TEATRC tactics

[Cathedralsqaure]

In all honesty I've taken to keeping only a 3rd of my army as Guards with specialists making up 15% and the rest as infantry/recruits. I'm playing Warband though so I can use the differing groups to set up runners and flanking fire. Guards provide the right flank, Recruits are the bait while my Infantry take up the left flank or center.

This way the only real threat is reinforcing cavalry Infantry just keep getting baited into the trap.

 

[Vizx]

Last time I played TEATRC I played as Imperial State. I have tried having very many canoneers in my army and I would say it isnt that great. If you have a big pile of enemy Lion Throne Brigadiers advancing slowly on you, then perhaps its good. For sieges and basically all types of enemies its better to go with those guys with several shots before each reload. (cant remember the name)

Cannoneers are great for siege defense. The attackers all bunch up together, and a single shot can easily take out multiple enemies.

 

[Shrugging Khan]

Ya, TEATRC needs more ladders.

Personally, if I do join a realm it's usually the Laurians, since their "Don't give a ****, conquer ****, no ****" attitude is rather appealing to me. Just get some pikes and arquebuses together, stand together in a proper formation, and make holes in people. Add some assimilated specialists for flavouring and the whole thing is a solid and economically supremely supportable concept. Get some footmen, train them only one single tier higher, free some prisoners on the way and just keep rolling.

Going up against the haelmarians? Hackapells and lousy infantry, so grap more pikes and get stabby! It's the swadians? An equal mix, pikes to stop their heavy cavalry and arquebuses to outshoot their "sharp"shooters. The ****ing Kaiser? Take whatever to the field and throw it at them, those prussian boneheads never knew how to handle the unknown. Vaegir? Guns! Guns! More guns! And down they go!
And if ever you are outmatched, quickly upgrade your units to top-tier (which they'll all be eligible for by now), and watch the enemy run into pointy stuff.

Seriously. With Laurians, it's all about being aware of how ridiculously cheap and easy it is to adapt. The swadians may have better pikes, and the haelmarian musketeers outshoot us, and ****, what's cavalry ever good for? But most enemies have weaknesses, and those are easy to exploit.

Ah, and the kaiser, may he die painfully: His troops usually get the first shots in on their opponents, but a small batch of mercenary horsemen is sufficient for throwing them into disarray for long enough for the pikes to come up and make a messy display of them.


PS: Coseletes and Veteran As are 2,5 times as expensive as their mid-tier counterparts, but hardly 2,5 times as effective. Personally, I feel "moar guns!" is more efficient than "Marginally better gunners!". Especially since it only takes one shot to kill one of them.

 

[Austupaio]

I like your style.

Spoiler

Even if you do call things vapour-ware unnecessarily.

I'm also a fan of Laurians, although I tend to go the hard buckler and sharp sword types than the pikes.

 

[Shrugging Khan]

Spoiler

It's vapourware till I play it

The rodoleros aren't bad, but I'd never have more than 10% of my army consist of them. They're well suited to mopping up between the pikes, but somewhat lackluster otherwise, especially considering their hefty wages. For smaller, more elite armies they're certainly quite adequate, since the pikes aren't as dense without a large enough number of pikemen and way more enemies get through to the point where the long polearms become a disadvantage.

 

[ac/dc]

i used to play hse but now i play lauria and lion king.
lauria cuz they're like the big professional army that can take w/e, and lion king because its fun to use formations with the brigadiers, though i don't like their armor.
For Lauria, i basically get pikes, line them up, get arquebuisers, line them up in front of pikes, and rodeleros between the two lines. Then i make the hernados or w/e follow me and kill a few at a time while their army comes towards the lines. If the enemy cavalry starts to charge, i use that advance 10 paces command and the pikemen are ready to kill (though the line always breaks and a bunch of cavalry gets thru no matter wat i do). I could prolly just line the guns up and charge with rodeleros, but i just like pikemen.

 

[Vizx]

Today I realized that Imperial troops are much more effective against infantry when kept mobile. It's possible to keep the enemy chasing my army across the map, while meanwhile my guys slowly gun down the enemy infantry.

 

[ac/dc]

so theres no point in making a line?

 

[Articulo34]

so theres no point in making a line?

