Chapter 7: Infantry

[^Marcus Cornelius^]

7. Infantry

7.1. Light Infantry

Light Infantry has almost no use in MP games.
The only real tactical use could be to draw enemy shots to avoid better melee units being hit. They could also be used to fill any remaing unused unit slots of your 20 …
These are peasants, slaves, raiders …

7.2. Melee Infantry

..7.2.1. General Overiew

Melee troops are the backbone of the army.
They represent the main front of the army in the central part of the battle: the melee.
Winning the melee phase means winning the game. Unless your stategy consists of consciously evading melee and tire and weaken enemy with shots and runs. Something like that was done by Partians at Carrae.
So, if you are chosing infantry troops to win a melee phase, be sure of what tasks they can perform and which are their weakness and strength points.

The primary factors to keep in mind in choosing melee units are:
- Armour
- Shield
- Defensive Skill
- Attack Factor with javelin, darts and pila
- Attack in Melee Factor
- Armour piercing weapon
- Morale

Before Melee
With more armour and shield your units will die slower under missile shots. But try always to keep your costly melee units away from these shots.
If your melee units have throwable weapons they will also have an attack factor with these weapons. These are deadly weapons. If you have some weapons to be thrown try always to throw them before engaging in hand to hand. Enemy will suffer heavy losses and his capability to resist to the melee fight will be substantially reduced.

During Melee
With more Defensive Skill + Shield + Armour your units will die at slower rate during hand to hand. The less they die the most they can last the fight and kill enemies. If your units have armour piercing capability, armour and shield of the enemy will count less.
With more attack in melee factor, your units will kill faster enemy units in hand to hand.
With a good morale, your units will face the enemy longer and stand for heavier losses before rout. I.e they will hold the line better and longer.

Melee troops could be of these types:
- Swords
- Swords with javelin, darts, pila
- Axes
- Berserkers.

..7.2.2. Swords
Swords are the base of heavy infantry units. The backbone of the army. They have strong combat factor. They are always good to fight spearmen, and could even withstand cavalry charge in front. Usually they have good armour and shield protection. Some of them (barbarian) can perform shield wall and get more protection and a better defensive overall factor.
They could be classified in four:
Low Class: steppe swordsmen, gothic warriors.
High Class: sword heerban, choosen steppe swordsmen, sassanid sugundian, choosen swordsmen.
High Class with missile: comitatenses, plumbatarii, romano-british legionaries.
Outstanding: first cohort comitatenses.

..7.2.3. Axes
Barbarian factions have axes too. In melee axes are very good: they have armour piercing factor. Their cost is low if compared with sword performance and cost. They have less protection against missile shots.
These are choosen axemen, golden horde, axe heerban.

..7.2.4. Berserkers

Deadly. They feel no fear and fight till dead. They scare enemies and can provoke collapse of enemy frontline. But they are costly and not protected with armour or shield. So keep them away from shots and use them wisely.
After few seconds they enter a melee they get …. berserkered. You lost control. That is not precisely good, but you have not to be worried about what they are doing. Let them kill enemies and look at other units.
Sometimes they are banned from games. So do not base all your combat skill in using many berserkers.

7.3. Spearmen
The task for spears is to stop cavalry. They have a bonus in fighting cavalry. To have an idea of their anti-cav capability: a spearmen unit costing 400 denarii can stop a cavalry unit costing 1000 denarii and more. Spearmen are beaten easily by swords and axes. They rout quickly if charged in the back by heavy cavalry.

Anyway not all spearmen are equal. Some of them are of good quality and can hold a front line for sometime even against axes. Here is a classification.
Low Class (cost<400): these spearmen can be used against cavalry with good result, if at full strength and not tired. They will rout easily if engaged by melee infantry and overwhelmed in numbers by heavy cavalry. These are levy spearmen, steppe and horde spearmen, warband spearmen, keel, limitanei, hillmen, mountainmen.
Medium Class (400<=cost<600): these spearmen can be used against cav with very good performance. They cannot hold frontline long against melee infantry. These are legio lanciarii, foederati infantry, heavy steppe spearmen, gothic spearmen.
High Class (cost>=600): these very good units can beat many heavy cavalry at a time if charged frontaly, and can hold the frontline for longer time even against melee troops. But they need help in doing that because they cannot win the melee phase and after some minutes they will fall under sword and axe strikes. These are auxilia palatina and bosphoran spearmen.