They were til they fought Rome and got slaughtered. They would shoot all their arrows and the romans would just block and wait. Romans didn't return fire so the horse archer hordes couldn't recycle ammo.
@@padmanabhanvaidyanathan7182 It's also how we Hungarians used horse archers...and literally every nation in the world who used horse archers in a large scale. It's not unique.
@@trollege9618 the cataphracts did most of the damage with hit and run attacks the archers just held them in place and because crassus is a moron he put his army in the worst possible position to fight back
@@RoyalRegimentofScotland It's called fog of war, and the Roman military method was to learn after combat. You're under the assumption that he had perfect knowledge at all times.
Romans handled horse well from the early republic and the Byzantines dealt with them easily. Cahnae was essentially an ambush against an exhausted army. If they were so OP they would have been as rapidly used as gunpowder. The Huns and Mongols were elite fighters with incredible leaders, and noob historians dont realise this is decisive. There were countless steppe archers that were a non-issue over the centuries
@@randomdude8202 Facts, given a clear path to Rome... well, even the Legions would've had a rough time dealing with various invaders and their tactics. Yes the Legions were amazing, but still, not invincible
@@randomdude8202 Europe had superior tech, superior strategy, and home advantage. And if you can't fight them because of damp weather, lmao you're pathetic.
@@rockstar450 can't believe man said history noobs 😂, I mean I sort of agree with your point but just saying history noobs completely cancels out all the logic
I love to travel in Ukraine, beautiful country and awesome people. Also when travelling on a bus, the bumps and holes in the road will make sure, that you don't miss your destination if you sleep. It's like BUMP! "Ouch wtf! Oh we're here!"
@@Cecilia-ky3uw Horse archers remained an extremely potent force on the battlefield (both Eurasian Steppe and American Great Plains Native) until the invention of the Revolver (which allowed you to take down 6 horse archers before reloading [where as before where archers could easily shoot more than muskets])
The Mongol horse archers weren’t why they were so dominant. It was their generals, elite troops and multi-ethnic approach to warfare, logistics and recon. Even on foot and melee cavalry they would have achieved the same thing.
@@josephdowey1302 Rome best back horse archers for 2000 years with no problem. There was something special about the Huns and Mongols. They had the most experienced and disciplined forced in their eras but despite the hell steppe archers create, they never outlast. Though I believe the Mongols collapsed due to their atrocities being so vile nobody would assimilate with them, the proof is look how big their empire was and how little influence exists today.
@@helikos1 ooops, bad choice of words, I admit ; my intent was to laugh with him, as per your find. It should have been: "well, he is the Spiffing Brit after all, what you expect ?" But I was in a dual chat, so my comment went into a mistake; I will change it, since it is aggressive, although unintentional.
Phalanx pikemen set in rows in the corner of the map is also a fun strategy. Using the map boundaries to force the ai to charge headlong into pikes is 👍
This is what I always did with greeks... Would be vulnerable to those amounts of horse archers, but if Spiff didn't use arcade battles they would run out of arrows before my formation is broken.
*This horse archer strategy can be taken to the extreme in Total War: ATTILA; the White Huns faction have a unit called the Spet Xyan Archers, and they’re completely overpowered.*
@@ahmadtarek7763 The point I think op was making is that spet xyon archers are horse archers with 70 armor, 70% missile block chance and melee stats that rivals some elitebmelee infantry while being *light* cavalry. See the issue?
@@martijnoerlemans765 Well. In common speach yes, but to decimate means to kill one tenth. Normally it wouldn't matter, but when talking about rome it does, seeing as "decimate" comes from the roman practice of having legions kill every tenth man in events of desertion or retreat.
@@kristianl7117 Yeah I am perfectly aware of the meaning in Latin or in the historical context. But as you stated nowadays to decimate is to nearly wipe out so my point still stands
@@martijnoerlemans765 I just feel it matters when talking about roman history. And even though the meaning is changing, the original meaning still stands. People have just been using it wrong for a long time.
The enemy: Sieging my city with a huge army against my scrambled milita force My milita force: Has them javelin wolf boys and a horde of milita infantry
The Mongols would have loved guns. They were always up for stealing military technology, improving it and using it effectively. the generals they had are thought to be some of the best generals in history.
