Your favorite unit formations and strategies in different situations

[Willowran]

in a bridge battle is is considerably better to put units at the end of the bridge (not on it). make a kind of hollow box walled by your units (the heaviest infantry you have (if your have spears then wonderful)). each unit they send across the bridge will be automatically flanked from both sides. stick all archers and such to both sides, as close to the water as you can (this way they can pepper the enemies sides as they cross the bridge). keep any cavalry in reserve, and if they every get close to breaking out of the box smack them with a cavalry charge.

added bonus: all of their units will get all clustered up in your box, so onc you route one, then you probably route two... which nearly always sets off a chainreaction of fleeingenemies. fear offsets any statistical disadvantages unavoidable if you meet them on the bridge itself.

the only downside is if they take a cautious skirmisher-heavy approach you'll take a lot of causualties due to your own packed formation

[Willowran]

for assaulting cities i am not particularily good. i always seem to lose a lot more ment then is necessary taking the walls... what i try to do is break as much of the wall as possible. if i am lucky that alone will send them fleeing to the town center. else i send all my calvalry in one breach and hopefully rush through whatever was guarding it. then flee through the city. this will pull defenders from all over to chase them down, then i advance with my infantry through the weakened outer defences. mose of my army is long-ranged skirmishers. once they are cowering in the center of the town, set up a three-way 'ambush' type thing, where is sit infantry at the ends of mulitple side streets that converge on a singe location. send a skirmisher foreward to draw out anemy units, draw them between the infantry, then hit them from multiple directons. when they route chase down as many as you can with calvalry. only assault the town center when they have practically no one left else their inability to route from a town center could cost you tons of unnessessary death.

whenever possible i besiege a city with inferior forces and let them sally out. shoot down as many as i can, then run away. repeat until you can route all of them outside the city walls. win through fear.

[Willowran]

when defending stick maybe two long ranged skirmishers near whatever walls they are assaulting (close enough to activate the towers) and everyone else in the town center, making narrow hallways walled by infantry at the end of any road leading to the town center. mass long-range skirmishers in the center of the center, calvalry to the rear.

when the enemy get close to the walls (within range to use siege equipment) retreat your archers to other towers. they are suicide fighters. all they do is move from tower to tower, killing as many people as posssible before retreating to the center (or dieing of they don't move fast enough). i set the siege into a seriese of bridge battles. my units cannot retreat (town center, and all that), and being attacked from three directions routes most enemies. cavalry is mostly useless, they just charge anyplace the enemy may break through, run away, then charge again. the ranged people shot the entire time. as usual, i route more then i kill.

[Willowran]

i have a habit of playing as the weakest possible factions. the underdogs. in rtw/rtr i play as numidia. in mtw i played first as scotland (damn pope really hated me), then as moors (way too easy. quit halfway through because it was too much like my scot game (same power base same enemies...)). started with russia, but horse archers make it too easy. played as venice for awhile, did wonderfully. slight hiccup when the mongols invaded, my worst set of defeats in any total war game. wonderful strategists: feel free to laugh at me.

i way trying out a viking-style raiding strategy. big fleet, a small army with artillery. hop off boat to sack a poorly defended shore settlement, then sit their and defend it. my armies were mostly militia and ranged, though in the east i was starting to recruit a lotof heavy guys. i controlled pretty much every city along the shore of the mediteranian, every island... tonnes of sea trade. i had oly just started spreading into the east. i controlled the turkish peninsula, all the shore eastern cities, and was just starting to spread further inland. i needed 4 more cities to beat the campaign. mongols invaded. their seige artillery devistated my walls. i fought them off (very heavy causualties both sides) a couple times, then ran out of manpower. they captured three settlements. then there was milan. the pope says if i attack them i get excommunicated. they have one city left, right in the north of italy. i couldn't resist. i was excommunicated. aw well. then the pope decided to call a crusade against jerusalem... which was one of my cities. i stockpile venitian crossbow militia, heavy archers and my heaviest infantry. nearly every christian faction joins the crusade. all but hungary, which were my allies. to thank them, i made them a gift of 10000 gold. they attacked me next turn. i fought off the romans, french, england, poland, hungary, scotland, spain... then lose to poland 'cause i ran out of men. hungary decides to attack me some more and sack three or four settlements along our borders guarded only by small militia forces... it was a disaster. in the end i lost around 10 settlements before i could turn it around. it doesn't help that my armies have the a statistical disadvantage, (i don't like wasting money on feudal knights or such (too expensive)), and rome and france kept attacking me around northern italy the entire time... the black plague sent my finances plummeting...lots of sleepless knights fixing that mess.

