The tactic works well but the only thing is, you have the numerical advantage which makes it easier to surround his troops. Hannibal had around 50k troops while the romans had over 80k. In that situation the tactic would be much harder to pull off

@EarlyCrowd

7 жыл бұрын

Actually, irl it worked just because of that. Romans had high discipline and since they thought they had the advantage they charged without realizing Hannibal's trap. If they had the similar manpower or less, most likely they would have fought more defensively and be more cautious. Since this is a video game with many flaws, more men makes it way easier.

@alexanderjones8926

7 жыл бұрын

also Hannibal deployed his troops convexly and had the stronger troops on the wings while the centre gave ground - he didn't start with a groove in the line as this would have given his plan away

@AmericanFluff

7 жыл бұрын

+Early Crowd high discipline didn't make them advance into that mass. These were raw troops and breaking the 3 lines of the triplex acies and pressing together showed their lack of discipline

@SoulRippster

7 жыл бұрын

We shouldn't ignore the many points when the Hanniball's strategy could've failed, every battle is controled chaos, the cavalry might have not come back, the front might not have hold on as good as they did, etc. Also, the terrain counted a lot, there wasn't a lot of room between a hill and a river, so that made the Roman bunch up more and more. But that's what makes Hannibal (in my opinion) unparalleled as a general, he could read the terrain and make up an original tactic that makes total use of it as well as knowing the enemy very well, knowing their strenghts and turning them to weaknesses.

@sedrfghbn

7 жыл бұрын

Experts graduating from wikipedia up in this thread

Im pretty sure Hannibal was massively outnumbered during the battle of cannae. Here, it looks like you outnumber your opponenet.

@Jacobs322SK

8 жыл бұрын

+SuperEpicAwesomeness it's a multiplayer battle so I doubt he is outnumbering him

@danieleleonetti1062

7 жыл бұрын

and worse his opponent is passive like letting him do his show...

@simonmaltewiemann1801

6 жыл бұрын

actually hannibal outnumbered the romans at cannae, this is why this tactic was quite the gamble. the main reason why he lost is because of the morale effect on his troops.

@caiptainawesome807

6 жыл бұрын

That is categorically false. The romanshad about 85 thousand men of you include the two legions they had in their camp while Hannibal had about 55 thousand.

@aresgaming2639

6 жыл бұрын

Sarcasm Intensifies thougt the same😂

2:40 SOLDIERS! PREPARE FOR SMILEY FACE FORMATION

@nebby_ya_boi257

9 жыл бұрын

XD

@josephmoore3069

6 жыл бұрын

deathsheep lol

@CarlosRios1

6 жыл бұрын

Smiley asian mustache formation

@DrillEntertainmentNetwork

4 жыл бұрын

lol

Hannibals men were veterans, crossed the alps, fought and won numerous battles. But people never give them credit they always say hannibals genius. Which is true but don't undermine the men who pulled it off.

@dudeofvalor9294

6 жыл бұрын

Absolutely. To have faith in your general for such a move and to execute it in such a way.

@boxedferrotinc2290

5 жыл бұрын

Oliver S. Hannibal the money swindler, the used car salesmen, the ladies man. He is Hannibal Silver Tongue

@Geckogold

5 жыл бұрын

​@@boxedferrotinc2290 I don't think he was. That many men wouldn't of followed him if he kept losing battles and was known to be a liar. From what I recall reading, he lived among them rather than in a noble/officer's tent away from the common rabble, ate the same food, and didn't want any preferential treatment. Aside from that, he also kept winning battles, which tends to keep the morale of your men up since most of them get to continue to live another day.

@boxedferrotinc2290

5 жыл бұрын

Ashelm56 it was but a joke mate

can you imagine coordinating these strategies from the field? let alone creating them!

@GideonCyn

8 жыл бұрын

SWAG POLICE i have no idea how you could direct 85,000 men, no wonder the romans lost lol

@iainclark8695

8 жыл бұрын

SWAG POLICE The real deal was far less management intensive. He let the Romans batter his line into a bow before throwing his Libyans in to pin the flanks and swinging his Numidian cav round to completely encircle them.