Berber & Bedouin tribal Guerilla's from north Africa did use bolt action rifles from Horseback against Colonial troops / Abdel Krim & Omar Mukhtar caused the Spanish, French & Italians lots of trouble and dead troops fighting that way
@@essaadeel3676 Wrong / Ghenghis did Command his armies like a *Field marshal* commanding an entire front, Commanding multiple Generals on that front while Subutai commanded only around 10-20% of the entire mongol army at any given time / So along with Genghis, many commanders are completing multiple different tasks at once, each having several divisions for their required task
well, rifles didn't exist till like the mid 19th century, and even then they were still muskets, so it was hard af to reload on horseback. Cavalry tend to use carbines instead which were shorter guns and easier to reload, but that has less range than the infantrymen muskets, so you can see how bad an all cavalry army would be in this period. Cavalry still had their place, but def not as main battle line units. Real life example would be the battle of the pyramids when the mounted mamelukes got utterly destroyed by the french infantrymen.
Some remarks: - Romans being bodied by light horse archers is not anachronistic. Just ask Crassus how well fighting the Parthians worked out! - The Phalanx is not a anti-cavalry formation. It is a anti-infantry formation - that is actually uniquely vulnerable to flanking by cavalry. The Phalanx is a formation of extremes: A Phalanx from the front is the single deadliest thing in that age. Fighting a well ordered Phalanx from the front is akin to charging into a machinegun nest. The only one that can beat a phalanx from the front, is a better phalanx. Even roman heavy infantry can at best hope to hold it's ground. I won numerours 20 units siege battles against the AI with like 6 Militia Hoplites arrayed in a street. However if a phalanx formation is broken, disordered or attacked from anywhere but the front it is basically dead. The average Hoplite is a crappy spearmen with a really good formation. - the Spartans are a elite hoplite trooptype. It will not fare any better against the legendary horse archer spam, because of hte Phalanx weaknesses but they are still a level above "Armored Hoplites".
Corner them with heavy cav at one map's corner then close in for the kill. In Perisno mod m&b-w with large armies (300+ ) I make two lines of80 heavy cav advance (not attack) the other line of also 80 heavy cav, in pincer movement, till all horse archers are boggled up in one corner: then the chop-chop begins...
@@krixpop In Perisno I spam elven archer units and nothing even remotely gets close, 200 archers vs 600 men of various types trying their best to even crest the hill in front of them before getting sniped by elite archers on the opposite hill. The end result is roughly 400 of their guys dead, with 200 routed and my loses being about 20 or so from enemy archers. I love just abusing the enemy in those situations, though suppose depending on the map, this could not work as well. Though it's even worse for the enemy in the case of sieges. And I still have PTSD from trying to take the fountain hall from the realm of the falcon, which did not go well let me tell you, I lost about a thousand guys in taking that city, it was rough.
there were two things that at least attempted to make horse archers balanced in the original: limited ammo, and you can´t rush cities without a spy opening the gate for you, and even then you could block the gate..... what am i talking about horse archers were never blanced in rome total war
You can counter hoplites easily with 2 groups of heavy cavalry too- it's riskier, but you just feint them on one side, then charge into the rear with a group of heavy cavalry and you can take out the hoplites with very low casualties
I'd say that the only issue with horse archers in the original game was the absolutely horrendous pathfinding. Now that this issue has been kind of minimised, the horse boys have their full potential unlocked.
Ah good old times. I remember playing the original with the Seleucid faction and realizing they are totally broken. I stopped 6 full stacks of roman legions with just phalanxes stacked in a single street. 3 units stacked onto each other and another 3 behind them (just in case they actually manage to defeat the first stack of 3 (they never did)). The bigger cities had only 2 entrances to the main square which made it even easier to defend. The most fun I had later on after watching a documentation about the battle of Waterloo and how the kare formation (or infantry square formation) was the most effective one every made for people who had spears or bayonets. I tried it out on open battle with again phalanxes and a few archers in the middle. Just stack them somewhere in the corner of the map. 1 full army defeated 3 roman legions. Was absolutely glorious!
I don't remember this, but I do remember AI defenders sallying forth from a large city with an army consisting of three peasants and a cat. The cat was the most dangerous unit.
Not necessarily more. Outmaneuver them with light infantry and they'll be slaughtered easily. Armored infantry with shields to tank arrows and let them run dry can help but isn't required.
I can't remember how but there's a way to farm the yin or yangs without having to battle with the other groups. I think it was ordering your melee unit to hit a rock or a 🌳
This is actually historically accurate. And i just did a gameplay with everything on max difficulty with the Parthians, it was a walk in the park, 90% of the battles were heroics victories. the only thing that can give you trouble are Chariots and Elephants. Chariots can decimate your entire horse arche army of you arent carefull. And they are actually faster, so you are to be very carefull with them, and elephants are damage sponges, and they can also kill your entire army if you arent carefull. But other than that, it is just going in circles around them. easy win. The only ones that gave me real troubles were the Scythians, because their horse archers are even better and they also use them in large amounts, so most of the time i could not do the "circle" on them.
