Battle strats

[Hockey85]

First a couple questions and then I would love to hear about how you guys manage your armies!
1. Do you put your main infantry line in shield wall? I've noticed that if I don't use shield wall, my troops will all break their line formation and the melee just turns into a super mega death mosh pit with no form of cohesion, any sense of strategy goes out the window. I've also noticed this sometimes still happens even with shield wall enabled. The problem is that when the troops break formation they just all path to one point, and expose their backs in the big ball of death that forms and quality troops lose their advantage. How do you manage your line to maintain cohesion? Is there a way to keep your men in place (hold position) to remain in the shield wall so no one is rushing forward and getting into a bad position? Does using the F1+F6 command help your troops to stay put instead of moving out of position when the enemy infantry gets in range?
2. How do you flank with 2 wings of cavalry? Do you move out behind the melee, then have your cavalry follow you to meet up behind the enemy and then have them attack so they go in from behind? It seems like there is no other way to get your cav to flank.

Any other battle tips to overcome bad odds? I would love to hear strats you use?

 

[MacarioTheClown]

Let's go over the controls real quick 'cause I think it might help out.
On your keyboard:
1 - Infantry selector
2 - Ranged selector
3 - Melee Cavalry selector
4 - Ranged Cavalry selector

Ctrl + number selects multiple groups of those things (Ctrl + 2, Ctrl + 4 selects all your ranged units)

F1 has movement commands. The most useful movement commands are:
F1 + F1 - Move to position. Will keep the formation you selected for them, but get them to move.
F1 + F3 - Move into melee and attack. Should only be used on Infantry and Melee Cavalry
F1 + F4 - Advance forward while attacking. Use to make Archers approach an enemy (generally not what you want to do, but hey... it's an option).

F2 + FX - Form a shield wall, form a box formation, etc
Shield wall - good for infantry protecting archers
Line formation - good for archers
Box formation - good for melee cavalry you are going to charge with

Basic Strategy (mixed units, basic tactics)
Position your archers (F1 + F1) on a hill and place your infantry in front of them in shield wall formation (F1 + F1, F2 + F2) with your cavalry held in reserve to charge in once the enemy is soft (F1 + F3 to follow you and stand behind your archers).

 

[Billy Peach]

My go to is to have about 1/5 to 1/4 heavy infantry advancing in a shield wall as a vanguard. The enemy cavalry, infantry charge them.
However, the bulk of my army are horse archers which sweep in just before the heavy infantry engage. By charging (F2F6) they Cantabrigian charge, that is run circles while firing arrows into the centre.
It is very OP. I can easily beat an army close to twice my size often without a single death... I'm sometimes knocked out because I charge the enemy archers so that they aren't as effective.

 

[hruza]

1. Do you put your main infantry line in shield wall?

Shieldwall is only good to protect against ranged fire. In a melee fighting, your units will not fight effectively and will get killed in a shieldwall.

[Edit:] Shieldwall is moderately effective also against cavalry charge, if infantry in shieldwall is also sufficiently deep.

...and don't forget that while issuing commands, you can click and drag to change formation width/debth.

 

[LEEKING2005]

To answer OP question, you can use F1+F1 to move your army in a formation (you can use F3 to change formation such as shield up, circle and line formation) and F2 to change their face direction if they're facing their enemy with their back.

I think they can definitely improving currently bare-bone and bugged AI commands. For 1, the manually face direction constantly bugged and the "auto face your enemy" options sometime bug also vs undetected enemy in infiltration.

Also there is no preset command like to split your horse archery to left and right unit with the left unit circulating enemy in clockwise and right units circulating in counter clockwise. Hell, they can't even do the "follow me" command right and currently instead of following you they will swarming you, blocking your movement and arrow if you slow down or stopped.

I think the troops grouping function currently also cannot save your troops configuration in save files and currently default grouping is very unfair. It should be change like this. With able to custom configure and assigned according to user.

1 - Shield Units
2 - Melee Infantry
3 - Range infantry Units 1
4 - Range infantry Units 2
5 - Horse Melee 1
6 - Horse Melee 2
7 - Horse Range 1
8 - Horse Range 2
9 - Seige ladder troop 1
0 - Siege ladder troop 2
"-" - Siege machine troop
"+" - Everyone

PS: Compared to the character skills' system, this look more like the work of a drunk intern. XD

I think even In Fire and Sword I was using Mod command cause the vanilla commands is so bad.

 

[hruza]

Also there is no preset command like to split your horse archery to left and right unit with the left unit circulating enemy in clockwise and right units circulating in counter clockwise.

That would be counterproductive, given horse archers in game can't fire to the right side.

 

[Deer]

If you are on a horse yourself i can recommend pressing 3, F1, F2, 4, F1, F2.
This will make both cavalry types follow you and you can use it to flank and harass the enemy advance, as well as engage enemy cavalry.

The good thing about the follow command is, that it allows you to gain some distance after your charge and regroup before next charge.

 

[LEEKING2005]

That would be counterproductive, given horse archers in game can't fire to the right side.

Well, maybe not clockwise then but I still can split them to both side to shoot shielded enemy, now with the grouping don't save and only 1 group I can only make them follow me, which doesn't help with it's so bugged and always trapping me and blocking me.

