Tips and helpful advice.

[DeliCiousTZM]

I know alot of you out there are playing SS6.1-2 or and RR/RC all alone and are just waiting for a time to share some of your,

Tips and advices so please Do

i have alot of tips and advices but i will not mention all of them right away

1. Place sharpened Stakes with your archers behind the gate to make sure 90% of all cavalry comming through your gate will fall over and die. This can be a life saver escp vs bodyguards and heavy cavalry

2. Avoid Sieging settlements if possible attack a nearby group and lure out the defenders make sure you kill both generals and chase down as many soldier as you can execution will be required.

3. This one is a bit more advanced building a big empire can be exhausting fighting armies thousands vs thousands over and over. The units requiring most micromanagement is the Cavalry and are important to controll but your infantry however is basicly just meat holding lines. Placing the infantry in a group under AI assistance is a blessing then all you have to do is right click attack on any infantry unit and the AI will spread out your infantry and make next to perfect infantry charges applying a 1 infantry group vs 1 of theirs i was suprised about how efficent this was and how well it worked and now i always use it. Mainting controll over Horses however is still needed.

4. Having Heavy infantry fighting Heavy cavalry is a good way to lose your infantry they will charge into you and kill you np... Or? not nescsesary when you are being charged by Heavy cavalry turn around and run away from the Heavy cavalry just before they come in to charge this will make them charge a few units and still be entangled with your heavy infantry fine micromanagment perhaps but very useful sometimes escp when you lack spearmen and eqiuvivelent.

5. Merchants most of you know how to use them and where to put them Gold silk glass and so on. However sometimes you reach your destination perhaps after walking for 10-20 turns and there stands another merchants more leveled up then you and you have 24% chance to get him. Dont even try it.Move away with your merchants so the resource is in the fog of war then simply right click him to enter the resourch which is currently in FOW and you will push any merchant away. be warned however if the other merchant has two skills or less more then your its all safe to do this but has he more then two skills better me might swing back around and acquire you. on VH/VH this is all i do to get resources the save/load is for losers unless your giving away your princess


Thats Five share some of your tips and advices i will keep adding.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Your right as rain with those, thank you... Here's my chip in...

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=329518

[Loose Cannon]

The-Monetary, those two "tips" you posted are spelled wrong. The proper spelling is E-X-P-L-O-I-T.

[DeliCiousTZM]

the computer gets exploits with its money and low upkeep your human you make up for it with shear intelligence nice guide mega tortas can you pick out 2 favorite tips and write them perhaps ?

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

ite.... here we go...

1. Use chiv generals to build those settlement walls to huge size ASAP. {see my guide for break down}. Max size settlements = $$$$$ & killer unit selection.

2. Armour your units ASAP. Even the 1st or 2nd level armour usually max's out your militia units alootment and gives you victory in the field. And Oh, btw some of the upgrades really make your militia units visiaully shine...

Stainless Steel Standards: Campaign Bible. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=329518


The-Monetary... Great thread btw...+Rep

[Loose Cannon]

the computer gets exploits with its money and low upkeep your human you make up for it with shear intelligence nice guide mega tortas can you pick out 2 favorite tips and write them perhaps ?

exploit (verb); to make use of selfishly or unethically. No, the AI does not use exploits, only us humans. It is, however, given extra money because it cannot figure out how to use money effectively. Merchant forts, reloading, stakes behind gates, and attacking army outside a city to draw out defenders are all exploits that you would not like or respond to, if they were used against you. The AI is programmed one way-to act stupid.

Here's your tip: AI attacking walls with a seige tower? And your infantry is inferior? Do not defend that wall-place archers on wall nearby and shoot them when they step on wall. Then when AI infantry goes to ground level hit 'em with a calvary charge-you get one quickly routing AI unit

Tip no. 2: Reverse stake placement behind gates. AI units always rout, but then reform and return to battle but with reversed stakes they will die while attempting to flee your city/castle. This not exploitive.

[RootsKW]

Tip no. 2: Reverse stake placement behind gates. AI units always rout, but then reform and return to battle but with reversed stakes they will die while attempting to flee your city/castle. This not exploitive.

