My personal Immortals

[Halladan]

I am playing the Byzantine Empire which lack good cavalry in the beginning.

I was used to play England having good archers and heavy cav to beat every opposing european army. Now I was lacking my best friends from the last campaign. I had to come up with something new -> giving young lads of my family the crushing action part. I was scared first to loose my precious youngsters and used them very carefully and only for rear charges.

But soon they developed their imba skills: hit points and dread went up (riding all fleeing filthy enemy subjects of the field ... harhar)

Now my attacking stacks have always a seasoned top notch general and some runner ups. They just keep winning while mostly routing the units!!!!
(mostly 2:1 or higher against me!)

Of course depending on the opponent I use a mix of inf and ranged units like Trebizond archer and mercs -> bulgarian archers which are good in melee too.

The proof that the risk of using the heavy cav made up of only general bodyguards are worth the risk:
Once in my midgame fighting for dominance in northern italy lots of enemy stacks operated there. Also my 10star, 9dread, lots of traits Emperor, 1Lcav, 1HC, 1x trebizond archers, 2spears militia, 1good mercs spears.

I place the stack into a wood to ambush than I pressed the button for the next round. I ambushed a moors full stack without general and whiped it

Then a genovese full stack took the chance to meet my emporer, I used the environment well and the dread factor of my general did luckily the rest. My general unit was down to 22man and the other units were heavily depleted but at highest XP. Still it was not over yet. Another two captains with halve stacks tried their luck. Now I thought I am doomed but...
After a long tricky chase and again utilizing the massive dread of my general I routed their spear units and eaten their 4units of LC for lunch.

After that two last genovese strongholds in italy were depleted and my way clear. I had to take back my emporer now for reshment of troups but small contigents of nearby Venice with some youngster did the job in surprise attacks (spies!!!).

For my emporer I organized a parade and since then I look with deep satisfation on the spot with the two crossed blade marking my triple heroic victory.

This dread factor I rely on with 3 general units (dread between 5-10) in my attacking armies each -> wiping enemy stack after enemy stack. One operating in middle europe, one in the planes of Russia and another one in the middel east.
I have minimal losses and the the ones from bodyguard units replenish themselves!-) So I can have these armies much longer in the field then any other army before.

Have fun ,
Halladan

[Lord Romanus III]

Now add that with the troops you will be getting soon such as: Byzantine Guard Archers, Dismounted Latinkon, and the Varangian Gaurd. Then you will have the Byzantine Delta Force.
Welcome to the forums mate. (I got to welcome someone new.)

[Confederate Jeb]

Using generals to charge isn't as bad as people think. I use them as light cavalry, and just before they hit I have my general use his special ability (the horn). He stops while the rest of his guys charge in. Keeps him from dying right off the bat. But I've never had a general die from a charge, so I don't get why that happens to a lot of people.

Anyway, great post man. Hope you use those dreadful guys to conquer the world.

[Sodbuster]

I had a general die in a charge when I charged his full unit into the back of a light infantry unit that was engaged with my spearmen in the town square. It looked like his horse tripped. I won the battle, but losing the general really put a halt to my advance. This was in the stainless steel mod on VH/VH though, so maybe it was just a fluke.

[Halladan]

I am using Lands to conquer v2.0 on VH/VH.

There the charge of Heavy cav is not that devastating than in the vanilla game but I luckily didn't had this kind of accident yet.

My general goes down when some cav charges from behind or when outnumbered and bogged down by heavy inf or spear units.

Seasoned Generals are tough to kill and to get all the traits of good health, scars, and fine with blood helps to keep your precious war leaders alive.

I select my generals according to their basic traits like good health and leadership abilities. These ones I take on to training battle fields. First riding down rebels then I use them as assistance generals where they get the XP chevrons for better stats. At last when they have at least some 4-5 stars they are allowed to get the command of a bigger body of my army.

Yesterday I continoued to expand my empire out of italy into france. There I annihilated two incoming armies which I relieved just before of their nasty commanders with assassins and then rolled over them. I had a full stack with my emporer and my other most dreadful 10star general enjoying the show. I ended the turn with I taking Dijon which was depleted (1general and two catapults) only with my generals. The inf was left behind already out of movement points - the town looked too inviting I ended up fighting at the market square but for them the other general unit didn't do much harm

Regards,
Halladan