Some special battle tactics

[eisx]

I would liketo share some special battle tactics which are very useful if you want to minimalize your losses during battles. Some of the tactics or parts of the tactics may be certainly familiar to the hardcore gamers but I hope that every M2TW fun will find curiosities too. I used the “special” word because these are really special tactics and you can not use them in every situation. Sometimes you need some special units or you can use just against special enemy troops. Unfortunately most of these battle tactics are time-consuming but I am sure that in taut situations it is worth to use them. For every tactic I will append the steps of the tactic and a battle result where I used this technique.
I wrote this guide for M2TW vanilla players (VH/VH game difficulty, 1.3 patch) and I don’t guarantee that the tactics work in mods (different, upgraded AI).


About my notations:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[eisx]

1. Battle tactic – „Hit & Run”

I named this tactic “Hit & Run” because this tactic’s essence is that you just strew your enemy with as many arrows and bolts as you can and run away from the battlefield.

Use this tactic…
-if you have no chance to win and you have a relatively lot of Horse Archers.
Don’t use…
-if you haven’t got Horse Archers. The Foot Archers are slow, can’t fire during movement and they have no chance against enemy Cavalry.
It’s advantageous if there is a hill near the exit point of the battlefield.

I often use this tactic against the Mongols to weaken their forces. I can easily recruit my inexperienced troops but their highly experienced troops with zero upkeep cost have been destroyed for ever.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Steps:

• Deploy your troops near the exit point (see the Figure).
• When the battle begins bring your Foot Infantry units next the red line of the exit point.
• First your opponent’s Horse Archers arrive. Start to shot them with your Horse Archers (skirmish mode off).
• Prepare your suicide unit or units to hold the enemy troops. I used my 62 years old emperor in the first sample and when the terrain was advantageous I used some Spearmen in the second sample.
• Start to evacuate your troops from the battlefield. (Melee Infantry, Melee cavalry, Missile Infantry, Horse Archers)
• Evacuate all troops.

If you do well you can cause as many pecuniary losses to your enemy as yours.

About the samples:

In the first sample my army is attacked by two Mongol armies. Both of enemy generals had Night Fighter ability, so I couldn’t use my other army. Using this tactic I lost my old emperor and some Horse Archers, but the pecuniary losses of the enemy are heavier.

In the second sample as you can see I attacked twice a full Mongol army and caused heavy losses. The terrain was advantageous and I sacrificed some Spearmen and Archers for the bigger effect. To autoresolve these battles would have been disastrous.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[eisx]

2. Battle tactic – „Wolf Pack”

I named this tactic “Wolf Pack” because like the wolves go round and round the chase my Horse Archers also decimate the opponent’s Heavy Infantry units.

Use this tactic…
-if you have lot of Horse Archers and Heavy Cavalry units.
-If your opponent’s army consists of mostly Infantry units
Don’t use…
-if you haven’t got Heavy Cavalry or Bodyguard units
-if your opponent has more than 2 Cavalry units

I often encounter almost completely Infantry armies if I’m war with the English or the Danes. These are very vulnerable armies against Horse Archers. The accompanying Archers usually weak units and many times the Cavalry is also absent.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Steps:

• Deploy your Infantry as far as could be and your Cavalry as close as could be to your opponent’s troops.
• When the battle begins your opponent start to bring its troops towards your Infantry. Quickly attack the enemy with your Horse Archers and if its Archers attack you destroy them with your Cavalry.
• In this phase you have to kill your opponent’s Cavalry too, because these troops can cause big trouble attacking your Infantry.
• When the enemy is close to your Infantry just run away where you have bigger space.
• When your Horse Archers run out of ammo don’t use them.
• With continuous Heavy Cavalry charges weaken the enemy troops who chase your Infantry (always attack the sides or from behind). Just charge and move back and again charge. Avoid the hand to hand fight.
• One after another destroy the enemy troops.

About the sample:

As you can see in the sample I attacked a Danish army with my almost Cavalry Army and using this tactic my losses were irrelevant.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[eisx]

3. Battle tactic – „Suicidal Defence”

“Suicidal Defence” is the name because in this siege you may sure that your troops will be lost. Your aim is just to kill as many enemy units as you can.

Use this tactic…
-if your enemy’s army is much stronger than yours or your enemy attacks with more than one army
-if you have to defend town
Don’t use…
-if you have to defend a castle (more than 1 wall). There are other and more effective tactics to defend a castle.

