Total War: Rome II - Macedon vs Rome (Online Battle #19)

Hey, what's up dudes? This is Oakley, and I'm coming back and I'm gonna be playing an online multiplayer as usual and yeah Sorry for the slight delay. I am busy with school having a lot of midterms and actually I hope you guys are doing not too poorly in school and that you find the time to Play Rome 2 they've done a lot of patches a lot of changes And you know I still find multiplayer fun And I think it's pretty rewarding, and I'm just happy you guys are coming back for these battles Also, I wanted to make an announcement over on the Total War Network if you guys don't know that's a channel I had tried to start with a friend of mine And what we tried to do was sort of make it a hub for a bunch of different YouTube channels So what we have is like a buffet of a bunch of channels And stuff like that so you can link to all the various people who are in the Total War YouTube scene and find out a lot of people besides Prince of Macedon and Eryth Carthage by going there I'm sort of trying to plug it because it's something that over the summer I wanted to start and I was really happy about it, and how it was going but Recently just because of the amount of work I've had I haven't been able to put as much time into it so legendary Vendetta Who was the friend I was talking about has been able to take care of it? He's been doing a lot to help out over there, and I wanted to just give him a shout-out Thanks so much for helping me man And I hope you guys can go over there and just try and expand your horizons with Total War content what I also did is I cast a couple games. I still haven't finished it, but I did some casting of the Semifinals and the finals of a flash tournament with I think it was 42 people that was put on by Total War Network So it was a combination of a bunch of YouTube personalities and also some people from the community So if you missed out on that go ahead and run over to a Total War Network And you'll see some of the final games, so it's pretty cool. I had a fun time casting that and yeah anyways Thanks so much for your time. Let's get back to this battle so here. I'm playing just a quick match that's what I've tended to do right now and What I found is I kind of like Macedon I like the build I have here What you see Macedon players usually go with her is a lot of spears Hardly anyone actually brings skirmishers, so I just decide that I don't want to do a full out spam So what I usually do is try and bring it relatively big mix Something you'll see a lot of Macedonian players do is also bring cavalry my opponent here is gonna be a very good opponent And he's gonna be bringing the Roman faction here But he's uh he's very wary of the forest here because he knows that uh you know you can only see part of my forces Here, and I'm slowly gonna detach cavalry one by one here and try and make him think that I've revealed everything you can see So he knows he obviously knows that I've hidden guys on the flank on the right so this guy knows What's up? And I'm always happy to see opponents who don't fall for these these tricks that I do because you know I always have my standard thing where I deploy in the open and then they have flanking forces So it's nice to see a guy who's competent enough to call me out on it And even if he does I can show you that you can still get an edge by having these forces here You'll see just Why I do this because even with the player who knows that it's there it does pose some advantages I would say and it was what my main goal is here is to push out on the side And I'm trying to get around his flank here I know his elephants are there so I'm gonna push forward with a group of one of my slinger or not slingers But one of my skirmishers my Peltas and try and force his elephants back as his line is gonna try and engage me here I'm gonna come up on the flank now one of the reasons why I get these Peltas units is Because I find they're actually pretty effective with their armor penetration And if you get enough follies like just two three volleys into the flanks of one of these Roman units You can actually do a serious amount of damage to it and especially when I'm coming in from the side And he has to reform to face me That's perfect. Especially also if I'm backing up with spears because that means he can't he doesn't want to charge my spears head-on So he's gonna try and move around the flanks But the whole time he's moving around the flanks is when I can use my skirmishers who are hidden on the inside To do damage to his forces he'll see me doing that here And a target is gladiators because I know they have low armor And so the Peltas are gonna be that much better And I'm trying to bait his units around here And you can see the forest here is gonna be dangerous for me because he has so many units there plus elephants in the vicinity So you can see right there. I got a volley off. I'm gonna put those guys in spear and then slowly start falling back I know that I can't face his Romans, and he knows he can't actually face me head-on So what he's gonna be doing is doing a big push around the side So I'm gonna have to draw my forces back on the right you can see I'm taking advantage Of the fact that his forces are moving in order to charge these guys and hammer and anvil some of his forces here You can see my flank attack is working well because I had a heavy spear component on the left It's gonna be essentially a wall. He's gonna keep marching around that wall, but on the right I think I have the numerical advantage because I have these cavalry here I have more units on the right and I have these Royal Peltas who can come in and help me with the fight so you can see that I'm gonna be getting an advantage You can see his forces on the left are starting to shift They can't engage directly and all the while my skirmishers are throwing their spears at him So that's why I would say skirmishers are still viable in Rome, too You don't see a lot of people bring them But this is the reason why I bring them is because it allows me to do these sort of sort of actions It's kind of like when you think of the hammer and anvil Tactic which is basically your line of infantry is supposed to be the anvil your cavalry are the the hammer that I kind of Use the the spears to be that anvil, but then I also have instead of just cavalry hitting the backs I have skirmishers. So I'm not sure what the analogy to that is, but it's kind of like a Change to the hammer and anvil Strategy anyways, you can see here because he's microing so much I'm able to get more and more advantages on this side and he threw in his elephants there Which is exactly what I want to see because I can get my spears into that melee Over here. He's trying to get completely around my flank, but he as always can't charge the front and Now I'm gonna pull out those cavalry over on that side. I kind of forgot about them Over here. However, you can see that these guys are gonna charge into his general It's gonna force more of his forces on the left to fall back and it's gonna keep him from Crouching on me you can see he's still trying to wrap around me But I can run just as quickly backwards as he can and anytimes he's gonna get exposed. I'm gonna have my Peltas just do damage to him. It's over here. I'm baiting and Moving his guys around and I have again those skirmishers sitting right there and they're gonna have a I'm talking about the right You can see that line of spears and Peltas and behind them are there's two