Slitherine

I have not had a successful scythed chariot attack yet, and I was wondering if anybody has found a use for them, or what you can do to make them more likely to succeed? Are there some troop types against which they will never succeed (apart from elephants of course)?

I've been thinking those scythed chariots should not be one shot kamikazes, but rather stick around like other chariots until seen off the usual way cause they were major units for the Persians and they even leveled the battlefield in preparation to help them move about. When I played against the Persians in epic battles, those chariots got too shot up by javelins and arrows on their approach run so they didn't have a fair chance to attack so I don't know how well they attack.

vakarr wrote:I have not had a successful scythed chariot attack yet, and I was wondering if anybody has found a use for them, or what you can do to make them more likely to succeed? Are there some troop types against which they will never succeed (apart from elephants of course)?

I've used them pretty successfully. I tend to keep them in reserve and bring them out when there are some disrupted enemy units to target. In one game I had manoeuvred my scythed chariot to the flank of a line of enemy lancers. On my next turn I rolled up the line, routing three lancers, and securing the win. My opponent will never make that mistake again.

GiveWarAchance wrote:I've been thinking those scythed chariots should not be one shot kamikazes,

Does appear to have been their use though - not that they had a great record.

w_michael wrote:On my next turn I rolled up the line, routing three lancers, and securing the win. My opponent will never make that mistake again.

I had a similar thing happen, ahem, to me, but with an elephant. In one turn the damn dumbo proceeded down a line routing 3-4 of my units. I hadn't realized that units would continue to pursue for that long in one turn--it was rather impressive.

76mm wrote:

w_michael wrote:On my next turn I rolled up the line, routing three lancers, and securing the win. My opponent will never make that mistake again.

I had a similar thing happen, ahem, to me, but with an elephant. In one turn the damn dumbo proceeded down a line routing 3-4 of my units. I hadn't realized that units would continue to pursue for that long in one turn--it was rather impressive.

Fleeing units and their pursuers receive a variable bonus to their movement points. I assume that the same is true for units pursuing enemy units broken in the impact combat. If there is a target of opportunity they will take it and charge again.

w_michael wrote: I tend to keep them in reserve and bring them out when there are some disrupted enemy units to target.

Well then there's something wrong with them that needs to be fixed - the purpose of scythed chariots is to disrupt the enemy, who can then be attacked by other units, not the other way around!!

vakarr wrote:

w_michael wrote: I tend to keep them in reserve and bring them out when there are some disrupted enemy units to target.

Well then there's something wrong with them that needs to be fixed - the purpose of scythed chariots is to disrupt the enemy, who can then be attacked by other units, not the other way around!!

You can play it that way. I don't.

While I'm sure they can be used well if carefully kept in reserve, for most army lists I consider them too expensive and fragile and I pretty much never take them. They can be ruthelssly taken out if caught even by inferior units, all they need to do is last one turn an wham, no more scythed chariot.
From my understanding of the historical record theyre horrid performance against steady units is very much historical and believable, I'd only question if theyre priced correctly for what they do most of the time, because there are units that can achieve the same from the reserves (rolling up disrupted units) that can still do other stuff, for similar or less points

Jishmael wrote:While I'm sure they can be used well if carefully kept in reserve, for most army lists I consider them too expensive and fragile and I pretty much never take them. They can be ruthelssly taken out if caught even by inferior units, all they need to do is last one turn an wham, no more scythed chariot.
From my understanding of the historical record theyre horrid performance against steady units is very much historical and believable, I'd only question if theyre priced correctly for what they do most of the time, because there are units that can achieve the same from the reserves (rolling up disrupted units) that can still do other stuff, for similar or less points

No they are not cost-effective - this is by design. We prefer to err on the side of them being an overpriced novelty unit. It would be much worse if it was a no-brainer to take them!

rbodleyscott wrote:

Jishmael wrote:While I'm sure they can be used well if carefully kept in reserve, for most army lists I consider them too expensive and fragile and I pretty much never take them. They can be ruthelssly taken out if caught even by inferior units, all they need to do is last one turn an wham, no more scythed chariot.
From my understanding of the historical record theyre horrid performance against steady units is very much historical and believable, I'd only question if theyre priced correctly for what they do most of the time, because there are units that can achieve the same from the reserves (rolling up disrupted units) that can still do other stuff, for similar or less points

No they are not cost-effective - this is by design. We prefer to err on the side of them being an overpriced novelty unit. It would be much worse if it was a no-brainer to take them!

I see your point and agree ^^ I'm still not gonna buy them though

rbodleyscott wrote:

Jishmael wrote:While I'm sure they can be used well if carefully kept in reserve, for most army lists I consider them too expensive and fragile and I pretty much never take them. They can be ruthelssly taken out if caught even by inferior units, all they need to do is last one turn an wham, no more scythed chariot.
From my understanding of the historical record theyre horrid performance against steady units is very much historical and believable, I'd only question if theyre priced correctly for what they do most of the time, because there are units that can achieve the same from the reserves (rolling up disrupted units) that can still do other stuff, for similar or less points

No they are not cost-effective - this is by design. We prefer to err on the side of them being an overpriced novelty unit. It would be much worse if it was a no-brainer to take them!

Novelty unit? That's a no brainer, take them all, along with the camels and elephants! Nobody can defeat my travelling circus.

My highly trained battle penguins come in at knee height. Unstoppable.

I'm playing a MP game with my Seleucid army vs. Saka. I just inflicted routs equal to 12% of his army with one Scythed Chariot charge on the flank.

w. michael

I think you win a prize

devoncop wrote:w. michael

I think you win a prize

I was down 10-0 before the charge. After the initial charge, it just kept pursuing and charging until it was halfway across the battlefield from where it started. Talk about the domino effect!

Luckily the Scythed Chariot ended up outside of an enemy charge arc so it looks like I can redeploy it behind my battle line and try again later.

It gets better....!!!

Such a Chariot killed my C in C during a remove the head custom game. So while his army was almost beaten the scyted chariot became a matchwinner.

It helps that Scythed Chariots are rare to begin with, and especially so if players generally think that they are a "waste of points". You gain an element of surprise on players who are used to min-max, Default Force Selection encounters. The timing of when to use the Scythed Chariot is everything.

Scythed Chariots are the Bugattis of the ancient era. They are expensive rare luxury items that can create exotic results.

When the AI charges early with them, probably too early to be effective, they still have the benefit of distracting my ranged units, in the critical ranged stage when melee has not been joined yet, and using up their precious limited ammo as they try to repulse the chariots.