Battle Walkthrough
This is a walk through of a battle I have just completed, Rohan vs. Gondor. It's out of the campaign I am playing where my 2nd Rohan army is attacking a Gondor army besieging one of my towns (my reinforcements never show up....). Although not a great battle it does show very clearly how to fight using Rohan cavalry.
The Tactics
Rohan tactics depend entirely on two things:
- Manoeuverability
- Fear of the Riddermark Spears
Basically, no enemy army of infantry can catch your cavalry, yet your cavalry will get chewed up if they get into melee with his infantry (or worse, charge them head on). So, you need to manoeuvre, manoeuvre, manoeuvre....
So, think matadors, they move around and draw the charge, but then dodge it, tiring out the bull until it is ready for the kill. With Rohan cavalry you can do exactly the same - pull his infantry around all over the place, get them charging at you but dodge out of the way, tire them out and then kill them.
The setup
So, to start with split your army into three:
- Left flank
- Right flank
- Center
Left and right flank do the damage so put into each the bulk of your heavy cavalry, especially the riddermark spears. The Center is just a holding unit which may not get involved in the battle. Put your General in here plus a couple of units to guard him (putting your general here attracts the enemy).
First move is to throw forward your flanks and center (as per diagram below). Any horsearchers you have should be moved to the highest ground you can find and, preferably, behind the enemy.
Key
- Blue - Riddermark Spears
- Green - Rohan Spears
- Red - General
- Yellow - Horsearchers
Second Stage
Now you should have your forces nicely surrounding him like this:
Spearmen are in front of the riddermark spears as I want to use their javelin ability. Archers have moved up onto the high ground.
The enemy are now marching backwards and forwards to try to counter this formation. This includes his archers who don't settle and therefore don't fire. Now my Archers and javelin men open fire selectively on his best troops (I concentrate on cavalry first, then spearmen then bowmen - unless his bowmen are doing me lots of damage in which case they move up the targeting list). Don't use your archers on his heavy cavalry, they won't do much damage (but they will massacre light cavalry ).
How it develops
In this battle the AI was so confused he did very little (as you can see below). Normally he will try to charge you with either cavalry or infantry.
Cavalry
Cavalry coming out is what you want (without his cavalry he is doomed). Immediately split the group he is charging into two so that he is forced to turn towards one and show his flank/rear to the other. The unit at the flank/rear then charge as do the unit he is chasing. End result is his cavalry wiped out. Ideally, the ones taking his charge head on should be your Rohan light spears - yes they will take large casualties but they are easily replaced as anywhere can train them. Riddermarks then hit the flank/rear.
Infantry
Again, withdraw your troops, splitting them into two units. If his infantry return to his main army then just return to your positions (he will be getting tired). Otherwise just keep manoeuvering your cavalry so that the charging units are always Riddermark spears and are attacking from the flank/rear. Rinse and repeat.
Using the above technique you can destroy up to about 75% of his army for very few casualties (just always charge with the Riddermark spears leading, use the fear they generate).
In this battle, however, he kept together and then tried to run......
AI started by advancing his Kings Spearmen (81 of them) towards my general. My archers opened fire and eventually reduced them to 9 men. Meanwhile my Rohan Spears were looking for high value targets for their javelins and found the Kings Guard cavalry and the Men at Arms - killing 80% of each (see below).
NB. The Riddermark Spears and the generals are sitting in support, if he had charged the Rohan Spears they would have withdrawn and left the countercharge to the Riddermarks.
A little bit more manoeuvring took place; he charged his infantry towards the cavalry down the hill so they just moved out of the way (guys on the left of the picture below). When he did this I moved the 3 units into a 'U' shape, whichever one of the three he attacked the other two could attack his flanks/rear.
But that was his only serious manoeuvring. Meanwhile my archers and javelin troops were causing huge casualties.
At this point he decided to run and the whole army turned and headed for the borders. Cue mass charge from my cavalry with the troops at the rear and flanks charging first to ensure they hit first.
His army then routed en mass on contact (which is the value of charging tired troops with Riddermark spears) and the massacre commenced.
Summary
You have to play to your strengths, the manoeuvrability of your troops and the fear factor of your Riddermarks. Keep manoeuvring and threatening his infantry but do not engage unless you can charge the rear/flank. Use your missile troops to pepper his army, concentrating on his high value troops especially his cavalry.
If you do it right his army with be exhausted and totally out of formation when you attack, and you will be able to destroy it bit by bit with at least 2 cavalry units charging each infantry.
Finally a quick note on your enemies:
Gondor - they tend to hold together better and certainly keep their archers better protected. However, they are less likely to charge at your troops so you can move in much closer (which causes his archers set to skirmish to keep moving and so not fire). Never charge his better infantry from the front
Dunland/Rhun - tend to be a lot less disciplined and aggressive. Fighting their armies will result in a battle spread over a huge area (lots of use of the pause button as your try to control 3-4 separate fights). Their cavalry will tend to chase after your horsearchers which is great - but make sure your horsearchers don't get trapped against the edge of the map). Their archers tend to be left at the back and are therefore very vulnerable to your cavalry, but if you don't go for them they will cause you casualties.
Harad - sit somewhere between the above two. Their cavalry tend to be more aggressive but infantry less so. You will lose troops to their cavalry so ensure you always attack with 2:1 (at least) and one always from the flank/rear. For me I tend to use Rohan light spears in a frontal attack (accepting a lot will be killed - they are easily replaced) and the Riddermark spears attack from the flank/rear.
Anyway, hope that helps, not the best battle as the Gondorians just huddled together
For me the ideal army is:
- Left Flank:
- 4 Riddermark Spears
- 2 Rohan Spears
- Right Flank:
- 4 Riddermark Spears
- 2 Rohan Spears
- Centre
- General
- 2 Riddermark spears
- 4 Archers - deploy as a group.