Battle Tactics 101 - Historical Tactics Used in Total War

[Delyon]

For a long time I've been wanting to share my ideas about the various battle tactics I've developed over the years of playing total war games. All of my tactics are taken from the historical accounts of battles commanded by the likes of Julius Caesar, Washington, Wellington, Marlborough, Frederick the Great, Alexander the Great and Hannibal to name afew. Todays, the first of many I hope, battle tactic comes from Genghis Khan leader of the Mongol Horde.

(please note that this tutorial is aimed beginner and intermediate players)

CAVALRY ONLY BASED ARMY - THE MONGOL HORDE

At first you might be thinking "Cavalry only army?? what about spearmen, thay have an advantage against cavalry! You need other infantry to deal with them". The simple answer is no, you don't need other infantry to deal with spearmen or any other type of infantry. The reason is that to work effectively each unit of infantry or spearmen need internal cohesion and the cohesion and discipline of the army around them. Put simply, they need the support of the other units to help them. The cavalry only based army is aimed towards effectively disrupting and eventually destroying the cohesion and discipline of the enemy army (yes, you don't have to kill or rout the enemy to win a battle in total war!).

ARMY MAKEUP:

1 x General

6-8 x Cavalry Archers/Bow Cavalry

2-4 x Heavy Cavalry/Katana Cavalry

2-4 x Lancer/Yari Cavalry

The actual number of units will vary depending on the size of army you want. This is merely a guide. In general you want atleast half of your army to be cavalry archers and the second half to be split between heavy cavalry and lancer cavalry.

INITIAL SET UP:

Cavalry Archers infront with Heavy Cavalry and Lancers Cavalry behind. The general is placed in the usual spot in the centre behind the army.




THE TACTIC:

1: The cavalry archers rush forward and surround the enemy army (front, flanks and rear) immediately enter the swooping crane formation to avoid enemy archers and open fire on the enemy (skirmish mode is turned on). The goal is not to kill the enemy but destroy their cohesion and discipline.

LEFT FLANK MOVEMENT (enemy is in forest)




RIGHT FLANK MOVEMENT (enemy is in forest)



CENTRE MOVEMENT (enemy is in forest)



SWOOPING CRANE FORMATION



2: Heavy Cavalry and Lancers surround the enemy but stay behind the cavalry archers. This will let them charge the flanks/rear of any units which stray from the enemies main force.



3: Charge the flanks or rear of the units which are seperated from the main force (computers and humans send units after the bow cavalry). This is when your enemies cohesion and discipline has been broken. If possible, double charge the enemy unit, the first attack the back then waits till the unit engages and then retreats followed by a second attack on the back by the other cavlary unit.

CAVALRY CHARGE ON SEPERATED UNIT



CAVALRY DOUBLE CHARGE



4: When you feel that the enemy has weakened enough, target key units such as the general in the way mentioned above, cavalry archers then heavy cavalry. This will usually result in a mass rout. When they've routed run them down and inflict as many casualties as possible.

CONCLUSION:

That's it, thats all there is to the Mongol based, cavalry only tactic. It does have weaknesses first, if the enemy drop into a circular formation or maintain discipline the best thing to do is to use up all your arrows and then withdraw from the battle and fight again later and second it doesn't work in hilly/forest areas, preferably you need clear plains for this to work best.

Try it out for yourself, modify it (maybe add afew infantry?) and tell me what you think.

[Ecka65]

Well done. +rep for the effort. Look forward to more.

Not exactly Ghengis Khan tactics, but for the beginner: Try imbedding a Monk into your army with "Inspire" ability. Use a second Monk to demoralise the enemy stack on the Campaign map before you attack. Either or gives a boost. Both together can turn a big enemy stack into jelly pretty quickly.