Dude, that isn't any less exploitive than The-Monetary's tips about stakes....

[JorisofHolland]

Nope. It's suicidal when you forget about those stakes and attempt to pursue, though....

1) To form alliances, be noble

2) Don't cheat. The AI will become pretty confused if you cheat your characters around the world

3) Use priests before you take a region.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

About the sharpened stakes, what file do you hve to change to make them deployable at bridges and on paved roads again?

The-Monetary, those two "tips" you posted are spelled wrong. The proper spelling is E-X-P-L-O-I-T.

The AI has extra cash, can send full stack after full stack, knows exactly where your ships and troops are and wich settlements are poorly manned, etc...

It cheats on epic scale so don't whine about exploits

[Loose Cannon]

The AI has extra cash, can send full stack after full stack, knows exactly where your ships and troops are and wich settlements are poorly manned, etc...

I helped develop the AI's cash and military bonuses because I beat it so easily on very hard. I always know where the AI faction armies are and how manned its cities are of the factions I'm at war with. It's called aquiring map information and using your spies. And, once you know where a city is, you can always tell how many units are in it, even with FOW on.

It cheats on epic scale so don't whine about exploits

I'm not the one who loses to the game on medium. I don't need, like, or use exploits.

@Joris and RootsKW; Yes, reverse stakes is very dangerous to your own troops thats why its not an exploit.

@The-Monetary; I don't use dynamite to fish. That would be an exploit. If you use G5's ReallyBad AI you'll find the AI cavalry will circle around those spearmen flanks and attack your rear or a weak center.

[Gogolometro]

Loose, in RR, cavalry arenot dumb, I never saw them charging in stakes, in fact, always they try to encircle me, and kill the general first. Ussual the wings of AI atack my archers from behind with cavalry and with infantry frontal.

[DeliCiousTZM]

Loose, in RR, cavalry arenot dumb, I never saw them charging in stakes, in fact, always they try to encircle me, and kill the general first. Ussual the wings of AI atack my archers from behind with cavalry and with infantry frontal.

Perhaps you missunderstood the Stakes are in the castle behind the gate they have to go through them.

And yeah you can say your exploiting the fish because u know its stupid enough to think ure bait is the real thing. that is massive exploit and my analogy is solid. just like the computer is stupid enough to run into the gate straight into the stakes. And i use G5 and the cavalry circle around my example was an overall arching example meaning in general people know spearmen at the flanks are good adding nr 5.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Guys it's okay to have difference's of opinion and beliefs, but please keep it civil...Remember were here just talking about a game...

[Caesar Clivus]

Perhaps you missunderstood the Stakes are in the castle behind the gate they have to go through them.

And yeah you can say your exploiting the fish because u know its stupid enough to think ure bait is the real thing. that is massive exploit and my analogy is solid. just like the computer is stupid enough to run into the gate straight into the stakes.

It's considered an exploit not because the AI is stupid enough to ride straight through the stakes but because the AI can't even see the stakes. It doesn't have a choice. There's a difference.

If the AI could actually decide "there are stakes there but I will ride right through them to get to the enemy behind them", that is one thing, but all the AI thinks is "my cavalry should attack those enemy soldiers".

[RootsKW]

@Joris and RootsKW; Yes, reverse stakes is very dangerous to your own troops thats why its not an exploit.

Get off of your high horse, it is an exploit. The AI does not even know they are there so you are exploiting their stupidness.

[Loose Cannon]

Get off of your high horse, it is an exploit. The AI does not even know they are there so you are exploiting their stupidness.

Ok, you don't get it. THE AI IS STUPID ENOUGH TO RUN INTO ITS OWN STAKES Did you read my post #20 earlier? I tricked the AI into lifting its seige to attack one unit (something, I hope, no one would ever do ). The next turn, I caught its army on open field and destroyed it. I used all cavalry that survived, most of Prague's garrison and 2 new mercs I picked up. Most of Prague's garrison was milita-actually useless if I had tried to defend the walls. G5's ReallyBadAI enables an AI army to plant stakes one minute into a battle (battle AI's could never plant stakes before) and that's what it did in this battle. Costed it most of a unit of Piast Nobles when, after first trying to charge some peasant crossbows, they reversed direction to go after my second General's Bodyguard. So are you clear now on the AI's stupidity?

