Gaming style

[KozaK101]

I just started this so that i can see how people play etc..

for campaign i try to go slow, because i want to expand when i can fight battles with cool units...(montease knights and basque archers)

in battle for defense i prefer showering with missiles then using infantry to take enemy charge, then using javelins on the enemy while cavalry circles around rear...
for offense i charge cavalry in first(even into spearmen i cant resist) then try to pull out then follow up with infantry and javelins, while i take out priority targets eg, cav,general with missiles...some times i wheel cav behind sometimes i want a big infantry slaughter

fav units in categories(cav,spear,missile,inf) right now aare ritterbruder(look cool), guard pikemen(look cool and perform well), varangian archers and dismounted druzhina kiv version looks damn good)

fav faction is Kievan Rus

if people would plz post in this thread could u do it in kinda the same format but maybe see my example and try improve it to a decent standard

cheers

[Echad]

My favourite faction is England... I love to abuse longbows, and finish the enemy with heavy infantry.

I sometimes use the Macedonian tactic of locking and charging to the flanks/rear, although I still haven't learned to maneuver phalanxes and usually use spearmen or some other infantry to lock 'em in.

I also abuse any stationary ranged units the faction has - I mostly never use skirmishers. Usually put more intent on machinegunning the enemy before it encloses and head-to-head combat after, than charge and flank tactics, except uppermentioned Mecedonian locking.

I put some light cavalry units in my army mostly always - to capture fleeing enemies and, as a last resort, to charge the enemy archers/backs with them.

As of campaign - set everything to Growth build policy/Low taxes as better growth will actually give bigger taxes, just not so soon... And most time have few half-to-full stacks in different parts of a map, as I like to capture a few regions in one single turn, while protecting my borders.

Whew, probably all for now...

[Byzantium]

Ok here goes..My favourite faction - The Moors.

A varied roster full of well disciplined units with good morale and stamina which bridge the gap between Eastern and Western fighting styles.

Due to a lack of armour in comparison to developed Christian Kingdoms i prefer to fight defensively and the terrain on the Iberian peninsular is perfect for fighting defensive wars.
My initial tactics revolve around taking advantage of the inevitable wars between LeonCastille,Portugal and Aragon while i build up my economy.A defensive position in Spain coupled with the ability to sail armies across the sea from North Africa to strike at weak targets has been very successful for me up til now.

In battle i prefer to use a solid spear wall of Lamtuna spearmen (quality ) or dismounted arab cavalry covered by Sudanese Javelinmen and desert archers.The lightly armed but fast desert cavalry are great at wearing down the more heavily armoured Christian Horse and once they get around the flanks they can play havoc with their javelins from the rear,even against General's bodyguard units.

For city defense the Moors can utilise their Militia Crossbowmen and urban militia and when armoured up they are formidable on the walls.The Berber spearmen (spear militia upgrade) also have good morale and stamina and are equally at home in city defence or on the battlefield.
Crossbows also become a great part of their arsenal against the more heavily armoured Christian units too.

Their starting position enables them to become an ecconomic powerhouse early on and an alliance with Sicily leaves them free to concentrate on the Iberian Peninsular.Once the ecconomic foundations are laid the other Iberian factions become easy prey.

Lastly,they are the only faction that can deploy camels.Dont be fooled by their weak looking stats.Used correctly they are awesome.I havent reached the stage where i can build Camel gunners yet but after checking them out in a few custom battles they are a tremendous asset.

[Sonny WiFiHr]

I play every faction differently.I love to fight only heroic battles this is for sure.So I don't have any tactic exept this find weak spot on enemy and destroy them then go out to be drunk

[Byzantium]

I play every faction differently.I love to fight only heroic battles this is for sure.So I don't have any tactic exept this find weak spot on enemy and destroy them then go out to be drunk

You probably wont find many people disagreeing with that tactic

[Pagonis]

Only have played two factions so far, and one of them is Lithuania. As for my tactic, I stay on the defensive and take rebel towns, normally with peasants and skirmishers, with some archer cavalry mixed in.

Then I use Kozaks, Lithuanian Cavalry, Skirmishers, and Sudovian Tribesmen to take over cities. I try avoiding castles as they don't make as much money and are harder to siege for me.