If you refill your town with cheap troops you can cause at least as many pecuniary losses to your enemy as it causes to you during a siege. Don’t sacrifice family members it’s unnecessary. The town square is enough encouraging to your troops for fight till death.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Steps:

• Deploy your troops (see the Figure). Stand one of your best armoured unit on the gate (The gate is undestroyable under your feet.) and the other troops on the town square (your spearmen in Shiltron formation). You can deploy more Archers/Crossbows to the walls but you have to pay attention to them and move them quickly elsewhere if your enemy starts to bombard the walls under their feet.
• If your opponent has Artillery the AI will make one or two holes near your gate and use all siege machines for the assault.
• If your Infantry on the gate is tough and disciplined and holds the gate for a long time you can cause lot of losses to your enemy with the automatic gate Artillery.
• I usually use cheap and not too disciplined Spearmen for the defence so I don’t try to hold my opponent’s force at the gate or at the ruined walls. These troops flee easily and the lot of enemy Cavalry unit can capture most of them before they reach the town square. I would just waste my troops.
• The AI likes to use its Horse Archers and these troops always start the siege in the first lines. They attack your unit on the gate but it’s not too effective so they waste a lot of ammo. If they run out of ammo they attack your Spearmen on the town square and suffer heavy losses (see the sample).
• This is the situation with the enemy Cavalry too. They are fast and can easily and quickly reach the city centre but against Spearmen they also suffer heavy losses (see the sample).
• On the town square always move your Spearmen units and attack. Mix with the enemy troops because a separate unit is a good target for the enemy Archers.
• Slowly but surely your opponent destroys your troops but it’s a Pyrrhic victory.

About the sample:

Using this tactic my pecuniary loss was commensurable with the Timurids’ loss and I didn’t count with the unit experiences. If I autoresolve the enemy gets the battle off with a scratch or two.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[eisx]

4. Battle tactic – „Four Holes”

I named this tactic “Four Holes“, because you need at least four holes on the town walls. One for each sides.
It’s a siege tactic and works for town siege.

Use this tactic…
-against towns
Don’t use…
-if you siege a castle
-if you don’t have at least two catapults or cannons and some Cavalry units

If I play with a catholic fraction the Pope is always my friend. He never excommunicates me and he is my best ally. So if I attack an another catholic fraction I try to finish the siege in one turn so the Pope doesn’t threaten me with excommunication. In the beginning of the campaign I use catapults and later on cannons. There are disadvantages of this tactic too. You have to cost a big sum of money to repair the ruined walls after the siege. For this I always sack the conquered cities. And it’s a time-consuming tactic.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Steps:

• Deploy your troops (see the Figure). Stand more units to the sides.
• Start to make the four holes with your catapults.
• If you made two holes bring your catapults to the other sides and make another two holes.
• Your opponent tries to defend the walls at the holes and brings all troops from the city centre.
• One hole usually remains undefended or it’s defended by weak units.
• A tricky part follows. Try to bring one of your Cavalry units to the city centre. If you can avoid the fight do it. Just reach the city centre and start the countdown.
• When the countdown is started your opponent draws back his all troops to the city centre. You also draw back your Cavalry because you can’t hold the centre alone.
• Now the walls are empty. Bring your all units to the holes and bring your Archers on the walls.
• If you followed these steps your losses are irrelevant and you conquered the walls.
• If you enter the city area with your Spearmen or Cavalry the AI always attack them with his Archers/Crossbows. It’s easy to kill them with your Cavalry because the AI never secures them with Spearmen or Cavalry.
• You have to break the hardest shell at the end. You have to kill the remaining Infantry and Cavalry troops and Artillery units.
• I propose that first try to eliminate the Artillery units with your cavalry because these units can cause horrible losses.
• If you destroyed the Artillery slowly bring forward your Crossbows behind your Spearmen and shoot the enemy troops into little pieces.
• At the end do a final attack with all your Infantry and Cavalry.

About the sample:

I attacked Krakow and it seemed that the defence is weak but the result of autoresolve would have been horrible. Using this tactic my pecuniary losses reduced greatly.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[eisx]

5. Battle tactic – „Mushrooms in the Grass”

I named this tactic “Mushrooms in the Grass “ because my Spearmen units seem big mushrooms in Shilton formation on the battlefield.

