Per Faction(or per Army Type) Battle Guides Request

[Giantsfan24]

I consider myself pretty ok at the campaign part. It is, dare I say my favorite part. But what I love doing is all those campaign dealings which lead into real time battles to decide the fates of nations. It's what makes TW unique. Anyway, I have to admit I pretty much am about a 3-4/10 in my abilities as a battlefield commander. I'm ok-good on a good day but struggle against an equal force. I know so many people say they can beat the Battle AI, and I believe them, but I struggle. Can we get some threads on here that if not faction specific, are at least army-type specific about how to assemble a force and then deploy it successfully. It doesn't have to be fancy. Working with Microsoft paint would do the job. I'm interested in SP campaign battle strategy, not multiplayer. So please keep in mind we will not always have top tier units.

Known Army Types(there are sweeping generalization so feel free to correct or fine tune):

Parthian/Eastern: lots of missile and shock cav with some spearmen for obligitory infantry

Roman: Heavy infantry with some missile and few cavalry

Greek: Hoplite backbone with a mix of missile and medium to heavy cav

Egypt/Selucid/Carthage(sp?): Pretty much they have access to everything, including elephants but may lack higher tier specialized units(maybe wrong here since I tend to avoid playing as this type faction).

Barbarian: Lots of high damage low armor infantry with some missile and little cavalry

Those are the five main types that I'm aware of. You can fine tune as needed. What I am looking for are formations and then deployment. I am pretty bad with cavalry yet they are my favorite units and I struggle to use them effectively. If this already exists here on TWC or on a third party site, please just point the way. If not, I think this would be a great battle intro to us who struggle with battles.

[Smartbomb]

The sad thing is none of this is even important anymore. You could literally just spam full armies of moderate pikemen and win.... I was playing a Macedonian campaign and have conquered half of Europe and a large portion of Asia by just mass spamming Pike Phalangites on Hard.

[Dude with the Food]

Don't use cavalry until the infantry lines are close because if you send them ahead, they get slaughtered. Keep them behind hills/ridges or in forests where possible on your flanks. There is now a difference between shock and melee cavalry but I generally ignore this and use heavier cavalry to attack their flanking forces and flank with my own light cavalry. Take out masses of missile units with cavalry but charging and when the enemy waver charge another target, don't wait for routing.

Missile composition for me is roughly 2/3 slingers and 1/3 javelins. Slingers for range and light units. Javelins to flank to individual units or heavy infantry. Archers are alright at both but as far as I can tell don't stand out at anything.

Apart a core of 2-3 heavy infantry/hoplites I generally spam light infantry and spears. It is more efficient for costs as it will be the other parts of the army that generally win battles.

For the factions I have experience, here are my recomendations:
Always aim to get cavalry in your armies as soon as possible. When a general dies is often a good time to get an elite unit of horsemen early on.

Pontus - These are the only ones that break the cavalry general rule becuase scythed chariots can take on masses of light units but try and pin heavier units. In your armies, missile units target missiles and pikes, everything else is usually too heavy. Against Greek factions, aim for cavalry superiority or use Pontic Swordsmen in the centre to hold enemy infantry. Against Eastern factions, target horse archers and draw out cataphrascts with light units then overwhelm them. Thier infantry won't be up to much so use more light cavalry fighting them.

Iceni - Chariots are again good but more focused on support than melee. Spearmen can hold the line while heavy infantry punch through and light infantry flank. Cavalry is more limited so use them sparingly.

Arveni - Focus on light cavalry and heavy infantry. I've not played them as much but use terrain to hide cavalry as much as possible and draw enemies into a short but dense line that will easily get flanked. Then your missiles can attack them in sides while cavalry harass anything they have spare before turning on the battle line.

Egypt - Again I haven't played much but substitute romve the bit about chariots and swap swordsmen for Egyptian Infantry and it's close to Pontus. A thing to remember here though is when fighting desert, line of sight can be blocked by hiding behind sand dunes. I've had enemy reinforcements disappear for a minute then reappear metres from my army.

