Suggested English strategy.

**Owain Glyndŵr** · February 06, 2009, 09:59 PM

Having paid into advanced stables to get those powerful mounted English Knights, I was a little put off by the fact that my stakes impair the use of hammer-and-anvil tactics; if my knights charge the rear of the engaged enemy infantry, they impale themselves. Therefore, I've begun placing the stakes on my flanks as follows:

/oooooo\

This always tempts my opponent to bum-rush my archers, who then retreat behind my heavy infantry... it also utterly destroys any cavalry unit wishing to attack my flanks, making my job very easy... any once the enemy infantry has been caught in the jaws of my formation, I can smash into their rear.

The archers can now be caught by cavalry if they're not moved early enough, meaning I may get off a volley or two less before they have to fire from behind the infantry at a higher trajectory.

Has anyone else devised a clever method of using both stakes and heavy cavalry? I'd also love to hear from players of other stake-using factions(Such as Turkey and Hungary) on their methods of avoiding friendly stake-death.

**Marie Louise von Preussen** · February 06, 2009, 10:20 PM

I have a very effective English stake strategy based on the historical battle of Agincourt. Basically it's this:

L - Longbows, S - Armoured Sargeants, K - Knights, B - Billmen (or Heavy Billmen), H - (Dismounted Knights)

S S S S S
------------------
L BH L L L L BH

K K

Basically I keep most of my shock infantry and longbows safely behind the stakes, massing arrow fire at the enemy flanks. Seargent Spearmen stay ahead of stakes in Guard Mode as a battlefield anchor to withstand the enemy charge and keep the bulk of the enemy pinned on the center, which then gets shot directly at by my longbows. Knights also stay safely on reserve.

The enemy will usually concentrate on your Spearmen on the center but will also send cavalry and infantry to try and attack your longbows on the flanks. I charge the cavalry at them once they move past my stakes, then send in billmen and Dismounted English Knights to charge them, disengaging my cavalry and sparing them from prolongued melee. Longbows and other infantry also inevitably engage on other infantry coming through the stakes, which helps since they will be disorganized.

At first the focus is on eliminating the threat on the flanks. Once it is done with, your spearmen will probably still be holding on the center. Then I use my shock infantry to form up and flank them while I get my cavalry safe past the stakes; Shock infantry charges, followed by cavalry closing around them or chasing rear line troops.

This works 100% against the French.

**Viking Prince** · February 06, 2009, 11:57 PM

@Voltaire le Philosophe

Similar to my efforts. I usually have fewer Armoured Sargeants and this I probably need the stakes even more. I usually only do this on defense though. On offense there are no stakes and hopefully more Armoured Sargeants.

Usually only 4 or 5 longbows or better no matter how large the army.

Glad you posted.

**Last of the Mohawks** · February 08, 2009, 10:03 AM

My tactic involves masses of longbowmen and billmen also some mounted knights

bbbbbb
MK \lbbbbbbl/
\lbbbbbbl/ MK
MK \lbbbbbbl/ MK
\lbbbbbbl/ MK
\lbbbbbbl/
MK MK

That was what did the Russians, Turks, Egypt and the Pope. Also the Pope owned crusader states

**Owain Glyndŵr** · February 08, 2009, 10:25 AM

Hmph... that seems awfully complexicated! Perhaps I'm better off playing as France with better defensive infantry and heavier cavalry....

**DeMolay** · February 08, 2009, 06:50 PM

IMO , in vanilla you should better play with the English Owain , they are stronger , far better archers (providing you don't use Scot guard extensively which is somewhat unrealistic ) , adventurers and good ranged units of the French come quite late , whereas the English get access to their longbowmen quite fast (which is realistic IMHO )

Also , the English have a better heavy infantry , does more damage and their cavalry is still very good , the French in vanilla just have a very slight advantage in cavalry (which is not realistic IMHO , the southern france heavy cav should be clearly better ), nothing to write home about really , besides , since one should rarely use its own cavalry against the ennemy cavalry (sort of wasting the potential of the cavalry , cavalry should flank troops on foot or charge them , personally i use my cavalry against my opponent's cavalry when i really don't have the choice , one should better spam the opposite cavalry with arrows or throw spears at them )

Also as you surely know the position of the English is miles better , last time i've played with them , i just didn't bother with France , i made a strong alliance with them very early on and even gave them Caen for the alliance so i could use my Caen army to take Wales and Ireland immediately (Dublin is a nice milk cow if you developp it fast as a city , much better than Caen ) , then it was a piece of cake to become the master of Britain/Ireland , invade Scandinavia then get a very strong empire , sort of isolated cause barely anyone dared to attack me either in Britain or Norway/Sweden , which gave me the time to build a really strong economy and become the master of northern Europe later on (not to mention the huge potential of this faction to build an unpregnable navy ...) .

Also the English when they defend , because of their great archers and Billmen combination are probably the best faction of the game with the Turks , Mongols and Russians (for defending) , it's just hell , tons of deadly arrows , Bills that destroy pretty much everything with an armor or on a horse and top notch infantry to slay the rest , coupled with nice cavalry IMHO , does its job very well , never been disappointed with their cavalry