[KozaK101]

Then I use Kozaks, Lithuanian Cavalry, Skirmishers, and Sudovian Tribesmen to take over cities.

i love to be useful

[whhyy]

Favorite faction - Turks

I used to abuse horse archers.. But now I focus on armored spearmen and hybrid foot archers with HA as support, I seem to loose a lot less casualties and it is also far cheaper.

Basically, I spread out my spearmen in a semi circle formation with gaps for my archers to fire through and camp. If they attack my spears they get hit by arrows from both sides, and if they bypass my spearmen they get piled by even more arrows and surrounded by spearmen.

It's the ultimate AI trap.

[delra]

My favourite are Byzantine.

I like their roster, location, religion, units, enemies, fleets and everything else.

My typical formation is guard archers up front, sharpened stakes in front of them. Swords and AP units behind them to aid as soon as enemy gets too close.

Spears and short pikes on both flanks in case their cavalry got smart and tried to flank me.

(wide) Right flank is heavy cavalry (if I have one) to encircle and hit from the back what is already engaged in fight with my line.

Left flank is horse archers to get behind their army, shoot arrows at their asses, destroy their siege equipment, kill their archers if they were left behind and chase routed units...

After our infantry lines hit each other, I withdraw my guard archers back a bit, in two groups in each flank to make them shoot at enemy sides, not front and to flatten their shooting angle. I concentrate fire on units that are vulnerable to it leaving their heavies to my infantry and cavalry.

[Inhuman One]

Well I usually have spearmen as my main infantry, behind them I have infantry with swords, axes or maces. the spearmen protect these infantry killers from cavalry.
Behind the infantry killers I have archers and/or crossbowmen, and behind that the general who also protects the archers.

My cavalry is always on the flanks, sometimes one side is stronger than the other, with the weak side just needing to keep the enemy at bay while the strong side launches charges at enemy archers, artillery and cavalry, and when all those are occupied I try to keep some cavalry left if only just some light cavalry, to charge enemy infantry at the back to try to get a rout.

As for the infantry, the march forward slowly as my cavalry manouvers around. I try to let my infantry make the first contact and my archers shower the enemy army from a distance while they advance. First the spearmen charge, then the infantry killers run through the spearmen ranks and join the battle. Sometimes I let a few of them charge through the spearmen to get there first when there is no risk of cavalry attacking them.

[Echad]

2 Inhuman One:

The archers from behind usually fire in the air and cannot hit anything - if you do not like them upfront, may I suggest to put them at the flanks? Possibly protected be spears/pikes... BTW you cannot answered your favourite faction ad campaign tactic as different things work for different factions different. =\ What I just said? =)

[Inhuman One]

Archers are pretty useless on the offense. they are very usefull in defensive battles and I sometimes let them launch some volleys before my infantry moves in. I dont really count on them taking out much when I am on the offense.

I once won a great battle with a few units of peasant crossbowmen, some spear infantry and some cavalry as the HRE against the Milanese once which came at me with an army twice as big and with units of equal and better quality.

I stood on quite a high hill though, and my crossbowmen massacred anything that came at me. They charged with knights up the hill but constantly retreated because of heavy casualties. I believe this was still with the vanilla version though.

For the offense I always count on infantry and cavalry the most. A group of knights charging a group of spearmen in the back do in seconds what can take archers half an hour.

[Byzantium]

Fighting on the Iberian peninsula though,even on the offensive,archers are a definite requirement due to the high numbers of Javelinmen and Jinetes the AI armies deploy.Four or five units of those along an enemy front can cripple my advancing troops well before they engage,especially against Almughavars....Ouch :hmmm:

[Okocim]

I usually play as Lithuania since the release of SS 5.0 and I love them, they have a great unit(Lettish Crossbowmen) to start with although the pool fills up very slowly.

I'm very passive when I play I usually look for the AI to start a fight with me...well in 5.1 I got what I wanted a Crusade against Vilnius in turn 30... I gave up hehe I couldn't stop the crusaders.

But to sum it up I'm passive with the Lithuanians. When I start with the Turks/Byzantines I tend to be on the offensive as the Egyptian/Venetian expansion limits my land taking in the early stages.

