Bridges

[Sith_Lord]

I've heard people say, put your army on a bridge, but, i've never had a bridge battle in the campaign game, lol. How do you find/fight on a bridge, like normally im in a forrested area or by a river, or just open field, but never a bridge.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Well when your armies walk around, if they come to a river, they have to pass through a bridge to cross it. The same applies to diplomats and other units like that. You realise how sometimes units take a really long winded way towards a place? That usually means there's a river or a mountain range there, and they have to go the long way so they can cross at a bridge or mountain pass.

[Sith_Lord]

Oh, true, sirry, lol, wasn't really thinking i guess. thanks.

[NobleNick]

Anywhere you can cross a river on the campaign map, there will be a bridge or ford there on the battle map. Park your stack on the bridge in the campaign map, so that if they are attacked, they will be attacked there.

In the battle, you want to let the attacker cross the bridge. Set up your spears / HI at your end of the bridge. It is best if you can set them up in a "U" shape, using 3 of your units, so that the first unit off the bridge gets attacked from 3 sides. Then turn your archers loose on an enemy unit which has not quite made it to the front line (this reduces friendly fire casualties). Your archers/crossbows (hopefully you have 4 or more units) will slaughter the tightly packed enemy. Hopefully the terrain will allow you to arrange your archers above and to the enemy's right (your left) to eliminate their shield bonus.

[Xavier Dragnesi]

A very good strategy there. Do not put too much cavalry into your bridge blocking stack, as then they are just a waste of units and can't do much except chase fleeing units that somehow get past your block.

[coinich]

Onagers help loads, if they are positioned correctly.

[Eccentric]

Heres one good setup I like to use.
W=water
B=bridge
E=enemy
C=cav(preferably heavy cav)
INF=Infantry(both heavy and light will do)
WBEEBW
WBEEBW
WBEEBW
WBEEBW
CC EE CC
CC EE CC
INFINF
The enemy runs over the bridge in a big mess, wait until they are halfway across and charge your inf at them(remember they are there just to keep the enemy pinned) wait a little while for enemy to tire and then charge all your cav at once, it usually results in an instant rout, this also works if you replace
the inf with cav but then you charge everything in right away, but be careful and watch your cav, cause they have a nasty habit of running into the water and drowning themselves.

[piranha45]

OK, so in my Germania campaign just now, I managed to lure a full SPQR army (the entire thing, reinforcements from Rome and all) across this shallow-water crossing (a bridge, essentially) using Illyrian mercenaries. On auto resolve, I was outnumbered 6-1 or something along the like, yet the SPQR still refused to go on the offensive. So I had the javelin mercs tease them over (all my losses stemmed from them). This huge army rolled into the bridge-area in a huge square. I unleashed my Berserkers, not sure of what to expect.

It looked like they were shoveling snow, except instead of snow it was Romans. The entire process only took about 45 seconds, too. Aside from the javelin mercs, I lost 1 berserker... on the details screen, one of the berserker units got 280 kills on its own.

[Eccentric]

wow nice piranha, berserkers on bridges=massacre

[Xavier Dragnesi]

Yes I agree. They are one of the best infantry units, and coupled with the well placed strategical position, then it's a complete wipeout of the enemy forces.

[Amroth]

Moved to Battle Planning.

[conquestor]

Onagers help loads, if they are positioned correctly.

indeed, artillery is very devastating during bridge battles. encumbered enemies crossing bridges are very vulnerable to artillery or archers.

[Fox Sterlingworth]

I think I need to re-evaluate my usual tactics. Usually I keep my defensive armies inside cities, but I think I will start sending them out to block strategic choke-points. Bridges in particular.

[Fishies123]

you can easily kill large armies in a briddge battle with a handful of units. Archers in particular rock because the enemy are so bunched up trying to cross that when those arrows come they have nothing to do but die.