Army Combination

[elcid123]

Whats your prefered army combination. In my own opinion an army with a core of spearmen(to tie up the opponents army), horse archers(to shower them with a rain of deadly arrows as they slowly march towards my spearmen), and heavy cavalry (to charge the flanks and rear).

is UNSTOPABLE.

WHAT WOULD YOUR "IDEAL" ARMY CONSIST OF ???????

[johnnyg]

Frontline of 3 heavy swordsmen-types, 1 unit of spears on each flank. 4 units heavy cav waiting in the wings, with a couple of units of light cav in reserve. Few units of archers (type depends on the faction) to pepper the advance, and an artillery units or two to top it all off, possibly trebuchets. Ah, can't forget the General to direct the whole thing.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Well it depends on the faction you are playing and on the era. Given the choice I would say 20 camel gunners will rock anything. If I could choose from any faction I would choose janissary musketeers, camel gunners and some spears and some cavalry. And a cleaning lady to clean the battlefield after wards.

[Towelie]

Yeah, it depends of bunch of stuff.. Faction, era, your playing style..
I curently play with Turks, have army of janissaries: 6x JHI, 6x Janissary archers, 2x janissary muskets, 3 dismounted sipahis and 2 of those fancy heavy cavalry (dunno theit name tbh, something on q ) kicking asses around

[Samir]

I love heavy infantry slaughtering. Cavalry and archer warfare is somehow tedious.

Danes vs HRE is always good for heavy infantry battles

[Monsieur Alphonse]

Yeah, it depends of bunch of stuff.. Faction, era, your playing style..
I curently play with Turks, have army of janissaries: 6x JHI, 6x Janissary archers, 2x janissary muskets, 3 dismounted sipahis and 2 of those fancy heavy cavalry (dunno theit name tbh, something on q ) kicking asses around

Quapukulu.

I play with almost the same army.
1 General
6 janissary archers
5 JHI or 3 JHI and two Saracen militia
4 Janissary musketeers (I really love them)
2 Quapukulu
2 Cannons

[Towelie]

yes, quapukulu's, thnx

btw i removed 1 dism. sipahis and added 1 monster bombard, going to conquer balkans

[Lord Firkraag]

With Byzantines: Dismounted Latinkon in the middle, Varangians on the sides, Spearmen to guard the flanks, Guard Archers in the back, Latinkon on the left flank for charges, Cataphracts on the right flank to tie up enemy cavalry, Vardariotai to encircle the enemy and shoot arrows at their backs.

With French: Chivalric knights with added armor as a first charging wave, Templars immediately behind them, cheap crossbowmen to cover them as they charge. Some infantrymen to rush and fill in any gaps left by the cavalry charges.

With English: Anything that involves Longbowmen and lots of Peasants as meatshields. Usually with English Knights that charge in and out from the flanks.

[king-nord]

HRE 4 reiters then you don't even need a good army because with reiters you can't lose.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

HRE 4 reiters then you don't even need a good army because with reiters you can't lose.

Yes you can. An equal number of Rommel's African camel gunners will wipe out the Germans.

[Krusadr]

I go Russian style.

5 Dismounted Druzhina
4 Dvor/Cossack Cav
6 Tsar's Guard
4 Cossack Musketeers
1 General(Miroslav ftw!)

For ze Motherland? perhaps...

[StaggerLee]

I use a similar kind of formation, whichever faction I happen to play.

I. "Wavebreakers"; intended to break the enemy charge and protect the main line from cavalry. I usually use pikemen, if available, or otherwise infantry in skirmish formation, which allows for a better counter-charge than a solid line of pikemen, but doesn't cause much damage themselves.
e.g. Pikemen, Highlanders (skirmish), Spearmen et cetera.

II. Solid centre; Heavy infantry and/or spearmen, capable of a nice counter-charge where needed, preferably supported by javalineers, naffatun or similar.

III. Artillery; Preferably archers with an amount of survivability in close combat. Screened by wavebreakers.

IV. Cavalry; I almost never use heavy cavalry, first of all because of their lack in manouverability, and secondly due to their high upkeep. Light cavalry on the other hand, are cheap in comparison, and gain experience more rapidly, primarily due to their quickness at pursuing broken foes. And a gold-chevroned unit of mounted seargants is a match for any knight.

