New to Troy - Ant War?!

[UdiHrant]

I didn't expect TOO much from this game given the cost BUT - when I finally reached the tactical 'action' phase of the game I had the option of arranging my troops and then pushing the 'fight' button. Then I sat back and watched what looked like an ant war on my screen with no control over the events.

Am I missing something or do i have a setting wrong?

Thanks - im open minded and want to like this game since there is nothing else available in this era....

[rhondabrwn]

First, remember how battles were fought in ancient times. Once battle was joined, commanders had little direct control over their troops. What little control they had was to signal an attack, wave a banner to rally the troops, and signal the retreat if things got really bad!

Now, in Troy, you will note that during setup you have the opportunity to give orders as to how each unit is going to fight. You can assign them to hold, attack immeidately and so forth. You can go for an envelopment... etc etc. The "art" of Troy is to set your battle plan before the fight starts. The one real control you have is to give the all-out attack signal at the crucial time to get everyone on the offensive, despite whatever orders you assigned at the beginning. Of course, the rally call can come in handy, as will the "run for your life" signal if things get really bad so that you can save some of your army from being slaughtered.

Initially, you can look at this and compare it to a bunch of ants running around, but there is really a lot more to it. It does give you a feel for what it really felt like to be a commander in ancient Greece.

My personal tactical approach is to put my archers out front in the center of my line, backed up by heavier troops with a "delay" order to give the archers time to work. I put my elites out on both flanks with no delay and an "envelopment order". When the battle starts, the enemy will generally charge into the archers while my flankers do their work. At the proper instant, I signal for a general attack and the heavy troops in the center charge through the archers. With the flankers doing their job, I can rout even larger forces.

Go back and give it another try. You just have to have a different mind set for the period. I think the designers were quite ingenious in capturing the period.