As soon as you mentioned Scythia, I just knew it was gonna be something with the horse archers. Thought it might be something with it when ya said they were unreachable and had long range. This is gonna be fun to watch!
Spiff is one of the only youtubers where I pause to go to the bathroom come back un pause and the first this game I hear it “And there all going to die” in a calm British accent
Meanwhile in the recruitment base: Seargent - You there, what is better, coffee or tea? Recruit - Coffee, of course! Seargent - OK, we have another perfect volunteer for the first wave on suicide charges... Next!
@@Gokes93 if that was an intended mechanic that would be great. but having people stand around and get stabbed while not fighting back isnt very accurate.
Yeah, Sythia is op, I remember when I used to play the campaing in the original Rome 2, they'd send full upgraded horse arrcher armies at me, the only way to counter it is with an army of mosly citizen cavalry or equites on auto reslove, if not you dont stand a chance.
@@TeeBar420 Nomad horse civilisations never used the Chariot. They've been using the same HA tactics for thousands of years, possible even before the Bronze age, if not, early Bronze Age. Some modern horse gear have been recorded to be invented before the wheel.
Reminds me of an old game called empire earth. You'd just park your whole army and send a few calvary in to get the other armies attention and pull them back to your army. Their whole army wouldn't come all at once. It was based on vision. Which ever units saw you would chase you. Mostly your archers would pick them off as they chase your few calvary.
Plot twist: the Mongols were able to time travel, saw Spiffing Brit's overpowered bow-horsy strats, and used that as the inspiration to take over the world like they did.
The Italian factions in general in Medieval 2 are sort of an exploit. They already start with large cities in the richest area of the map, their basic militia spear units are good and have free upkeep, and many of their best units come from cities instead of castles. It’s realistic, but kind of throws off the mechanics of the game compared to all the other factions, LOL.
kiting is always a good tactic to use on everything cuz hey remember " fight the enemy on ur Rules, ur Place with Numbers Ideal to you " - some anime character or Sun Tzu I forgot
For those wondering how you counter large numbers of horse archers: 1. Infantry with shields at the front, since they won't take much comparative damage. These are here to zone the enemy horses out, so they can't shoot at unshielded units without risking themselves. 2. Slingers are almost a hard counter, since the Horse Archers don't have time to dodge, don't have much armor, and can't match the numbers. 3. Archers to make sure the Horse Archers at least have to run all the time, so they exhaust themselves. 4. Skirmish cav waiting in the back for the Horse Archers to tire themselves: once the Horse Archers tire, javelins can do damage both on a charge, and by shooting the backs of the Horse Archers as they try to run. Melee light cav can do much the same, but are a bit less effective if you don't have enough to flank. The AI doesn't know how to deal with horse archers, but the AI will also charge a Phalanx from the front, so...
My first comment in your channel: Coffee is so much better than tea that the solar system seems small in comparison to the diference between the two. Now the truth is said, i can send you love and cheers from spain, keep it like this.
14:50 When you have to worry more about your buddy behind you than you have to about the entire enemy army in front of you. A few is a bit of an understatement. Total Casualties: 15 units lost, but Only 7 were lost to enemy fire.
Spiffing Brit: Horse archers are overpowered
IRL horse archers: YES
Mongolian horse archers intensifies
Nice pfp my dude, lol
Not really. You could fight with them.
They were til they fought Rome and got slaughtered. They would shoot all their arrows and the romans would just block and wait. Romans didn't return fire so the horse archer hordes couldn't recycle ammo.
@@thespiffingbrit Omg hi,are you ever gonna do another collab with Jon?
I like how Spiff thinks this is an exploit, but it's just actually Parthian tactics 101
It's also how the mongols conquered everything.
@@padmanabhanvaidyanathan7182 It's also how we Hungarians used horse archers...and literally every nation in the world who used horse archers in a large scale. It's not unique.
I came here to say this EXACT thing.
@@padmanabhanvaidyanathan7182 employed this strategy in bannerlord. Can confirm OPness.
While what all of you said is true, games aren't real life - they're intended to have balance. This is very much not balanced.
Do you think game companies judge their games quality control by the number of days it takes spiff to break it?
To be honest probably because they fix whatever is in his video
No. By now they're installing bugs for him to exploit and make videos about to pad first week sales.
@@thespiffingbrit I'll sup a cuppa to that sir!
@@jansenart0 pretty much
No, by the number of ways he finds to break it. Look at all the fun he had with Civ 6.
Crassus: "A force of just horse archers can't beat roman legions."