skirmishers and they're just throwing all their stuff at the elephant So that's what I'm talking about about this not hammer and anvil, but the anvil and spear It's kind of the technique I'm using here. His guys can go ahead and engage me if they want I'm just gonna go ahead and melee up you can see he doesn't want to charge directly at me and any Time he doesn't want to do that is when I can just throw in more of my Peltas These guys are gonna defend here and you usually I would say want cavalry movements Around your opponent if he's trying to flank you you threaten him from the back and keep him from flanking so you can see that's What I'm doing on the right to keep his spears from getting effectively around me. I'm feigning a charge from back with my cavalry Over here. He's forced to move his forces all the way back towards me But you can see as opposed to the long Roman line that he would have had before where he could have outflanked me he's kind of all having to collapse in column form and so he's not getting the The advantage that he otherwise thought he would have of flanking around me with superior numbers He's kind of forced to attack me head-on and that's something I'm willing to accept because you can see right here I have these javelin men doing damage to his forces that are engaged his spears here are attacking my spears head-on and I have royal Peltas and other units engaged with his forces right there. So that's gonna be fine over here However, his cavalry have found a gap and so I'm gonna have to fend them off He's gonna start going right after my skirmishes, which is a very good move. He basically shot the gap right there But at the same time I am doing pretty well. I'm keeping his spearmen right there from engaging with my guys so I'm gonna just swoop around them and These guys are gonna start to engage in the fight. You can see over here things are starting to change He got one cavalry unit in which was I think a brilliant move It allows him to start forcing my spear wall apart and now he's gonna use his generals rally ability to inspire his troops right here I'm gonna try and get my guys engaged and hammer an anvil into them. My spears right here still throwing their spears into the combat I'm gonna target his spearmen over there and I can see on the left that he's coming for me straight on So if he's gonna do that, I'm gonna have to move some cavalry in to reinforce at the same time However, he does have more and more units getting around the flanks of my forces So this is starting to be a problem. Take a look at the left He has cavalry in it amongst my men my spears in the center of that globber out of formation They're not gonna be super effective I'm gonna try and pull those a cavalry on the right out, but his elephants and his general charging in so that's gonna be a problem However on the left I am able to get a pretty sick hammer and anvil strike on his guys right here Except when I did that ability all of a sudden my unit stopped not sure what that was about His spearmen right there is gladiators charged my men So I'm gonna withdraw one of them and start pulling out my cavalry try and do more hammer and anvils He's kind of dragging his general through to my skirmishers He's making sure he's knocking them out And this is where it's starting to become a problem for me is because you can see a lot of stuff is starting to blink The reason I think this is is because I forgot for some reason to bring a leadership general for some reason it It changes that the generals every time you reset your army at least it does for me So if I had a leadership general I would have popped the rally ability and that would have shored up my men You can see the guys on the north or the eastern side of this map the guys on the right side of the screen are Starting to fail. He's mopping up my men That's gonna be a problem for these forces here, which are still engaged with my guys You can see the resilience of his legions over here are making it so that his guys on the right can wrap up that flank And start reinforcing. He's gonna get a nice hammer and anvil off on my general And I think I do have kind of an advantage over here if left to my own I would be able to win but as always The problem comes with the reinforcements that's kind of the later stages of a battle is once you're fully engaged it's who can wrap up one flank and come to the Aid of your other flank. So what I'm trying to do with one of my last cover units here is free up my men here I know if I can free up my general unit here That'll basically hold up his infantry push and allow me to finish off these guys here form a spear wall and then face his guys Again and bring some of these gentlemen back into the fight Because I know if I can get a solid spear wall forming up against his guys I can go into a defensive formation and use my remaining Peltas to do some damage Of course, they're kind of out of spears. So I'm gonna have to use them very effectively and see right here his guys are all engaged with mine and Basically, my units have lost cohesion. So that's gonna be the main problem. Of course with the Macedonian units and also of course the Hellenic units is once you lose formation Then that's when it all starts to go downhill because these Roman units excel a close quarter combat once they can get faster spears That's when they're going to start doing a lot of damage to you. So I think my opponent did a very good job of Responding to me And I think where it came down to it is he didn't engage all his forces into a mosh pit He got his Calvary through some of the small gaps in my forces. And what that did is it allowed him to basically Get rid of my skirmishers or at least nullify them and it also disrupted some of my formations which allowed him to attack from the front and Perhaps if I had kept all my forces together, I would have done a little bit better But you know, I kind of have trouble doing that I really really like having forces dispersed in the beginning and I think it did pretty well I think if I had faced him head-on, he would have just not engaged from the front and flanked around me And it would have been harder for me who was concentrated to then counter him but because I Deployed one side on the left He tried to surround that and then I came out with the hidden wing It kind of allowed me to get around his flank And so that's kind of what I do that but you can see here against a good player He was still able to hold me off What I'm trying to do at this point is rally my forces try and form again another spear wall face off against his guys And it's working with some of my units But these guys are just gonna start cracking as he racks wraps around the flank These guys are not getting their spears down in time. And I wish I had my general still alive I wish he had been a leadership general. This would have been a little bit better Anyways, his Praetorians are doing very well, and he's just gonna throw in the rest of his forces right here So thanks so much for my opponent. He did a great job That was a really fun battle and I really like playing against these skilled opponents So thank you guys for watching and again, go ahead and check out and also I have the blood and gore DLC on I think it's very very cool. I was thinking of doing a compilation of it But it's so awesome. Very very cool when you get up close. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and yeah Go ahead and check out those videos on Total War Network. Thanks so much. See you guys next time