Aids with Tactics and Battles...

[Efstratios]

I decided to start this thread,in order to help other players with tactics and useful tips,to become better in battle and also,to get help from other members in case someone is stuck and cannot win a battle or a siege whatsoever.

I would like to start with my case...I am currently besieging Katiutai(Sorry if the name is wrong,it's located in Georgia),and I have a 0-star general along with a unit of Scoutati,2 Acontistae (half in size due to many battles),2 Toxotae (same as Acontistae) and 2 Contaratii units against the enemy who has a General,6 Contaratii,2 Pechenegs,2 Mourtati and 2 Armenian Cavalry.

I tried to win the battle,but I cannot because of the size of the enemy force,which in that case is double than mine (1500 them,740 mine). During the battle I managed to kill their general,1 unit of their Armenian cavalry,depleted the enemy's mourtati arrows,and destroyed 1 enemy contaratii only with my petlasts and archers (then their arrows and their javelins were depleted). Suddenly the enemy Pechenegs decided to attack my contaratii and the petlast unit(which of course they nearly destroyed it). I then commanded my general to go near and rally my troops and charge against them. I managed to make them flee,but my loses were terrible ( HUGE SCALE UNITS: 130 contaratii,70 (petlasts with javelins) and another 80 contaratii). I also had my archers and the other petlast unit,which of course didn't have ammunition,but I ordered them to stay on the other side of the city,so that they could flank the enemy along with the help of my scoutati unit.

The enemy now had 50% loses and so did I,but when I ordered the attack,the enemy was near the centre and they wouldn't move out from it,so I didn't have any choice rather to stay and fight. They wouldn't flee because they "camped" all the time,and my men started to die,and die,along with the loss of morale they started to flee,because they wished to live and fight another day. I was dissapointed that even my scoutati unit was just simply dying against the contaratii units (1 vs 3) and with the general near them,I rallied them (morale wasn't a problem,but exhaustion and vast numbers were),and the started to die one after another. In the end I had 2 soldiers of my general (along with him) and a fleeing army. The enemy had 1 armenian cavalry,5 contaratii units and 2 mourtati units...I also forgot to mention that I had 2 battering rams which broke two gates,so I could divide their forces ( I took my whole army and placed them near a gate,and in the other gate I only had 1 unit so I could distract them and keep their half force there). No matter how hard I try,I seem to lose and can't win...But I am sure that somebody has a different opinion,and could simply win the enemy with much simple tactics...Any help is appreciated.

[Scythion]

Katiutai(Sorry if the name is wrong,it's located in Georgia)

Kutaisi.
Anyway, I usually w8 them to come out and showering them with arrows.
(contaratoi, mourtatoi, aconstiate, scutatoi)

[Efstratios]

Whoops! I am incredibly sorry about that! Didn't mean it actually . I found a way to just snipe the enemy infantry while running down the archers with my spearmen. Then the enemy by just spamming their horses (and of course having killed their general),I can destroy them easily and make them flee. Thus the city is take and my soldiers from 700 are reduced to 150...having the city occupied with a rate of law at 5%...damn my honourable acts.

Also to those who are new to the mod and have troubles about capturing a REBEpr city with any faction,it's quite easy. I use this tactics all the time and the time and they pretty work out very well...The only thing you 'll need to capture a city that has 6 units inside it,is a GENERAL and an INFANTRY or even better an ARCHER unit. The only thing you have to do is breach the enemy gates (but even before you do that,sometimes the AI is just so stupid that decided to sally out for unknown reasons?) and charge the enemy inside it (or even better,let your archers/petlasts rain death upon them). Once it is done,the enemy will mostly have only half of his units (I can also show on a video how this is achieved,even though currently I am on my laptop),you can charge with your horsemen and destroy the rest of the units easily,or flank the enemy with your cavalry,and let your current infantry/archer/whatever unit to attack the fronts of your enemy. Once this is done,the enemy will be encircled and death will come shortly.

I have found that this works pretty well with the Byzantine Faction,where the General's Bodyguards (Supreme OP Athanatoi) and one/two contaratii units can take out cities even with 8-9 units inside them. Given the right conditions and the right troops,my generals can lead their men to certain victory and crush a superior force. This way with 2 contaratii and a general (many armies like that) I managed to take Belgrade,Arta,Tortosa,Sinope (and a city near the Cumans and the Hungarians...damn me...I don't remember the city ). The enemies I mostly faced were Balkan archers (meh...but good),Bulgarian Brigands (BEASTS) croat axemen (it is my most favourite unit after scholarii,I would give ANYTHING for these units just to be "Nationa" rather than "Provincial" even though it wasn't historically true),Pechenegs and their hatred cavalry (I always hated a nation that has Mounted Archers on it's roster...don't ask why I just hate them(yeah even the Byzantines have -__-)and also contaratii.

Somehow,I found a way to "control" your enemy and make them hold their positions even though you attack them. I accidentaly found this out when I was fighting for that province in Georgia,where I ordered my Archers to move and unleash hell upon the Empire's Foes. They were approx. 30-40 meters away from the enemy contaratii (really close to the enemy). I ordered them to fire at them once,and pulled them back because I saw the enemy advancing. Then I told them to stop and fire again,which made the enemy go back and forth again and try to catch up with my men. I did the same for the whole time,playing around with the enemy AI and I managed to kill all the enemy spearmen in just seconds. Is this some kind of exploit?

[napoleonic]

I don't get it, you are byz and attacked by another byz army? or was it rebels?

3 kind of units to kill athanatois : xbows, javelins, or overpowered siphonatores/naffatuns... there's also stakes but they are not exactly units

[Efstratios]

I don't get it, you are byz and attacked by another byz army? or was it rebels?

3 kind of units to kill athanatois : xbows, javelins, or overpowered siphonatores/naffatuns... there's also stakes but they are not exactly units

I am an idiot ,I forgot to mention that so far,the only Byzantine (Rebel) Armies I have encountered,are located at Sinope and Kutaisi. Byzantines against Byzantine Rebels is quite difficult...only because they have those damn mourtati,which also use Stakes in case the cavalry attacks them (have a mourtati unit while you are besieged,and put their stakes front of their gates,especially if most of the enemy units are cavalry).