Your favorite unit formations and strategies in different situations

[melkor1861]

I love the classic "Oblique" formation that made it's debut in Thessaly and was used with such success by Alexander. It worked great in RTW, and I like it in M2TW:

___________I_I_I
_________I_I_I__
________I______
_______I___A_A_
______I________
__I_I_I_________
C______________
C______________

[Michel ney.v2]

i just nuke them....jk I= infantry c=calvary M= missile troops IIIIIIIII
m m
C C calvary does a pincher movment trapping the forces, then missile will barage them with fire, and then finish them off with a deadly infantry charge, i call it the andaconda because it chockes the life out of the enemy tiring them then infantry "the Head" eats the enemy, its beeen usful in small skirmishes and large defensive battles

[Walhalla]

I have never lost a battle...if the battle was well prepared first, befor one even starts to contamplate of battle orders, one must know how to prepare for that battle, NEVER fight in woods unless you make an ambush. Allways keep your spears on the flanks for the cavalry will most likley atack there, keep you'r archers in the first line as the arrows do more damage as the enemy aproaches, the lose of some archers is deemd acceptable, in the second line heavy inf must be in shield wall stance for they will be able to repell cavalry. The rest is easy, a incirclement of the enemy will be done by you'r heavy cav as they will wait on the flanks behind the spears until battle is engaged, is cases is good to have 1 or 2 units of light cav and use them to harass enemy archers as they cand distable you'r own line of battle, as a last reminder KEEP you'r troops in a goof formation and never allow the infantry to pursue the enemy as they will become tired and/or will hinder the cav in this task. In the case of multiple enemies this is down right stupid. Try as much as posible to keep the units close together as there morale will be stable...and in an ofensive advance slow in good order whit light cav or missile cav in front to counter archers or heavier missile engines.

[... where did it run?]

Heavy Horse Archers - HA x12
Light Cavalry (or light horse archers) - LC x 2
Heavy Cavalry - HC x 5
General - G x 1



HAHAHA_________________HAHAHA
HAHAHA____HCHCHCHC____HAHAHA
__LC_________HCG__________LC__


<3 Dvor Cavalry

Anyway it's quite a mobile army, so starting formations doesn't really matters much. You can reform it anytime. Besides, in the battle you just surround your enemy troops, slay them at distance. Some enemy units might get isolated by chasing your HA.. crush them in melee. Dvors are capable to charge down and kill lighter troops (by lighter I mean, not armoured knights) in melee themselves. For harder tasks Tsars guard does the thing. Also track enemy missile units. Dumb AI likes to push all his missile units quite in front If they aren't well protected - charge them down with HC and get out of there before infantry doesn't came to save them. You maye won't kill all missile troops, but half or more for sure..

Light cavalry with fast ponies are solely for routing heavy cavalry and catching up rounting generals. As russians that is Cossack cav. It's also useful as horse archer.

[Sgt's Beaten Drum]

How about in bridges, when you are babysitting a bridge, what it's better? to place the army on the bridge (in the campaign map) or place it at the end of it?

[Om noml]

Y'know, I'm not quite sure. I think it's either or.

[painter]

If you want a river crossing fight, the battle must take place on the bridge. If you're defending, you must be on the bridge. If you're attacking, the enemy must be on the bridge.

A battle taking place on either end might as well be any regular field battle, except that you may get a nice view of the river flowing along one side, outside the battlefield boundary.

[Sgt's Beaten Drum]

Ah, thanks for clearing those things out, now i truly understand how it works.

[TheJim]

It depends on the faction. However, the main factor, I find, that is decisive, is cavalry superiority. If you have a core of a half stack of infantry, of which 2 are spearmen and the rest heavy, or 4 spearmen if you're low on cash, with two good ranged units in the next half stack such as longbowmen or crossbowmen, and the rest medium cavalry, or an equal mix heavy and light cavalry. You have a relatively inexpensive, versatile and effective force available to every faction, that can win most battles.

Standard tactics are the trusty "Hammer and Anvil" tactic. against AI, it almost never fails as long as you have competent infantry and cavalry superiority. Simply pin the enemy infantry with yours (they don't have to win, just hold steady.) while smashing away the enemy cavalry with yours, regroup and charge your cavalry into the back of the enemy infantry. This works particularly well if you make your infantry withdraw at the run a small distance a few seconds before, as their infantry will be drawn out into a looser formation in pursuit, and will be more devastated by the charge. Mass rout. If none of their cavalry escape you can inflict 100% casualties.

My favourite tactic is a variation on this, which I like to call the "Cannae Manouvre" After the battle where it was utilised by Hannibal against a larger and better equipped Roman force, ending in massacre for the Romans.

