Tips on commanding a horse archer army?

[EnDSchultz]

As we all know, the M&B NPCs are not exactly tactical geniuses...I'm trying to play with a horse archer army, and while it works well enough for taking on bands of bandits, trying to fight enemy forces of equal size is a lot more difficult, mostly on account of there being no way to tell your troops to skirmish. The best I've been able to do is order my troops to follow me and try to circle the enemy, but even so, with a decent-sized force that long line of troops becomes very unwieldy and loves running right into the enemy lines.

Has anyone found a way to control horse archers effectively? They'd be very deadly if they could learn not to charge right into the enemy ranks.

 

[Bones40]

It seems they auto-skirmish if you just tell them to charge.  The problem is, they charge first, then skirmish.  The best way I found was to put all your Lancers in a group and send them charging from the beginning (let them get a little bit ahead) while having your Horse Archers follow you around the right flank, once the Lancers are engaged order your Horse Archers to charge from the side/behind.  It isn't perfect, but it seems to minimize the casualties from the initial charge and once it's over and the enemy's cohesion is busted, your nimble Lancers and Horse Archers will dance around the battle field annihilating your enemies.

edit: also, you may want to pull your Lancers out of the melee after the initial charge and then just order them to charge again and forget about them.

 

[Boduar]

Have you tried having them just follow you around firing at will?

 

[EnDSchultz]

Have you tried having them just follow you around firing at will?

I have. That's what I've been doing. The problem is that you need to have them in a rather tight formation otherwise it's almost impossible to prevent the wings of the formation from clipping the enemy lines; plus in such a formation they seem very reluctant to use their bows, and in an effort to stay in a line they often obscure each others' views or face the wrong direction.

 

[hruza]

I am not using all horse archer army but I used to mix few in to my knights. What I found out is that they work best when static. Look at their stats, they are excellent archers, in fact the best archers in game. I did not used them in any special way, just formed single line and let them shoot arrow at approaching enemy.

So I would say that best strategy would be to form line and let them shoot at enemy. Once enemy is too close, move to next hill, form line, shoot. Repeat. This will probably not work against cavalry heavy opponent but should work fairly well against army composed mostly of foot soldiers. You should however mix them with some heavier cavalry, perhaps 1:1 ratio.

Also note that archers are most effective from close range, so tell them to hold fire while enemy is too far away.

Bye the way, veteran horse archers are quit decent in hand to hand as well, they do not match knights but are close to second tier cavalry of other factions.

 

[Tachyon]

Tip : Khergit Veteran Horse Archers have a greater Archery ability than Vaegir Marksmen (atleast in M&B 1 ). Dismount them and watch the fun.

 

[Cznielsen]

hold F1... you will see the funny flag and tell them where to go?

 

[Vigil80]

I've been thinking about using heavy cavalry and horse archers together the same way most people use foot troops. Archers in a line firing on the advancing enemy, then regular cavalry charges when they get close. I've been wanting to try new tactics, but haven't had the patience for an unounted army.

 

[EnDSchultz]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. I'll be sure to take them into consideration.

hold F1... you will see the funny flag and tell them where to go?

Holy crap. I never knew this. This game harbors many secrets indeed.

 

[Cznielsen]

Thanks for all the replies, guys. I'll be sure to take them into consideration.

hold F1... you will see the funny flag and tell them where to go?

Holy crap. I never knew this. This game harbors many secrets indeed.

Some people are actually bored enough to read the manual...

 

[Vigil80]

Well first you have to find the manual.

 

[Cznielsen]

Well first you have to find the manual.

Steam....

 

[Lugh]

Well first you have to find the manual.

Steam....

 

[Cznielsen]

Well first you have to find the manual.

Steam....

隐藏

This is the point where you fail...

http://store.steampowered.com/app/48700/

At the right side, you will find a link to the manual. It's a .PDF file (adobe ftw).

I would have taken a screenshot, but then I noticed... my steam is in Danish and I'm too lazy to change it into english, so you wouldn't understand a word anyway... good luck.

Just for you! <3

隐藏: Screenshot

 

[Lugh]

Cheers.