Concentrating firepower. Usefull when the enemie attacks as a whole, specially if they have cavalry. The only faction with infantry powerful enough to get into an IS line with enough troops (and without proper support from either cav to dislodge it or ranged troops do weaken it) to beat it is the Lion Throne. The rest just doesnt have enough armor.

As a usual IS player i must say i rather form firelines, its easy to keep control of the situation that way.

 

[Toffey]

Fun tactic with the Laurians. Have about a third of your army be Herreruelos, a third be Arquebusiers and a third be infantry. Position the Arquebusiers on a hill, with the infantry guarding them. When the enemy gets about half way towards you soldiers, ride behind them with your Herreruelos. Then open fire from both sides. If they start to go after you Herreruelos, just ride away. Once there are only a few scattered enemies left, get your cavalry to attack with their swords in order to finish them off.

 

[Shrugging Khan]

Concentrating firepower. Usefull when the enemie attacks as a whole, specially if they have cavalry. The only faction with infantry powerful enough to get into an IS line with enough troops (and without proper support from either cav to dislodge it or ranged troops do weaken it) to beat it is the Lion Throne. The rest just doesnt have enough armor.

On the contrary. Armour is halfway useless against guns, and slows the troopers down a lot. Lower Speed = More time to get shot.

 

[Articulo34]

Concentrating firepower. Usefull when the enemie attacks as a whole, specially if they have cavalry. The only faction with infantry powerful enough to get into an IS line with enough troops (and without proper support from either cav to dislodge it or ranged troops do weaken it) to beat it is the Lion Throne. The rest just doesnt have enough armor.

On the contrary. Armour is halfway useless against guns, and slows the troopers down a lot. Lower Speed = More time to get shot.

Tell that to the Lion Throne. I have seen some of them hit twice and still walk towards us. And their shields can hold a shot or two.

 

[Shrugging Khan]

That's because kaiser-licker boom-sticks have inferior wounding capabilities 

Nah, seriously, I just plain forgot about the shields. Those do matter, of course.

 

[phoenixguard09]

Lauria all the way.  Haven't seen any Ormelis on here...

I have a force of 50 Coseletes, 40 Rodeleros and 50 Veteran Arquebusiers.  (I'm a neat freak and my Training and Leadership is really high.) 

In battle I set up the Infantry behind a hill in close formation.  I then ride out on my Heavy Laurian Warhorse in Half-Plate and wielding a Flintlock, Musket and a Zweihander.  I skirmish with the enemy for a while, expecially if they're just lined up at their end.  Try to cause enough casualties for them to come to me if you take my meaning.    When the enemy starts charging I go back to my men and just wait with them until the enemy comes over the hill.  Caught by surprise the enemy's fast stuff can't do enough damage to the wall of pikes and the Rodeleros do quite well if anyone makes it through the pikewall.  Added to that is the storm that the Arquebusiers toss out.  I've often found that the enemy will get mowed down by the long reaching pikes and the guns before they make it over the top of the hill.  If there is no hill however I will take a few casualties but still it works quite well.. I imagine the same would be possible with Swadians but I don't know how good Sharpshooters are but Doppelsoldners instead of Rodeleros would be pretty good I imagine. 

Thats enough from me, sorry about the wall of text but its good to be able to talk about how good this mod is with someone. 

 

[Shrugging Khan]

Ormeli? SIMPLE! Just field a force of Janissaries!
Can't really go wrong with Elephant Gunners and a few Cannoneers 

 

[FuryFire]

Janissaries are better in melee and in accuracy than Kaiserlichers. But it is rather difficult to raise a single army compliment of them with their high recruitment cost and wages and wall. Buffing them up with Yayas could be useful though, and it doesn't hurt to have Voyniks. Cause in my experience, voyniks are on par with vaegir guards and infantry.

A fun tactic to do in HSE is to do a hammer and anvil tactic against any enemy formations (Laurian Tercio or Brigadier Maniple). With the landsknechts as the anvil and your knights and demilancers and other accompaniments (I prefer caravan guards) as your hammer. Timing is important however: If the landsknechts connect too early with the enemy they won't last unless they have a higher ratio of doppelsoldners. If the cavalry connect too early you will lose your precious knights. When done right, you'll hold the enemy with your pikeblock and if able, you could pull away your cavalry to do another charge. Quite fun to try.

