Tips on autoresolve armies

**puddingkip** · January 20, 2015, 04:42 PM

I've been getting into a few hotseats lately and encountered a problem.

In normal campaigns cavalry make up nearly all my army. If the odds are ~1:5 heavy cavalry with a high dread general will smash that so easily.
But in hotseats I'm forced to autoresolve, and obviously the 1:5 situations won't be won anymore. I'm not sure which kind of troops do well in autoresolve since besides hotseats I very rarely use it and certainly not for large battles.

Any tips on what kinds of units do really well in autoresolve? Should I go spearmen or archers? I know cavalry isn't the answer

**Ventos Mustel** · January 20, 2015, 08:27 PM

Spears. In general you want high defense units for autoresolve.

**Steward Denethor II** · January 22, 2015, 01:08 AM

Melee infantry is the best, archers are mediocre, cavalry is bad, and horse archers are usually terrible, at least in vanilla. I think Javilenmen are good as well.

**Vipman** · January 22, 2015, 04:57 AM

Did you read this? http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post14217973

Original thread http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post12112271

**puddingkip** · January 23, 2015, 04:42 AM

"Danke for your time, it was useful"

And yes that was a med2 diplomat quote because I'm a total war nerd

**Maklodes** · January 23, 2015, 10:07 AM

I'm pretty sure missile attacks are used in AR, contra the above guides -- I think they automatically get off a single volley, then do melee? Pavise crossbowmen tend to do very well in autoresolve, and can sometimes rout enemies without taking a single casualty, presumably in the initial missile volley.

**Vipman** · January 23, 2015, 11:57 AM

I didn't read that guide for a long time already, they are anyway assumptions made by observing battle results, as it's the only way to find out more about how it works, but yes there is this line in descr_campaig_db: <separation_missile_add uint="1"/> that presumably sets the amount of volleys missile units fire before entering melee in autoresolve calculations. I said this before a few times in some places so you may (or not) remember it.

**Silverheart** · February 02, 2015, 08:29 AM

In my experience (mostly looking at how the odds are affected by army composition), it seems that heavy infantry is the best - if your enemy has a much larger number of dismounted knights than you, the odds will be in their favor, even if your army has a whole pile of Vardariotai or something else that is obviosuly tactically superior to a bunch of lumbering footmen.
So, heavy troops are the best to go for if you´re designing an army that is specifically intended for autoresolve battles - preferably heavy infantry or heavy archers/crossbowmen.
Also, choose the position of the troops carefully, since the first ones are usually the ones to take the most damage. Therefore, you´ll want to put a bunch of heavy infantry there, since they are more likely to survive, and will inflict the most damage on the enemys´ army in autoresolve.