@BASSASist

8 жыл бұрын

SWAG POLICE Because Hannibal put himself directly in the front line with his Iberians and gauls troops. So he better could control the situation..

@520lun

6 жыл бұрын

Roman lol

@brig.gen.georgiiisserson7226

6 жыл бұрын

alvi syahri my god you know nothing about history just leave

I was using this, won about 3 battles than ran into someone who had also watched this and had the same formation but he was Rome and Carthage. I love how basically any faction can do it.

@InvictaHistory

10 жыл бұрын

woah thats funny, wonder how it turned out

@ilikecucumber76

10 жыл бұрын

THFE Productions It was a costly victory for the other guy:/ Rome's infantry was too strong

@broncofan0015

9 жыл бұрын

Just like the battle at zama

@dandogamer

4 жыл бұрын

@@broncofan0015 the battle of zama was won because scipio promised the numidian commander to make him king of numidia if he fought on his side rather than hannibal. Seeing that the war was going badly for carthage the numidians left and fought for the romans. I think if carthage had the unrivalled strength of the numidian cav then it would have been another carthage win as they proved to be so useful at the battle of trebia and cannae

I just got in a quick battle with Oakley, he attempted to use this tactic as carthage. I was using a roman build somewhat made for the same tactic. I ended up enveloping him and winning. I then came on youtube, saw this, and laughed at the irony. Thanks for the match Oakley.

@InvictaHistory

10 жыл бұрын

yeah hahaha I was gonna show that battle if its ok

@InvictaHistory

10 жыл бұрын

you did a great job showing what the romans should have done at Cannae. Actually that battle we had was perfect and I'll use it to talk about how hannibal used the terrain and his knowledge of the roman commanders to funnel the romans into his trap

@Pr0SV1p3r

10 жыл бұрын

yea go ahead and show it if you want, it was very fun

@a.f.nik.4210

6 жыл бұрын

lol

This is not at all how hannibal did it, he had all his light infantry in the center and heavy on the flanks, so what he did was he made a straight line and let the romans push, the cented got pushed back while the flanks held until they were in a wedge, then the cavalery came in from behind, surounding and slaughtering the enemies

@MrAngry3232

9 жыл бұрын

That is wrong as well, he made a crescent which was weakened in the middle.

@3uujh656

7 жыл бұрын

WJ Cooke he also ordered his units too retreat on purpose

@Derperfier

5 жыл бұрын

You can’t actually do his tactic properly in Rome 2 as troops just break.

@stitchgaming489

5 жыл бұрын

I believe he made a left crescent position on his foot soldiers. While in battle the position had shifted reversed crescent and that made his cavalry to easy flank without escape the roman foot soldiers

Recreating the battle of Cannae in Rome II will never work. Because push system doesn't exist in Rome 2.

This was great thanks for the demonstration. I think more of these historically adapted tactics would be great to see.

This is awesome! I’m a huge fan of Hannibal and it’s a beautiful application of his tactics. This is my new favorite channel!

It’s definitely one thing to envelop your enemy when you have more troops. It’s a whole other thing to envelop 80,000 when you have 40,000. Differences were that Hannibal relied on an offensive attack from romans, otherwise he wouldn’t have been successful, secondly he relied on the usage or reserve troops and a cavalry victory to allow a triple front enclosure to be an exposed rear for his cavalry to strike at Roman morale. His formation was that of a bow bent facing the romans which had flexible wings that then expanded to encompass them. It’s a risky strategy because if the romans had an intention to surround him they would’ve done so easily, but because of how commands are, the troops sent to charge wouldn’t have that flexibility. In this sense it’s definitely not possible to employ that strategy as Hannibal did in multiplayer because players are able to quickly reorganize their troops and change their plans. If you were in multiplayer with a 2:1 ratio favoring the opponent, Hannibal’s cannae strategy would not be recreateable.