[Giantsfan24]

Thanks Dude(first time I've said that where it wasn't slang lol). I would love to see a thread or threads(maybe one per army type) that really go into the details with pictures and such. Your advice will be used today as I load up my Pontus save and try it out. Keep em coming guys

[Korburss]

General rule of thumb. 6-10 heavy infantry, 4 cavalry, 3 siege, rest ranged.

Archer vs javelins vs slingers. Slingers are the best skirmishers but are also the most vulnerable. Javelins are best used to counter heavy infantry, worst skirmishers due to range. Archers are best in cities bar none but are only middle of the road in everything else.

Rome. Rush for legionaries, after you have them as your core, you walk over barbarians. My favorite composition is: six legionaries, three auxiliary cavalry, three auxiliary spearmen (I use them as meatshields, while advancing under fire.) , three ballista, three javelins. The reasoning on javelins, is that the AI spams slingers, which makes skirmishing near impossible until far to late in a battle and you have no easy way to get archers but javelins still have use as they'll tare apart oathsworn or such elite troops.

[epimitheus]

I've only played as Rome, but here are some general rules and observations about the campaign battle AI.

Each of my armies has 6 heavy infantry, 2 cavalry and 5-6 velites.

First of all there are three types of battles: Open field battles, settlement battles and sieges.

On open field battles (which are the harder) the AI usually has a long front line of skirmishers and a shorter line of infantry. I deploy a first line of skirmishers, a second line of infantry of about equal length and cavalry at each flank. My line is usually shorter than theirs but as long as their (second) infantry line.

Use your cavalry to take out the skirmishers in their flanks (who don't have infantry behind them) but have them fall back when the enemy sends spearmen or cavalry against them. Don't bother to face their cavalry unless they are caught up fighting your skirmishers (which they will do pretty soon). Your cavalry is very fragile, they will take losses when fighting everything face to face except skirmishers and mobs.

Try to have 5-6 skirmishers in a line in front of your infantry and have as many of them concentrate their fire as possible, without breaking the line (so that's probably 2-3 of them against an enemy unit). The enemy unit will soon rout. After a couple of them leave the AI will break their main infantry line and will have it charge against your skirmishers, if not keep routing their skirmishers and start shooting their infantry. I do that with velites vs slingers and archers, their shorter range is not an issue.

When they do break their line the battle gets chaotic. You should try to:

• Send your infantry against theirs, preferably at their flanks as they hunt your skirmishers. Don't mass attack, use one unit to counter one. Ignore every infantry unit that has stayed behind and doesn't attack.
• Have every skirmisher who is not hunted to shoot an occupied enemy infantry, concentrating fire when possible.
• If you have any spare infantry (after you have sent them one on one) have them help another unit until their opponent routs. If you have more or equal infantry give priority to the cavalry/infantry units engaging your skirmishers, otherwise sacrifice them for time.Repeat so that you have local superiority. The key is to target the nearest targets so that your units fight most of the time and the enemy routs faster.
• Have your cavalry help your infantry if you don't have superior numbers, otherwise have them hunt the enemy skirmishers.
• During this phase the enemy skirmishers are secondary targets, you want to take out their infantry.

After that it's just you have to mop up the skirmishers until they flee.

Keep in mind that if you have siege weapons the enemy will charge you when they get into range, unless they also have some, so they will wait to shoot it out.

And above all keep your general back. You should only use him if you are desperate and only to attack someone that is already engaged.

[Tacitursa]

Always get two levels in defense skill, it's seriously OP you get 2 barricades , 2 stones , 2 spikes and 2 flaming hay barrels which can easily take out 4-5 sets of units on there own especially on slopes and it's awesome to make a defensive little fort at the start of battles.

The barricades and spikes make it almost impossible for AI to flank you. The stones are awesome for skirmisher armies and slow the enemy down. It's almost a requirement for winning capture point battles when the flag is in a really crap position.