[TheFoolOnTheHill]

wow
the scots are easy if you rush
you get excommunicated but if you get it back your golden

[Antonidas]

In Rome Total War it was ridiculously easy to defend a gate when you had 2 or more phalanx troops. Now in Medieval 2 I discovered a way to defend gates really well. (not as good as phalanx though ) If you have a castle, then just get 1 or more spearmen positioned right in front of the gate. When the enemy breaks down the gate, wait until they start charging, then counter charge. You'll have them stuck RIGHT below the boiling oil holes. I did this In Brittania and my Merryionid (spelled right?) spearmen held off 2 armoured knights and a generals bodyguard.

[Silverheart]

In Rome Total War it was ridiculously easy to defend a gate when you had 2 or more phalanx troops. Now in Medieval 2 I discovered a way to defend gates really well. (not as good as phalanx though ) If you have a castle, then just get 1 or more spearmen positioned right in front of the gate. When the enemy breaks down the gate, wait until they start charging, then counter charge. You'll have them stuck RIGHT below the boiling oil holes. I did this In Brittania and my Merryionid (spelled right?) spearmen held off 2 armoured knights and a generals bodyguard.

I do that all the time, including in vanilla.
Trapping the enemy in the gatehouse - rather than letting them inside the gateyard where they can spread out - is a great way to slow them down, and negating any number advantages they might have.
You should note that a unit of spearmen can hold their ground better and for a longer time when they are crammed inside the gatehouse, where numbers count for little.

PS.
It´s Meirionydd Spearmen, if I remember correctly.
But their name is a tricky one, so I don´t think anyone´s very picky about the spelling.
DS.

[Willowran]

In Rome Total War it was ridiculously easy to defend a gate when you had 2 or more phalanx troops. Now in Medieval 2 I discovered a way to defend gates really well. (not as good as phalanx though ) If you have a castle, then just get 1 or more spearmen positioned right in front of the gate. When the enemy breaks down the gate, wait until they start charging, then counter charge. You'll have them stuck RIGHT below the boiling oil holes. I did this In Brittania and my Merryionid (spelled right?) spearmen held off 2 armoured knights and a generals bodyguard.

i did something similar in the teutonic campaign with the lithuanians. it seems to work just as well with heavy inf, regardless of spears

[Silverheart]

i did something similar in the teutonic campaign with the lithuanians. it seems to work just as well with heavy inf, regardless of spears

As long as you can hold the enemy in place under the boiling oil holes, anything works.

[Huskerjuan]

For city/castle defense I've always used the V formation with my infantry units, However, instead of simply placing all the troops in the same line, I stack them to a degree. Once someone gets to mid-game they will have the option of producing both spear and HI units. I place my HI's in the normal V formation, but instead of covering the entire line, I place them in deeper columns, leaving some room by the entrances to the gatehouse towers. I then place my spears across the full span of the V about 2 to 3 rows behind the HI units. I then take one unit and place it atop the point of the V, preventing the enemy from splitting the 2 lines. In this formation, the HI take the initial charge, as they are better suited for that. As the melee continues and the V begins to expand, my spear units become involved.

I decided to try out this formation after several failed attempts at defending against mass cavalry (ie: Mongols). I found that if I place my spears in the front, the shear mass of cavalry overwhelms them quickly, and the spear men either rout or their numbers are reduced so extensively that they cannot fight cohesively. By placing the HI in front, they take the brunt of the mass charge and as the melee continues, my fresh and fully numbered spear units begin to cut down the cavalry. Ass a few missile infantry to man the walls and a cav unit or 2 to sweep around from another gate, and you will have Heroic Victories all day long!

[trustno1(2)]

I use a unit of pike-men or spear-men as a central unit with two other units of the same type radiating off of the sides, forming a flat bottomed "V" shape. I have a unit or two of skirmisher inside of that, followed by my base infantry, followed by archers or crossbowmen. I then place my cavalry off to either side of the formation to attack the enemy from the rear. The formation works well with Scotland, as they have strong enough pike-men to hold your line.

Works great when defending against a lot of cavalry in a field battle. I get a heroic victory almost every time with it.

The formation looks like this.