Parthians: "Hold.... your own son's head."
Shit that's grim
Two bad the Romans came back and absolutely thrashed the partians twice in a row
To be fair it wasn't all horse archers, there were Parthian cataphracts too
@@trollege9618 the cataphracts did most of the damage with hit and run attacks the archers just held them in place and because crassus is a moron he put his army in the worst possible position to fight back
@@RoyalRegimentofScotland It's called fog of war, and the Roman military method was to learn after combat. You're under the assumption that he had perfect knowledge at all times.
Scythians and Mongols playing chess:
(Picture of a chessboard full of horse figurines)
@@thespiffingbrit .....
@@thespiffingbrit I see that chess pun, and I love it. Well played.
Knight to d4 then open fire on king and retreat
I wonder if YT comments will ever allow images
@@thespiffingbrit no a compass rose.
They were OP is real life too. Rome would have loved the Huns getting nerfed
Romans handled horse well from the early republic and the Byzantines dealt with them easily. Cahnae was essentially an ambush against an exhausted army. If they were so OP they would have been as rapidly used as gunpowder. The Huns and Mongols were elite fighters with incredible leaders, and noob historians dont realise this is decisive. There were countless steppe archers that were a non-issue over the centuries
This is pride talking. Only reason Europe didnt get wiped out is the damp weather.
@@randomdude8202
Facts, given a clear path to Rome... well, even the Legions would've had a rough time dealing with various invaders and their tactics. Yes the Legions were amazing, but still, not invincible
@@randomdude8202 Europe had superior tech, superior strategy, and home advantage. And if you can't fight them because of damp weather, lmao you're pathetic.
@@rockstar450 can't believe man said history noobs 😂, I mean I sort of agree with your point but just saying history noobs completely cancels out all the logic
This feels about as well balanced as 5 year old me and my dad on a swing.
It depends on the crit chance.
And his strength modifier
Roll a D20 to see if it hurts
Critical hit
@@helmetmcbarin *rolls 2xD4 and comes up with 6* take six damage
The original game (mp) is well balanced within rulesets,
This is some nostalgia here. I still remember figuring out how crazy horse archers are then proceeding to make murder armies of them.
Ah yes, horse archers, I do love turning Rome:TW into the Mongol simulator
Or the Hungarian simulator
@@indominusrex1652 Yeah but the Hungarians never used them to conquer about half the known world.
@@craigwck7626 true
@@craigwck7626 but in an alternate timeline maybe its the other way around
@@indominusrex1652 A huge Hungarian horse army conquering all of China, amazing.
The fact that Spiff is saying "there is no roads in this land" while hovering over my native land of Ukraine - straight up painful truth
D:
69 likes
@@benisrood Can confirm, it is very efficient against vehicles
@@benisrood very nice, but at least a dirt path is quite useful ;)
I love to travel in Ukraine, beautiful country and awesome people. Also when travelling on a bus, the bumps and holes in the road will make sure, that you don't miss your destination if you sleep. It's like BUMP! "Ouch wtf! Oh we're here!"
"THIS IS SPARTA!"
Spiff: "Yeah, yeah. Just die by arrow fire, you damn coffee drinker."
I like how Spiff is talking like normal, but you can feel his childhood memories of perfect balance
back when he was a little tea bag himself x)
In todays episode Spiff learns why the Mongols were such a feared force.
Mobile archers are fun in in TW games until the Mongols show up with 20 full xp, full armor, elite general doom stacks.
Mongolian was not feared only cause of their archers. Almost everyone on the east had them.
@@jktuert8630 Archers trained to fire from horseback *
FTFY.
@@KashouWannabe It wasn't rare on east too. Besides elite Mongolian troops was heavy cavalery not just horse archers.
@@jktuert8630 Yes cos the Mongols totally remained in the East and went no where else at all. >.>
Parthians: "Hey, putting archers on horses is pretty powerful."
Some British guy 2,000 years later:
well horse archers really are op as you can just see the mongol empire for reference
they absolutely destroy infantry
@@Cecilia-ky3uw Horse archers remained an extremely potent force on the battlefield (both Eurasian Steppe and American Great Plains Native) until the invention of the Revolver (which allowed you to take down 6 horse archers before reloading [where as before where archers could easily shoot more than muskets])
@@Kaiserboo1871 based
@@Kaiserboo1871 good point sir, muskets took like 3 years to reload
Horse Archers: Can be abused. Mogols: I have seen this one. Spiff Fans: How? It is brand new
The Mongol horse archers weren’t why they were so dominant. It was their generals, elite troops and multi-ethnic approach to warfare, logistics and recon. Even on foot and melee cavalry they would have achieved the same thing.
