New America

**Kayslay** · December 08, 2009, 02:54 AM

Playing as New Spain, now I thought I'd be able to anchor a line of infantry, with gunners on flanks and cavalry on the sides to finish them off.
But alas my gunners dont kill anything and my infantry get smashed.

How do you play with New Spain in this great expansion?

Any tips would be swell

**Goofy** · December 08, 2009, 08:52 AM

I've never played more than 10 turns as New Spain, and I don't like Vanilla. I'm playing Stainless Steel at the moment.

So, as you realize, this (hopefully) helpful post isn't written upon my experiences but my strategic eye and knowledge of their unit roster and all that, thanks to Honga for keeping up the Royal Military Academy.

You're right - there are thousands and thousands of Indians. You can't - I emphasize: you can't - lose any too valuable man of your army. You have to destroy the enemy with no many casualties taken.

The best way to do this is to make the enemy fear - they'll rout and you kill them all. Remeber: there's nothing as scary as missile infantry (most likely with gunpowder weapons) volley combined with successful cavalry charge, most likely from rear or flank.

Here's a video which may help; an online battle between GrailKnights Vedran (don't remember his complete name) and PrinceofMacedon (I'm not sure does he have an account here). Vedran plays as New Spain, and I think he does it well. As you can see he's picked high ground as his place to defend from, he has gunpowder troops and pikemen placed behind them. This is the most effective way to use gunpowder troops.

Spanish Dragoons
Shooting by Spanish Dragoons helps a lot as well - gunpowder weapons with high attack capability are always scary - and they should be easily recruitable; you need only Militia Barracks or better still, Army or Royal Barracks. Upgrading the barracks does not only give your bigger maximum amount of men, it also increases the replenish rate of the unit pool. Militia Barracks have only replenish level of 0.5 (replenish level 1 = one unit per turn), Army Barracks 0.7 and Royal Barracks 1.0. Also, Militia Barracks have 4 units as the maximum amount of these troops, Army Barracks 6 and Royal Barracks even 9 Spanish Dragoon units.
Spanish Dragoons are also quite capable in melee. They have attack stat of 8, and it's even better than Byzantine Cavalry's who were meant to be skirmish troops with both ranged and physical attack skills. Vardariotai of Byzantium is a bit better in melee than Spanish Dragoons, but remember that your enemies don't have armour as their advantage.

Conquistadores
This is the only melee cavalry unit recruitable by New Spain in Americas, so it's a must-choice. Recruitable from Stone Wall/Militia Drill Square or higher.

Pikemen and defending in cities
When compared to Indian factions you have less soldiers and not allies except if you ally with someone, but you have... stone settlements. It would be a shame not to use it as your advantage.
Also, you can field pikemen - and they're amazing at defensive combat. I'm not sure does 1.4 or 1.5 fix the pikemen sword bug, but if it doesn't, then you simply must use them. Put them in guard mode and spearwall formation, then just kill all the enemies.
If 1.4 neither 1.5 doesn't fix the sword bug, then check Reconquistador's pikemen article in M2TW General Discussion forum. And I'm sure it's good to read it anyways.

Crossbowmen
Not much to say. I think you can imagine what happens when an Aztec peasant runs forward and a crossbow bolt comes towards him with a speed of at least 150 m/s.
You got it right - it won't be beautiful to see.

Artillery
I'm sure you realize the point. Place them on a hill if possible and shoot everything moving in front.

Light swordsmen with shields
= Sword & Buckler Men and Swordsmen Militia.
Prefer S&BM, but be ready to use militia ones as well if you must. These troops can very well stand against Aztec light infantry charge, though they're not heavy. And their swords can kill a lot of enemy warriors with no shields.

Choose the terrain and the position of your troops wisely
Don't attack an enemy in a jungle.
Don't defend against anyone in a jungle.
These are the 2 rule of thumbs of Americas while playing as New Spain.
Don't place gunpowder artillery behind your own troops; take them on the flank further from the enemy and put some infantry guarding them.
Place your melee cavalry in the front of your troops so they can sweep the enemy archers and light infantry as quickly as possible.
Place your missile cavalry on the left flank of your army so the enemy loses the shield bonus (shield is held in the left hand).

Choose the faction you want to war with
and all that.
Don't attack an enemy which is too strong for you. Wait until they get warring with someone else, then attack them too so you have someone fighting beside you.
If possible, pick one strong and reliable ally.
Additionally, you aren't forced to start warring immediately when you start a campaign. Try making peace, improving your settlements and then owning your enemies by using your advanced troops and weapon technology.

I'm still in need of quoting myself. An extract from my Small overall guide for M2TW. I'm quite certain nearly everything comes true with Americas as well, though it's written upon my experiences with Vanilla Grand Campaign and Stainless Steel 6.1.