 

[kweassa]

If you decide to go all-Khergit, and perhaps 'historical' in its composition with the 'pure' horsearchers and lancers being around 7:3 ratio, then you'll be spending a lot of time with the battlemap screen.

* The basics is to first put your entire army at the "follw me" order. You lead them on and usually the moving formation more or less resembles a column formation.

* Circle around the entire enemy army counter-clockwise without ever actually engaging, and keep peppering them with arrows. Ofcourse, you don't necessarily have to always move your army at the fastest gallop. All you need is just enough room to keep away from melee, but close enough to really land shots.

* Using the new Warband feature, you can recategorize your army into two groups, such as "Lances" and "Horsearchers" - in which case, you can envelop the enemy army front and back and circle it - it is a bit more difficult to command two groups in this manner, but it does help raise the kill count, since at least half of your volleys will be landing without being blocked by a shield.

* If there are cavalry in the enemy army, you can command your army to keep move around in the same fashion via the battlemap command, and then personally drive your character to in-and-out skirmish, until the enemy cavalry actively targets you and start to make their move - which, in that case, you run back to your army, set either your lancers only or the entire army to a "charge" - which will soon envelop the cavalry that followed you and deal with them.

* If you see your army spread out too much in the battlemap screen, pick a certain place and command them to move there - which will rally them into formation again. Rinse and repeat the process until either you dropped enough enemies to attempt to engage in melee, or, until the enemy army breaks formation.

* Try not to engage crossbow-heavy armies such as the Rhodoks. They hurt.

* If the enemy uses a long and thin single-line formation, put your army on "follow me" instead of "charge", and then drive into into their formation and break through. Remember to spread your cavalry out before the charge - a closely packed cavalry may seem like more momentum, but in M&B, if the first few cavalrymen are stopped then it becomes a disaster when cavalry are packed too tight.

 

[Asphe]

With the new grouping feature of Warband, this seems to work for me.

vs Infantry with Shields
F2-F5/F1-F2 i.e. Mount then Follow Me. I then have them deploy in a dispersed line facing the enemy while I go ahead, and just lead the enemy pass the line allowing my guys to get flank shots.

vs Archers/X-Bows
Same as above except since the enemy doesn't follow you as much, I stay on the opposite side of the enemy. You don't dare stay still or even move in a straight line.

To get your guys to face the enemy (avoiding a side profile), I have them hold position about 10-20 paces before the actual location I want them at, then have them Advance 10 Paces Forward when the enemy is about to be in range (i.e. or when your own guys start drawing their bows).

vs Heavy Cavalry
I usually split up my forces (typically I have Mamlukes, Swad Knights, Lancers and Horse Archers in separate groups), have my Lancers/Companions hit the Cavalry head-on to fix them, then have the Mamlukes/Knights hit them from both flanks, then commit the Archers. As long as the Archers go in last, the AI seems to let them do the usual skirmishing routine. If you have just Companions and Horse Archers, then let the Companions go first and move the Archers close by, then order them to engage. Somehow, if you order them to attack from a distance, they will actually charge in to melee initially. If they are already almost in melee range, they start the usual skirmishing mode.

Companions are good cannon fodder, since they never die and make good 'meat shields' if well armored, even at max difficulty.

I prefer Lancers over Horse Archers, Lancers sometimes carry bows and are better overall. And I make sure I carry a bow and a lance to kill those that are routed and to attack anything that is tailing my own forces.

PS Keep repeating the F2-F5 whenever your guys get in melee, else they will sometimes dismount... try to initiate battle in the middle of the map, since Horse Archers usually get chased more than chase after, if they hit the perimeter of the battlemap....

 

[CounterPoint391]

Also, tweak the random battlemaps to be bigger.....like for me 4 times bigger Learn how to here

 

[Vigil80]

Cznielsen, your smartaleck indignation is hardly deserved. That link is easy to miss. Nevermind the fact that there are other distribution outlets besides Steam, surprising as that may be.

 

[Berserker Pride]

I find a great tactic is twenty foot archers in a spread out line in front in hold formation.  Then take twenty or so HA's around the back in follow formation.  The enemy gets really confused at this point and as shredded by arrows from nearly every direction.  It is a must against shield heavy enemy units.