@@rockstar450 It was a joke bro
@@bernardosales1044 sorry for missing the fun part haha. Bless
@@rockstar450 idk man it was a pretty big factor in their success
@@josephdowey1302 Rome best back horse archers for 2000 years with no problem. There was something special about the Huns and Mongols. They had the most experienced and disciplined forced in their eras but despite the hell steppe archers create, they never outlast. Though I believe the Mongols collapsed due to their atrocities being so vile nobody would assimilate with them, the proof is look how big their empire was and how little influence exists today.
27:21 "Incredible Spartans" shows an armoured hoplite with an Athenian shield lol
well, he is the Spiffing Brit after all, what you expect ?
----------
edited:
old comment (mistake)
"well is a Brit after all , what you expect ?"
@@krixpop I'm British. What's your point?
@@helikos1
ooops, bad choice of words, I admit ; my intent was to laugh with him, as per your find.
It should have been: "well, he is the Spiffing Brit after all, what you expect ?"
But I was in a dual chat, so my comment went into a mistake; I will change it, since it is aggressive, although unintentional.
@@krixpop Ah yeah I understand now. No harm done. I wasn't offended just confused :p
@@helikos1 you mean Bri'ish
In true Leonidas fashion:
"COFFEE! IS! BETT-"
*Spiff arrow to the throat*
Spiff: He will not be missed.
LegendofTotalwar is gonna love this.
Archers and speed are his two favourite things in the world.
Yeah hes the SniffingBrit
Phalanx pikemen set in rows in the corner of the map is also a fun strategy. Using the map boundaries to force the ai to charge headlong into pikes is 👍
This is what I always did with greeks... Would be vulnerable to those amounts of horse archers, but if Spiff didn't use arcade battles they would run out of arrows before my formation is broken.
When you realize that Genghis Khan had figured this out 700 years ago - perhaps he drank Yorkshire Tea
Why do you think he invaded China?
Parthia had got it largely sussed 2000 years ago
Yak butter tea you mean.
The point is all those people drank tea, and therefore were overpowered
“Flying helicopter horses of death” is truly not a phrase that I was prepared for
Spiff pronouncing "Yesss, yess, yeesss" reminded me of Emperor Palpatine.
1:54 my conspiracy is that pic isn't a stock photo, that's actually a picture of Spiff
@@thespiffingbrit we can see through your lies.
@@thespiffingbrit that's exactly what someone would say to throw us off their trail
I have inside Info and Know it isn't him.
That's just wrong of course he is a neckbeard
@@ilimitadouc no
*This horse archer strategy can be taken to the extreme in Total War: ATTILA; the White Huns faction have a unit called the Spet Xyan Archers, and they’re completely overpowered.*
Horse archers in Attila were so much fun, especially with the horde mechanic, you no longer need infantry to defend cities.
@@ahmadtarek7763 The point I think op was making is that spet xyon archers are horse archers with 70 armor, 70% missile block chance and melee stats that rivals some elitebmelee infantry while being *light* cavalry.
See the issue?
Damn I came here so quickly I’m starting to see why my girlfriend left me...
Can relate
oh Mr. Bubbles!
I left my girlfriend before she could. More like I threw her out (metaphorically of course)....
@ ok
@ what is a girlfriend
Scythians horse archers weren't broken, they were ahead of it's time! Crassus army was decimated by horse archers
They were more than decimated, they were almost completely wiped out.
@@kristianl7117 too decimate is too always wipe out i believe..
@@martijnoerlemans765 Well. In common speach yes, but to decimate means to kill one tenth. Normally it wouldn't matter, but when talking about rome it does, seeing as "decimate" comes from the roman practice of having legions kill every tenth man in events of desertion or retreat.
@@kristianl7117 Yeah I am perfectly aware of the meaning in Latin or in the historical context.
But as you stated nowadays to decimate is to nearly wipe out so my point still stands
@@martijnoerlemans765 I just feel it matters when talking about roman history. And even though the meaning is changing, the original meaning still stands. People have just been using it wrong for a long time.
The enemy: Sieging my city with a huge army against my scrambled milita force
My milita force: Has them javelin wolf boys and a horde of milita infantry
This is a guy making a remastered video of one of his older videos on a remastered game and I’m still watching it.
Perfectly balanced
Hey, got a cup of tea instead of my usual coffee this time. The stars have aligned!
"There are stock images for everything."
Case in point: snail sipping alcohol
Everyone: *Forms up Grand Armies and Fortifications*
Spiffing with a Few Archy Ponies:
" *Nigerundayo!!!* "
This makes me imagine Ghengis if he lived in the early 19th century, commanding armies of rifle cavalry and conquering all of Eurasia.
