Confessions of a Standing Army Freak

[kkin_us]

In all my campaigns in THERA, I try to quickly establish standing armies so that I can build up a corp of experienced troops. It's a simple strategy and I imagine most of you do this. But there are two additional steps that I always take and I'd like to know I'll like to know if you (the Thera community) take them too.

1.) I establish a pattern for field armies and a pattern for siege armies and I stick to those patterns, rigidly. (I.E. 8 Pikemen, 5 Muskeeters, 4 Teutonic Knights, 2 Cannon)

2.)When they're not in use, I quarter my armies in field fortifications. Please note the plural. Because each fortification can quarter five troops for free, I create little military cities of four forts to store my troops for free, and thus ease the strain on my economy.

So, am I the only one that does this?

[TheFirstONeill]

In all my campaigns in THERA, I try to quickly establish standing armies so that I can build up a corp of experienced troops. It's a simple strategy and I imagine most of you do this. But there are two additional steps that I always take and I'd like to know I'll like to know if you (the Thera community) take them too.

1.) I establish a pattern for field armies and a pattern for siege armies and I stick to those patterns, rigidly. (I.E. 8 Pikemen, 5 Muskeeters, 4 Teutonic Knights, 2 Cannon)

2.)When they're not in use, I quarter my armies in field fortifications. Please note the plural. Because each fortification can quarter five troops for free, I create little military cities of four forts to store my troops for free, and thus ease the strain on my economy.

So, am I the only one that does this?

I was wondering when someone wuould notice the potential fort exploit

I play to a house rule of no more than three forts per region, unles they are pre built by the AI, but I fill my forts with a balanced corp d'armie, two misslie, one pike/spear, two heavy infantry,

[kkin_us]

I have to admit I feel guilty about having free army upkeep. Three forts per region seems to be more reasonable number :-).

[TheFirstONeill]

I have to admit I feel guilty about having free army upkeep. Three forts per region seems to be more reasonable number :-).

Its hard to keep to the rule, sometimes, when a huge army of a so called allies sunddenly launches attacks against you

Ive tried to find away of limiting the number of forts per region, but cant find a suitable command line for the script

[Henry707]

That's very interesting - sounds obvious but I certainly wasn't doing it.

Two things really interest me.

Your point about some form of standardisation - hell I need that, I've got bit & bobs all over the place, most of my armies are a mish mash of different units - I got to get myself some organisation I just tend to expand so quickly that my field armies end up reliant on mercenaries, local milita etc.

The point about forts is interesting, I have never thought about but there is some logic - I suppose the troops are garrisoned - I love the way to manage costs etc.

I don't want you to think its chaos in my Avalon Empire, on the plus side, have mixed units does make my stacks very flexible. I think I was just bewidlered by the sheer variety of units I can produce as an expanded expire, every new one looks tasty & worth a try.

Thanks for the tips, I will really think it through....

KKin - I give you rep for being a smart cookie!

Henri

[Pink Beard]

Hey I was thinking the same thing. I've noticed the forts are permanent so that means when I take over a new territory from the AI it usually contains 2-3 forts or so
I was thinking if it's possible to be able to "disband" forts so that there is atleast one way to get rid of them... Other option is increasing fort price to 2500 (like in other mods)...

But i most certaintly like them. I usually have 2 pikemen, 2 archers and 1 heavy infantry in a fort. It kinda symbolizes like a small fiefdom under the rule of a general with a small army of 5 units

ps: another nice thing if someone could implement the stone forts (like the ones in Britannia campaign) and replace the wooden forts with them

[TheFirstONeill]

Hey I was thinking the same thing. I've noticed the forts are permanent so that means when I take over a new territory from the AI it usually contains 2-3 forts or so
I was thinking if it's possible to be able to "disband" forts so that there is atleast one way to get rid of them... Other option is increasing fort price to 2500 (like in other mods)...

But i most certaintly like them. I usually have 2 pikemen, 2 archers and 1 heavy infantry in a fort. It kinda symbolizes like a small fiefdom under the rule of a general with a small army of 5 units

ps: another nice thing if someone could implement the stone forts (like the ones in Britannia campaign) and replace the wooden forts with them

The reason I dont use stone forts is that with forts being permenant the map becomes a mess with loads of stone forts everywhere. More an aesthic choice.

You cant have them as permenant and temp' its one or the other. Also stone ones are soo strong, it would be a real exploit , so there wont be stone forts. There are stone in my teutonic mod

The price is low to encourage the AI to use them

[Lothe]

I use a combination of 2 archers, 2 cavalry then all other melee, unless siegeing, then 1 unit of siege.

The only excpetion to this is on the western coast of Ibellicka, my armies are entirely heavy cavalry due to aztec invasions.

[Carrier002]

Pretty new to Thera but i'm using my tried and tested Infantry armies with Cavalry in support, so my field armies usually end up being 12-16 Infantry with Archers making up the rest with my general usually being the only form of cavalry, the only times I usually place Cavalry in my army is when one of my Infantry armies gets destroyed, I then place around 2 units of Light Cavalry in my army, and they dont really do much other then being flanking or running down routers... But thats just my play style.

[Mizrael]

As the Romuli, I tend to have a strong front of infantry to provide the anvil while my cavalry tends to play as the hammer. Currently I've taken all of the Uruk lands in the southern hemisphere and I'm working on Lao Che's bit of land. My country maintains the highest production and economy of all the nations, and I only tend to keep a castle near the borderlands where I'm encroaching on new territory. I stopped doing siege battles after taking the Uruk's capital of Demos, and simply fought the armies around the city to attack them. The constant shower of arrows on my armies on the enemy walls while fighting tough Uruks was to costly.

