What do you prefer?

[Drag529]

This is a personal question to all Medieval 2 players…
Do you recruit any gunpowder units or do you stick to the old fashion way (ie, no gunpowder units in any of your forces)?

I personally stick to the old fashion way as its not as easy, and its funnier fighting armies that are more heavily equip than I am…it makes the game more challenging.

Now tell me what you all think.

[Kamakazi]

I fight with primarily non-gunpowder units, but that is mainly because, by the time I get gunpowder units, I have 4-5 full stacks that are some sort of combination of spears/dismounted/mounted knights and archers, then have been since their creation ran into battle, then when at about half strength brought back to a castle and retrained, so they have really good veterancy. So I only throw in gunpowder stuff if it is available and there is an empty slot in one of these armies

[Saibot]

I use gunpowder units in sieges. Nothing more fun then just breaching their walls in no time at all. Or as city garrison. They're actually very useful when being besieged. But overall I still prefer old-fashion armies over gunpowder based armies.

[Taimee Rose]

As soon as i get the ability to mass produce pikes that's what i usually do, i make armies consisting of pikes, long range archers, light cavalry and a few heavy ifantry.

[Cybugger]

Long ranged gunpowder units are devestating in a siege. Your enemy already suffers from a morale nerf, so if you add to that the shots from your defenders, most lower quality troups will be running as soon as they come near your main defencive troops.

[Lord Firkraag]

Heavy cavalry, heavy infantry, archers. I don't use gunpowder at all because I find it un-epic, except when I play Spanish vs Aztecs for fun

I sometimes avoid using crossbowmen too. Crossbows are not chivalric weapons!

[miserable09]

When I play as England, I rarely use Gun powder units. Just doesn't seem right.

When I play as Turkey, I sometimes might get a canon or two for city defense since Turkey get the, ahem, bonus, of dealing with the Mongols and the Timurids. Gives me a little more balance. Plus it feels more "right" since GP migrated from this way anyhow.

[johnnyg]

I use them in nearly every battle, but I've long since quit using bombards. I wait until I have the option of culverins/mortars and just train those. I honestly think that they are valuable in battle (killed 3 generals using gunpowder units when the AI wouldn't engage), plus it's just damn fun to turn on the exploding shells during a night battle
Besides, more often than not I just bring the fight to the Mongols/Timurids, so I take everything I have to them. Those cannon elephants are just ridiculous to begin with, might as well level that playing field.

[homefry]

I just started the gunpowder age, but isn't gunpowder units really like archer units? They need the support of infantry and calvary.

[mbchudno]

BOOOOO at CA for not including gunpowder mounted units for Russia in Total War.... well at least they fixed it with expansion for Novgorod. Love gunpowder

[Drag529]

lol, i like gunpowder too
but i like fighting advance factions with my classic faction

[Primvs Sextvs Loverlord]

It doesn't suite my way of playing ....

[Sitarus Originalus PM-30+]

i like using gunpowder units.... they all just look great and they are really useful... i don't see any reason why i shouldn't use them to make game more difficult or more fun, so i always start recruting gunpowder units as soon as i can.

EDIT: also the most fun is killing aztecs and native americans with guns =) ... i like to use every advantage i have against my enemies =)

[FuriousSpurius]

Since I turned down the turn span (to half a year, so that everyone ages properly) it takes FOREVER to get to gunpowder. Besides, I don't mess with it anyway. I run a mostly horse army anyway so it's easiest for me to just run the field and rush them.

[Oploc]

Haha, i rarely use muskets, cos my tactics are very different than the usual. I'll use cannons preferable ones with exploding shells or mortars.

i don't flank, i tank. Spears at the frount/sides, 2-3 units of cav at the back, archers/cannons on the middle. As well as a few heavy inf. for long melees, mite pull archers back a bit, set them up, then pull the inf so less own-kills.

i find it flexible anyways.

[Town Watch]

mortars truly suck. I once played this custom battle as England; I had some 7 units of longbowmen, about 4 mortars and the rest were infantry. I think it was the Edelweiss map, in custom battle. So, scots advance towards my "hill of death", arrows work wonders as they usually do, scots are beaten down furiously by pollaxe and billhook. In the end, mortars had racked about 6 kills alltogether.

They didn't hit the scottish infantry force from long range, neither did they hit the fleeing mass of scots after the initial contact with arrowstorm and my infantry.

Normal cannons, even bombards tend to hit atleast sometimes. Now that I think of it, bombards never hit troops either

[Drag529]

well morters are ment for attacking building and men that arnt moving...lol

[Kahn]

One time I was taking a Spanish castle and once I got through the first wall, the Spanish all retreated into the inner sanctum. I'd never used a mortar before, so I brought it into the castle and on the first freaking shot I took out the general. At that point I was officially convinced that mortars are useful tools.

...but yeah, only when they're standing still.

[Metellus]

I enjoy gunpowder units and big bangs. In my HRE campaign I had a full stack which had something like two basilisks, two serpentines and two monster bombards at one stage. Talk about fire support! Once those cannonballs started flying I was the dread of any enemy in an open field and well, "What walls, sir?"
But I was fighting the Timurids and they had it coming

[Gothic Revenge]

I am also a bit old fashioned.... Mostly only non-gunpowder units... I do find them quite useless (except for a few of course!). As they only get a few shots of (mostly little damage) before being engaged by the AI and in hand-to-hand combat they are soooo useless. But....... when I have to defend my empire against the Mongols I do resort to gunpowder units as "desperate times call for desperate measures", especially when they turn up with rocket launchers and cut my front ranks into pieces.