how to beat heavy infantry factions?

[crazyunits]

Hey guys, right now I'm playing the Moors and I am having trouble with Catholic factions and their armored sergants and dismounted feudal knights. The Moors puny spearman can't seem to hold them. And how would I assault settlement with weak infantries? Thx for the help!

[Harry Lime]

Moved to Battle Planning

[Knight of Judgment]

missiles and axes

[clandestino]

On open field you should rely on archers, horse archers and heavy cavalry till you can recruit Christian guard which is only moorish unit that can counterpart western infantry. In sieges... well I guess you should outnumber them by 1:2 and rely on your skill as a general. If Spaniards have only militia units in their settlement,which is most offten case, you could use your one militia and spearmen cause they are about equal.

[xxxMoRaVexxx]

Yup use your cavalry or horse archers or archers, they can quickly take out some of the heavy infantry while not taking too many casualties, except for your cavalry, maybe just do those hit and run tactics with your light cavalry and flank them. if you've flanked them right, even the most heavy infantry of thirs will route. Or later maybe use armor piercing weapons(maybe some crossbow units in your moorish army can do at first). Horse archers are the best against them, they run while firing is cooler you can take out the infantry without taking too much casualties after you've pounded them with arrows(which isd the time they have some casualties) charge them and run then charge again.

[SaintOfTheSword]

In the battlefield, you only need heavy cavalry. If you play well, with charges in the back, you can even rout enemy spearmen easily. Remember, in the back, a spearman is no different than a swordsman. In the cities though, by experience, I'd say you need heavy infantry and you don't have another option. Just more heavy infantry than the enemy has, so if you don't have heavy infantry try to pull them out of the walls with cavalry, siege until cities fall for example, and then use cavalry tactics. Another thing you can try in cities with limited success is using catapults and archers to reduce the infantry numbers, but generally the problem still remains.

[RollingWave]

It depends on who your going up against.

if it's the Spanish / Portugal it's more troubling, in those cases I'd just try to mass desert archers and cavs with some spear support. desert archer are very nice for the value troops. and so are desert cavs (though Jinets are better stats wise. so don't engage espically in melee with them. you could out number them though) and hope you can find more fights where you out number them.

Against the rest of Europe (save the Eastern onces like Poles and Hungary) it gets a lot easier as you have skirmisihing javlins and they don't. its a huge advantage.

One trick you could do early though, tech up to assasins in Cordoba asap. and keep pumping out assasins and use them to sabatoge / assinate . decline all other guilds for that city until the HashimHashim guild comes knocking, with luck you should be able to get that fairly quickly. before opponents really get dismounetd knights! that flip the table big time as those baddies aer some of the best melee infantry in the game. and their 2 HP means that they're a lot better on walls / streets / prolong fights then just about anything.

[Kennylz]

I second the hashim tactic. Those guys are nice, though small unit size.

[frontier-auxilia]

horse archers/ archers and heavy cavalry (i.e general early) with more missle troops, shoot the crap out of them to provoke an advance. Once this happens, the enemy need to drag all that weight to your location of choice meaning they be fighting on your term (so now move to a hill or something , if you have horse archers all the better just move in and start shooting). Now after having your enemy do all those wild goose chases, you can send in your heavy cavalry to surigically finish off any left overs (avoid the spear). If your enemy rank is filled with all armored spear man make sure your cavalries get to circle around them and hit the enemies on the rear which in most cases can cost a mass route. If your enemy contain one or 2 spear units, use your HC's superior mobility to avoid charging them but instead go away slaughtering other infantries while dealing with them last. Once with every other element of the army gone, your army should be able to outnumber the spearman to about 4: 1 in that case you can charge them from all side or more units in from all sides to scare them away (which they be fruit for the plucking once they route )

[symbiont]

I am currently playing Denmark - I would say it`s THE heavy infantry nation in this game - and I alway get into real trouble when I am facing cavalry based armies. If my troops get something to grasp, they win - definitely! But if not, like fast moving and smartly operating cavalry, they die. You can bait them with some peasant units or artillery while your cavalry flanks them - that should work, but you need an eye on your cavalry all the time, which means, keep them on distance to the enemy - if they get caught, it might be over...

If you attack cities, siege them until they come out and then play your game...

s.

[KiriakosTheGreek]

Heavy infantry is strong but slow as well.So speed is the solution.And definetely not spears vs hi!!!

[dr_guerra]

Like the gents above, use cavalry charges and missile cavarly. Javelin throwers do a good job, surprisingly. Forget the Moorish mounted unit who throws javelins/spears. But get them behind enemy heavies, and they die very quickly.

[Emporer Franz]

Use Horse archers to the greatest extent until you get christian guard which can prevail through most of Western Europe's infantry

[Winter_Is_Coming]

And how would I assault settlement with weak infantries?

Truth be told, assaulting settlements with a large number of heavy infantry using the Moors is not a good idea. Get them to sally forth. If they have just a few heavy infantry, it can be done, but you will take losses. The Moors' strength is the open battlefield where they can use their mobility to their advantage. In a siege, this disappears.

In one of my campaign games, I gained a large empire in Europe with the Moors, but when it came time to take on the Holy Roman Empire, I had some trouble since I had to adjust to their heavy infantry. Sometimes, it's just better to wait for them to come out and fight because your infantry will never be as good as the other factions. But once they come out to fight, they're easy pickings. Just remember that your biggest strength is your mobility, and a heavy infantry centric faction's biggest disadvantage is their lack of mobility.

[dr_guerra]

If I outnumber the defender by a lot, I just randomize the battle. If the defender has a large force, then I starve him out of the castle and massacre them as they try to funnel through the gate.

[RollingWave]

yeah, I find that auto resolve tend to favor your guys considerablly more. the Moors aren't that good at seige assaults. though Hashim Hashim really helps. also, if it's against a city, i ususllly march my infantry up front and come around the other entrance with gunners / javs. it basically works with any cavs though so that's not exactly a new trick there. but gunners in a ally is insanely powerful. i think i used half my ammo with a 2/3 stack camel gunners shotting down infantries comming down the ally, and they scored 80+ kills (normal unit size)

spies help too of course. if you can open the gates it eases things considerablly. espically against higher level castels

[drakuli]

LOL. I use Moor a lot and I like it!!! In my opinion, they are quite balanced and have some good infantry units as well. Try to use Hashashim and urban militia. They are the best you can get as Moor. Combine them with tuareg and christian guard, you can slay all catholic factions units quite easy, including knights!!!

Btw, Hashashim also made a perfect wall raider. The problem is that they are quite expensive.

[RollingWave]

dismounted Christians are the best inf for the Moors.

yes some of their units are crazy expensive but they also have some crazy mines and isn't really as exposed as a lot of other factions. they can pull off expensive armies quiet well

[drakuli]

dismounted Christians are the best inf for the Moors.

yes some of their units are crazy expensive but they also have some crazy mines and isn't really as exposed as a lot of other factions. they can pull off expensive armies quiet well

Oups, yea, dismounted CG is also very good.
But since they are expensive, I rarely have them, hahaha.

My strategy if I have to take the settlement immediately is to have several ladders with Hashashim, dismounted CG, or urban militia (minimum 4 ladders), and 2 rams with spearmen (if I don't have assault weapon like canon or catapult). The ladders can move quickly and raised against unguarded side. After that is killing time.

And always try to retrain your unit / combine with another experienced unit. I once had several units with 3 gold chevrons. And they were the best killing machine.

[Exarch]

mounted archers
you can waste the ers