Stake Fortresses

[ETG]

Has anyone ever made massive stake fortresses with longbowmen?

I tried one out in custom battle and it was pretty effective.







Then again this was against an all cavalry army, and all cavlary armies hardly ever happen. would be great against the Mongols though.

[Kinshejsi]

They are quite effective in online battles, but only if you have the no-artillery rule. If you have artillery and you expect opponent is going to dig himself in as England I always bring some artillery to bomb them out of their hole
Also french aventuriers have a further range than some English longbowmen.

And of course the ai is too retarded to win

[Old_Scratch]

They are quite effective in online battles, but only if you have the no-artillery rule. If you have artillery and you expect opponent is going to dig himself in as England I always bring some artillery to bomb them out of their hole
Also french aventuriers have a further range than some English longbowmen.

And of course the ai is too retarded to win

I wouldn't recommend the stake fort in multiplayer. By it's very nature you need to have most of your army to be longbowmen. They are expensive, so that means you'll probably have little or no cavalry or underpowered infantry.

The easiest counter is muskets, which outrange LB's by a ways. Assuming it's the high period though, the next easiest counter is pavise crossbowmen. Most stake squares I've faced tend to be a little smaller that the one you showed, and their entire army is in that stake square. Simply move your pavise crossbowmen forward in the thinnest line and open fire. Archers shoot in a more arcing trajectory causing them to mostly miss targets in a thin formation. Xbows on the other hand shoot in a straighter trajectory. With England’s army all packed in behind the stakes you're guaranteed that almost all your xbow bolts will find a target. I'll usually just target the most expensive infantry, anything that misses them will hit something else. Most England players will not want to move their infantry out of the stakes, even though there is no cavalry nearby and will let me shoot them to death along with anything else behind the stakes.

Longbowmen run out of ammo quickly too and they'll discharge all their arrows on my 4 impossible to hit and well armored crossbowmen and cause maybe 15% casualties at worst and 50% at best. Either way, with them out of ammo I could just continue to shoot them with my xbows or just walk up and finish them off. I've even had 3 units of arquebus survive all the arrows of 4 retinue LB and 1 Yeoman. Granted they were 95% dead, but it didn't matter, the one thing that my opponent spent all his money on is neutralized. They were pretty much expensive light infantry with no arrows. There's other ways to beat the stake square even if you don't have any xbows or long ranged archers.

It's pretty much the worst multiplayer formation. You completely give up mobility and balance in order to stop cavalry from flanking you. That goal could have been accomplished by cavalry or spearmen of your own.

[Samir]

are you surprised by the result?! if yes, I have another riddle

what do you think would happen if I throw a spoon of sugar into a warm glass of water and mix it?!

dont hesitate to post results

[eggthief]

it is called a noobbox btw.

[Silent Assassin]

I used thoses stakes only when defending my settelement like Antioch against the Mongols, put stakes infront of the gate and on the road going to your city center and BOOMMMM I've killed 4 full stacks of Mongols like that winning a Herioc victory by loosing only 200 men.

[Lysimachus]

Then there are other players like me who would rather have fun in an interesting siege, rather than watching cavalry impale themselves upon stakes.

[robbo]

Then there are other players like me who would rather have fun in an interesting siege, rather than watching cavalry impale themselves upon stakes.

Agreed. I used to place stakes in front of gates all the time until it became boring and felt like a cheat. It doesn't feel quite as bad when you're using pikemen instead.

[Silent Assassin]

I agree with ALex and Robbo but the only time I used them is when facing the Mongols like 4 full stacks.

[Hunter Makoy]

wow i've never made a fortress out of them, but i'm sure against someone like the Mongols they would do very well. they own on an unimaginable level. altho its very face-palm when ur routing cavalry runs through them.

[Naja]

I played on Very Hard one day, and the computer wised up to my stake-planting strategies in sieges. Their cavalry walked over the stakes (rather than ran, which kills them), suffering no casualties and making it over to my town center, where they proceeded to kill me.

[Silent Assassin]

I played on Very Hard one day, and the computer wised up to my stake-planting strategies in sieges. Their cavalry walked over the stakes (rather than ran, which kills them), suffering no casualties and making it over to my town center, where they proceeded to kill me.

[The One King]

I played on Very Hard one day, and the computer wised up to my stake-planting strategies in sieges. Their cavalry walked over the stakes (rather than ran, which kills them), suffering no casualties and making it over to my town center, where they proceeded to kill me.

Epic Fail. 'Nuff said.

Sorry for double posting!

[lifeonmars]

with poland on the russian steppes(flat ground)
I fought off a 4 stack mongol attack.
I had 700 elite men
they had 4200 men
i had 32 men by the end. lost my king.
they lost 200 men.
they withdrew after i surrounded and killed their khan.
Wrong tactic wrong place

[ETG]

I dont play multiplayer though, it doesnt work for some reason :S

But yeah, I just tried it as an experiment, I usually try to field balanced armies.

Levy Spearmen with 3rd Armour Upgrade are pretty effective Spearmen I've found.

[The One King]

Stakes are sooo useful... I only use in seiges if im up against some calvary-happy , but other than that, i mainly use them as a bunch of stationary spear men..
ill set up, have archers run back spear men just behind the stakes..
BAAAAM!

[NobleNick]

Excellent thread. Moving it to Battle Planning...

[UhOhIt'sAnArrow]

Don't forget also stakes have another very useful function: disrupting formations.

When infantry run through them, their formation is prety disrupted and can cause the AI to be a lil confused with its grid formation, and it also disrupts many charges as the 3 who make it through have the charge and the rest lose it. This works just like when I'm sieging and they sally, i put all my troops behind many rams to disrupt formations.

[RusticDeaTH]

There is only two things wrong with the stakes which are you can not redeploy them once the battle has started, and the situations when you forget that they kill your calvary when they rout.

[Silent Assassin]

There is only two things wrong with the stakes which are you can not redeploy them once the battle has started, and the situations when you forget that they kill your calvary when they rout.

that is why you need to plan your tactics before the battle