The Underdog

[Henry X]

Time and time again we find ourselves waging war the way Hitler did. Same campaign as the one in my William Wallace thread.

Milan has been a faction I've come to hate because of its crappy AI(don't worry, I'm using Lusted's now). Around 1300 A.D. I decided to finish the Milanese off since they were good with money. Fifty years later, I'm still fighting them and trying to take Milan from them (damn gold chevron militia). My estimate of the amount of Imperia soldiers killed during this campaign is currently 20,000 plus or minus 1,000. Eventually, I just used my German-born Pope to call holy chastisement down upon the poor Italians. Any tips on how to take one fully garrisoned city? And Milan is garrisoned with all gold chevron units.

[whhyy]

Starve them out.

I also despise Milan above all the others.

[Henry X]

The only problem with starving them out is that they always sally out with those damn Italiam Militia, which are all fully upgraded and have on average seven or eight experience.

[Iscariott]

Starve em out, hit them with rotten cows, then fire arrows(and flaming boulders ), then cavalry.

[The_Richini]

lol, one trick I do sometimes do is place my main army right on the red line when they sally so they are forced to march quite abit to get to my men while I have like 1 archer unit with a ladder who is placed a fair deal away from my main force and they are tasked with running around getting all the gates locked and simply takeing the city square! but maybe with Lusted's new Ai they may actually guard the city center.
GL
Richini

[Landwalker]

I'd start with starving them out. However, bring artillery to the party. Catapults or trebuchets are good, since they can use flaming shot, although anything with an area-of-effect attack will do. As those golden chevron Italians pour out of the gate... blast the tar out of them. No chevron's going to save you from a flaming chunk of rock.

I'd also suggest bringing more than one full stack of your own to the party. Couldn't hurt, after all. One thing to try: Have a full stack on either side of the settlement. Make sure both have the artillery you're going to use to blow up the Milanese. When they sally out against one of your armies, use the artillery in the other to break through the wall on the other side, then pour in and secure the city square. If you so desire, you can even send some units straight through to the other side to help the army defending against the sally.

Cheers.

[republic_bohemia]

One word Infantry does the job well,those spearmen be dog food for them.

[whhyy]

Or when they sally open up on them with Artillery as they are passing through the gate. :hmmm:

[Frodo52]

If muscle doesn't work, try brains.

Put a small bait army within Milan's borders and close to the city, but far enough that the Milan forces will have to walk a bit to attack you.

With luck, Milan will send a portion of it's garrison out to attack the invaders. Retreat. They'll extend further to kill your sacrificial troops and won't be able to return to the city at the end of the turn.

Then you're dealing with two half-stacks instead of one full-stack. Divide and conquer.

[Iscariott]

You could also hire some spear mercs, and rush them to the gate when they come out, and just let archers/arty do their work. Merc spearmen are willing to let a surprising number die before they'll run away. You'll tire out the garison too.

[Henry X]

Thank you all for your suggestions, based on your replies, it appears that killing them all with artillery as they pour out of the gates, is the optimal strategy. One small problem though, all my place that produce artillery in sufficient quantities are quite some distance from any place that produces troops, and the closest ones to Milan are: Ajaccio, which is working with better cavalry; Staufen, which produces everything; Toulouse, which produces everything but is currently being used to resolve the crisis on the Western Front with Aragon. My artillery, producing locations are: Paris, Clermont, which was just captured; Lyon; and everything north and east of Vienna.
Moving on, what type of Imperial infantry available at Fortress level has the type advantage over the Italian Militia, which is fully armored. Should I use pavise crossbowmen, or Prussian Archers for getting a lot of arrows out, and should captains or generals lead the armies? BTW, what are some of the effects of having a general with high command rating, does it really help the player?

[Landwalker]

Pavise Crossbowmen are good for killing anything armored. If the enemy is heavily armored, well, get some Pavise Crossbowmen and... kill them.

I always have generals lead armies. I believe that having a high command rating improves the morale of your soldiers, which in turn improves how long they last before routing. Dread, and perhaps chivalry, also have morale effects (Dread having a negative effect on enemy morale, chivalry, perhaps, having a positive effect on your own morale).

Cheers.

[whhyy]

Well since command probably doesn't do the same thing as Chivalry perhaps it increases how much shock they can take.

Resistance to shock is how much of a surprise a unit can take when flanked or ambushed.

If you ram some peasants from behind they route almost instantly, but if you take some seargant spearmen they will stand thier ground longer. You could have a unit with 15 moral and but if it has low shock resistance it will route fast.

I think that's it. Unless I'm reading descr unit.txt wrong.

[Nightbringer]

i would just suggest elite infantry as the artilar seems to be difficult. dismounted knights make quick work of even the ffully upgraded italien militia

[Inhuman One]

try zweihanders, they would be good against spear militia. Feudal or imperial knights work too.

It also works to blast their walls with the enemy soldiers still on them before you attack.

[Kyias]

Milan is tough no matter what strategy you use. The geographical position of Milan, splitting everything between 3 passes makes attacking that city a real pain...

[Henry X]

Update:Genoa has fallen to our Imperial might! Now we have a cheaper source of pikes and halberds! Are halberds good weapons to use against their militia? Wish I had access to some more frightening troops; any way to get access to Gothic Knights sooner rather than later. Oh, and +rep for all who replied.

EDIT:Wish I could hand out some more reputation.

[Landwalker]

I would never use Halberd Militia against armored Italian Spear Militia. For that matter, I would use them against much of anything, but that's my own preference. Halberd Militia are poorly armored and don't have a shield--I haven't put them to the test yet, but I would expect them to get cut down like sheep against a decent shield-and-weapon unit. If you need fodder, though, they might be the way to go.

Cheers.

[Henry X]

Well my halberd militia has gold armor upgrades.

[Evan]

halberd is good for attacking/defending against armoured knights and such