Use this tactic…
-if your enemy has a lot of Heavy Infantry units and you have just few Cavalry units
Don’t use…
-if your opponent has Cavalry

The AI likes the almost full Heavy Infantry armies when he commands the English. You can use the previously mentioned “Wolf Pack” tactic against him but if you haven’t got enough Horse Archers or Heavy Cavalry there is an another, but a little bit more expensive tactic to defeat his army. Using this tactic you lose a lot of Spearmen but these units are easily displaceable. The essence of the tactic is that you can use your Crossbows/Archers in guerrilla mode if your opponent hasn’t Cavalry. Shoot if you can and run away if the enemy Infantry is close. In the meantime kill the enemy units with your Cavalry charges one after another.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Steps:

• Deploy your troops (see the Figure). Stand your Crossbows to the wings relatively away from your Spearmen.
• Use the Shiltron formation at your Spearmen because it raises the troops’ morale (from my own knowledge).
• When the battle begins bring your cavalry for the stab in the back. When you have chance, destroy your opponent’s Artillery and Archers.
• In the meantime your Spearmen are engaging the enemy and your Crossbows are shooting them.
• If an Infantry unit attacks your Crossbows just run away. Use your Crossbows in couples. One of them is running away and the other is shooting.
• If the enemy Infantry defeated your Spearmen it expels them from the battlefield. Some of your Spearmen are captured but don’t worry if you win you will get back them.
• After the enemy Infantry destroyed your Spearmen comes back and tries to catch your remaining units but these enemy troops are exhausted and you can easily rout them with your charging Cavalry.

About the sample:

You can see in the sample that I didn’t lose Crossbows at all and the experience of these troops and my Heavy Cavalry units increased due to the battle.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Ascarona]

Hey this is a pretty good guide!

[Rean]

Good job, thats a really handy guide. I'll have to try some of these tactics. Sorry, can't give you rep yet:/

[wimlore]

I like these strategies, they are not of the norm. But whats weird is your "Suicidal Defense" plan. I like the spearmen on the gate to keep the invaders busy... but the town square arrangement was all off in my opinion(sorry)... To me, the best and most sound "suicidal defense" strategy from within a town, especially while owning a catapult, is to bottle neck the enemy within a street, having your forces blocking off where the street reaches the town square. If its a crafty general, you may have to bottle neck 2 or 3 streets, but this strategy has been the same since Rome Total War....

Rather than grouping everyone up IN the square(the only advantage is they dont retreate here) id rather have their entire army, or at least half of it, in a nice cramped medieval city street where all they can go is 2 directions. To hell or home. Having the catapults close your spearwall is key. Too far away and they'll hit your spearment. But not too close so they stay out of combat if there were a calvary charge on your spearwall. Those catapults would cause widespread panic and death, especially amongst mongols (horses hate fire!). Archers in the square is fine, i put them where they will get the most straight-arrow shots (not interested in arching shots, just to "rain" bolts and arrows, to me its a waste, straight arrows are far more deadly). And even keeping a few archer units idle to pick up where some archers leave off (if you do this right, you'll end up using a LOT of arrows and catapult ammo).

I guess this is something you might consider an "alternative idea" and would use your strategy as a last resort apon a hellish situation. But by bottlenecking other than bridgebattles, is the easiest way to kill LOTS of enemies with a few guys.

I dont have battle screenshots for you, but with bottlenecking, and some catapult support, ive been able to defend against odds like: 800 vs 4000 and such, and come out with a heroic victory on very hard difficulty. Vanilla AI sucks at attacking cities, to me it would be just unwise to allow them to walk right in with only a fuss at the gate. If you bottleneck right, you should be able to slay all with no effort.

[John Doe]

Great guide, I never knew how to use missile cavalry.

But I'll agree with wimlore you can easily win the battle against the mongols in the "suicidal defence" post, you got 7 xbows units.

[eisx]

Maybe you are right. I will replay this siege and I will try to use your tactic, Wimlore. In this siege I didn't want to lose any General and I didn't trust in my troops' morale. So this tactic seemed the most safest.

[John Doe]

Maybe you are right. I will replay this siege and I will try to use your tactic, Wimlore. In this siege I didn't want to lose any General and I didn't trust in my troops' morale. So this tactic seemed the most safest.

Do the "defending the bridge version2" in my xbow guide, the mongols will only come from the main street.If you don't trust your troop's morale then will not rout there. I managed to defeat 3 full stack of mongols with that kind of set up. I had better units though (experienced pavisse xbows and DFK), ballista towers and I reloaded the battle a few times too.

[FreeRadical]

Just saw this now Eisx. Absolutely awesome guide. I am also amazed how much time,effort you put into making a professional quality guide +rep

[Doyle141]

This is amazingly useful, I already +rep-ed