That's just awesome. Awesome tactics. Thanks a lot for the good watch!

This is incredibly helpful and awesome. Great thinking Oakly, thanks. Very interesting food for thought to thinking up new tactics!

Neat formation, simple but effective plus no one really is going to expect it, very kl

It's pleasure to watch your plays and hearing the detailed explanation of the situation. I don't personally play against other players (due to the fact that I hate playing with people whom I don't know), but looking at these battles and tactic it makes me want to do some PvP. I'm now subscribed to this channel.

7:52 - that "EPIC AF" replay gets me everytime.

Very nice. It's always great to see some inspiration from real world tactics besides the basic hammer and anvil make it into a battle. It's interesting seeing the decisive arm being skirmishers instead of cavalry in your "Cannae", but that's why Total War is awesome.

very cool video, please do more like that! I Enjoy seeing tactics like this applied on the battlefield :D

One thing I really love about Total War games is that studying real life strategies and applying them actually pays off in these games. It's not a perfect system but it's way better than other RTS games where it's just who has the most range or hp

@Frazful

7 жыл бұрын

Is Total War a RTS game?

@owenperron8939

7 жыл бұрын

+Haagen yes real time stratagy

@sjonnieplayfull5859

5 жыл бұрын

@@Frazful the battles are RTS, the campaign map is a sim.

@The_Essential_Review

4 жыл бұрын

And APM

Simply awesome ! I like your channel because you always come up with these kinda tricks and strategies ! Good work and keep it up ! I am looking forward to see more tactics ! Peace (y)

That was great keep it up. I wouldn't mind seeing some of Alexander's tactic in action

It would be great to see more tactic videos!

Hi. First I wanted to thank you for the awesome quality of your videos, specifically the documentaries you are making. Very interesting. I know those videos are a but old but I wanted to say that your tactic makes me think more of the Persian Immortals (heavy reliance on ranged attack) than Hannibal's (reliance on cavalry). Which is a perfectly fine way to use pikemen offensively I discovered specially if you have access to good ranged units. Please keep up the good work :)

Cool vid! Just found your channel and i like the tactic vids :))

The Roman formation was a block formation, not a long stretched out rectangle, but a short rectangle. It also had an extra formation at the center rear. The Roman battle plan was to split the center of Hannibal ' s line of Spainards and Gauls, and then divide into two groups to overwhelm and in circle with the extra center rear group. Hannibal did the opposite: a weak center, strong African mercenaries on the rear flanks, and cavalry which, after destroying the Roman cavalry, attacked from the back, closing the trap.

Is it just me or does it seem like Invicta has a larger force?

Was looking for some historical formations in total war games, which brought me back to this video. Sadly, there only seems to be your videos on Hannibal's Cannae formation and the triple acies. Is it possible to get more videos on historical formations, such as the squares and cavalry tactics used by the Byzantines against their Persian and later Muslim adversaries and - as you did here - cover how to implement said formations and tactics in total war games?

this is so cool to watch!

Nice tactics mate, subscribed ur channel.👍

Awesome video man.

I LOVE this video!!! Now I want to try replicating it in my own Total War games. Question on it/request for another video. From what I've read, the Romans used this Cannae as a blueprint for future battle strategies, even into the Medieval period. Can we get a video showing an adaptation of this for the cavalry heavy armies of the Byzantine Empire (possibly using M2TW, Attila, or both)?

As others already recognised, Hannibal was heavily outnumbered by the Romans and therefore used a different tactic which in the end was similar to your tactic in this video, but at the beginning he was forming a "false gap". Then his middle would retreat slowly to surround the Romans and when his cavalry was coming back they clashed in the back of the Romans. _this_ was the battle of cannae

Awesome Video. Do more historical strategies like this.

Loved Total War Rome 1 Seeing this makes me itchy. Great graphics and details. Are the Units equal powered?

More of this!

you should use this strategy as the romans, oh the irony. and more videos about different tactics and you using them would be really cool.

