Your biggest outnumbered battle

[benefactr]

What's the biggest troop count you were outnumbered by the enemy and won. Doesn't matter on what level you play. Seems like this game isn't like warband where could would have a pretty good chance to win even if outnumber by 2:1 or more since the battles would happen in different stages. I play on easy and beat a enemy party twice as big as mine.

 

[kopus]

I've been playing on realistic from the jump, but it does seem a lot more difficult to pull out miracles in Bannerlord compared to Warband. Largest disadvantaged victory I've had on the field would be 400+ - 600+ against the Aserai. They were on offense so they charged us while I managed to set up our troops at a decent terrain near the Southern Empire territory.

I'd say defensive sieges have also become a lot more advantageous due to the castle layouts giving more opportunities for archers to destroy you on the stranglehold points.

 

[Wehveechen]

Generally, about 2-2.5 times the size of my own party/army is very feasible, leading to 300 Vs 700 men being a carnage but manageable. (But I play on easy so...)
If the enemy army is even bigger than that, I'll usually lead them on until they fall apart and become easy prey.

 

[QueenAnnesRevenge]

Definitely less likely to win outnumbered battles in BL vs Warband. I remember raiding villages and having a 600 man army attack me in Warband against my maybe 200 and just cutting them apart in a confined area (bottleneck regions). I went up against an army nearly double my size thinking I'd still win with my high powered squad. Nope, it wasn't an all out rout but I lost decisively in BL.

What kind of field tactics do you guys like to use when an enemy attacks? I've used the same general strategy every time:

1) Place archers on a hill in loose formation
2) Place infantry maybe 10-15 meters ahead at the bottom of the hill in a shield wall
3) Press F6 on the horse archers and just let them kind of do their own thing, typically hit and run tactics
4) Have my Calvary follow me and wait until the approaching infantry is almost at my infantry wall then charge

A good opposing Calvary will really complicate this general plan and typically something happens where I have to advance my troops and it seems like almost always I end up losing the organization and it becomes chaos. But that strategy tends to work pretty well for the initial onslaught

I did have a fun moment where I tried to get my troops back into a line, but then realized (by getting pelted with arrows, then using alt to confirm) that pretty much all they had left were archers. So I ordered an all out charge and the battle went from a stalemate to a decisive victory

 

[rightous_executioner]

600 (me) vs 1400(rhagaea and her simpire)

was doing ok with fian champions but they ran out of arrows , and they kept coming non stop made my infantry do a sheild wall to agrro their archers to shoot til they run out and then let my cavalry charge at them

gave it 2 tries but got destroyed , my archers kept running out of arrows and for some reason enemy ai wont fully charge they were charging till they get close then they return

1st try i downed them to 620

2nd try 477

 

[TheShermanator]

Same, 2:1. And even then, the only way really to win is to play defensively near your spawn areas and far away from the enemy's spawn areas.

This topic really correlates pretty strongly with the reinforcement mechanics thread(s): I kind of prefer to be outnumbered a little bit in big battles, where reinforcements are a factor, because then I can be sure to game the reinforcements to my advantage and enjoy the defensive tactics described up-thread. Otherwise, if you're even with an enemy and they turtle up, the battle turns into a random scrum: You defeat / trade well with their first contingent, but their reinforcements spawn near the fighting while yours trickle in from across the battlefield.

 

[Kegeyn]

On realistic / all max difficulty?
370 vs 1230 standard battle

If you know how to abuse strong units you can get even more riddiculous results in this game

 

[TechnoSarge]

What kind of field tactics do you guys like to use when an enemy attacks? I've used the same general strategy every time:

1) Place archers on a hill in loose formation
2) Place infantry maybe 10-15 meters ahead at the bottom of the hill in a shield wall
3) Press F6 on the horse archers and just let them kind of do their own thing, typically hit and run tactics
4) Have my Calvary follow me and wait until the approaching infantry is almost at my infantry wall then charge

Hmmm. I have almost never had an enemy attack me, except dismissive ones that I outnumber. I fear I'm usually the offender.
I have NEVER used Shield Wall; I'll have to learn how to order it.

So the enemy infantry generally occupies a pretty good spot and waits for me to deploy. NOBODY brings more cav than I do (Khusaiti), so dealing with the enemy's cav hasn't been hard.

A tactical point I make use of is to fix the enemy's attention with archers in his front. I lead cav and mounted archers to my left - since
the enemy is holding shields in their left hands, I'm facing their unshielded side. That makes the arrows go home more often. Generally, my archer line (backed closely by my infantry) goads the enemy into a charge after a while - then my cavalry thunders in on their flank. Add a "charge" command to the infantry and the enemy is pinned between my rock and my hard place.

 

[Solomani]

On Realistic 200 some to 600. My troops were higher tier. I dismounted cavalry grouped with infantry and circled up. Once the enemy closed in.. F4 the archers and inner circle them. They pelted us with everything and tried to run cavalry through a few times. Eventually they charged with infantry, would be a lot of slaughter and they'd back-up and regroup. Then charge again. Still lost, but only because we lost morale and broke the circle. Was pretty even by the end.