Just convert them compatible with Americas in your head.

When you are contemplating an attack to an enemy, you must to know what kind of units you recruit, of course. Let’s start with basic armies.

Infantry
Infantry is the main force of your army (Always prefer heavy infantry). The most common target of infantry is to counter-charge enemy infantry and protect your artillery and missile infantry. In the start of the battle place your infantry in the centre of your battle line. Spearmen always to the flanks to defend you from enemy cavalry attack. Pikemen are used to this same job, but they may be placed also to the centre because good pikemen are great to resist enemy infantry attack too. However, using pikemen will enforce you to protect them against archers (with cavalry if possible, if not, then use for example Peasants which are good decoy). Axemen (and other 2-handed troops) are very good at counter-charging enemy infantry; use them in the first line if possible.

Cavalry
Cavalry units often kill more enemies than other your units. This is because they A. are fast, B. often well armoured (heavy cavalry) and 3. have huge charge bonus. There are two kinds of cavalry: heavy and light.
Heavy cavalry is often used to smash enemy archers and infantry (in the original M2TW heavy cavalry can beat even spearmen), and they are usually knights. In the start of the battle, place cavalry to both flanks, behind or beside the spearmen/other infantry.
Light cavalry is used almost the same way as heavy cavalry, but they are not good to kill heavy infantry. With these troops you may catch and kill enemy missile cavalry (but be aware that you may lose your men with this trick) and light horsemen are better to take prisoners.
And remember: never ever attack pikemen with cavalry if you can avoid this!

Missile infantry
These troops are armed with a bow, crossbow or guns (except Naffatun and Greek Firethrower). Remember that shooting from the left side of the enemy (in your opinion) or behind them causes more casualties, because enemy can’t stop your arrows with their shields. Of course it’s no matter from which side you shoot enemy troops without shields.
Okay, let’s have a closer look on these units.
Archers are usually used to kill enemy infantry. Place them behind your infantry, on a high place/hill if possible. As sir Robert (your advicer in battles) says, use flaming missiles against wavering units or troops you know to flee (in original M2TW the morale is poor and flaming missiles are often better than basics).
Crossbow was forged to stop the cavalry; knights were almost unstoppable in the medieval period. The new discovery, crossbow, was very effective, even so much that the Pope disclaimed using them.
Using gunpowder troops truly is its own chapter and not as easy as you may wonder. Usually you may first shoot from in front of your infantry when the enemy is coming closer, then attack with your heavy troops and give support to them with Musketeers/Arquebusiers/Hand Gunners (this means shooting enemy cavalry on the flanks and when there are no your own troops between your gunners and that unit).
Javelinmen are not very effective in original M2TW as they should be; however, many mods fix this bad error (or do you think that a thin, 50 cm long arrow can beat a heavy javelin?). But they are good when the enemy gets close; place them behind your infantry, and when your infantry meets enemy infantry, kill them by using these men.
Note that any missile infantry, missile cavalry and artillery unit may be commanded to melee when you press Alt Gr+right button of mouse.

Missile cavalry
Missile cavalry may be separated in two classes: those with bows, crossbows and guns and those others with javelins. First we could think about using cavalry on the whole.
Missile cavalry is usually kept as the most irritating enemy as they can hit and run very effectively, and there are no troops easily meeting them. M2TW has a bug which doesn’t allow AI archers shoot your missile cavalry when they have the “Circle and shoot”-ability activated, so you maybe should favour this when possible. At all, do not use that ability when shooting enemy far away, as it makes your arrows to hit ground more often than the enemy. At close range and in the middle of the battle using “Circle and shoot” may be recommended.
Horse archers and crossbowmen will be used the same way, although you should use mounted archers instead of crossbowmen because a bow is a lot faster to reload. Place them to the left flank of your line (in your opinion again) to prevent enemy units from using their shields. Then run quickly to a loose formation straight forward from their starting position and deploy them to the left side of the battlefield.
Mounted Javelinmen are really effective, as they often are better armoured than other missile cavalry (at least Granadine Jinetes and Boyar Sons). It’s effective to run towards the enemy and withdraw in front of them and at the same time kill them.
Cavalry gunners is the best type of missile cavalry, but their shooting range is quite short; because of this, you must play these exactly the same way than mounted javelinmen (but remember that the range of a musket is roughly 2-3 times longer).

Artillery
There are many kinds of cannons and catapults. They all are used the same way (except mortar and ballista), so I don’t feel up to write about it.

