An Army Composition Which Leads to Challenging and Fun Battles.

[SlartyBartfast]

Tired of steamrolling the AI in a few turns? I'm experimenting with creating armies that give the AI a chance, whilst also ensuring that I to have a chance, of course.
I've tried sending in less units than the opposition have; but then I build my armies with elite units instead and continue to steamroll. I've tried building balanced armies -- with a limit of two horse archers, a maximum of two noble units, four cavalry only, and so on -- but again a pattern soon forms in which the AI can't compete. I've tried making sure my opponent has troop quality superiority; but it takes forever to count and compare troops. And it's all because cakewalk battles grow boring after a while (damned lax AI!).
So I was wondering if anyone out there in Total War land has an easy-to-adhere-to rule when composing armies, one that ensures most battles are close calls.

[Adamat]

Use 1 cav. 1 archer 1 infantry for small battles (3-9 enemy units) and for bigger battles add 1 of each, so it becomes 2 2 2. Generals should be counted as cav. Makes battles challenging IMO.

[SlartyBartfast]

You actually play like this? How often do you win? So ideally you would use the best of each available unit, ie the best cav, best archer, best infantry? A horse archer is counted as cavalry I assume?

[Adamat]

I don't use horse archers, i always end up running all over the map with them. i actually use this tactics, and if used right it's very effective. With Sicily for example, take a unit of Muslim Archers(long range), random cav. light cavalry is good in some aspects but heavy is too. for infantry, use a good defender, armored sergeants and the likes
you swing your cav wide to eliminate enemy archers, let their troops engage your infantry while firing with the archers and once pinned down crash your cav. in their backs. i won and lost soe battles, but once you get used o it you become more and more effective. I wiped out a lot of moors this way :p

[SlartyBartfast]

Thanks for your useful replies, Sir Kill-A-Lot. I will try this!

+rep

[PrestigeX]

The biggest "problem" (quotations applied, as it is not necessarily bad to all players) would be Artillery.

the AI just can't help itself in Vanilla / Kingdoms campaigns --- they train too many arty pieces, and it always seems to reduce the value of the fight.


Most of the mods out there, implement file changes / A.I. changes that'll drastically reduce the number of artillery pieces in the game.

If you want better games, that is essential in my mind.


The other quality that improves the battles , for me -- would be Mods (or changes you make yourself) to the Unit stats == specifically, Morale and Defense skill. giving all units a boost of about 2 morale, and say 3-5 defense skill points, would make the melee's duration longer and more fun. So check some of the mods if possible to see what they've done in this regard.

it isn't so much to make them Longer, don't want them to be tedious -- just vanilla fights are way too short, and the units don't seem to really have that much durability or something - too fragile.