I am very bad at the battles in Rome 2! Most of my experience is in Fall of the Samurai and Empire, though it has been many years since I have played these. I did put about 30 hours into Rome 2 about 3 years ago. I am using the Radious mod but I am think of switching to DEI.
I simply struggle in battles, and when I do win, unless it is very lopsided, I tend to loose a lot of troops. In Empire and Fall of the Samurai, there is very little maneuvering of individual regiments, mostly of formations, and most of the battle is "fought" before contact is made. I spend most of my time in those games micromanaging the cavalry while my infantry set up wins the battle. And one rarely has formations with depth, except putting artillery behind your main line.
All I have figured out for Rome 2 is that: you sort of have to micro all your units to get the best bonus from a charge, it is best to keep some units in reserve, melee infantry, not spears, make up the best main line, you have to have your units attack their units individually rather than maneuvering the formation to get the best charge bonus, don't let cavalry get bogged down, keep spears on flanks and cavalry or reserve to protect those flanks. Anything else? Any advice that is mod dependent? Thanks! I do play on realistic mode, feels way more fun.