Reinforcements? Bring ‘em ON!
Disclaimer: I’m sure many of you know this, but if I’ve just recently perfected this tactic, then there are certainly more goof-balls like me out there that could use the heads up. That said...
Reinforcements? Bring ‘em ON!
I used to be swayed out of attacking a city if there were a decent amount of reinforcements standing next to it. Now-a-days, however, I say, BRING IT ON.
Do not fear! If your forces become outnumbered by the amount of reinforcements that are showing up, do not be alarmed. You will be attacking this force on flat ground as an entirely separate skirmish from the forces inside the city.
How do I do this, you ask? Easy, the key is to simply take note of the layout on the Campaign map before you attack. Your attacking army will always be facing “up” when the battle begins. That said, the reinforcements will be showing up in respect to where they were positioned on the campaign map when you hit the “attack that fool” button. So. If the campaign map looked like this:
Then the reinforcements will be coming from the south east. Assuming that the battlemap always starts your troops facing direction in which they attacked, then the reinforcing army will be arriving in the Top-Right corner of the map, which represents the south-east.
Like this:
That said, the army coming to reinforce the city will have the goal of doing just that: getting to the city to reinforce it. Your mission is to get your army in front of them fast enough to intercept and destroy them so that they cannot. This is easier than you think because even if they army is of formidable size, their marching orders are not to march in battle formation. They are simply marching to get from point A to point B, and that will be their downfall.
Position your army before battle begins so that they can get in front of the reinforcements quickly. The enemy will be marching for the nearest gate, so it will be easy to figure out what route the will be taking (it’s always a straight line, more or less).
Your positioning will be as follows:
Next, you’ve got to rush your men into formation in front of the advancing army. You’ve got to position your troops far enough from the walls to avoid projectiles from the city, but also far enough from the reinforcement starting position so that they’ve got time to get into formation. Finding the medium is key.
Your battle plan will look like this (but with better graphics) (shut up):
The enemy won’t fight all that hard and will break very, very easily due to the fact that they weren’t set up in formation and just got pwned (ask a friend if you don’t know). When they rout, they will try to run to the city square and will often wade through your front line and into your missile troops. This is not a bad thing! Your missile troops will remain unharmed while they take tons of prisoners! It is, therefore, imperative that you turn off your missile’s skirmish mode. Use your Heavy Calvary to charge flanks where necessary and your light calvary, if you have any, to chase routers. They’ll have a lot of work cut out for them because there will be many, many routers to mop up. Get them before they get inside the gates, or you’ll have to fight them later! It’s worth it to lose a few horses from ballista towers when you consider how many prisoners you’ll be taking out of the equation. Besides, does anyone really cringe that much when a light calvary unit drops? I don’t. Substitute heavy calvary if you don’t have any light. Do the math, it’s worth it.
During this pre-battle battle, your siege equipment can start pounding the walls and have them knocked down by the time you’re all finished thinning ranks. I dunno about you, but I hate waiting for siege equipment to punch through walls. Even at 6x. Just make sure they are nowhere near the current battle. The AI is stupid, but it’s not that stupid.
Once the field of battle outside of the walls is clear of the enemy, you may proceed with your siege as planned.
Lastly, if some routers get through and back into the castle, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing either. Once you are inside the gates and doing battle in the streets, these units you’ve already ravaged will rout much, much faster. Consequently, the morale for other enemy units will drop considerably, thus making your battle that much more easily winnable.
Good luck.
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