 

[Shrugging Khan]

Update!

I currently have an entire squadron of companions (all 16 of them, thanks to my 8 in Persuasion), and equipped them all with widely varied weapons (mostly long guns and polearms, but something out of all other categories, too), and they really work wonders. While the arquebusiers fire away at the approaching enemy, and the pikemen safeguard them against cavalry charges, I can have the companions manoeuvre around the enemy so before they reach the Gunners/Pikes, they're either under fire from two sides, or actually getting flanked right up their derrières.

Oh yeah. I only have about 60 men, but I'm rocking right through those fabulous union bastards - entirely without cavalry. Horses are for girls

 

[Articulo34]

Ormeli? SIMPLE! Just field a force of Janissaries!
Can't really go wrong with Elephant Gunners and a few Cannoneers 

Yes, you can, their reload is pretty slow (for Nefer Jennisaries, awful slow for Cannoneers) and they are very lightly armored. Even a force of light cavalry could cause havok among their ranks.

Although with some mounted skirmishers (which are quit cheap and quick to get with the Ormeli) to divert cavalry and heavy infantry attacks they hit like a sledghammer.

 

[shades_o_grey]

My two main characters are completely different in outlook and tactics. First, Tsabin Rusovi, a Cossack captain. Troops consist of 30-40 cossack and other mounted gunners, has no infantry. Completely avoids soloing large enemy parties, only joins as support. Circles around while the infantry sloggers take the brunt and fires into the flanks and rear. Small mounted parties are his prey of choice. Hunts enemy caravans down, and gets rich from the loot.

Second character is Kophka Dratii. A classic pike and shot style commander. Prefers to let the enemy come to him, with spread out gunners mixed with his pikemen. When he must advance, a strong advance by Standard Bearer led pikemen leads the way while he leads his gunners into a flanking manoeuvre.

 

[Sir Gawain]

An excellent and most interesting topic of dicussion.

My Lord Aristarchus II is an avid practitioner of the good old Imperial Shot and Pike tactics.  The majority of troops fielded consist of highly trained Veteran Landscknects to fill out a massive pike block for steam rolling over the enemy  or holding the line.  For strong close melee support in the block I keep perhaps a third of the Landscknects' numbers in Dopplesoldners with their infantry eating Bidenhanders; other strong melee mercenaries are good for bolstering the melee block, such as Halberdiers or White Wolves. 

Of near equal importance with the pike block is the wing of Gothic..er.. Swadian Knights used for flanking and archer control.  One must be careful when using the Knights though, cause they get chewed up when bogged down, so they use quick hit and run maneuvers, always moving in combat, then withdrawing and reforming for another charge.  They can be used in harrying the enemy infantry as they advance to break the formation if possible, but they mainly take out the enemy missiles to protect the pikes(since us brave Swadians don't believe in sissy schilde). 

The missile arm of the army consists of an equal mix of crossbowmen, blunderbusses and mercenary bows for a good mix of accuracy, firepower and volume of fire.  Their main purpose is to provide close support for the pike block and hang on the wings, firing into the sides of the enemy infantry and diverting attention.  They can shoot down advancing cavalry at close range, and if it gets to close, fold in behind the pikes to let the radiant cross skewer themselves on cold Swadian steel.

Needless to say, as the infantry formation is paramount, standard bearers are a must,  you may want to keep a few extra, just in case.  I do often like to personally lead the block since it gives a finer control if you're careful.  Looking around rotates the block, which can be a useful 'sweep' for a quick engagement, but you have to be careful in looking around.

Mercenaries are always good for Swadian armies, heavy Men at arms add staying power to cavalry, while Halberdiers are both stabby and choppy and Bermianese Swordsmen can add a handy line of shields to the front to absorb fire(mercenary shields are a must for sieges).

The key is to know when and where to advance, since you have to be careful about enemy fields of fire, and nobody likes a broken pike block.  Flanks of infantry formations are ripe for stabbing and a scattered infantry block will just run into the pikes a few at a time.

Für Gott und Emporer!

Wow, this turned out long.