army makeup

[chris7ian]

For those who play on VH/VH I have a few questions about how you make your stacks up and how you defend your cities.

For the stacks are you top heavy with any certain unit type? I always like having more heavy cavalry but it seems not as effective as it should be. I used to not bother with missle types until i could get some of the more advanced ones. Do you guys ever keep siege equipment with them or just what you can build while have a town under siege?

And for castle/city defense do you have a lot of missle types, and spearmen? Ever any catapults or other siege equip?

If someone could give me a breakdown percent wise as to whats best i would appreciate it. I havent played in forever. Just watched Kingdom of Heaven again and felt like playing. Then i found this website. Im just curious how to play the AI at vh/vh. I used to simulate all my battle when i bought the game originally...

[Grislok]

I usually have 6-8 archers, 6-8 heavy infantry/spears and the rest cavalry. I don,t have siege equpiment in siege defenses, though mangonels rock but I can't remember if they are in this mod. I have a friend who puts siege weapons in square and builds defense around them in square. This can sometimes have spectacular results causing many enemy units to break, but usually causes tons of friendly fire casualties. Spearmen defend doors nicely and I like heavy infantry on walls. Missile units obviously cause tons of casualties on attacker if protected to fire. I defend walls and then stage retreat and fight for square if necessary.

[LemuelG]

My first rule for defending settlements is to not allow them to be seiged! I have a complex of forts on any likely approaches, and post armies on bridges - the enemy will take a few turns to navigate around or seige your forts, giving you time to meet him with a strong army in the field.

If I am seiged, I'll base my defense in the square - and there's nothing more satisfying than to have a half-dozen pikemen, half of them block a road leading to the square (the one the enemy will use) and the rest hiding down a side-alley; I wait for the enemy to come down the road, and when the enemy reaches my main road-block, the ambushing units move out from behind the enemy and sandwich him between two walls of pikes... lethal, I butchered about six hundred Aztecs this way once, one of my most satisfying battles ever!

Army compositions can vary depending on the units available, but generally I take a general (always, two if practical) and only two or three heavy cavalry; half the army will be melee of some sort (combo sword/spears); I like to play factions with skirmishers (javelins etc) so I have a few of those as well; one artillery-piece (mangonels are most useful for field-battles, trebuchet for seige); one or two missile units is generally enough, and the rest will be fast cavalry to mop-up routers and missile-units.

For my favorite factions (Spain and Portugal) I have a very specific formula for gunpowder armies: 5 Aventuros/Tercio (pikes), 3 muskets/arquebus, 4 heavy swordsmen (dismounted conquistadors are best, but DFK will do in a pinch), 2 heavy cavalry, 2 dragoons, 1 cannon of any sort, 2 Jinetes and a general - with such an army I'll take-on anything in front of me

[chris7ian]

thx guys this will definitely help me out a lot

[chris7ian]

i should have noted that i normally play with the HRE, Jerusalem or Teutonic Order... I just looked through all the HRE units and was sad to see no types of skirmishers or longbowmen.

[LemuelG]

i should have noted that i normally play with the HRE, Jerusalem or Teutonic Order... I just looked through all the HRE units and was sad to see no types of skirmishers or longbowmen.

I guess you will have to out-muscle your opponents; just use the heaviest units at your disposal, and win the game before gunpowder is discovered!

Or, you could have a go with Spain or Portugal

[The Holy Pilgrim]

I rarely ever use cavalry in a seige defense because their effectiveness lies in the open fields, not city walls. Archers are a HUGE help during seiges (defending). A few times, I killed at least 20% of their army (full stacks) before they even get to the walls. One battle, (a jihad on Constantinople) I killed an astounding 58% of the enemy army before I lost even one guy. That was also my most Heroic victory I ever had in any game. Only lost 12 soldiers and they lost somewhere between 1000 and 1500 soldiers (I had a lot of spearmen and they had lots of cavalry and they also lost their Sultan before they even got to the walls).

[Grislok]

I find a unit of heavy cavalry in guard mode that is placed among the units you block the gateway door with as defender in a siege, increases the strength of those units 3 or 4 fold. Their defense rating is silly high.

[chris7ian]

since i was able to get a irish accent from the britannia campaign I'm going to do Ireland now and see if i cant use their axemen, swordmen and javelins to much effect. I need to play other factions I just tend to play the people my ancestors were from...

[nhinhonhinho]

Well I my army often have 8-10 missile unit.I favor missile unit have a long range missile good in melee combat (Yeoman,Genoa crossbowmen....).I also have 5 heavy infantry or spear and they often have "effect again armor".The rest is heavy cavalry.

If I can train mounted missile (HA,mounted crossbowmen) I will have them replace my foot missile unit.

If I can train mounted shooter (dragoon,camel gunner).I'll try to get them all

In defense place all missile unit on the wall (my missile unit often strong enough to fight the enemy on the wall).Use U of spearman to block the gate.But I often try to sally and attack the enemy or send more troop to break the seige

If the enemy have seige equipment I'll place just one unit behind the gate to control tower and the rest of the army defense square

[chris7ian]

when on attack is there anyway to get all units to keep formation as they advance? without bunching up and converging on the same point. I seem to do fine when defending and letting the ai come to me but tryin to micromanage every unit on attack gets me into trouble. I was mainly a campaign map player when i played this and rome and medieval 1. sorry for all the noob questions, just tryin to raise my level of play.

[Soul Firez]

do you mean such as selecting all your units and instead of clicking to make them go to one spot (which becomes a tangled mess) but instead holding down the left mouse button and stretching (by moving the mouse across or up and down ) which will show you formations of where they will group together in organised (semi organised ) fashion

[LemuelG]

when on attack is there anyway to get all units to keep formation as they advance? without bunching up and converging on the same point. I seem to do fine when defending and letting the ai come to me but tryin to micromanage every unit on attack gets me into trouble. I was mainly a campaign map player when i played this and rome and medieval 1. sorry for all the noob questions, just tryin to raise my level of play.

Yes there is, when deploying, make the formations you want - then select all the units in the formation, then click 'group units' (a little blue banner icon in your HUD). They will advance together in formation, rotate in formation, and you can even split them up to do different things, then re-select your group, and click where you want them, they will re-form into their original formation. This does not work at night (well, it does, but they get confused and start facing in different directions etc.).

Ireland has a pretty good military - skirmishers, shock-troops, knights - I found my battles against them in the gunpowder era were lots harder than the those against the Teutons or Jerusalem (HRE is tough with those Imperial knights and Reiters).

[chris7ian]

yea im tryin to keep them from become a tangled mess. k if figured it would be something simple. thx

[chris7ian]

cool. When Soul's mod comes out i plan on starting an irish campaign. Ill definitely use your skirmisher tactics.

[Zerosliver]

Well, in the open field having cavalry can be really decisive.
I find archers in the field to be lacking very much, however infantry shines at everything.

When defending in sieges archers are very important, their job is to simply pick off the enemy troops, inflicting massive casualties and than falling back as quick as they can. Infantry at the gates or a breach if there is one and you pretty much own any enemy besieging you, if the odds are a bit good.

About cavalry, yes while attacking they are almost useless, but when defending you can make them go outside another gate and trap the enemy where they are attacking, always works .