Infantry Combat - Tactics and Strategies

[Howzer]

I know I can't be the only person who fights on foot.

I like fighting on foot because melee combat is a bit more of a challenge and fights are alot more competitive than just the ride-by-and-chop of mounted combat.

My usual strategy is to move my men ontop of a hill or into a defendable position(canyon, bank of a river, etc.).
I then scout where the enemy is and return to my men.
I use my pike to take out cavalry by killing their horses, then my men pretty much take care of the rest.
Once the bulk of the enemy troops arrive, it's an all out melee.
This usually works pretty well, although every now and then I have to replenish about half of my men due to casualties. Also I can only handle about 2 fights back to back, unless we do really well.
About the only time I go on horse back is to mop up, catch up to a horse archer, or if I am facing an all cavalry army. (It gets quite tricky to kill 5 horses at once, since I am just about the only pikeman.)
I do not have borcha or marnid, jsut because I didn't feel like getting them, although I am thinking about it just so I can get a couple extra pikemen to face any cavalry.

What do you use?

 

[GreenKnight]

Heh, I've experimented a bit with a mixed force, but really, foot soldiers slow down my map speed, and "marksmen" make storm troopers look like crack shots, so I generally just go all cavalry. I train as many knights as I can, mixed in with some hired blades at times, then when the battle starts? I give the charge order, hope they don't die, and seek out my own targets.

Hmmm...but given the title of your thread, I suppose none of this is terribly relevant. Let's see...I always used to dismount at the start of a fight, until I ran into 20 Dark Knights and decided I needed to figure out how to ride. That shield was my best friend. The crossbow was a good thing to have as well.

 

[Kniggit]

I get a hill or something, tell my men to hold position, and while the enemy is marchign towards me, my men shoot them (swad sharpshooters), then when they get close enought, i go down there and hack them all to pieces. ( my archers usually take out 1 guy)

For warparties, i have mounted units. Swad knights work well against any force, excepy swad deserters. Basiccly, i follow my men and hack and slash.

For dark knights, i tell my men to hold position and go face them alone. Right now you may think im crazy, but it is much easier and safer, stop looking at me like im dumb, just listen

When you catch sight of them coming toward you, go around them in a clockwise oval, when the ride bay, slash them (balanced sword of war rules)they follow you, so you go in an oval and hack as the come by, if they have lances, easy, just hit them before they hit you, if you get in a fix, tell your knights to charge and you run off.

If you are a horse archer and you face these guys, basicly do a wide oval and shoot to your hearts content (just dont get stuck on a tree or sumthin

And if the terrain is hilly, get up on a cliff, cuz dark hunters are mounted and climb slow, so do head shots with throwing axes or jarids or a nice sniper crossbow should do nicely

For river pirates, get a quick weapon, screw the range or damage, get something with a high speed rating. Cuz when a lil pirate gets in your face with a hatchet, he is fast, sure blockins easy, but he keeps attackin so you cant. i use namad sabres and things of that sort.

Or you can just simply have you mounted men charge and run them down., but i tell them to dismount cuz its more fun.

If you really want a thrill, go face a viegar war party by yourself, ive done it. Bare made it alive. I had a heavy charger and full black armour, sword of war and a few jarids. On war parties they send the foot men first. Just plough though them. Takes awhile but its safer than on foot

When they send the mounted knights and horsemen, use the oval tactic, when they are slughtered, there is usually some horse archers riding around you, find them, kill them with the javalins, then you reap the rewards

i could post more, but this is long enough

Hope my tactics give you an edge

Ian

 

[Kniggit]

Oh, it was infantry tactics, crap, sorry for my offtopicness

I'm a dolt

Ian

 

[okiN]

I usually prefer an all-mounted army, but I have a few foot armies as well. I also usually order my riders to dismount unless well over a half of my army is mounted, 'cause otherwise something bad will likely happen.

My tactic is pretty much the same as yours, Howzer. It applies to all-melee, mixed melee/ranged and all-ranged armies alike. I simply order them to follow me and march towards the enemy a short way, so all my troops are arrayed directly behind me. When the enemy (Riders first, if they have any) start nearing us, I (We, if I have archer buddies along) open fire and take potshots at them as they approach. When they reach me, I immediately switch to my steel shield-longsword combo and take the edge off their charge in the form of the first few attackers, simultaneously ordering my troops to charge.