S - spear-men, pike-men
I - base infantry
C - cavalry
X - skirmishers
A - archers



S
CC SXS CC
SAXAS
IIIIIII

[trustno1(2)]

I named the formation the Cavaliers Nightmare.

[gja102]

Don't know if anyone has had a similar idea, but... I like to have my archers / crossbowmen fire in a flat, straight line at the enemy, rather than the traditional arcing shots over your own battle line, as they do more damage when they have line of sight.

To give them line of sight, without placing them at risk from the enemy, I set my army up in a chessboard-style pattern of squares, very similiar to the classic Roman setup. The first line will be infantry, arranged in squares, with fairly large gaps between them.

You can now place your crossbows in the second line, facing through the gaps. They will be able to take clear, straight shots at the opponent. When the enemy infantry charges, they will hit your front line of infantry squares first, and stop to fight them.

This is where the tactic comes into its own - as the enemy infantry bunches round your first line, your second-row crossbowmen can fire straight into them, through the gaps, at nearly point-blank range. And can do so for the duration of the melee. In this way the crossbowmen can rack up hundreds of kills.

If any enemies do try and rush your crossbowmen, they will have to go through the gap between your infantry squares - meaning they will have to make themselves flanked on both sides. As they get cut to pieces doing this, you can move your crossbows back slightly, then start firing at point blank range again. And generally speaking, the AI isn't smart enough to thread its attack infantry neatly enough through the gaps anyway.

This is a great way to get the most out of crossbowmen, turning them into the killers of your army. The tactic is perfectly suited to Italian factions, as they have strong enough militia spears to hold the first line of squares.

[trustno1(2)]

I may have to try that against my neighbor who has a failure to adapt. He overloads on heavy infantry every-time, even after he was beat 7 times in a row on LAN battles where I was mainly using horse-archers.
He isn't what you what you would call a competent commander. He philosophy on recruiting men in the campaign is recruit bad units so they get killed so you do not have to pay upkeep on them.
When he attacks an AI settlement on hard difficulty, he sends only a few units of peasants or town militia against half of an AI army, then he always pounds his desk and says the game is rigged and surrenders to me when we play hotseats.

[Sitalkes]

I was just reading in a unit guide that schiltron formation is a magnet for enemy troops, even more so than bowmen. so I think it might be worth using a line of schiltrons with gaps between them in the front rank (and bowmen/crossbows behind) - this would mean that the enemy don't go for the archers and also make it harder for enemy trying to get through the gaps

[Drachos]

This is a pretty basic tactic, although useful (ps i'm not much into drawings but ok xD)



J_H---------C-----------J_H
___IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII_____

J=Javelin cavalry
H=Heavy Cavalry
C=Crossbowmen
I=Infantry

The trick is to make a WIDE manouver with your Javelin Cavalry and Heavy cavalry, get CLOSE to the enemy cavalry (or whatever unit you want to harass) and command the Javelin cav to attack. Meantime, order your Heavy cavalry to get right BEHIND the enemy lines and form up. DO NOT LET THE CROSSBOWMEN SKIRMISH(RETRAT BEHIND YOUR LINES!), because they can stop the enemy advance into your spearmen or heavy infantry for a bit of time, so you can get extra seconds

Keep harrasing the enemy cavalry (or whatever unit u harrased), but i think they should be dead by now and the Javelin Cavalry won't have javelins anymore, so use them as light cavalry. Then charge the enemy rear with y heavy cav and charge their flanks with javelin cavalry, at the end it should look like this:


J--------HH-------J
E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E
I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I

The xbowmen should be dead by now, and the enemy also.

Keep in mind that you SHOULD and MUST have some experience in missile cavalry, and please, test this and tell me if you like it, and critiscise me.



yeah copied it from the last post, this is not a good tactic but in future posts i'll come with something better

[belgarion234]

One of my favorite formations is the Crane's Wing Formation (derived from Sengoku Japanese military tactics).
1H= Heavy Infantry (group 1)
1S = Spearmen (group 1)
2H=Heavy Infantry (group 2)
2S = Spearmen (group 2
3H = Heavy Infantry (group 3)
3S = Spearmen (group 3)
C= Calvary

--------2H--3H
------2H--1S--3H
----2S--1S--1S--3S
--C--------C--------C

this looks deceptively like the Arrowhead or Fishscale formation (wedge formation) designed to pierce the enemy's lines and attack through the gap into the rear. however, when approaching the enemy, groups 2 and 3 and calvary at the wings wheel outwards to envelop the enemy. keep in mind that you are vulnerable if they move before you can surround them

