Hi! New to forums in general, but I really wanted to express something that changed in this patch because of the changes to stand ground patrol
Before the latest update, I used Hoplites on Stand Ground as a stationary formation. Because their
melee range was increased from 0.3 to 0.5 in a previous patch, Hoplites from the second row
could actively participate in the fight while the first row remained in place and fights too.
This created a very interesting formation for the Hoplite. The first row would hold the enemy in
place, while the units behind them could still attack thanks to their increased melee range.
A true Phalanx Formation in the game! No exploits, no patrol command.
After the new changes related to Stand Ground Patrol / overlapping melee units, this seems to
have changed.
What I am seeing now is that, when Hoplites are simply placed on Stand Ground — without using
Patrol, Stand Ground Patrol, Attack Move, or any kind of patrol stacking — the second row no
longer seems to actively participate in melee in the same way.
The first row still attacks normally, but the Hoplites behind them often remain completely passive
even when the enemy appears to be within their 0.5 melee range, massively decreasing their
performance.
If I change the stance to Defensive or Aggressive mid fight, more Hoplites from the second row
actually start attacking again. However, they also begin moving out of the stationary formation,
which changes the entire behavior and purpose of a formation based tactic. This proves they are
capable of reaching the enemy, but wont do unless the stand ground stance is changed.
This is particularly noticeable because of the Hoplite’s 0.5 melee range. The range increase made
the unit feel much more like a formation-based infantry unit, where positioning the Hoplites
correctly allowed more than just the front row to contribute.
Kamayuks (1 tile range) and Macedonian Phalangites (1.8 tiles of range) still seem to retain this
kind of second/multiple -rows participation, which makes the difference with Hoplites even more
noticeable.
I understand the reason behind the recent changes to Stand Ground Patrol and the attempt to
reduce patrol stacking. I’m not talking about patrol stacking here. My concern is that the changes
may also affect normal Stand Ground formations, even when no Patrol command is being used.
In my opinion, this removes a pretty important part of what made the Hoplite interesting to use:
keeping a compact stationary formation while allowing the second row to actively support the
front line. I discovered this tactic because I’ve played a lot of games with Chronicles civs and also
units with extra melee range.
In this video you can check the difference clearly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boAPE0euL3Y
Side note: I’ve noticed many improvements to how units walk and adopt formations much more
smoothly than before, specially when changing directions, and that is completely amazing!
I’m curious what other players think about what I’ve found here.
I posted a bug report here too: Hoplites and the new Stand ground changes - second row attacks no longer works as before trying to show what happens in this patch with Hoplites.
Are you seeing the same behavior with Hoplites after the Viking Sagas update? And do you think
this interaction with Hoplites and Stand Ground is intentional?
Btw I love this DLC, its tons of fun. My favorite unit is the Hearth Troop. Thanks for Reading!