Navy
Navy is almost forgotten power of armies. (At least I don't use navies very often.) However, they are very effective at blocking enemy ports (stops the sea trade in that city) and sinking their transporting ships. You can also take your troops over the sea, which is very good for example when crusading.

And here are the special tactics for cavalry (only some of them exist):

As we know, heavy cavalry is the most effective attacking force in Medieval II: Total War. Heavy cavalry has been used a small amount of ways, and here are some tactics which are not so common.

Hit and run to the side
Take your cavalry and attack enemy archers (for example) in either flank. Kill them enough, then withdraw to the side and let the enemy to get closer your troops, then attack their infantry from their sides or sweep their artillery pieces.

Hit and run behind your own troops
Almost the same than above, but take your cavalry and withdraw behind your infantry line; if the enemy is trying to catch you, your infantry attacks and your archers start to kill them with their arrow.

Massive attack
This is a good tactic when enemy troops have received damage, especially in late battle. Choose your cavalry units and attack enemy infantry with a mass force; they rout and you get a lot of prisoners. Likely command every unit to attack particular units.

Still 2 pictures by Nazgûl Killer, though the pics are a bit confusing and bad-quality, but I didn't see any factual errors there.

Field battle:

Brown - Cavalry
Yellow - Artillery
Orange - Archers
Purple - Heavy Infantry and Spearmen
Light Green - Light Infantry
Blue - Spearmen
Pink - Possible movements of attacking enemy
Black Outlines - Positions where your pikemen should/possibly be incase you want to use them. (The outlines are supposed to be inside the lines, but I did not want to confuse you... Too much... )

Forest battle:

Red - Archers
Black - Cavalry
Blue-Light Blueish - Infantry/Spearmen
Pink - Enemy

I'm sure you can learn a lot by just battling again and again, different battles with different chances of winning. Also watching battles from YouTube helps.

You can see the unit roster of New Spain here

Finally, you may download the 1.5 patch for Kingdoms if not done already.

PS. I have a sense I forgot something.

I respect any feedback because it take almost 1 h 30 min to write this.

Hope my post helped.

If you have any questions, fell free to ask. I'll answer, earlier or later, if I can.

~Da Goofy

**Nazgûl Killer** · December 08, 2009, 02:55 PM

Originally Posted by Da Goofy

Still 2 pictures by Nazgûl Killer, though the pics are very confusing and bad-quality, but I didn't see any (at least bad) factual errors there.

I rarely mind criticism, but that's just behind-my-back badmouthing, rather than criticism. If you could, perhaps enlighten me on my 'factual errors'?

To remind you, those are MY tactics, as such they are tactics which work for ME and I offer them to others, saying that they are bad or have errors is not only bad taste since it's a matter of opinion, it is also rather disappointing that you would rather say that behind my back rather than say it up front and to my face in my guide.

To add to that, I'd like to ask you to not try and denounce everyone and everything when you write a certain reply, whether you notice it or not - You do so. As much as I usually wouldn't mind, it's distasteful, not the first time you have done so and has now officially annoyed me.

**SturmChurro** · December 08, 2009, 09:03 AM

You should try to make alliances with them as fast as you can, because at first their armies and towns have very limited options, wait to go into an all out war until you have enough good units to stand up to their large armies. Aztecs in my experiences usually the Aztecs get destroyed by the Tlaxclans and the(I cannot think of the name for them). Usually horses are great against their soldiers unless they use a lot of infantry spearmen, crossbowmen/gunners should do good especially mounted ones(these would be devastating to their armies). It is good to use conquistadores and mercs against them, at least that is what I use mainly because of the small amount of Spanish soldiers in each unit.

**Goofy** · December 08, 2009, 09:11 AM

You should try to make alliances with them as fast as you can

Right. That's what I tried to say with different words. You aren't forced to start a war immediately, you can - and IMO should - improve your cities to get better troops.

And still one thing - don't trust your allies in the real meaning of word "trust". They can attack you any turn. But make sure it's not you who betrays.

The rest of your post looks like it were missing something... verbs?
Good opinion anyways. I believe it helps. Repped ya.

**SturmChurro** · December 08, 2009, 04:41 PM

Originally Posted by Da Goofy

Right. That's what I tried to say with different words. You aren't forced to start a war immediately, you can - and IMO should - improve your cities to get better troops.

And still one thing - don't trust your allies in the real meaning of word "trust". They can attack you any turn. But make sure it's not you who betrays.

The rest of your post looks like it were missing something... verbs?
Good opinion anyways. I believe it helps. Repped ya.

Well, I did a fast version in my post such as I did not even look up whatever that other native faction was called, and yes I already knew that they should not be trusted but it should keep you safe for an ok amount of turns though, having an alliance. I did say to give tiume to improve your cities, in so many words.