My personal favorite formation is a mix between the Crane's Wing and the Arrow/Fishscale formation.
-----------C
----------1H
--------1H--1H
------2H--1H--3H
----2H--2S--3S--3H
--C-----------------C

I advance my formation towards the enemy with my head calvary in wedge formation. if the enemy tries to flank me with calvary, i have my spearmen run out to protect my flanks and send my flank calvary in to support. as i get closer, i charge my calvary in to the middle of the enemy's line to weaken them. i then pull them out as infantry group one charges towards the enemy. if they break through the line, i send groups two and three to tie up the enemy's main line while group one attacks the reserve units and the enemy's rear while my calvary charges the flanks and helps hold off enemy calvary.
if the enemy's line holds and they start manuevering to envelope, i will send my calvary to tie up their middle and 2 flanks while i withdraw my infantry, sending groups two and trhee around their flanks to attack the wings from the rear (in this case my army is most vulnerable). another thing i do if this happens is once again i send my calvary to hold them off while my infantry form a defensive line. if the enemy condenses around group one, which happens alot during AI battles, groups 2 and 3 branch out and wing around teh enemy, surrounding them, just like the Crane's Wing Formation

[ImperialAndre]

i use this formation both online and in singleplayer.

double stacked lines of pikemen or a combined pike and haliberd formation in front of this formation i got long range missiles like pavise xbows or muskets.

first stretch out the pikemen 2 rows deep have them all selected so the line is even then place the haliberders in front of the first row of pikemen.
then group them togheter so they will keep their cohesion.

the haliberders protect the pikes while the pikemen gives mutual support and sence in guard mode your men wont leave formation enemy infantry with a shield cant get tru the pikes prevent the enemy from getting into sword range and then the haliberd can also safely use their superior reach and armour piercing attack to finish off the enemy infantry faster.. ofcourse the enemy infantry can retreat but that lowers the enemy morale and they may rout.

on the flanks quite obvoiusly i got heavy cavalry (late era if possible) and then swords or whatver non spearwall unit i brougth to support and hold the flanks.
(sometimes i combine high period and late period because late period cav is faster so i can use that unit for hit and run at the enemy missles but i only do this after the missle duel started the enemy will respond by ordering all missles to shoot that cav but if allowed to get a full charge on several missle units then i won the missile duel and some of the arrows will hit his other units while still having strong cav and infantry support)

strength is any unit that atack the spearwalls head on will get decimated and i suffer minimal losses, i can then turn 1 unit of pike and haliberd grouped togheter to assist the cavalry and sword infantry if needed or to simply have them brace for impact so they are not taken in flanks.

weakness: naffatuns this tightly packed mass is easy prey and missles sence most of my inf lacks shields artillery and flanks attack if the enemy in front of the pike and haliberd has not been defeated so they are taken in the flanks( never do square unless you have to and only if the enemy has no missiles left othervise he will sit back and shot you to death.)

[Hopit]

3 or 4 lines
infantry in 1 line
cavalry in 1
archers in 1
and xbows in 1

[dead_man_walking]

This is the usual deployment I use when I play with Denmark;
1 Norse War Clerics(as General)(NWC)
2 Crossbowmen(C)
2 Norse Archers(NA)
4 Dis. Chi. Kni.(HI)
2 Dis. Feu. Kni.(HI)
2 Obudshaer(O)
2 Mounted Crossbowmen(HA)
2 Chivalric Knights(K)
2 Huscarls(H)
1 Serpentine(S)
Loose Formation(L)

------------------C-C-NA-NA
------------------ O-----O
----------------------S
--------------(L)HI-HI-HI-HI-HI-HI-(L)
----------HA----------------------------HA
---------- K------------H-H--------------K
------------------------NWC


First, I send my HA's and K's and trying them to not to get in range of enemy archers. Then I marching my army slowly. If there are musketeers I charge them first with my K's. If their archers' range is longer than my archers I march my army faster to give minimum causalities. When my army get closer I charge with my K's from the wing carefully with the support of my HA's. If my cavalry has engaged in combat with another cavalry I send the Huscarls because they suck at engaging in combat with infantry. When my main army get close I simply attack with HI. I prefer to attack spearmen with my Obudshaer because they are annihilating spearmen. I also try to be careful to get my infantry's back.

If there is any other ideas to support to that strategy please share.