Lay out your units like this

I = Infantry
R= Ranged
C = Cavalry
Brackets denotes routed.
(1)

ECEC------EG-------ECEC (E Denotes Enemy)
-------EIEIEIEIEIEIE------
-----------ER------------

-------IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-------
------------II------------
CCCC------RR-------GCCC

Assuming standard battle formations, the enemy will send their ranged units forward to harass you and try to initiate a skirmish. Either use your ranged units to fight theirs if your are superior, or simply ignore them, and advance your infantry in one solid line, making sure you have your weakest units in the centre and strongest on the flanks, Keeping one heavy unit back as shown. Normally, the enemy will have their layout the opposite way round. Try to engage the enemy in a solid line, unit to unit, and the infantry fight based on unit strength will take shape. At the same time, destroy their cavalry with yours. In the time it takes to destroy or rout the enemy cavalry, the battle will look like this:

(2)
-----(EC)------(EC)-
--------------------
---CCCC----GCCC---
--------------------
----IE---EE---EI----
-----IE------EI-----
-------IE---EI------
---------EE--------
---(I)----II----(I)---

Obviously due to the layout I have to use it's quite exaggerated in shape, but here you have all of the enemy infantry engaged, and we see why That HI unit was held in reserve, since we assume the enemy's superior Infantry in the centre would defeat ours, we hold them with good infantry to prevent them splitting our force and rolling up a flank.

As soon as your cavalry have finished the enemy cavalry, turn about and charge into the enemy rear, encircling them. Butcher them all.

(3)

-----C----C------
---I(E)-C--(E)I---
----I(E)CC(E)I---
-----I(E)(E)I-----
-------IIII-------

Throughout this tactic, if you were wondering, your ranged units are kept behind but in range using fire arrows to damage morale.

[Dudu]

Hi everybody, Im new here. Been playing Medieval II for a while. Currenlty playing the with Stainless Steel 3.0 mod

Right now, one of my favourite formations is this field army formation:

1 General + 2~3 heavy cavalry + 3~4 missile cavalry. Or something larger using this proportion.

The formation:

(MC)---EEEE---(MC)
-------EEEEE-------
(HC)---EEEE---(HC)
--------EEE--------
(MC)-----------(MC)
--------(G)---------

(MC) stands for Missile cavalry, (HC) for heavy, (G) general and the bunch of "Es" are the enemy. And they can be everything.

The missile cavalry do the carnage. Both sides, they barrage the enemy with arrows or wathever ranged weapon. I prefer to target spearmen or another cavalry with the MC. In some cases, they flank the enemy with missiles. Eventually, the missiles run out and they charge, surprisingly killing a lot of people. By the time this happens, the enemy is already thin in numbers.

The heavy cavalry targets for missile infantry and siege weapon. Otherwise they stand in position until I see fit and charge. Not rarely Im able to put them in top of hills so they can charge even more effectively. The enemy missile infantry tend to turn and start shooting at the units above the hills, and this can ruins my MC barrage a bit. The HC can charge them and still return to safety.

The general stands in the middle. The army comes to them and I stand there, waiting. Whey they're near, I either run a bit farther or charge them, it depends on situation. When general charges HC also charge. The MC will keep shooting at units who are not engaging the HC or the General. Or, they can charge the remaining troops.

Im not a battle genius, but this worked quite well so far. They have the advantage of moving fast around the map, so this is my favourite army.

[PrestigeX]

I know all sorts of formations to win effectively, kill a lot, and take fewer casualties..

BUT, my favourite for a visual feast is the simple "Full Attack" charge. I try to keep my army in a general wedge formation... horse concentrated on the center, heavy infantry in the center, and then some cavalry on the sides and spear infantry on sides.
the whole formation moves toward the enemy in close order.. cavalry charges and the infantry closes in behind them . I sit back and zoom in and enjoy the melee..



INF INF CAV CAV CAV INF INF
INF INF INF INF INF INF INF INF INF
CAV CAV
INF INF

[hagan400]

I do a custom battle with the mongols and get their best horse archers using a feigned retreat sorta tactic and my whole army consits of that and since their in large numbers light calvary tends to get shot down before it reaches me once their down I've already won basically.

[shadow_knight123]

ill give you my defend a settlement strategy, cuz i pride myself on that ability. if they have no artillery and its all siege equipment, then do this: swordmen are the best for defending walls, spearmen should guard the gate, and make sure that your archers have fire arrows on. make sure you have lots of troops at the gate, including any cavalry. One tactic to guard the gate, is just wen the enemy starts to charge in, counter charge them, if it works your troops will be just inside the little gate tunnel blocking the attackers( especially effective if you have boiling oil.) If they do have artillery, then line your troops on the ground behind your walls, and when you see the attackers charging for the gaps, fill them with infantry, and when they are all packed tight in the gap, have archers shoot fire arrows into the mass. If a spy opens the gates the best you can do is pause the game and get all your troops in formation at the town center or at the gate.

[SamTheLongCaped]

My favorite gate/breach defense formation looks like this.