Спасибо тебе огромное за воссоздание тактики такого военного гения как Каннибала

very nice tactics to use, by the way ,, how do you download the 2 extra files with the mod manager for Ancient Empires Mod, It is released today except for Part 1 which will be released 2 pm cst.

show us MORE of this!!!

Have you tried using the Divide et Impera mod? Frankly right now vannila TWR2 is shockingly arcade-like which for the most part makes tactics like this ridiculously hard, impossible or just lowers their effect. While tactics are apparent, troop type, rock paper scissors effects and a Units silly "special abilities" matter more. With the DeI mod it changes the focus back to slower battles, tactics, positioning and big brawls. For instance you could realistically copy Cannae where your centre is engaged but starts to fall back, drawing them in by having the enemy follow the withdrawing troops. I find it makes battles a hell of a lot more fun, realistic and that means that real-world tactics can be utilised more easily and have much more of an effect.

@InvictaHistory

10 жыл бұрын

I've heard of this mod but never used it. I heard they are working on a Rome II Total Realism mod... its gonna be a while but when they are done I think itll have similar results

@PeterHyder

10 жыл бұрын

Well they have already released their work in the Steam Workshop and are regularly updating it while they progress. It is already very much worth your while to check it out.

Hannibal's tactics are effective when the opponent doesn't have bird's eye view.

Yes triple X please, I really enjoyed this video !

I think it would also be interesting to see how to counter these tactics, or how people might do so.

Nice tactics man,but i have a question,how do you do that thing with the camera at 6:25??

Nice example of thinking out of the box, gg.

I did this once COMPLETELY by accident, but it worked: cavalry even swooped in from behind for the full envelopment

Hannibal used a bull horn formation, finally using a crescent formation to encircle the romans.

This is awsome !

lol at 7:53 epic as fuck at the top XD

the first decisive Victory I have ever seen on Rome 2 Total War online battles

Do you think you can re make Alexander's tactics at the battle of Gaugamela?

@InvictaHistory

10 жыл бұрын

It might be possible but probably hard to recreate given the fact that Darius ran before being engaged and thus created a major morale blow to his army. In rome 2 the generals hold up much better than this and the morale system isnt quite the same

@TheHalomaster256

10 жыл бұрын

Yeah your right, do you think they should change the morale system in another patch?

@TheHalomaster256

10 жыл бұрын

THFE Productions You know a lot of the time when I play as Carthage I always use my elephants to flank the enemy and take out there general while my troops engage with most of the army. I do have to admit even though the moral system isn't perfect in ROME 2 this normally does work for me.

@TheHalomaster256

10 жыл бұрын

THFE Productions Also another problem would be to try and make the entire enemy Calvary to follow your and then perform that sharp turn into the enemy centre.

more of this plz!!

Hannibal did this while retreating from a superior force, letting the Romans slip into the void. You are doing a flanking maneuver.

anyway, i recomend to do it slowly, skirmish for a while, and let the enemy get nervous, and advance slowly and disciplined

first, hannibal have smaller troops in the battle of cannae. second, hannibal tactics depends on how his calvalry routed enemy cavalry as fast as posible while the main foot soldier along with him slowly move backward yet not to retreat so the mercenary on the reserve able to suround the enemy sides. when enemy cavalry has been routed and mercenaries are on the sides of enemies, foot soldier stops and stand their ground while hannibal cavalry close the enemy escape route. when th enemy completely surounded, then began the harassing and slaugthering of roman army.

Use the triplex acies I've already used it my self and it works like a charm!

htf do you get a group to hold formation like that when you move them? if you do the normal hold down right click and drag it redeploys them into a line everytime???

@mojotheaverage

6 жыл бұрын

Shrill select all the units you want ij formation and press ctrl g. That groups them AND locks their formation. Hope that helps :h

This man is underrated.

So how would you counter against this strategy if you were on the other side and it was presented to you

looks good to me, I'll have to try it.

hey i tried it with cartaghe, and it goes very well! the key is to have some reserves at your back, but it goes fine against pike and cav armies

Hannibal has awoken from his grave to see this.

