its strategy sharing time and information gathering

[spawn10317]

so my strategy for building the my army is to have about 1/3 Rhodok Sharpshooters, 1/6 Mameluke's or swadian knights depending who i am at war with at the time, 1/12 Khergit lancers, 1/12 Khergit horse archers, 1/6 Nordic huscarls and 1/6 Rhodok Sergeants. that's how i build my army and thus far it seems rather effective.

for field strategies i mainly have every one move to a high elevation and have the archers stay at the very top of the hill so they can be 1 more accurate 2 have more range (i don't know to me it makes sense). then depending on how much cav they have i usually have my spearman  used as bait almost to lure them in plus they have pretty good defense with the huge ass shields... then when they are close to my spear infantry i have my entire Calvary, along with my huscarls to just destroy them... although if there are no elevations then i usually just have my archers hang back to shot the enemy i then have my infantry in a line and march toward the enemy as i have my cav circle around and flank them from the left or right or if its just the enemy is just infantry and archers i have them circle around more and attack them from behind...

i haven't sieged anything yet so i doubt that my strategy is going to be any good for sieges

now its your turn

what kinds of different strategies do you have for this game... it can be anything from a way to make the army to battle strategies to, to how to gain a quick rise to power... of course if there is any other information about the game that is interesting or useful please do tell this topic is mostly for gathering information and is open for all to see and use

 

[candyman]

I imagine a force like that is hard to maintain

Khergit HAs seem very much like an all or nothing gambit to me.
In melee they're not particularly effective, and a sharpshooter can outshoot them, so their only advantage is the fact that they are on horseback, allowing hit and fade strategies... but again, if their entire force is tied up by your infantry, I don't really see the need for the extra speed provided by the horse.
In any case, you said you just charged with your entire cavalry force, in which case replacing those lancers (inferior to knights and mamelukes in every way iirc) and horse archers with more heavy cav...

For myself, I tend to equip my companions as heavy cavalry, and then having a mixture of veterans, huscarls, and Sergeants, and sharpshooters in a 2:1:2:1 ratio.

Obviously, the sharpshooters are for ranged firepower, and as their rhodoks, can act as medium infantry in a pinch with their board shields and picks

the veterans I keep deliberately underlevelled because I value the extra maneuverability the veterans give me, that is, 3 different infantry groups can be commanded independently, all roughly analogous in fighting potential. Also huscarls take an age to train, and as octavios taught me, it can be favourable to keep them as veterans as they level up faster as a group if I keep them in a group

Against cavalry heavy armies, (primarily khergits/swadians) I send off my companion cavalry to distract them while I set up my infantry in a favourable position, preferably on a hill/river, basically like this
SSSSSSSSS                VVVVVVVVVV
HHHHHHHH

CCCCCCCC

S= sergeants
H = huscarls
C= Xbowx
V = veterans

all the infantry has been stand closer spammed so they're 3-4 deeps, with the huscarls 10 paces behind the sergeants.
if all goes to plan, the cavalry charges in, the sergeants absorb the charge on their big board shields, I let the huscarls throw their axes for a few moments, order them to charge

the veterans I order to take 20 paces forward, and charge themselves, catching the cavarly in a vice

This also means my veterans are at the very front of the clump of infantry, so when the opposing infantry/ranged support arrives, it has the advantage of shielding my precious huscarls and sergeants

Against infantry... same thing but I hold my companion cavalry back to chase routers and such

Yes, I realise that historically the macedonian companion cavalry were homosexual =]
it just seemed too useful of a name to pass up despite its... other connotations
but hey, for all I know it could be perfectly accurate, firentis' hair always made me wonder....

 

[gabriot]

My personal army usually consists of only rhodok sharpshooters, and either swad knights or mamalukes.

I find everything else doesn't do the "job" better (other than Huscarls, but having both rhodok and nord is a hit to mobility and I'd rather have sharpshooters).

There's really no better archer than a rhodok sharpshooter, the nature of the way the AI is and the damage output between xbows and bows really renders all type of "archer" inferior to the crossbowman.  And rhodoks are the best xbowman around, better than the swads.

The Swad Knights and Mamalukes outclass any khergit troop for me because you get the movement bonus, but they are far better at fighting and surviving than the khergit counterparts.

 

[gutsaxe]

I use a cav. and archer army; I use nord veteran archers (because they are cheap and have good armour) or vaegir marksmen (because they are accurate as hell). The strong armour of them enables them to resist low tier enemies easily but still need my help against heavier infantry (nords + rhodoks). For cavalry I use slaver chiefs and vaegir knights..