The first enemies are basically raped and the rest of the battle depends on the enemy army's configuration. With any luck, they just lost half of their troops in the form of cavalry, in which case the ensuing mop-up operation is a piece of cake. If they're a large all-mounted or all-infantry army, it might get messy as the two forces just clash in a huge mélee, but I usually only lose well under ten guys. The main brawl quickly separates into small combats of about five guys, usually pitched battles, and I just weave from one fight to another, trying to help out any of my guys who are trying to contend with a larger enemy force. If the opportunity presents itself to slice up a few enemies holding up a large number of my men, I take that as well, since it frees up my troops to go help their comrades with the remaining enemy. I've never yet lost a battle like this, although on occasion I get knocked out in some unlucky way. If the enemy horse archers get pissy and circle my forces while twanging their bows, I usually drop one of them, steal his horse and just ride them down myself.

 

[Severian]

I always fight on a horse, but I'm beginning to prefer infantry over cavalry when it comes to my army since the AI for cavalry is pretty lacking. Horsemen don't seem to know when it's best to just keep riding.

 

[tsuken]

I play a pikeman on foot too, but my whole army are Vaegir Guards. They have pikes and spears and are really good.

the Vaegirs tree to get guards:
peasant > footman > veteran > infantry > guard

Maybe you should try getting those as backup too.

I very often go on foot, but I have a horse just in case of running into horse archers or if there are just a small amount of enemies on the field.

I also use a crossbow while i wait for them to come to me Sometimes you can shoot someone off a horse with one shot (without a headshot).

 

[JohnathanStrange]

Heh, I've experimented a bit with a mixed force, but really, foot soldiers slow down my map speed, and "marksmen" make storm troopers look like crack shots, so I generally just go all cavalry. I train as many knights as I can, mixed in with some hired blades at times, then when the battle starts? I give the charge order, hope they don't die, and seek out my own targets.

Hmmm...but given the title of your thread, I suppose none of this is terribly relevant. Let's see...I always used to dismount at the start of a fight, until I ran into 20 Dark Knights and decided I needed to figure out how to ride. That shield was my best friend. The crossbow was a good thing to have as well.

Maybe ideally it is easier to command an all cavalry or all infantry force. I can see the advantages - like having everyone arrive for the fight at the same time.

I've never had an all cavalry war party for long simply because as knights are killed and replacements recruited, I most always have some infantry as newly recruited footmen and newly advanced veterans. Unless I have that replacement cycle going I'd have to rely on rescuing horsemen and hiring them.

So how does one never have infantry? Even hired blades start out as watchmen?

No, mixed forces may not be ideal (although I prefer them) but they're certainly the easiest to obtain and I think tough enough for any encounter but one has to keep one's eye on suicidal cavalrymen.

I do fight on foot when I want the combat to be more challenging because if I'm not timing my attacks well in melee combat it's harder to get out of trouble. Tactically, I have to be less heroic trying to do all the work, and be more of a leader fighting alongside my men.

On foot, I usually don't leave my troops and we fight more as a team and take fewer "silly" losses - nothing like a single allied mounted fighter trotting towards a group of hostiles. It's harder to get into trouble when you have to walk.

I don't mind not being the fastest war party around; there's enough cities that I can duck into and if I'm too far away, that'll teach me not to be paying attention to that cloud of dust on the horizon.

 

[DaLagga]

I look at it like this. Its more of a difficulty toggle in a way. Its much better to fight on horseback with an army of knights. But if you want a challege, fight on foot with archers/infantry. Not to mention that my group of infantry move at a speed of 5.7, and my cavalry move at 7.6, both groups being the same size. In a battle i just have my men sit in a clump to absorb the cavalry charge, and once they're finish i rush the remaining infantry. Its very effective against mountain/forest bandits, and i've taken out 10-15 groups without taking a single casualty. But against warparties/dark knights...prepare for some serious losses.

