Do archers put down stakes automatically?

[sinosleep]

In my campaign as the English use a ton of Longbow men but I don't see any icon or anything for putting stakes down. Is this done automatically?

[Silent Assassin]

No you need to do it in the deployment( placing your army ) before you click on the start button

[TAG]

In my campaign as the English use a ton of Longbow men but I don't see any icon or anything for putting stakes down. Is this done automatically?

In the deployment stage press the special ability

[sinosleep]

Oh alright. Guess it's ok I didn't know considering I tend to move my archers around and they're almost never approached by calvary any way.

[Grimmy]

Even if that's the case, you use your archers as mobile and rarely have cavalry problems, setting up stakes is still a good habit to have, especially when defending.

It can be just that little bit of something helpful to have the stakes to retreat behind if things turn against you.

[Jackster]

Stakes are more than just defence for archers, they are good at denying cavalries easy charges against your troops.

[Ticu]

I plant the stakes in front of my siege weapons by deploying my longbowmen in front of the engines. When I start the battle, I quickly rush my archers back to their position in front of my infantry before the fighting begins. I have no need for planting stakes in front of my archers. Instead what I do is rush them behind my infantry before the enemy can lay a hand on them.

[Jackster]

also plant stakes infront of your gate, and massacre cavalry when they come through.

[Ticu]

That trick is an exploit I believe. I am sure the developers have considered this option and have tried to make sure it would not be used. However, the players have found a way around it (as usual).

[Robot Porter]

Just to show how effective long bowmen with stakes are I created a custom battle. I had as many English bowmen as I could afford in a line, with stakes in front of them.

The only command I gave them was to "guard" their position when they ran out of arrows.

Other than that I just sat and watched the AI do its stuff.

A Heroic Victory! Two mouse clicks was all it took. One to plant stakes, one to guard.

This was on medium difficulty. I'm sure on harder settings the AI might have been cleverer. And a human player would have tried to flank me.

But it still demonstrates the power of the stakes/long bowmen combination. Obviously, in a real battle I wouldn't field only long bowmen.

Edit: But it does rather show why Henry V was so successful at Agincourt.

[LSJ]

Lol
stakes on a gate

Sounds like a movie I heard of before...
Although it is an exploit I just have to try it to get funny pics of retarded AI cavalrymen.

[Renco]

I usually deploy stakes right in front of my infantry, then when the battle starts, rush my archers back behind the infantry. It stops cav from charging straight into infantry and usually removes the AI cav from the battle, as they seem to wait for a whole to emerge. Infantry formations are scattered before they hit. Lets Superior English infantry really go to work on unprepared, un suspecting foes.

Does anyone know why you can't deploy stakes in front of bridges. It is annoying, as this would be a great strategem.