[Quark]

Favourite faction: Byzantium
(especially now that I have modded all the titles and given them an Aqueduct)

Campaign
Grap Sofia, Arta, Rhodes, Canakkale.
Get Marriage alliances with Sicily and Hungry, alliance with Templars, trade with everyone else.
Control the Bosphurus
Wait for Venice to betray me - take Iraklion.
Wait for Turks to betray me - take Anitolia.
Wait for Egypt to betray me - raid and aid Templars
Turtle

Battles
At the start - Spears in the centre Horsearchers and cavalry the flanks. As to which flank it depends on terrain, always try to gain height advantage. Do not tend to use archers, as HA have greater mobility and are better at chasing down broken units. If I do I hide them amongst my spear units.

Later on tend to place sword in centre, spears on flanks, it really depends on what I am opposing. Do not use early seige equipment, unless facing the Mongols.

I pretty much always try and refuse my left flank and try and roll the enemies left flank up, rolling the broken units into holding units and causing panic.

[KozaK101]

Turtle

? and i love the quote "to err is human....."

[The Sundance Kid]

Ive only played Aragon so far in SS, but so far I'm at this stage by Turn 100:

Campaign:
I smashed Leon & Castille from the first few turns, repeatedly hitting them with my main army while keeping small, slightly dangerously low garrisons in my cities. I also sent a small force south with my top general Alvar Galan to see if he could hold the Moors at bay, and he managed to take 2 cities and sweep behind Cordoba and we took it with a pincer movement. By turn 30 we had killed the last Spanish family member and the 2 cities remaining crumbled into revolt; I took Salamanca with ease but Leon had a huge garrison and remained a free state until Turn 70-80.

I secured the Iberian peninsular and mainland by Turn 50 and quickly spread south into Africa, taking the fight to the Moors as they had repeatedly done with me. As you can tell Im quite an offensive player when I have the power and resources. After securing Marrakesh and the northern coastline, I rerouted my armies to the Pyrenees and stormed the French (who had betrayed me by taking Zaragoza during an alliance). I soon pushed them out of their lands and into a corner of the Empire, and am currently setting my sights on the rest of western europe, sardinia, and the British Isles.

Battles:
Due to Aragon's relative heaviness compared to the other Iberian factions (who have jinetes, light skirmishers and other light troops) I generally have a solid line of DFKs, Sword-and-Bucklers and Knights of Montesa. I captured Oporto which had a Santiago outpost and so have them now and then, but its difficult to ship them from a single out-of-the-way port.

Behind/in front of that, depending whether Im attacking or defending, I have a line of Pavise Crossbowmen, more recently Basque Archers, as I just learnt how to recruit them . I usually then have my general behind that, in case of low morale or a weak point in the line, and on the flanks either Knights of Montesa, Santiago or Armats.

Oh yeah, I've recently filled an army with Armats and Dismounted Armats. They are immense.

With tactics, I just engage with infantry, flank with cavalry and smash them from behind. If they have siege weapons or guns (which they more commonly do now) I always charge them first and get them out of the way with minimum fuss.

[KozaK101]

Alvar Garan!!! my best one too....

[The Sundance Kid]

He's long dead now, his son Pacheco is nearing 60 and he's got a son too, Ildefonso. Im currently on my...3rd King, and he's reaching old age with 2 sons nearing adulthood. No wait, one's already 18. Anton the Bastard.

[Lamanz]

My favourite faction constantly switches, but currently it is HRE, so here we go...

1. Take Prague and Florence
2. Ally with Hungary and Denmark.
3. Turtle. Wait for Milan to wear itself down on France and Venice
4. Massive invasion of Milan, Genoa, and Ajaccio (which Milan usually takes from Moors). Milan is destroyed.
5. Wait for Sicily to attack. Take all of their Italian territories (destroying or crippling them).
6. Wait for Venice to attack. This is usually harder, as Venice is a tough city to take (1 entrance usually, as the back way facing the Adriatic is blocked by a small stack ), and the faction usually has 3-7 full stacks to throw at me.
7. Denmark sometimes betrays me, and so I take Arhus and ally myself with Norway, who spends the next 10-20 turns picking off Denmark (who lost their main source of income and have inferior castles compared to me and Norway)
8. Turtle.
9. Get bored, play some other faction
10. Eventually, delete save by accident