The Mongols would have loved guns. They were always up for stealing military technology, improving it and using it effectively. the generals they had are thought to be some of the best generals in history.
Berber & Bedouin tribal Guerilla's from north Africa did use bolt action rifles from Horseback against Colonial troops / Abdel Krim & Omar Mukhtar caused the Spanish, French & Italians lots of trouble and dead troops fighting that way
Genghis khan didn't command his armies, it was his general subutai who did all the work.
@@essaadeel3676 Wrong / Ghenghis did Command his armies like a *Field marshal* commanding an entire front, Commanding multiple Generals on that front while
Subutai commanded only around 10-20% of the entire mongol army at any given time
/ So along with Genghis, many commanders are completing multiple different tasks at once, each having several divisions for their required task
well, rifles didn't exist till like the mid 19th century, and even then they were still muskets, so it was hard af to reload on horseback. Cavalry tend to use carbines instead which were shorter guns and easier to reload, but that has less range than the infantrymen muskets, so you can see how bad an all cavalry army would be in this period. Cavalry still had their place, but def not as main battle line units.
Real life example would be the battle of the pyramids when the mounted mamelukes got utterly destroyed by the french infantrymen.
Some remarks:
- Romans being bodied by light horse archers is not anachronistic. Just ask Crassus how well fighting the Parthians worked out!
- The Phalanx is not a anti-cavalry formation. It is a anti-infantry formation - that is actually uniquely vulnerable to flanking by cavalry. The Phalanx is a formation of extremes:
A Phalanx from the front is the single deadliest thing in that age. Fighting a well ordered Phalanx from the front is akin to charging into a machinegun nest. The only one that can beat a phalanx from the front, is a better phalanx. Even roman heavy infantry can at best hope to hold it's ground. I won numerours 20 units siege battles against the AI with like 6 Militia Hoplites arrayed in a street.
However if a phalanx formation is broken, disordered or attacked from anywhere but the front it is basically dead. The average Hoplite is a crappy spearmen with a really good formation.
- the Spartans are a elite hoplite trooptype. It will not fare any better against the legendary horse archer spam, because of hte Phalanx weaknesses but they are still a level above "Armored Hoplites".
Well the Romans defeated parthia so eventually it did work out for them
So, Spiff discovered standard horse archer tactics and thinks this is an exploit
This is like literally exactly the same in Mount and Blade Bannerlord... Apparently horse archer truly are literally immortal :D
Corner them with heavy cav at one map's corner then close in for the kill.
In Perisno mod m&b-w with large armies (300+ ) I make two lines of80 heavy cav advance (not attack) the other line of also 80 heavy cav, in pincer movement, till all horse archers are boggled up in one corner:
then the chop-chop begins...
@@krixpop In Perisno I spam elven archer units and nothing even remotely gets close, 200 archers vs 600 men of various types trying their best to even crest the hill in front of them before getting sniped by elite archers on the opposite hill. The end result is roughly 400 of their guys dead, with 200 routed and my loses being about 20 or so from enemy archers. I love just abusing the enemy in those situations, though suppose depending on the map, this could not work as well. Though it's even worse for the enemy in the case of sieges. And I still have PTSD from trying to take the fountain hall from the realm of the falcon, which did not go well let me tell you, I lost about a thousand guys in taking that city, it was rough.
"Dave likes coffee" - could it be Feedbackgaming Dave?
Congrats on being the second person in history to play on Arcade Mode, the first being Crassus.
there were two things that at least attempted to make horse archers balanced in the original: limited ammo, and you can´t rush cities without a spy opening the gate for you, and even then you could block the gate..... what am i talking about horse archers were never blanced in rome total war
2:40 '' they are exactly the same except one important difference '' ....
proceeds to name two differences lmao
now you get to decide which one was important.
You can counter hoplites easily with 2 groups of heavy cavalry too- it's riskier, but you just feint them on one side, then charge into the rear with a group of heavy cavalry and you can take out the hoplites with very low casualties
Came faster than Reanu Keeves with 100 Speed in Skyrim.
lol
Honestly, archers have always been broken in Rome. This, though. This takes it to a level that shouldn't even exist.
I'd say that the only issue with horse archers in the original game was the absolutely horrendous pathfinding. Now that this issue has been kind of minimised, the horse boys have their full potential unlocked.
I see the thumbnail, Me "This is the work of time travelers!"
hoplites: noooooooo you cant run around us in circles while shooting arrows at us thats not fair
spiff: haha horse archers go twang twang
Wherein Spiff gives a new meaning to "air cavalry".
