Has anyone tried an ambush using a full stack of archers?

[stocker]

Hey guys,

So I was just thinking how effective ambushing an army with a full stack of archers would be.

As far as I can remember, you can position your units on both sides of the enemy, trapping them in the middle.

So if you managed to ambush an army that's a half stack, thats two units of archers on one unit from both sides.

I am going to attempt this in game now, but I was just wondering if anyone has tried it?

[Lordinquisitor]

With silvan elves you are actually doing this a lot of the time. Though i haven`t tried it with full stack archers yet. (Mainly because i use rc and elven untis are scarce with it.)

But anyway it can be very devastating, especially early in the game. Though you have to get used to forest battles, which are a pain in the ass.

[YassirX]

Hey guys,

So I was just thinking how effective ambushing an army with a full stack of archers would be.

As far as I can remember, you can position your units on both sides of the enemy, trapping them in the middle.

So if you managed to ambush an army that's a half stack, thats two units of archers on one unit from both sides.

I am going to attempt this in game now, but I was just wondering if anyone has tried it?

Yes, when I play Gondor I use that kind of tactic with Ithilien Rangers to avoid Mordor to reach Osgiliath.
Works pretty good.

[Skeleton Of The West]

Ambushing with a full stack of archers especially in TA:TW where they are very strong can be devastating. You can kill about 1/5 of their army before they realize what is going on

[Badg3r]

i wouldn't have full stack of archers any way. if they get caut in the open rather than manage to ambush, you could get run down

[Warmaster Tibs]

I did it once as Silvan elves. It dident end well... I killed the enemy army but they did some casulties to my archers.

[Panda909]

I prefer to use horse archers. They have the speed to out run the enemy can run down enemy units.

[Caesar']

I prefer to use horse archers. They have the speed to out run the enemy can run down enemy units.

the problem is they dont have many arrow .

[Panda909]

the problem is they dont have many arrow .

But since they move faster you can get them closer so they do more damage.

[Arthur Artorius]

I can sometimes rout enemy armies before they even reach my archers. Very effective, and if you leave a few slots open for swordsman your archers won't even take casualties, or very minor ones maybe.

[paradamed]

Hey guys,

So I was just thinking how effective ambushing an army with a full stack of archers would be.

As far as I can remember, you can position your units on both sides of the enemy, trapping them in the middle.

So if you managed to ambush an army that's a half stack, thats two units of archers on one unit from both sides.

I am going to attempt this in game now, but I was just wondering if anyone has tried it?

You can do it and be succesful. Just dont do it if there are trolls in the enemy ranks cause trolls run pretty fast and will probably reach the archers which get killed easily at close combat against trolls.

[Kawee]

What i struggled with was when I didn't have too many archers. Playing RR/RC submod I usually have about 6-7 archers in my ambushing army. So when I tried to run away (after killing about 50-60% of their army) in order to avoid any casualties whatsoever, my units tend to run in the most stupid directions, get caught, and get killed. I might as well have brought some infantry and fight in the open.

Also, watch out for the enemies archers. The light elven archers defense comprised only of defense skills so when they're fired upoin, they drop like flies too.

[Bela]

Basicly Silvan Elf archers are just perfect for ambush. When played a campaign with them (in 1.1, but should play because of Ents again), in early period I used almost full archer armies/stacks. Just turned guard mode on and disable skirmish, they created a killing zone for the enemy.
If making ambush, you can kill almost 60-70% of the enemy before they realize what's happening. It's just massacre. The AI is usually a dumb when being ambushed, they start to run one side then (when hit in the back from the other side) they stop, turn around and start running to the opposite side. Easy to slay them.
Against trolls this do not work. They just crush your archers.
The other point is that if you disable skirmish, you can make a serious harm to the charging enemy with the last rain of arrows before they reach you (can cause to change their morale from Steady to Wavering) and sometimes break their charge. And elf archers are capable in melee combat also (in early period!), so it's easy to defeat almost every foe with archers only. The only problem is death from friendly fire, if you have a full stack, your own soldiers will kill many of your bowmen.

[ISA Gunner]

DELETE

[Warmaster Tibs]

DELETE

No, you live with it.

[Finlander]

Well I do ambushes very much. Usualy when I am playing as Elves, I but some archers to my borders to defend my woods. Its like in Lotr: Enemy just can get to my forests. Everybody will die soon if they are too brave to trying to my lands.

[stocker]

lol ok so I built a full stack of archers, and positioned them in an ambush position. I finally managed to ambush a near full stack of mordor units. However....

THEY HAD TROLLS!

I completely raped all their units except for their 3 troll units, and I got destroyed by them.

But literally if the trolls weren't there, then I would have killed over 1000 enemies really easily. But they were.

So yeah don't do it agaisnt mordor unless you know they don't have trolls in that army. I am building a new fulll stack of archers and will use it agaisnt Harad. Let's hope they don't have any mumikail (or whatever there called)

[paradamed]

This is what always happens if they have trolls. Trolls are fast and tough. By the time you start to face trolls on the battlefield the strategy changes. An archer based army has to change to infantry based army or cavalry army (considering trolls are heavy infantry, right?) to face the trolls.

[ThorHa]

This is what always happens if they have trolls. Trolls are fast and tough. By the time you start to face trolls on the battlefield the strategy changes. An archer based army has to change to infantry based army or cavalry army (considering trolls are heavy infantry, right?) to face the trolls.

That´s actually not true. In the "How to beat trolls" thread I came up with an example how effective archers are against trolls. Which is plain simply supported by the battle mechanics - the bulk of troll defence is defence skill, which is ignored by arrow fire.

The only reasons why trolls SEEM so overwhelming are twofold
- you own fear/anger when you see them prevents a rational strategy reaction
- they srew a prepared battle setup and you have to get used to it

With a full archer stack of Silvans I would take on a full Mordor stack including 2 to 3 units of trolls and be absolutely sure to win with bearable losses (4 to 5 full units out of 20 if everything is counted). Meanwhile I hardly ever notice that an army of the enemy includes trolls - bad luck for them. I would "fear" heavy cavalry in numbers much, much more.

Regards,

Thorsten

[Bela]

I would "fear" heavy cavalry in numbers much, much more.

Just bring some Sentinels with you and deploy stakes with them around your army in deployment phase. (They stop the charge when realising stakes, so you just have time to slay them with your archers).