 

[Dalla1]

In warband it was easier becouse your troops could do more especialy when u got horse mans and in banerlord your troops are somehow worse

So the tactic is to put your archers (and horse archers, imperial bucaneli or something like that) in front that way they can shoot. Your infantry needs to be either covering a flank or be behind (personaly i prefer then on flank (typical F1 F3 they are formed that way by default) with option to face enemy, F2 F2, so when the cavalery of the enemy is charging you and they come through archers can still take them out) after enemys foot soldiers come close u go all charge on your troops (you still may keep your archers in place). After that enemy probably will fall back. You just go F1 F1 so your troops back out and you can keep your distance to regroup your troops. But to that to work u cant die becouse after you are dead most of your troops die even easier then when you are alive and i often lose almost won battles.

After that just do the same thing wait them to come close and charge again (watch a movie King its on Netflix there is that one battle where you can see what archers can do in middle ages).

First a couple questions and then I would love to hear about how you guys manage your armies!
1. Do you put your main infantry line in shield wall? I've noticed that if I don't use shield wall, my troops will all break their line formation and the melee just turns into a super mega death mosh pit with no form of cohesion, any sense of strategy goes out the window. I've also noticed this sometimes still happens even with shield wall enabled. The problem is that when the troops break formation they just all path to one point, and expose their backs in the big ball of death that forms and quality troops lose their advantage. How do you manage your line to maintain cohesion? Is there a way to keep your men in place (hold position) to remain in the shield wall so no one is rushing forward and getting into a bad position? Does using the F1+F6 command help your troops to stay put instead of moving out of position when the enemy infantry gets in range?


Any other battle tips to overcome bad odds? I would love to hear strats you use?

 

[hruza]

Well, maybe not clockwise then but I still can split them to both side to shoot shielded enemy, now with the grouping don't save and only 1 group I can only make them follow me, which doesn't help with it's so bugged and always trapping me and blocking me.

You can split any group in the battle using commands. You can assign half of your horse archers to new group and then send each on the different flank.

 

[Sepone]

2. How do you flank with 2 wings of cavalry? Do you move out behind the melee, then have your cavalry follow you to meet up behind the enemy and then have them attack so they go in from behind? It seems like there is no other way to get your cav to flank.

I tell the cavalry to follow me and do an arc-shaped approach to one flank staying well clear of the enemy, until I can see some terrain behind them. Then I order the cav to move there, which can be tricky, because it needs fine mouse controls. Choosing a spot at a slope or hillside helps a lot. Then I ride back to my main formation, and just calculate the time it takes the cavalry to reach position (okay, tbh I guess how long it takes ). After that I order them to charge without even having line of sight to them. At the end we meet amidst the enemy... hopefully.

 

[LEEKING2005]

You can split any group in the battle using commands. You can assign half of your horse archers to new group and then send each on the different flank.

I knew that, but there've been 2 problems.

For one, the grouping thing doesn't save properly and you need to do that everytime you load or that armies wipe out.

2ndly, You need to have at least 2 groups of different tier horse archer and not 1 group says Khan's Guard break into 2.

 

[hruza]

I knew that, but there've been 2 problems.

For one, the grouping thing doesn't save properly and you need to do that everytime you load or that armies wipe out.

2ndly, You need to have at least 2 groups of different tier horse archer and not 1 group says Khan's Guard break into 2.

That's not what I am talking about. You can split/transfer any preset group IN THE BATTLE. Just hit F-whatever it is key (can't remember from top of my head as I am not using it often) while having a group selected and it will bring up a bar, where you can draw number of troops that will split and be assigned to a new group.

This will not persist after the battle, so you have to do it every battle if you want to. It's bit inconvenient if you want to do it every battle, but I just want to let you know that there is such a option. Players don't usually know about it.

Another thing players don't realize, cos game does not really tell you that, is the difference between charge (F3) and advance (F4) commands. Charge will send unit in to close melee, even for example missile cavalry. Advance will on the other hand make missile troops (including foot archers and foot units with throwing projectiles) to keep the distance until they run out of ammo. That's very useful with horse archers and other missile cav as they will do proper skirmishing. Units on advance will also not chase fleeing units, or if you want your units to chase down fleeing enemy.

The only time you want to use charge order instead of advance is if you want your heavy infantry that has throwing weapons go and engage enemy in melee without exhausting their ammo.

 

[LEEKING2005]

That's not what I am talking about. You can split/transfer any preset group IN THE BATTLE. Just hit F-whatever it is key (can't remember from top of my head as I am not using it often) while having a group selected and it will bring up a bar, where you can draw number of troops that will split and be assigned to a new group.

This will not persist after the battle, so you have to do it every battle if you want to. It's bit inconvenient if you want to do it every battle, but I just want to let you know that there is such a option. Players don't usually know about it.

Another thing players don't realize, cos game does not really tell you that, is the difference between charge (F3) and advance (F4) commands. Charge will send unit in to close melee, even for example missile cavalry. Advance will on the other hand make missile troops (including foot archers and foot units with throwing projectiles) to keep the distance until they run out of ammo. That's very useful with horse archers and other missile cav as they will do proper skirmishing. Units on advance will also not chase fleeing units, or if you want your units to chase down fleeing enemy.

The only time you want to use charge order instead of advance is if you want your heavy infantry that has throwing weapons go and engage enemy in melee without exhausting their ammo.

I knew about the F3 and F4 different, but usually I just pick a hill in a direction I like and f1-f1 cause I don't like my archer go melee even after they ran out of arrows. And of course I never trust any of them to "keep their distance" cause the AI command is completely a mess. E.G Like i mentioned before the "follow me" command of 300 horse archers is a mess.

What seems to be problem is the grouping functions is completely a mess. You can have 2 archers group until you save/load is bad enough, don't really think I can split them for every match in game and have to load everytime if I forgot.