Back to Reversed stakes: Have you seen how AI troops, when routed in battle during a siege always regroup and return to it but you have chase down your routers (when you're sieging) to get them back (most of the time). Reversed stakes inside a city/castle stops this annoying ability. It's very tough to use this properly-as Joris noted you can kill your own troops. But as AI troops attack they are forced to slow down going thru the stakes and you can hit them with a charge as they get thru the stakes. You have to time it right.

And, yes, my horse is 20 hands high, but that's because he tows my beer wagon . My Bud and i have a good relationship

[DeliCiousTZM]

When your fishing do you not exploit the idioticy of the fish? Throwing around fancy words such as exploit and such is irrelevent If you place stakes inside the gate cavalry will run into it and die which is good for me Hence a good advice stretching that methodology to its limit we can say were exploiting the computer when we put spearmen at our flanks same thing just diffrent degree for some so lets drop this exploit talk and Keep adding stuff to help the new ones adding nr 4 now

[JohnDoe5x5]

4. Having Heavy infantry fighting Heavy cavalry is a good way to lose your infantry they will charge into you and kill you np... Or? not nescsesary when you are being charged by Heavy cavalry turn around and run away from the Heavy cavalry just before they come in to charge this will make them charge a few units and still be entangled with your heavy cavalry fine micromanagment perhaps but very useful sometimes escp when you lack spearmen and eqiuvivelent.

1. If you have enough time before getting charged at, you can set them to loose formation and then run back. I tested this some time ago feudal knights vs levie spearmens on flat terrain. Assuming proper timing in both cases and running back:
1. without loose formation, in average 5-10 levies always get killed.
2. with loose formation, in average 1-5 always get killed.

And another important thing in both cases.. after running back and being struck, your troops will most of the time face the wrong dirrection even if you right click the enemy cavalry exactly after, no matter how much you clicked it. So after they get entangled and slowed down, right click in the enemy direction on the ground (not on them, let's say somewhere behind them), it takes ~0.5 seconds for your troops to change facing and then right click the cav immediately. This way, they never get backstabbed first and then turn around. The right clicking terrain thing you can use it in other cases when needed if troops are not facing correctly. You can set tight formation later.

2. Spamming right click on the terrain can help you disengage any fight, it's especially fast for your cavalry.

3. After some period of fighting, troops tend to get dispersed and not taking part in battle. From experience it seems that spamming right click on the enemy makes them close up for contact (if facing correctly).

4. In chokepoints like city streets / gates, if the enemy manages to hold you and you cannot break him (it's overcrowded and no space), you can force a unit (like your bodyguards) to go through your enemy and entangle with them, making them break much faster. It's the same, spamming right click on the ground behind them. It's a desperate tactic and can cause casualties to you, but if they manage to hold you just with a few units of levi spears and grind at you, it is well worth some lives of e.g. bodyguards (I usually break them by doing this, just make sure they are not many, if you cannot break them fast, it will backfire). In SS it seems more troops can crowd the same space than in vanilla as far as I can remember and can also be forced through, not really sure.

5. Using a trebuchet with cows + mangonel can break almost any army if you time the attack so they almost all get it. Fire arrows for some extra effect or shock troops + cav flanking and it's gg.

6. *exploit* The computer always closes in with his archers once you get close enough with your army. If they start moving towards you stop your army, and wait for them to come in ~ their firing range and enough far from their own troops and charge them with your cav/bodyguards.

7. On top of the gate, there's usually a little space, but you can never fit troops there.. but if you get an archer unit a little killed (48->~30 or less), don't repair them and put them there on top of the gate so you won't have to move them manually after the battle commences and you can then forget about them (just imagine you have an extra tower for breaking morale with flaming arrows and they are also pretty safe there). I play on small size because of old computer, but I assume it's worth it on small / normal size.