What is the game you use to demonstrate? it looks amazing!

@a.f.nik.4210

6 жыл бұрын

Total war: Rome II

Awesome tactics, could you show it more in action?

@InvictaHistory

10 жыл бұрын

Its a bit hard in a battle like this where I have to focus a lot on control. I could save the battles and rewatch them from a 3rd person camera but sadly replays are still bugged

@Stormfox93

10 жыл бұрын

I understand, no worries

@kenrudd6362

7 жыл бұрын

THFE Productions pls do more or if you have more online tactics vid already just say their names

@ianhing

4 жыл бұрын

@@InvictaHistory can we have some more Rome 2? I really want more! No need if you don’t want though!

1:54 Hannibal had the line curved the other way to start the battle. So the middle was closer to the romans than the sides to begin with, then gradually transformed into that shape

Reminds me more of Illipa than Cannae since only your flanks engaged in battle, while the center of the enemy was forced to stand still as they were being flanked by you bcause of the threat of your center. Still pretty cool video, and I guess it's the same idea

Hey, would you mind telling me how to after having set your unit formation, you click and they all advance maintaining it? just like he does at 2:26. Thank you. Also I hope you keep making videos, yours are awesome.

@InvictaHistory

10 жыл бұрын

You have to put them all in a locked group, hit "control" + "g"

@GrandMoffTarkinsTeaDispenser

10 жыл бұрын

thank you! :D

where did you get your information on historically accurate tactics? I know the progression of battles like Cannae are not hard to find but the way army's work and their typical behavior still elude me. Rome gives me a slight Idea but the way you control your troops and the fact battles take minutes rather then hours makes me think historical accurate tactics would differ allot.

@InvictaHistory

10 жыл бұрын

Tactics come from the various books I have read on the Punic wars. They will obviously differ greatly when compared to the eye in the sky generalship of a game but you can often get strategies that are similar in spirit

@inperatieloos

10 жыл бұрын

THFE Productions Have any books you recomend?

Im fairly certain that's now at all how Canne played out. As far as I was aware Hannibal formed his army into a bow curve with his light infantry in the centre and heavier more experienced troops to the flanks, keeping a hidden reserve of skrimishers His cavalry attacked before the romans even engaged to drive off the roman cavalry. Then when the romans began their infantry attack, Hannibal ordrered his centre to give ground until the bow curve had effectivily revesered and the romans believed they had broken his centre. At this point Hannibal attacked the roman flanks with his hidden reserved and had his cavalry return to seal the trap. I could be wrong (I'm not a historian) but that was my understanding of the battle. Nothing like shown here.

@MrHoeBow

6 жыл бұрын

Senor Grafton Semi-accurate, but if you wish for a quick summary, I'll give it to you: Hannibal had his army in a straight line, essentially, with weak, new recruits in the center and elite have infantry on the flanks. He was severely outnumbered infantry wise, but he had between 3 to 4 times as much cavalry as the Romans. After the previous experiences in the Second Punic War, Rome knew that its strength was in its center, so they heavily packed their center with weaker flanks and cavalry on the extreme flank (they would have almost surely won this battle if they stretched their infantry out instead of packing them altogether in the center). The cavalry's job was to protect the flanks, the flanks job was to protect the center. As the battle begins, the Carthaginian cavalry on their left wing charged and destroy the Roman cavalry on the left. On the right, the Carthaginian cavalry play cat and mouse with the Roman left until the rest of the Carthaginian cavalry joins up with them to rout the Roman left wing. It's worth noting that both the consuls commanding the army were in the cavalry, so now both consuls were dead or routed. The weak Carthaginian center advances quicker than the flanks offering an enticing bate to the Roman center, which bites hard. The Romans push the Carthaginian center hard, but it's really a ruse. Hannibal himself is apart of his center as to assure them that he went down with them and that the feigned retreat doesn't become an actual rout. The Carthaginian wings push hard against the Roman wings. Now it looks as if the Romans are in a wedge formation and the Carthaginians are in a crescent shape. Some of the Carthaginian lines on the flank turn towards the center and charge, forcing the Romans into a sort of square where they are enveloped on three sides. The cavalry completes the encirclement by hitting the Romans from behind. The Roman fighting maneuvers required a decent amount of space to move around and as the Carthaginians pushed harder on the Romans, the less space they had. The casualty rate was 10 to 1. Hannibal pulled off a brilliant maneuver, encircling a much larger army. He truly is one of the greatest generals to live.