Ah good old times. I remember playing the original with the Seleucid faction and realizing they are totally broken. I stopped 6 full stacks of roman legions with just phalanxes stacked in a single street. 3 units stacked onto each other and another 3 behind them (just in case they actually manage to defeat the first stack of 3 (they never did)). The bigger cities had only 2 entrances to the main square which made it even easier to defend. The most fun I had later on after watching a documentation about the battle of Waterloo and how the kare formation (or infantry square formation) was the most effective one every made for people who had spears or bayonets. I tried it out on open battle with again phalanxes and a few archers in the middle. Just stack them somewhere in the corner of the map. 1 full army defeated 3 roman legions. Was absolutely glorious!
I don't remember this, but I do remember AI defenders sallying forth from a large city with an army consisting of three peasants and a cat. The cat was the most dangerous unit.
Many a true nerd: oh Poor Steve!
Spiffing brit: oh poor Dave!
@SAURABH P02343 always the last one standing. Brave Stevius.
I'm still amazed that Spiff managed to find a picture of an inebriated snail
The only counter to horsey boys of death is having more more horsey boys of death than the other guy.
Not necessarily more. Outmaneuver them with light infantry and they'll be slaughtered easily. Armored infantry with shields to tank arrows and let them run dry can help but isn't required.
Day 147 of asking Spiff to play Battle Realms. Archers with perfect aim, thats how it usually works.
And lotus warlock spam is just the most balance thing to ever exist.
@@thespiffingbrit confirmed
@@thespiffingbrit i dont know it, but surely attila is very proud of you right now 😂
I can't remember how but there's a way to farm the yin or yangs without having to battle with the other groups. I think it was ordering your melee unit to hit a rock or a 🌳
@@thespiffingbrit I shall be expecting the 53 videos that will be upvoted instantly.
I love that smell... the smell of Greek fire in the morning.
This is actually historically accurate. And i just did a gameplay with everything on max difficulty with the Parthians, it was a walk in the park, 90% of the battles were heroics victories. the only thing that can give you trouble are Chariots and Elephants. Chariots can decimate your entire horse arche army of you arent carefull. And they are actually faster, so you are to be very carefull with them, and elephants are damage sponges, and they can also kill your entire army if you arent carefull.
But other than that, it is just going in circles around them. easy win. The only ones that gave me real troubles were the Scythians, because their horse archers are even better and they also use them in large amounts, so most of the time i could not do the "circle" on them.
Everyone knows 3 units of hoplites can defeat any ai army in RTW
I love that this is actually why Ghengis Khan was basically unstoppable in real life
You can actually pull a similar strategy off in "stronghold crusaders", "age of empires", etc. what can I say, cavalry archers, are decent units.
Man it feels just like old times, i remember memeing on rome 1 by spamming horse archers
The counter to horse archers are war hounds! Ironic, you did a video on them also! 😂
As soon as you mentioned Scythia, I just knew it was gonna be something with the horse archers. Thought it might be something with it when ya said they were unreachable and had long range. This is gonna be fun to watch!
"It's okay. Dave believes coffee's better than tea. He will not be missed."
Instantly subscribed!
Game from 10 years ago:Gets remastered
Spiff:*British noises*
What I imagine are just a mix of scoffs and dry pittying chuckles.
@@Oblithian you forgot the dry throat clearing
@@Oblithian also don't forget the increasingly heavy breathing
Spiff is one of the only youtubers where I pause to go to the bathroom come back un pause and the first this game I hear it
“And there all going to die” in a calm British accent
Parthians after 9:23 : Yes, that's the whole idea.
An upload on my birthday. The gods of spifco have blessed me.
I wonder what Spiff would say if he knew that I have a mug and not a cup in front of me
I'd wager he'd applaud your choice of efficient tea volume holding container. He had (maybe still has) Spiff tea mugs for sale at one point.
Meanwhile in the recruitment base:
Seargent - You there, what is better, coffee or tea?
Recruit - Coffee, of course!
Seargent - OK, we have another perfect volunteer for the first wave on suicide charges... Next!
Medieval 2 smiles in Mongolian
Coffee is better than tea! Atleast when it comes to pouring it out.
I don't know if this counts since you played it on Arcade mode.
I agree 100 percent I was thinking the same thing......turn off arcade and then see who wins
If only Crassus watched this video before leaving for war...
id love to use this strategy in medieval 2 but that game is infamous for having cavalry that refuses to follow orders
Historically accurate cavalry, no really
@@Gokes93 if that was an intended mechanic that would be great. but having people stand around and get stabbed while not fighting back isnt very accurate.