I make my archers stand ground on a hill, and bunch up into two ranks. I position myself and my companions behind them and my cavalry to charge from one side or another.. I can easily beat armies twice my size and the archers mean its not entirely useless in hilly terrain or sieges

infantry are just too slow on the battlefield and the campaign map

 

[skullmasher]

I feel comfortable with a troopsize of 100.
8 companions (6 knights/2 wizards)
35 swadian men-at-arms
1-10 knights (at the moment i store them away for later)      = 50 heavy cavalery

50 infantry of changing compostion, mostly trainees of mixed nations on their way to top-tier archers to garrison my property.

If i'm going to seriously war somebody i kick out the trainees and fill in some cannonfodder to suck up the damage, preferably 30 thengs. I'll maxout my troopsize with archers of some sort and a handful of replacement-recruits.

Tactical combat is kept simple. Either charge them if they have fewer men then i have cavalery. Or wait at my spawnpoint for them to come to me, to avoid getting into their reinforcement-trap. Altogether not ingenious, but effective so far.

 

[spawn10317]

what???!!!! Wizards how the ****?  anyway i want one

 

[Ambush Reality]

He's either got a mod or is in fantasy land while playing M&B.

Anyway, My tactics aren't really all that advanced, but they work for the most part. I roll with around 15 Swadian Knights, anywhere from 15-25 Rhodok+Swadian Sharpshooters, I have 13 or so Swadian Sergeants, 10 Nord Huscarls, and the rest mid tier infantry from the 3 factions I just mentioned. I send my cavalry off to the side, generally halfway down the battlefield for a charge into the rear of the enemy. I'll position my archers on a hill if there is one, or generally against the edge of my spawn point if it's flat terrain.  I'll position one group of infantry (generally the low/mid tier) in the front to absorb the cavalry charge (if there is any) or to absorb arrows, the higher tier infantry 10 paces behind them to charge in afterwords. Most times this gets the job done.

 

[Radius]

I recently came to love the Vaegirs for their amazing guards and archers, so i devised this simple strategy.



Gather both guards and archers, Tell the Archers to stand in the back, guards to stay in the front.

Order archers to fire at will to break those tasty shields so my guards can get to the soft and chewy center.

The only problem with this strategy is the fact that calvary can really **** up my day, if they can get me before my men sort out their orders, i may as well alt + f4

 

[NJSQRL]

I tend to go very basic...

50/40/10

Huscarls/Vet archers/companions or if I am not a Nord then Rhodok Sergeants/sharpies/companions

Horses are for people who are too sissy to walk 

 

[Knighttemplar12]

charge an... about 50-90 size sarranid army with me, lezalit, bunduk, alayen, and artimenner, and about 10-11 Swadian knights. And win. I've fought against a 100+ size army once and won, with a good deal of losses. But I still won.

 

[Thundertrod]

I think he is refering to the magic of party skills, Surgery, first aid, wound treatment. can magicly prevent a axe to the head from being fatel and heal from nearly fatel wound in a days time.
Even get a bust of healing between round in long battels.

Tracking lets you see magic glowing arrows tell you the direction and size any group that has pased near by. spoting lets you sew beyound the horizen,

 

[Ambush Reality]

I think he is refering to the magic of party skills, Surgery, first aid, wound treatment. can magicly prevent a axe to the head from being fatel and heal from nearly fatel wound in a days time.
Even get a bust of healing between round in long battels.

Tracking lets you see magic glowing arrows tell you the direction and size any group that has pased near by. spoting lets you sew beyound the horizen,

Sounds like you and the wizard man need to revert to drinking weaker wine.

 

[Captain_Octavius]

The only problem with this strategy is the fact that calvary can really **** up my day, if they can get me before my men sort out their orders, i may as well alt + f4

I highly recommend using TweakMB to increase the size of the battle maps. I personally put them all to the maximum allowed of the Forest battle map. This way it takes 1-2 minutes before cavalry has reached the other side, instead of 20 seconds.

 

[Trimaran]

i use cavalary in addition to my party to kill routers. Or when a 30 men lord is besieging or looting my properties, to catch him fast! Oooor in a big bloody battle-to charge the enemy from the back or front, outflank. I enjoy mix of rhodok sharpshooters and huscarls in any battle, along with max 20 cavalary-for the above conditions. I enjoy killing looters bandits and sea raiders with my only archer army...oh and i have 2 magicians :p

 

[Remedius]

what???!!!! Wizards how the ****?  anyway i want one

He refers to a hidden cheat in the cheat menu:

Enter cheat menu

Type 'activate magic tree' enter

Exit cheat menu

Now you have a separate branch in your troop tree for magic wielders - iirc it goes recruit - initiate - acolyte - Mage - wizard - battle wizard - high wizard. But top tier is very expensive on upkeep costs.