@MrHoeBow

6 жыл бұрын

That was not as short as I hoped it to be. Whoops.

it is very easy to annihilate the enemy troops (Hannibal)...you just pull your cavalry into the center, then as the enemy walks towards your central line with swordsmen you send the cavalry (behind the swordsmen) and you destroy the center of the enemy, then the flanks is an easy part as long as you surround the enemy flanks

Hannibal Barak was a library genius !

This is great

SInce when hanibal in cannae had the numerical advantage?

I took a drink and I looked back at about 12:50 to that creepy ass smiley face. Needless to say I laughed.

Gaius Terentius Varro disliked this video.

How did you get that paint? Is it a mod or something?

? Hannibal had cavalry advantage and they where the final move that made Cannae into a masterpice. The cavalry attack the enemy from behind making them completly surronded and trapped in a tight box.

@frankytoad12

8 жыл бұрын

+Peter Magro Yea I was thinking perhaps he should've replaced the 2 backup skirmishes with 2 more units of cav to outflank after locking up the enemy cav; would've been able to attack from behind and break the whole army in a few seconds.

this is more like Ilipa where Scipio used a reverse cannae

Absolutely nothing like the battle canne.

He was completely frozen and didnt know what to do lol.

Please try the triplex axis! That'll be cool to see

2:52 smiley face of DEATH!

Hannibal used his Gauls at the front, his Numedian and Spanish cavalry at the left and right flank and he held his Lybian spearmen as reserves and his formation looked a bit like this :---:

dope !

dude you are insane

good tactic. it wasn't the single formation envelopment I was expecting but good nonetheless

Personally, I always go for Scipio's campi magni envelopment

That mic POP though

Id like to see this strategy used more soo cool

which game is this . I know that battle but which is this u played in this game.

@hawktheslayer438

8 жыл бұрын

+ali asghar Total War: Rome 2.

Can you recreate Caesar vs Pompey

more tactics, please :)

id like to see how you could counter this formation if it was me playing i would disperse my forces and try to get you to break formation

@InvictaHistory

10 жыл бұрын

I am actually uploading a video on just that

Nice

So apparently in the Battle of Cannae the Carthiginians outnumbered the Romans 2:1 (and did not use any of the tactics from the Battle of Cannae).

@stitchgaming489

5 жыл бұрын

It was 86:55

What if your opponent spams swords like the romans did?

you pull apart your troops. If one of your Grupps is under attack. It takes time to react and reach this part of your Army to help another on. You can move your army together an move them together to your flank. Make your position longer! whats about this suggestion!

what game it is?

why did rome stand still and commit all there troops? usually rome dosent do that and keeps 5-8 more maniples for reinforcements

@dudeofvalor9294

6 жыл бұрын

I think because they had infantry superiority, over confidence in their ability to win, a nice juicy target to push in the center, and maybe the distaste for Hannibal.

@mojotheaverage

6 жыл бұрын

Pretty much exactly what Dude said. It's one of those tactics where it works beautifully if your opponent doesn't know that you intend to do it but its hard to pull of your opponent anticipates it. I don't personally prescribe to this line of thought but a lot of historians of the period have debated that Cannae was more of a desperate accident than a moment of tactical genius basically because it would be so dependent on your opponent doing exactly what you want them to do. Whilst I agree that it was risky for that reason and that Hannibal was partly lucky that it went right, I do think that the course of the battle went exactly as he had hoped, not that it was a lucky accident.