BALLER'S : Art of Rushing
RUSH ARMIES:
Overview:
This guide is meant to teach those who are reading what a Rush Army is, what
it can do and how it works. Or more really, for those who are already familiar with
this tactic, re-defining the term and its uses. (Skip to chapter 2 if you know how
to execute the strategy) This is a very basic guide. The art of rushing is extremely
complex and there is a large variety of ways of executing it. This is just the
basics. If you have any questions or wish to learn further, or have any army
you just can't beat feel free to PM me.
Disclaimer:
I am not a perfect player and my strategies are not perfect. This can be improvised
and it can also be completely and utterly wrong. But so far I have had quite a lot
of success through this.
Table of Contents:
-Chapter 1 (How to Rush)
-Chapter 2 (Creating a Rush Army)
-Chapter 3 (Dealing with Particular Situations)
-Chapter 4 (VIDEOS!)
Chapter 1:
Here is a video of me rushing enemy AI, on 10k standard rules, messed up
at the start though: (WATCH FULL SCREEN)
http://www.xfire.com/video/1493ab/
What is the purpose of a rush army?
The purpose of a rush army is to:
A) Catch your opponent off guard.
B ) To swiftly and quickly defeat your opponent and remove his ability
to put up a fight. (Important for non 1v1 games)
C) To win!
When do rush armies usaully work?
A) 10k battles
B ) Early and High (not Late)
Chapters 1 and two merge together to make any sense, so I suggest reading
chapter 2 first if you are unsure of what a rush army is composed of.
How to Deploy:
Supposing the rules are standard. (max 6cav(2ha), no art no ele)
Here is an example: (which might not always be the case)
In game:
Now some of you may ask why to deploy like this?
Here are the answers:
-Using Cavalry to overlap infantry makes it hard for your opponent to judge the
quantity and quality of your infantry. Though some might argue that they
could always look at the banners, it does still make it harder to judge them
overall.
-Deploying them like so allows you to protect your infantry as well as rush at
the enemies frontal ranks when the time comes (Explained later).
-Allows you to move as 1 force and overpower cavalry if they try the 6cav
4 pavise strategy (will be explained later).
-The Spearmen at the side allow you to gain a extra hand in the 'cavalry battle'
and could be the turning point to winning the game.
Now, How do we rush?
Here is what you do in a step by step procedure:
1) Deploy your army as so. (Minor adjustments can be made of course)
2) Group your entire army. This allows you to move in unison.
3) Begin your gradual march to the enemy by making them walk directly
in front of the enemy like so:
4) Now this step is probably the most important. Now that your army is marching
you want to pick targets for your cav and your infantry. And do NOT make them
run. For example to cause maximum damage. I would pick each cav unit the infantry
unit directly opposite them.(unless they are pikemen, or you are facing
a good clan player, in which case you want to target his cav which will rush out
to meet you) Infantry will then be picked out their targets. Which will be the enemy
infantry. Your spears targeting enemy cav.
5) Now with all with your units targetting enemy units. You simply have to wait until
'the time comes'. When that 'time comes' you simply select your whole army
and click the run button. And watch your army spring into life!
6) Watch your cavalry slam into their infantry and inflict major casualties. But
be wary of any changes your opponent makes and be quick to adjust. Now as soon
as your cav hit their infantry, your going to want to pull them all back. So that
your infantry can move in and engage your opponent's. Or if he sent his cav to
late to reinforce his infantry his cav will be caught up in your infantry.
7) As soon as your cavalry have pulled back your going to want them to split
to the sides and then try to get to the enemy infantry's rear. Usually you'll have
enemy cavalry barring your way, So you'll want to fight your way through. But
make sure you get to the enemy's infantry's rear quick and hammer it. A tip for
dealing with enemy cavalry is to overpower them. Like a 2v1 etc. Or get support
from infantry if you are absolutely winning the infantry battle. The reason being
is that as soon as you can rout the enemy's infantry you can use your infantry to
support your cavalry and finish off your opponent.
NOTE: All of these steps must be executed VERY quickly, as it is a rush. You have
to be quick and decisive. Adjustments must be made and I understand not everything
can be executed as said.
REMEMBER PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!
Don't be afraid to modify your rush to suit your style. Everyone rushes in their
own way.
Chapter 2:
-How to form a rush army?
A rush army. The reason that a rush army is able to give its owner a swift and
decisive victory is because it is fast and has no missile. Thats right. NO missile.
Of course if you have a few extra florins do so get a missile unit.