My first battle at the walls of Demos was with near two thousand men, and I lost 1,533 to the Uruk's 1,045 had killed. That would be my first and last siege, really.

As the Kingdom of Avalon, I had an extensive roster of archers with 2-3 cavalry along with my typical general's unit. So far it's been rather effective with a strong use of those skilled Avalon archers.

15,589 joint deaths of my enemies with 6,103 deaths for the Avalon boys.

Amazing mod thus far.

[toluas]

Welcome, Mizrael. I have to admit that I like your bodycount, though it is a very special approach...

[Pink Beard]

Cool... should do that myself too...

[Mizrael]

Thank you for the welcome. If I have time from my papers, I may write up an AAR. I've enjoyed the ones I've read through so far.

[HaveFallen]

As the Romuli, I tend to have a strong front of infantry to provide the anvil while my cavalry tends to play as the hammer. Currently I've taken all of the Uruk lands in the southern hemisphere and I'm working on Lao Che's bit of land. My country maintains the highest production and economy of all the nations, and I only tend to keep a castle near the borderlands where I'm encroaching on new territory. I stopped doing siege battles after taking the Uruk's capital of Demos, and simply fought the armies around the city to attack them. The constant shower of arrows on my armies on the enemy walls while fighting tough Uruks was to costly.

My first battle at the walls of Demos was with near two thousand men, and I lost 1,533 to the Uruk's 1,045 had killed. That would be my first and last siege, really.

As the Kingdom of Avalon, I had an extensive roster of archers with 2-3 cavalry along with my typical general's unit. So far it's been rather effective with a strong use of those skilled Avalon archers.

15,589 joint deaths of my enemies with 6,103 deaths for the Avalon boys.

Amazing mod thus far.

I can't imagine all this. Please, start that AAR.

[diablo49]

As the Uruks I pretty much spam as much Uruk-hai as I can. I have long since shunned the younger uruk yar and ly yar, as well as the reptalli(sp?) swords and spears. I also usually keep two lykan archers along with 2 hounds of demos (they are very good!). Seeing as my Uruk-hai double as cav killers, I'm pretty much set. I've pretty much pushed the pirates and lao-che off the continent as well as playing a great role in destroying the romuli (last general was killed by tahar caliphate). I have one rebel city and 1 castle on the right tip of the southernmost continent owned by the tahar to take before my control on the continent is complete. Plan to play until I conquer the map.

[Pink Beard]

Nice game Diablo

care to post a picture?

[Momus]

I only reli like the romuli
I tend to keep different armies for different purposes:

1. Offensive army - i keep this near a port for easy striking ability (only one) - 7 legions, 5 archers, 4 cavalry, 2 generals and two spare (in late game usually pretorian gunners)
2. Seige relief army - (lots of cavalry) again i keep near a port or near my front line with which ever enemy i am taking cities from at the time (two or three)
3. Garrison armies - I build these when I go on the offensive to allow my offensive army to move on quicker (one for each city in my plan) - 3 legions, 2 spears, 3 archers, 1 cavalry
4. Border Armies - I tend to use natural pinch points and barriers to make my borders easier to defend and I build forts here and keep 6-8 units there, enough to hold their own against any army for sometime at least and bloody their ranks very badly when they attack. (4 legions, 3 archers 1 cavalry)

[kommandant]

2.)When they're not in use, I quarter my armies in field fortifications. Please note the plural. Because each fortification can quarter five troops for free, I create little military cities of four forts to store my troops for free, and thus ease the strain on my economy.

thanks for this tid bit, this has truely help me in my campaing to secure the eastern part of Romuli from
the pathetic rebels

[VVILHELM DUX]

Yep, I too find the forts irresistable to billet my army's. Turn one before anything else is spent, I ring each settlement regardless with 4 forts at the cardinal points and then one at any choke points, strategic crossroads, etc, and three around each port or soon to be port, (for staging invasion forces) and one at the head of the road leading into a unheld territory which I use more for staging siege equipment pre-invasion.

Im not a fan of limited war so I dont have the will to self regulate their use, if its in game and available I'll use it. TOTAL WAR!

I dont over specialize army's, I keep my forces balanced 20-40% cav, 10-20% siege/arti, 30-50% defencive line spear or such, with the balance of forces being made up of offencive melee units.

My minimum offencive army is 4 spear, 2 missle, 2 mounted and 2 offencive melee. There are always the chances of a disorganized adhoc defence forces where I'm suprised but that dosnt happen all that often as I spend as much money on watch towers as I do forts.

The one specialized formations I do make are all cavalry formations of Knights and missle cav if available for rapid reaction force usually one in the center of each major region grouping.

My full stack elite "Councelor" or "Royal Guard" army is made up of the most experienced units from my other army's, transfered to the duty after recieving at least a single silver chevron (with the exception of seige ingines, they take forever to build up). Once completed it consists of 1 general with 5+ stars, 2 siege/artillary, 4 Hvy Cav, 4 archers-or other missle troop, 6 defensive spear or halbard (if a quality unit like a hammer of christ or hvy billman, and 3 Hvy Offencive Melee of sword-mace-axe (what ever is my best equipped). This formation will also stand by as the advant guard of my Kings Crusading Army's or for major invasions.

I use spear heavily as I'm a hammer anvil fan. I use them to hold the enemy line while I Flank with hvy melee or cavalry. If I have a unit that is very good at both offence and defence then I'll use that and reverse my spear melee proportions to keep a smaller spear force to protect the flanks from cavalry.

[TheFirstONeill]

Now just imagine that exploit wth stone castles, hence my choice at not including them.