Simple trick!-works everytime!

[StalkAndStrike]

Now although it is plainly obvious, and I am sure many are already using this tenchinque, but I have to say that its ridiculous just how easy it is to use and to such an advantage!

If you look at the way the units are placed at the gateway in this pic, it somehow has the uncanny ability to route ( regardless of which unit involved) any that come into contact with it, I'm guessing it is because you are figthing many units At a time instead of a single one...but it never fails me!

also when used with spearmen of any form, it aslo in invinsible to cavalry ( for the most part, usually generals can damage it to some extent), and this way your units will almost never route themselves as far as I have seen,

Keep in mind that the picture is simply an example and should be used in greater size to guarantee its success

[Silent Assassin]

AH never tried I will and keep you posted

[General Tony]

I use a set up similar to that, but instead of haveing all those guys in the middle I put them more in the back. This makes a box at the gate, so as the enemy enter my guys take em out from all but one side. I generally use only speae or pikemen on guard mode for this.

Another variant i use is to just have men infront of the gate but a little farther back to hold down the enemy, then I set archers or xbows off to the sides so that they fire into the enemys sides.

Both of these work well for me, most of the time lol

[StalkAndStrike]

"most of the time" lol, yes we always seem to lose that ONE battle here and there *caugh* mongols *caugh*

[Pinky333]

i just place all my units in 1 spot and the archers on the walls, after they kill who ever goes up the ladderrs just send them down to the gate and they just close the enemey off.

[Internazionale]

Planting stakes in front of the gates/or in the alleys should take care of invading mongols and timurids
Keep in mind that the elephants are unaffected by this, as they will simply stomp the stakes and trample your poor fellas.

[StalkAndStrike]

Planting stakes in front of the gates/or in the alleys should take care of invading mongols and timurids
Keep in mind that the elephants are unaffected by this, as they will simply stomp the stakes and trample your poor fellas.

Any sujestions on how to dispose of elephants charging through your gates? Naftun works pretty well, but If you dont have any than I'm short on ideas other than the classic javelins

[Thompson45cal.]

Any sujestions on how to dispose of elephants charging through your gates? Naftun works pretty well, but If you dont have any than I'm short on ideas other than the classic javelins

javelins........... javelins.......... nafta , fire archers, and javelins......... javelins are best over all for killing the beasts

[squigian]

I try to kill them with archers BEFORE they reach my gates. If possible, don't have a unit standing directly in front of the gate as it only serves as a nice target with a run-up. Stand off to the sides and try to trap them with reserve units of spears if you can.

[StalkAndStrike]

I try to kill them with archers BEFORE they reach my gates. If possible, don't have a unit standing directly in front of the gate as it only serves as a nice target with a run-up. Stand off to the sides and try to trap them with reserve units of spears if you can.

Do fire arrows make them run amok like in RTW?

[Pinky333]

Yes fire arrows own Elephants

[Internazionale]

Place some cannons and make it ready to fire upon the elephants when they come in, and when you do that leave the worst unit in your army there to occupy them. Then blow them to kingdom come! And after you killed some of them, rush spearmen and pikemen in and hope for the best?

[StalkAndStrike]

Place some cannons and make it ready to fire upon the elephants when they come in, and when you do that leave the worst unit in your army there to occupy them. Then blow them to kingdom come! And after you killed some of them, rush spearmen and pikemen in and hope for the best?

Well I tried this, but my cannons proved inaffective, and the elephants glithced out on me and stayed perfecly in the gateway, so I decided to make one good ALLEZ! with all my infantry...I dont think I would ever reccomend this to anyone in such a situation since all my men just disappeared and turned into street litter in a neat pile!

[tuore]

I found out that not so long time ago. It really works. But i had forgotten it. Thanks for reminding me of this great strategy! +rep

[OdinX]

Or...you can just have a cannon ready down the street aiming at the gates, have two units of spears or pikes off to the side of the gates and hope to God that the cannon shoots fast enough. One of my best wins happened to come around this way; Monster Bombarded the crap out of basically the entire army; their general died in the blast and it took about 50-70 men with it. I gotta say one of my most awesome ways to victory.

[Owain Glyndŵr]

Monster Bombard. Most inaccurate cannon I've ever used. And yet somehow, the only shot it managed to get off in that desperate defense was the one that scored a headshot(insert Unreal Tournament announcer here) on their king. There's something to be said for just pushing one of those up to the enemy army and crossing one's fingers....


As for defending the gate, I have three main strategies defending on the troops at my disposal.

If pikemen are available, I'll box them around the gate and put shallow formations of light infantry directly in front of the pikes. Now the pikes are slowly pushing into the enemy from behind the infantry. This'll even push back elite heavy infantry; they're overwhelmed by pikes on all sides. As for cavalry, they don't even stand a chance.... even Mongols have trouble with this one.

If I have good offensive infantry, I'll put them behind some militia or spearmen. After the enemy's initial charge has been absorbed, I'll charge in all my infantry and try to push the enemy out of the gate by virtue of shock and mass. Doesn't work if the enemy has more and better troops, but you work with what you've got!

If my army is more archer-heavy, I'll put my infantry in a simpler formation so the enemy can start to move around the flanks, then start pouring arrows in at point-blank range. Fire arrows couldn't possible miss at this range, so its usually possible to cause a rout. Crossbows also do an acceptable job by virtue of sheer force.

[Bowden]

How about some Ribault accompanied by Handgunners/Musketeers? Won't that work?

[OdinX]

It'll take more than one hit and most of those are out in the open and have a low defense rating easily spelling disaster. I got to say that yes, the best thing for elephants are fire arrows, heavy-hitting crossbows, and javelins. Spears are also somewhat good against them although one unit of spears against a unit of elephants will most likely rout of be massacred, so basically have more spears than there are elephants.

[Callawyn]

The formation shown in the OP is actually very effective. Takes advantage of the morale effect from the number of enemy units each unit is in contact with. Pretty much ensures that all of the AI units coming through the gate will be in contact with ALL of your infantry units, which can result in their routing sooner. Simultaneously, the narrow front your units have will make them likely to be in contact with only one, and later only a few, of the enemy units, which makes it less likely that they will rout.

[BeingDS]

The formation shown in the OP is actually very effective. Takes advantage of the morale effect from the number of enemy units each unit is in contact with. Pretty much ensures that all of the AI units coming through the gate will be in contact with ALL of your infantry units, which can result in their routing sooner. Simultaneously, the narrow front your units have will make them likely to be in contact with only one, and later only a few, of the enemy units, which makes it less likely that they will rout.

Nice! I usually just stacked all my guys up inside the gate and rushed (with swords or axes) or turned on defend mode and hoped for the best (with spears). One of my other favorite tricks was to put a wall of schiltroms just inside the gate. I would do this by taking all my spear guys and staggering them in schiltrom formation like this -_-_-_-. This makes "pits" so that when enemy units come in, they a) rush in and are immediately surrounded by spears b) can't flank your gate line and c) can't initially break thru with their charge, b/c the schiltrom won't break like a line (at least not anywhere near as easily). I will have to try this other formation, especially when I'm short on spears. Kudos for coming up with this!