OK, that little drive-by cracked me up.
This isn't an exploit, horse Archers were OP in real life.
You make the Parthians proud
Yeah, Sythia is op, I remember when I used to play the campaing in the original Rome 2, they'd send full upgraded horse arrcher armies at me, the only way to counter it is with an army of mosly citizen cavalry or equites on auto reslove, if not you dont stand a chance.
nah, you can also use heavily armored units with large shields to let them waste their ammo, horse archers have less ammo than normal archers
Plz make more of it, im dying of laughter just whatchening it.
Day 1 of saying hi and waiting for one back from spiff.
So Scythian strategy boils down to "horse drive-bys murders everything"? Perfectly balanced, indeed.
Oof after my last video I'm scared of horse bois ! Armenia started a war and brought the cav. Didn't like that xD
Oh spiff
Goddamnit Spiff, I swore against using horse cav-only armies ever again, but this cheeky video is tempting me back to my old ways
Ah yes, arcade mode, the mode that removes fatigue, morale and ammo limits on a game about strategy
Horse archers: Exploiting the battlefields since the Iron Age.
If chariot archers count they've been going since the bronze age
@@TeeBar420 Nomad horse civilisations never used the Chariot. They've been using the same HA tactics for thousands of years, possible even before the Bronze age, if not, early Bronze Age. Some modern horse gear have been recorded to be invented before the wheel.
The real evil of covid is making glorious tea taste like water. :'(
Reminds me of an old game called empire earth. You'd just park your whole army and send a few calvary in to get the other armies attention and pull them back to your army.
Their whole army wouldn't come all at once. It was based on vision. Which ever units saw you would chase you. Mostly your archers would pick them off as they chase your few calvary.
he has done a empire earth video...and yes it's waaaay balanced than this tactic
Plot twist: the Mongols were able to time travel, saw Spiffing Brit's overpowered bow-horsy strats, and used that as the inspiration to take over the world like they did.
I always loved to edit the files so my arrows would travel the entire map. And then listen to the enemies dying, ah those lovely screams of death!
I'm getting some real AoE2 Mongal Mangudai flashbacks here.
Damn this was truly fantastic sunshine you reminded the days i showered hoplites with arrows of persian cavarly archers
That's what Scythians did irl
Yup. Not balanced but historically authentic.
Even funnier are the camel gunners of medieval tital war 2, combined with the exploit to build them in cities... perfectly balanced
The Italian factions in general in Medieval 2 are sort of an exploit.
They already start with large cities in the richest area of the map, their basic militia spear units are good and have free upkeep, and many of their best units come from cities instead of castles. It’s realistic, but kind of throws off the mechanics of the game compared to all the other factions, LOL.
@@michaelstein7510 yes, they are really strong, the camel gunners however can 1v1 any other unit in the game with very low casualties
kiting is always a good tactic to use on everything cuz hey remember " fight the enemy on ur Rules, ur Place with Numbers Ideal to you " - some anime character or Sun Tzu I forgot
1:30 "like this video"
Me, a man of tea culture: liked from the first second.
So... from first or second?
@@jurgenraucher544 ... third.
@19:24 Oh Dave! Dave believes Coffee is better than Tea. He will not be missed! Rofl xD
For those wondering how you counter large numbers of horse archers:
1. Infantry with shields at the front, since they won't take much comparative damage. These are here to zone the enemy horses out, so they can't shoot at unshielded units without risking themselves.
2. Slingers are almost a hard counter, since the Horse Archers don't have time to dodge, don't have much armor, and can't match the numbers.
3. Archers to make sure the Horse Archers at least have to run all the time, so they exhaust themselves.
4. Skirmish cav waiting in the back for the Horse Archers to tire themselves: once the Horse Archers tire, javelins can do damage both on a charge, and by shooting the backs of the Horse Archers as they try to run. Melee light cav can do much the same, but are a bit less effective if you don't have enough to flank.
The AI doesn't know how to deal with horse archers, but the AI will also charge a Phalanx from the front, so...
My first comment in your channel:
Coffee is so much better than tea that the solar system seems small in comparison to the diference between the two. Now the truth is said, i can send you love and cheers from spain, keep it like this.
I'm pretty convinved there isn't a Total War game around that Spiff can't scuff.
This video makes me so happy I can wait to watch
14:50 When you have to worry more about your buddy behind you than you have to about the entire enemy army in front of you.
A few is a bit of an understatement.
Total Casualties: 15 units lost, but Only 7 were lost to enemy fire.
I am Dave, and I can confirm that I like coffee better than tea, and I am okay with the consequences of this.