8. *exploit* If your fighting cavalry with cavalry and you have 2 of them, instead of charging one into theirs and using the other for flanking, you can use the first cav to run back exactly as they start chargeing you and use the 2nd to flank. And only after contact use the first cav to charge them. There are two cases: the AI stops and the 2nd slams them, after that the 1st slams them, or they keep running after the 1st, just steer it so they get slammed by the 2nd cav first, then use the 1st to slam them after - no charge bonus for them in both cases. This way, you'll nulify their charge advantage and lose a lot fewer troops.

9. If you always alternate the battle speeds and want to jump instantly from 6x to 1x (sometimes you fail to do this on time and something bad happens, especially on weaker PCs) hit P (pause) and then hit the arrow for more speed / 1x. Using the keyboard (P) is faster and it's safer than using your mouse on 6x when the game doesn't respond at your commands in time (on my crappy PC atleast).

This are the battle tips I can recall for now.

For the campaign map:

1. always have a big fleet to intercept their transports, they lose a lot of stacks like this

2. When getting sieged, and if they have a lot of siege equipment (trebuchet, cannons, etc.), and your armies are ~same strength, and you have a lot of militia, sometimes is better to just go out and kick their asses, better to spend 1000 on repairing troops than >2000 on repairing your towers, gates, town - especially on higher tier buildings/walls/forts, they cost a lot to repair (this is very subjective, but I encountered a few cases).

I posted some of the non-obvious I know, the rest are covered on the forums I think. Also, you should make it in a large list with all the tips you can find and then another shorter list with the less-known/rarest ones for veterans (I'm not a vet btw, still new to SS). If I'm wrong somewhere, please let me know.

[Gogolometro]

In early campaigns, when you got palisade and wood walls, is not a good tactic holding gates, walls poor towers. Insteead, put troops in central square. Put your units only a bit in flagged area, to get the morale boost. Charge them when routing with cavalry, general. Is best tactic for motte and wooden castles.
Against eastern bodyguards, use xbows or better javelins. Never a good spears, except pikemens can kill an estern bodyguards. A good javelin foot or mounted will do this job very, very well.
Best defence in citys, with stone walls, is using 1 magdonel and 2 trebuschets. If not have an magdonel, a catapult even a balista in open, wide streets are usefull. Target the units a bit far, being inacurate the magdonel will make oil showers above the walls, and killing many more units than bets archers. Keep at least 2-3 shoots when the gate broke. 1 good shoot of magdonel, not only kill but rout remaining units.
If enemy is on walls, with good troops, and your last defenders are few and near colapse, use trebuchets/catapults to fire there. Most of time will not hit, but hitting wall will route/kill them.
If you defend a citadel/fortress, never put your troops in exterior wall defence exclusive. Split them, organise a second defence line. If you are outnumbered, and is certain you will lose the battle in statistic, dont hit autoresolve. You can get a heroic victory, or even a close defeat. A close defeat mean more enemy troops killed, more chance to turn next battle in your favor.
In open field, look for erected area. Place archers, xbows, javelins in levels. because high ground, your skirmish troops will have clear sight of fire. Use extensive cavalry, charge with all cost, any troops, even heavy spears. A general unit can cut any infantry in good charge.
At early campaign, even peasents can be usefull. Dont be sceptical because the forks, peasents will help you a lot in first 10 turns to conquer in blitz, anything.
If you fight a italian faction, and you are not italian player, dont underestimate their militia. A spear from castle, is in lower number and stats than venetian, genovise, siclian militia. I lost meany battles because I underestimate the power of italian states.
Archers, even cheap and good 5 missle atack is never better than a cavalry unit. If you are an english player, trust more the miles, than espect your longbows to solve your problems.
Never, never charge gonpowder units frontal. The dead soldiers will be like at Verdun.

[DeliCiousTZM]

And the fish dont see the hook just the larva dingling from it like i said previously lets not dwell on technicallity the advice is good no matter what u wanna call it exploit advice tip Southafricanswahillicentipede matters little what we call it.

AI = Stupid fish Lol.