greece, and this is where the majority of great battles were fought in Greek history. However, in Rome, after losing to the Sammutes .... Sammites ... Sammotes ... help me out here ... the Romans adapted to manipular system to deal w/ the terrain which was hilly and bumpy, not flat.

3. the Flanks: This was the key for the Romans to beating the Phalanx when they invaded Macedon and Greece. The battles where the Macedons and Greeks held their own/defeated the Romans were the battles where they protected their flanks. This is the most crucial part of the battle, and when the Romans were able to flank the hoplites, they were able to defeat the Macedons/Greeks.

So lets say that the terrain is flat and wide open, and its Scipio Africanus v Leonidas or the general who replaced Leonidas when he died, Brass-something ... Thucydides spoke highly of him but I can't find him in his book ... so the generals are even on both sides ... it all comes down to: are the Romans, using an army that consisted of the middle and upper class due to recruitment restrictions, capable of beating the well-trained, well-organized, intelligently-led Spartan? heck no. Experienced troops win the day 10 times out of 10.

the post-Marius army would put both armies closer in terms of equality but the Spartans would still be superior because the amount of professional Spartan soldiers would outnumber the number of professional Roman soldiers as the army, even after Marius' reforms, consisted of a mix of professionals and civilians. So the key factor would be terrain, if the Generals were evenly matched. if the terrain was wide-open and flat, then it would be a long-battle that could really go either way. And favour would rest with the Spartans, simply because there are more Spartans who were better trained and less likely to misinterpret their position or miss a crucial opportunity to swing the battle. but really, all the Spartans had to do was protect their flanks, and they would eventually inflict heavy casualties on the less-experienced Roman soldiers before over-powering/out-numbering the professional Roman soldiers.

the post-Caesar Augustus army, however, would have wiped the floor with the Spartans because they employed, finally, a standing cavalry that trained with the professional Roman Army. That's how the Macedonians conquered Greece, with the horse. And that's what Augustus reformed (along with the formation of the Praetorian Guard) when he became Caesar.

now, as for my point about guerrilla tactics, if the Spartans met the Romans in hilly regions/with trees and adapted their tactics to more hit'n'run and met the Romans on whatever open field they could find and allow them to use their phalanx, they would eventually wear the Romans out. all you have to do is look at the chaos that Hannibal Barça caused when he invaded the Italian peninsula with a rag-tag bunch of soldiers.

omg that took me 50 minutes to write ... thank goodness I marked the tactical/army sections in my old Thucydides, Livy, and Herodotus books.

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[House of Flies]

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correct! the bane of roman legion was the guerilla warfare. Germania defeated 3 legions, killed all of their soldiers and took the 3 roman eagles in the Battle of Teutonberg.

Samnites fought like the Greeks for the most part with the spear being the main weapon of choice. This is due to the proximity of Eprius Greek city states being close. Spartans lacked one thing in their arsenal- missile troops. They had a huge disdain for such troops and romans utilized velites (javelin throwers) as their first line in every battle to weed out the numbers. In fact, Sparta lost important battles against its rival greek city states due to its disdain for missile troops.

Though Spartans were well trained war machinery... they did not have the taste for expansion hence they were not in battles as much as Romans were. In fact when Pyrrhus invaded Italy with professional greek armies, they were stunned by the awesomeness of citizen armies of Rome.

Roman armies were highly manuverable whilst Spartan army would not be. Greek terrain is rocky and therefore they did not train with the horses either just as much as Romans did with their Equites. In fact, given the advantage that carthage had in terms of cavalry, Rome had to adapt to training improved horsemen.

If there was a real time battle between the Romans and the Spartans, I have no doubt that Romans will whoop Spartan ass because of having a more diverse and mobile army. If the terrain doesnt allow for it or Spartans are on a hill, Spartans will win no doubt in my mind.

But I love your knowledge. I am learning a lot from you.

[IrvDizzle]

I miss my Greek and Roman history classes. no matter how hungover/tired I was, I never skipped those classes (I took five of them in uni).

you're right on the Spartans not having a taste for expansion, and Greece should be very thankful for that because they would walked all over Greece's armies. Esp after the first Pelo war when they sacked Athens and then walked away after installing a puppet leader when they were at the height of their power.

Carthage had more than horses, they had elephants and were the naval power in the Med. Battling them forced the Romans to build, train, and employ a Navy.

ok ... going to work before I find more stuff in my books.

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[yusuf]

love the information irv, keep it coming.

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[Sultan]

fascinating discussion.

[Esteve]

Since when are you lads so educated? Count is the home of mindless discussion, dickheads. Went to some college for poetry lectures this morning. Sort of like an insanely dull school trip, I suppose. Thrown out early on for throwing chewing gum at a mate of mine. Wasn't really thinking & it's not like I was the only one throwing shit around. Expect some grief over this on Monday morning.

Sigh.

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[ChuckaOwns]

You crazy, crazy mofo.

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