Military Strategy's
An army's formations is one of the most important factors when it comes to winning battles. If your army is set up all willy-nilly with no thought to it you will usually lose a battle. Formations play on the strengths and weakness of each unit type and because of it a well made formation can guarantee victory almost every time. Though it only takes minutes to do, often times it is one of the most important decisions we make when starting a battle.
Thus, I was thinking this could be a thread for all of us to get together and discuss some of our most successful formations and how we use them to continually win battles. It may also serve as an outlet for modders to sap ideas from and then turn our very creations against us.
So I'll start out by showing off one of best formations for field battles. Whenever I use this formation on the field I almost always win. In fact the only time's I only ever recall loosing have been the unfortunate times when my general dies, or I'm vastly out numbered. However I have had a 2000 force strong army in this formation stand up to a 4000 strong, three wave assault. The formation was slightly modified because I was on an incline and a half-circle, though the core design remained the same.
I've left the units that compose my army in the screenshoot for obvious reasons.
Group 1 consists of all Spearmen. This is arranged by experience, the most experienced units take up the core of the formations, while the two less experienced units fall on the flank of the experienced units. I do this because usually the enemy charges right down the center, allowing my more experienced units to absorbed the main assault. When attacked they serve as "the line."
Group(s) 2 Are all of my Heavy Infantry. Again more experienced units take up the core. As soon as the main assault hits my Spearmen I wait another few seconds for the battle to get underway and then I send my Heavies surging forth. Many time's this can route lesser units almost right away!
You may also notice the two groups of Heavies behind the main formation. These are often my "lightest" heavy units, here it's Gwent Raiders, though sometimes it's more normal heavy or a light infantry unit. This group serves as the flanking heavy group, as well as the reinforcements. Often times this is the last group of units I issue attack orders too. They will usually go to wherever is needed.
Groups 3 Takes up my flank and is composed of Light Infantry. The often serve as the "swarm" mechanism of this formation. Usually the enemies main assault heads right for the core of this formation, as it is designed to encourage, so after the battle gets underway at least one or two of these units will not have been engaged yet. When this happens they "swarm" around the flanks and oftentimes encase the enemies in a semi-circle of death.
They also serve as flank protectors from those pesky units that decided to try and out flank my position, or attack my archers.
Group 4 Is my archer core. Their purpose is obvious. It should be noted that my Gaelic Archers are slightly modified from the normal in that they have better range so that they are just about as good as the Archer Militias.
Groups 5 Are my archer flanks. In this case they are Mercenary Crossbowmen. Again, their purpose is clear, though being on the flanks they often have better range and get to loose a few more arrows before being ordered to stop to reduced friendly-fire casualties.
They are also slightly more vulnerable to attack. Thus Group 3s dual purpose of server as my flankers and archer guardians.
Group 6 Is my Cavalry. In this case it is just my Kings unit, however sometimes there may be a second cavalry unit. His purpose is not to sit at the back of the army, rather at the beginning of the battle he is often the first to move. My cavalry serves as my "major flankers." The first thing they are always issued to do is to get behind the enemy army, which usually means they have to go way off course so they do not get the full attention of the enemy army. Next they always target artillery first, charging in from one side and then fleeing in the other direction, forming a deadly criss-cross that either stops artillery from firing at all, or routes them.
If there is not artillery this same tactic is applied to archers. The moment however the whole army turns to engage my cavalry (as they will eventually) is when I break off the attack and allow my cavalry to return to the main formation for moral. After which they still serve as my main flanking unit.
Note: Though they are not pictured here, or in this army at all, I've found Deisi Javelinmen can serve as a great substitute for one or two units of Group 5s Archery Flank.
They however are never placed inside the core formation, instead they are in front of the whole army by quite a ways and on it's two flanks. This way as soon as the main enemy assault has begun and everyone is distracted my Deisi Javelinmen pop out of the grass and rush the behinds and flanks of the attacking army throwing Javelins like madmen.
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So there is my uber field battle formation and it's strategies. What are yours????
I'll try and get some more up later today, dealing with different types of battles and what not.
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Originally Posted by Snuggans