========Entrance> ================
_______________H_D___D_H__________________
________________H__D__H___________________
_________________HSSSH____________________

Where

H= Heavy Infantry
D= A good defensive schiltron unit.
S= Cheap Spear units if you have them.

When the enemy breaks down the gates they charge into the schiltrons, they the heavy inf. charge into the gaps. If any units start to buckle, or the enemy manages to open a gap in the formation just charge the reserve guys into them. If your defending a multi-layered castle you can disengage everyone and use spare calvery to hold the enemy off while you retreat to the next layer.

[Heheggg]

Spearmen in the front supported with archers and spearmen while. Gunners go to the back and fire while the cavalry charge at the flank.

[Under_Siege]

When I am attacking an enemy army, if I have nice cavalry, while my infantry marches against the enemy's army, my cavalry fights against enemy's cavalry and then... Making sandwich

If my cavalry has some troubles with the enemy's, I send some spearmens or my general to help then. There isn't any standart tactic with which you can always win.

Also, with horse archers and cavalry there are a lots of variation - army made only by horsemans is fast, elastic and can surround the enemy army or hit and run or whatever you need to win the battle. If some units go chasing, they will be trapped and...

[ProjectCaddyGuy]

Maybe I keep things too simple, though I don't lose battles, and I play the campaign on hard. Through most of the game, I simply combine Spearmen with schiltron ability (usually spear militia, Scots and Milan, Saracen for Egypt) And ranged Archers or Crossbowmen. A general or two. That's it. Later as the game progresses, I'll add a mangonel and catapult to it. I currently have an army sweeping from Milan, 1 5 star general, 7 Spear Militia, the rest Crossbow Militia. I don't advance unless I have to, and I put my spearmen in a spaced out row of schiltron set. (The key is enough space for firing lanes, but not so much that enemy units just run between.) My Crossbowmen are simply stationed in rows behind, raking the enemy as they charge up, and then firing into their sides as they wrap around my spearmen. I try to keep one or 2 spear units on a flank, ready to catch cavalry. My 1 unit of cavalry, the general bodyguard, I usually slip around and charge enemy archers, or use as firemen, charging into the rear of heavier infantry hitting my spearmen. The army is cheap to maintain, easy to restock any time, and very difficult to do anything about. (The mongols are the only challenge ever, and I'll usually just drop the artillery pieces, and add generals, so 2 or 3 generals, spearmen, and ranged.) Been in battles where the enemy had reinforcements, and my army of 1000 will decimate armies totally 1800-2400. (Had one, veteran army of right at 1000 took on 3 armies, 980, 800, 1100, they walked away with less than 500 total. My army left with just under 700.)

[Willowran]

I am in the habitof heavy skirmishing and geurilla fighting. Most of my armies are very heavy on horse archers and generals.

formation:

GGGGG SSSSSSS
AAAAAA
IIII
g=general/melee horse
s=skirmishing horse
a=archers/crossbows
i=melee infantry

the whole strategy is painfully simple: send the horse archers around the flank then let them do their thing. nearly without fail the opponent will break their orderly formation to try and chase them down. send your melee cavalry (consisting mostly of heavy cavalry and generals) in between gaps in their line, get in behind them. First thing is to annhilate any cavalry my opponent has, for my plan relies on lots of speed. gang up on each individual cavalry unit with each cavalry unit i have (nearly always enoug to route it). then go after their general (same thing). if their infantry starts to get close withdraw, run around them, and hit the cavalry again. meanwhile, while i smack around their horse my infantry sits far from the conflict in as long a line as possible, and any foot archers or such pepper the enemy as they advance (if i get an oppourtunity to shoot someone in the back obviously take it). once i got rid of their cavalry then rest my horse. the whole idea is to wait for their main infantry force to reach my inantry then repeatedly charge into their backsides, running around every infantry unit they send to block off my cavalry. In the end i route more then i kill. Every charge has about 5 calvalry units hitting one infantry unit from about 3 different sides. The massive damage dealt by the charge makes them run.

If i am outmatched badly the i retreat my infantry off the battle map, shoot 'till i run out of ammo, charge out their cavalry and skirmishers, then retreat with everything else. Repeat untill their once-huge army is a pitiful thing, then overwhelm it.

[Willowran]

ack, formation skrewed up...

GGGGG______________________________SSSSSS

_________________AAAAA____________________

____________________________________________
_________________________________________
__________________IIIII_____________________________

[Willowran]

The absolute best defence (against a ai opponent) is a citadel with cannon towers garrissoned by maybe 5 serpentines and 2 peasents.

battlemap: send your serpantines outside your walls waste away all your ammo. stick your peasents on the walls to activate your towers... and wait. Your towers havce nearly infinite range: you will whipe out half of their army minimum if your are playing withthe 45 minute timer (most likely around 70 percent), and with no time limit... goodnight.