Whats a good army composition that works for every faction?

[Sloty]

Whats a good army composition that works for every faction?
I mean one for field battles, one for offensive sieges and one for defensive sieges?

Bonus if you can make one for the Teutonic Order!!!

[Sloty]

Not one? Please some suggestions!!!

[Lord Minotaur]

Aight lets do this - 3 Heathen generals accompanied by 4 crossbowmen with 5 spear men, and several swordsman into the mix, then pour cavalry on top of it and viola you have a good army composition.


EDIT: To clarify this only works against peasant mobs and ungarrisoned villages. Take care.

[Sloty]

What are Heathen generals ???
The TO has many good heavy infantry. How many should I take from them?

[LuckyPistol]

It really depends on the faction's strength and who your enemy its, but for most field battles you want some strong spearmen to form a front line, handful of archers/crossbowmen, and fill the rest with cavalry. Hammer and anvil tactics, and use the archers to pick off lightly armored units (like 2 handed axemen) or pepper the enemy.

Sieges also depend on strategy. Are you waiting to have them sally out? Then keep it a field battle army. If you're planning on moving into the city to take it, then bring at least 2 catapults, and a lot of heavy infantry. Don't bother with more than two archer units to put on the wall after you've capture it, and keep cavalry to a minimum. I'll still suggest to build a battering ram and have a unit you don't care about be the patsy . If there are some mercs available for hire, get some good infantry to be the first feet in and establish a hold in the city. Just send them first, but not alone as they'll take heavy casualities (but what are mercs for?)

[Sloty]

Still, what are "Heathen Generals"?

[Lord Minotaur]

Man I was joking, just pick what you want and go with it.

[Sloty]

I am not satisfied!
Please give me your favorite party please!
I still dont understand what "Heathen Generals" are???

[LuckyPistol]

He's making a joke, there are no "heathen generals".

[Riva]

As you mentioned the TO has great heavy infantry / cavalry but does lack mounted archers/crossbows. You have to depend on local troops such as Pechenegs and/or bolster your army with lots of archers to compensate this. Usually my army contains:

1 unit General Bodyguards
2-5 units Archers / Livonian Auxiliaries
2+ units Knechten
2+ units Ritterbrüder / Christ Knights (if you can afford them)
4+ units Order Spearmen / Spear Militia
rest: heavy infantry (Prussian Swordsmen/Axemen, Sword Brethren) and local units

If you have access to certain siege equipment buildings than having some Trebuchet / Mangonel wouldn't hurt. Of course this is an early composition and will change if you got access to new units after the New Era event in 1300. Tactic is quite simple, use your archers to decimate cavalry/horse archers and let your enemy come close and engage with you infantry. Use your own cavalry to finish off theirs and then outflank your enemies line and charge them in the back. This will work with most of the christian factions too.

[Påsan]

I usually go with line infantry, heavy infantry, heavy cavalry, artillery and archers.

I tend to favor the infantry over the cavalry due to their utility in sieges and other kind of non-field battles. So I'll rarely bring more than five.

So basically


Line infantry:

Preferably cheap sturdy infantry armed with defensive weapons, ideally halberds or pikes. If not, spears. These are generally the front line of my army and take most of the charges. Four units are ideal, but you can make due with two. Their main purpose is to screen your heavy infantry, artillery and archers. I stretch them out so that they cover the entire force except for the cavalry on the flanks and the anchors.

Teutonic order: Burgher Pikemen is among the best option in the game for this due to sturdiness and cheapness. Three of those and your line will never break. Halfbruther halberds will also do a superior job of this. But they can be heavy infantry instead if you have pikes.

Heavy Infantry:

The best sword/axe/polearm infantry you got. Positioned behind the the line infantry and moves in once the enemy have been engaged to the line for field battles and does the main work in sieges. Their number is depending on the line infantry. But the total number of infantry should be at least 12. Super shock infantry such as the Varangian guard or polearm knights I generally use as anchors on each line flank to take care of flanking units, support the cavalry and do flanking maneuvers themselves.

Teutonic Order: Obviously all the dismounted knights. Teutonic Knights is probably the best in the game at the time they are available. Halfbruthers too. The teutonic knights dont have any true shock infantry but you can get mercenaries for this if you need it.

Heavy Cavalry

Knights are preferably the best here as they have the best combination of speed and punch. I use my cavalry defensively as in I react to what the AI is doing. If they go for the cavalry with their cavalry you counter-charge and support with your general and anchors. Then obviously go for their infantry anvil charging or if its lighter cav, their artillery and archers. In sieges the Cav can break deadlock infantry fights and flank the town center moshpit.

I generally only take four cavs though. because they are expensive and limited in what they can do. Besides four usually does the job as well as seven.

Archers

Key unit most of the time. I keep the archers behind the heavy infantry and therefore I'm not a fan of crossbows. The archers fire at key targets in range and I usually switch to fire arrows for the morale penalty. In sieges I usually place my archers in the town center and leave the walls altogether undefended. 200+ kills guaranteed on levy archers. I dont use the skirmish button whatsoever. Keep it off.

Generally 3-4 archers in an army unless you have an overload of good artillery.

Artillery:

Mangonells! Seriously its the most killy and awesome unit in the game. In both offensive and defensive sieges they are fantastic. In city defense one can rack up 700 kills and break the enemy army by itself only defended by some spearmen and two fire arrow archers. Otherwise for sieges use trebuchets until cannons becomes available. Which is never for me because I've usually conquered the world before i get them on late campaign. Generally one mongonel per army and two trebuchets if you're sieging. I never wait out a town ever and have never done so, so two trebuchets should get you at least one breach if not two. Bring ladders and towers as well though. In siege battles one all out attack is better than grinding at the breach or gate. Another great thing of artillery is the massive morale penalty a hit unit get, especially if already engaged in combat. And the ability to snipe generals.





Altogether my line looks like this:

--L---L---L--
C--C An-H-H-H-H-H-An C--C
Art A--A--A Art


L=Line (Pikes)
An=Anchor (Shock Infantry)
H= Heavy infantry (Dis Knights)
C= Calvary (Heavy/Light)
A=Archers (not crossbows)
Art (Mangonel/trebuchets)

I just finished a late campaign as the Byzantines on vh/vh using this. Roman Empire Restored, no more islamic factions on the map, pope is in Scandinavia.

[Grabbin_Megroin]

Heavy cavalry are the best units in the game because of their devastating charge, and all factions have access to them. You want to have as many as you can up to 8, and then have 10 melee infantry units, and the rest can be whatever. Early in the game it will be hard to acquire them and outfit an army with that many, but having as many as you can in an army will make it so much more powerful. Give it a shot!!

[Påsan]

You'll also loose a lot of them, they are exspensive both to recruit and upkeep and not very available. Each to its taste but I'd rather have two armies with four than one with eight. It's not like you need eight cav to defeat the AI with minimal casualties anyway. In multi I'd roll max cav too but in campaign I don't see the point. Especially since around half the battles are siege battles where cav usefulness are limited.

[Duck of Death]

The best army composition (that never fails) is one that includes the 'Trojan Horse' unit!!!

All you have to do is build a large wooden badger....