 

[JohnathanStrange]

Now that I think about it, you can get an all cavalry force - and I have done it this way - by having a high training skill level and staying in the tavern until the troops level up. It doesn't take that long three or four days and you'll have horsemen and knights.

Technically, your party is mixed but since you don't seek combat until you have the cavalry upgrades, your war party on the world map is an all horsemen one.

 

[GreenKnight]

Alright, fine. Technically, I do usually have some infantry mixed in. I meant my goal is an all cavalry army, and occasionally, that's the way it works out. But I do often tend to take a few losses against a competent enemy. Even bandits may kill the odd knight who didn't keep moving. So, I will usually stop at a tavern and recruit footmen to fill my ranks. Every now and then, however, it is nice to see that a Swadian war party has all the horsemen I'd need waiting as prisoners.

 

[Ancient Whale]

There is a simple way to keep an all-mounted army. Once your footmen in the beginning have become mostly men-at-arms/horsemen and knights, you can start raiding the enemy's prison trains to replenish lost troops. They always have some men-at-arms/horsemen. If you're lucky you may find a patrol or war party that has a few knights as prisoners. This is my tactic anyway, and I haven't had a foot unit for some time, except for some experimental purposes(recruiting farmers to get hired blades and peasant women to get sword sisters that I have disbanded by now)

There are only two downsides to this: One is that sometimes you can have some serious trouble locating a prison train and secondly the map starts to get rather crowded with all the rescued prisoners parties

 

[zdazzle]

The good think about having horsemen is that they are quick and (sometimes) useful. The down side is that when they die you have to fight more to get new ones so you can train the other classes.

 

[Camus]

Since the new version made fighting on foot alot more fun, i started a new char yesterday.

I only fight on foot, but i keep mercs and hired blades in my party.
What i do when facing a lot of enemy cavalery is order my men to hold posision and dissmount right at the start.
Then move behind the horses and tell them to hold there, now the horses work like a protective wall and enemy cavalary will mostly run in to it and stop, or atlest slow down.
Thats when i order my guys to charge, they swarm the stopped riders and kill them really fast.

 

[ShangTang]

I once had about 25 guards vs. about 30 dark knights and hunters. It wansn't pretty. I won the day but lost about 10 guards. Bloody stuff.

 

[NeCRoLoRD]

Since the new version made fighting on foot alot more fun, i started a new char yesterday.

I only fight on foot, but i keep mercs and hired blades in my party.
What i do when facing a lot of enemy cavalery is order my men to hold posision and dissmount right at the start.
Then move behind the horses and tell them to hold there, now the horses work like a protective wall and enemy cavalary will mostly run in to it and stop, or atlest slow down.
Thats when i order my guys to charge, they swarm the stopped riders and kill them really fast.

that works really nýce with sword sisters also

 

[Phoboshobo]

Last post in this thread 24/05/05?

Whenever fighting with allies (including arena) you can gain advantages through distraction.

Your enemy can only block one direction at a time. You can use distraction in several ways.

1. When commanding missile troops, go to the enemy(ies)'s flank and "hover". They will turn to pursue you, exposing their unshielded sides and backs to your troops' arrows/bolts/etc.

2. Similar, but engage the enemy in melee while holding ground and repeatedly blocking. Your men can come in and stab your enemy in the back while you hold their attention.

3. Your infantry is holding ground. Enemy infantry is approaching directly. Go to the flank, far enough away or up a hill to avoid distracting their attention from your men. Wait until the first blows are being traded then wade in from the flank, attacking with a melee weapon into the enemies' unprotected sides and backs.

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One other tip:

When commanding missile troops such as Swadian Sharpshooters or Vaegir Marksman, upgrade around six men to Seargeants or Gaurds instead (to add backbone to your firing line if they are forced into purely melee combat - it should reduce casualties).

 

[Orion]

I run in swinging with a bastard sword.

Always works.

 

[xtc-alec]

LOL same

 

[Manu]

An efective trick to fight with melee cavalery is, instead of running for the hills, to run for the rivers.

Sure you and your men are slowed, but since you're slow to begin with it's not much of a problem. And te ennemy cavalery will slo to a crawl (at least compared with their normal speed), preventing hit-an runs and couched lances - the cavalery's forte.