(VI. Flank Guard; Light infantry or spearmen, protecting the flanks of the main line)

[naujitii]

with the French, 3 scott guards, 3 aventuriers, and 6-8 units of heavy cavalry (feudal knights, chivalrous knights, lancers). I use the archers to attract and hold the enemy in position, while the H cavalry flanks them. Beware of spearmen, pikemen or horse archers. let your archers take care of them.

[Amerikai]

Lol, what ever I can throw together , plus 2 units of random merceneries.

[Gabriel A]

Ideally I try to build a force of that is;

1/2 Horse (most Heavy, with one or two being Chasseurs to chase down routers and harass enemy flanks)
1/4 Heavy/Sword Foot
1/4 Crossbow Foot

The Cavalry is the primary force, If the terrain permits I line them up en masse and make repeated charges at the enemy , unless he has many spears and pikes, in which case I use my heavy infantry and crossbows to engage those while flanking with large horse formations.

I face mostly Frankish enemies with this force, but against eastern forces I will use more light cavalry to engage horse archers and such.

I also use mercenaries, a lot. I use them whenever I can afford them, sometimes mercenaries are 1/3 or even 1/2 my total army.

[jsgx3]

Ideally I try to build a force of that is;

1/2 Horse (most Heavy, with one or two being Chasseurs to chase down routers and harass enemy flanks)
1/4 Heavy/Sword Foot
1/4 Crossbow Foot

The Cavalry is the primary force, If the terrain permits I line them up en masse and make repeated charges at the enemy , unless he has many spears and pikes, in which case I use my heavy infantry and crossbows to engage those while flanking with large horse formations.

I face mostly Frankish enemies with this force, but against eastern forces I will use more light cavalry to engage horse archers and such.

I also use mercenaries, a lot. I use them whenever I can afford them, sometimes mercenaries are 1/3 or even 1/2 my total army.

Given the time and money to make a force, this is what I do almost no matter the faction. Cav is my main force and I'll take half of a full stack of cav, mixing in horse archers at times depending on faction, money, recruiting capability etc. I use the infantry and archers/crossbows to anchor the enemy, but try not to close and engage as I am usually outnumbered by their infantry with this set up. I'll use the cav to harass, break up their advance, pick of stragglers/seige equipment and most importantly to track down and ill their king/opposing cav. Then I'll use my cav to attack from flanks and rear repeatedly, and when things are ripe for the kill send in my smaller infantry force to convince them to "Run Away!" I agree on the mercenaries also, I use them liberally. The mercenary crossbowmen you can recruit at the beginning of the game are better than most anything a faction can generate for many turns and the spearmen are better than many factions best militia infantry.

[Xenomorph]

Lol, what ever I can throw together , plus 2 units of random merceneries.

also my way mostly i rarely fight only one battle per turn.

[Player44]

20 Scots Guard. Well, it really depends on money. Say if I'm early period i'd have armored sergeants 10, crossbows 5, feudal knights 4, general 1. But late I'd have voulgiers and pikes instead of armored sergeants, aventuriers and scots guard, and lancers, chiv, and noble knights.

[zerathule]

For the best cost effective unstopabble army, i would go for :
- 1 General (to hold the line)
- 19 Jinettes
You need a level 2 castle to build or retrain ...
You can even build them in a city

For an average game :
- 1 general
- 19 Mameluke archers

For THE UNSTOPABLE UBER PAWNING ARMY (the one no one can stop) :
- 20 cannon elephants

Now for "serious" armies, each faction has for each period a "perfect" troop combinaison, and seriously i like them all, and all are powerfull if played correctly

[Garnier]

In the late period as spain in my current campaign, I form my armies as follows:

4 Tercio pikemen
6 Sword and buckler men
2 Culverins or Basilisks
2 Musketeers or Pavise Crossbowmen
2 Mounted Crossbowmen
4 Gendarmes or Chivalric knights

I put the tercio pikemen in 2 rank lines, two units across and two units deep. So it forms a pikewall, 112x4 men. In front of this, with the pikes poking through them, I put two units of sword and buckler men.

Behind, usually on hill, I put the missile troops and cannons.

The cavalry are divided equally on the flanks, and I have two units of sword and buckler men on each flank.

The enemy charges my pike wall, after being mutilated by missile fire from my cannon and muskets, and they get destroyed by the pikes, and the swordsmen there. The cavalry make their rush around the flanks, while the swordsmen on the flanks start fighting their way through the enemy. The heavy cavalry charge the rear of the enemy, or charge their missile troops, while my mounted crossbows hunt down any enemy artillery. I can't be beaten with that army.