The reason for this being= With all the extra florins your cav and infantry strength
go up. This gives you a definite edge on the cavalry and infantry battles.
especially with infantry you can disable his infantry quickly and support your cav.
An Example Rush Army:
A few notes on this army:
-Note that there is no missile units.
-The cavalry is heavily upgraded.
-Woodsmen are cheap and wield axes which are good on rushing.
-Spears for supporting my cav.
Some recommended factions for rushing:
Early:
-Denmark: Huscarls, Dismounted feudal knights are excellent units. Especially
upgraded Huscarls.
-Russia: Druzhina, Dismounted Druzhina, Woodsmen
-Sicily: Norman Knights, Dismounted Norman Knights
High:
-Denmark: Huscarls, Chivalric Knights, Norse Axemen,
-Russia: Druzhina, Dismounted Druzhina, Berdiche Axemen
What Should I look out for when creating a rush army?
-When creating a rush army you should have strong mobile cavalry. By this I mean
Unarmored horses such as Demi Lancer, Druzhina, Huscarls. Also a variety of
axemen and spearmen works well. The axmen are great for killing down enemy
infantry, while spears can be used to support your cav.
Also rush armies work best with less florins. Reason being is that rush armies
need to take out the enemy swiftly, while if the enemy has experienced or upgraded
men, they will be ultimately harder to rout, therefore making the effectiveness of
the pinning and anvil-ling technique weaker.
Chapter 3:
Some people think that the rush strategy only works against certain type of
armies or certain strategies, fortunately the rush strategy can be used against
nearly every type of army apart from draw in armies. (Will post a topic about that
later)
If you have any armies you can't beat just post up and I shall edit the main post
and include your problem and how to deal with it.
Let us take a few examples:
1)How to deal with this:I can't beat someone in non-gundpowder games, as he just uses pavise to shoot at my cav and inf. (it gets soing frustrating) and as far as our games go he hates attacking so he always keeps pulling out his cav, which causes him to unintentionally use the cav bug, which prevents me from ever winning the cav battle...
Firstly a rush army can quite easily deal with this type of opponent. A quick
rush would reduce the effectiveness of his pavise. Now baout him pulling out his
cavalry, the reason he does this is because he wants to draw your cav away,
basically stalling for time while his pavise shoot at your cav and his infantry gradually
win the infantry battle. If he pulls his cavalry away you shouldn't follow instead go
and anvil his infantry's rear. If you see that he is coming back to hit you. Then you
should be able to maneuver out of the way since you have unarmored horses, or if
you have an extra cav unit you you can use that to pin his approaching cav. Another
way to deal with this is if you have a unit of pesants or a cheap infantry unit you can
set them on his cav, this should keep them occupied just long enough for you
to anvil his rear. Also if the pavise are truly bugging you can take them out instead
of anvil-ling his rear.
2) Also another strategy that usually catches people out is the heavy flank strategy.
This involves shifting most cavalry on one flank. This overpowers the usual tactic
of a rush of splitting your cav off. And if you do still pull them back on to one side after the rush you can still be overpowered.
There are two ways to dealing with this:
One way is if he/she is rushing towards you, you simply select your entire army and make them attack his cavalry which are grouped on one flank. Simple as that
seriously! It works! You could probably leave out one cavalry unit to hold out his
infantry and score kills. This routs his cav very quickly. Of course you may have
to make some adjustments. The second way is if he is defending. As you do your
regular march (explained in chapter 1) instead of choosing your regular targets
all your infantry should select the enemies cav as targets. Your cav shoose their regular infantry as targets. So when your army springs to life. Your cav will slam
into enemy infantry, routing and killing scores of infantry. Before the enemy cav
can come across and cut your cav off your infantry will engage them. Then it is
simply surrounding them, while avoiding enemy infantry, and routing them.
Videos will be posted soon of these strategies in action. So you can get a base idea
of what I'm talking about.
Chapter 4:
Here are some videos I have made to help you truly understand how to rush
and some situations:
The standard rush against AI: (10k Standard Rules)
WATCH FULL SCREEN
http://www.xfire.com/video/1493ab/
RUSH vs RUSH (vs clan):
WATCH FULL SCREEN
http://www.xfire.com/video/14941a/
More videos will be added, if more people find something they need help
with or don't understand.
I hope this tutorial/ guide has helped you and will continue to help you.
Lookout for more posts like this coming soon.
This post will be constantly edited with new content so keep an eye for more
videos.
If you have any problem please post up and the solution will be posted on this main post.
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