 

[Ishtarin]

On realistic / all max difficulty?
370 vs 1230 standard battle

If you know how to abuse strong units you can get even more riddiculous results in this game

This is much more impressive than the usual fian/horse archer spam. Did you focus them into a narrow choke point?

 

[Badcritter]

I read a reddit post claiming 100 (+a small amount of friendly militia) to 1000, won without a casualty to his party. From his description of how he did it, I can believe it is possible as I've had success on a smaller scale with similar tactics.

Basically baiting the enemy with a small group of shielded and/or expendable infantry that tries to keep out of engagement range while holding agro, and charging your cavalry through the enemy from the back or sides. Rinse and repeat, your cavalry acting like a lawnmower on a field of red stained grass.

You lead the cavalry charge yourself with your cav on follow to ensure they don't get all excited about stopping and fighting the enemy, which is a surefire way for them to get killed. This was on 1.2, I've been playing a footman since then so I don't know if the tactic would still work with current troop collision and formation behaviours.

 

[kweassa]

Everything depends on battle size. The higher the battlesize settings, the stronger the disadvantage to the outnumbered, as Lanchester's Law dictates.

 

[geala]

Till now I never had big battles where I was in overall command. Most battles were against Vlandia or Western Empire, mostly with Battania. Quite often it did no ran that good. I play on "Realistic" (hahaha), with 1.000 as battlefield limit, with mods which give archers bows instead of the vanilla machineguns and which make armor better (all a bit bad for Battania), and I don't like cheesy tactics, so there is usually no big place left for heroic feats. BTW, to being outnumbered, one battle we fought 850 against 600 of the AI (WE), and lost.

 

[Kegeyn]

This is much more impressive than the usual fian/horse archer spam. Did you focus them into a narrow choke point?

I baited the army to attack me on a hilly terrain as i wanted to get the "mountain pass map" so it was much harder to get surrounded.

As 2h troops of aserai are one of the best units in the game currently they cut through the cav without problems and crush morale of enemies with their throwing axes before the battle even starts. Their 2h axe is riddiculously strong as it breaks shields in 3 hits and can cleave to up to 2 units (vanilla, as i stopped using cleave mods because they got even more broken) while at the same time providing range and speed that lets them grind through shielded infantry.

At the moment there is no unit that can match versatility of aserai mameluke palace guards. 1.4.1 sturgian shock (they use 2h only there) are better anti cav but worse vs shielded as they use polearm. Armored ulfhednars are better than pre 1.4.1 but still nowhere near this power level.

 

[TheShermanator]

Everything depends on battle size. The higher the battlesize settings, the stronger the disadvantage to the outnumbered, as Lanchester's Law dictates.

True. But the reinforcement system lets you cheese battles and bypass Lancasters Square Law, no? Basically, fight 1 on 1 10x vs 1 on 10 like it should be?

 

[Kegeyn]

God something just hit me - My result with 370 vs 1230 was on 1300 troop limit (modded)

This means that technically with lower battle size limit aserai 2h dudes could defeat enemies on even greater odds.
It amazes me how much people cried reg. Fian's where fians are limtied by their ammunition. Axes don't have chop chop cap

 

[MightyMidgit]

Me solo vs about 900. I was a high level horse archer. I would fight until I ran out of arrows, tactical retreat, and then continue with refreshed arrows. Took forever, but it gets easy once you take out their mounted troops first.

 

[Apocal]

What's the biggest troop count you were outnumbered by the enemy and won. Doesn't matter on what level you play. Seems like this game isn't like warband where could would have a pretty good chance to win even if outnumber by 2:1 or more since the battles would happen in different stages. I play on easy and beat a enemy party twice as big as mine.

I soloed two parties of Hidden Hands, roughly 110 dudes between them, using two stacked steppe arrow quivers, a steppe bow and a long glaive.

It isn't as impressive as it sounds because those units were and are trash. The only risk is early on when they still have throwing knives to toss your way. After that, it is just a question of positioning and timing the glaive swings to catch them in the head literally anywhere while staying out of their weapon's reach.

 

[King Yngvar]

Never gone solo against 900, I guess it would be easier with a horse. I've taken out about 100 on foot. Starting with a bow, shot down the few horses they had (they die ridiculously easy to arrows), then a swinging polearm let me take down their infantry down one by one. Chop, turn and outrun them, turn back and chop, all the while running in a circle around them. The AI is really dumb and can't work as a unit, they all just try to run straight at you, no working together to flank you. Would probably be impossible against an army with more cavalry/archers or a better AI.

 

[TheShermanator]

I soloed two parties of Hidden Hands, roughly 110 dudes between them, using two stacked steppe arrow quivers, a steppe bow and a long glaive.

It isn't as impressive as it sounds because those units were and are trash. The only risk is early on when they still have throwing knives to toss your way. After that, it is just a question of positioning and timing the glaive swings to catch them in the head literally anywhere while staying out of their weapon's reach.

Side note: What are throwing knives supposed to be like? E.g. What is supposed to be the upside of throwing knives vs. javelins or throwing axes in certain situations? I feel like they are just worse than other throwing weapons with little upside, but have not really tested carefully.