in depth guide for MP (fairly long)

A guide to multiplayer in medieval II total war
for high era

This guide is intended mostly for tactics/strategy, and a break down of game mechanics to allow a new (or not so new) player
to better understand which units to take and how to use them, although it will no doubt include examples that include factions it is more
a guide to unit types in general and there proper use.

A Break down a units stats and special abilities, what they really mean.

Attack
very simple but the number represented on the screen is an unmodified number, armour piercing can increase this number, and units with
equal attack but different attack speeds (the rate at which they swing there weapon) can make the faster attacking unit more desirable.
This attack also only shows the value for the primary attack, many units have an alternate attack (used by holding down the alt key)
this attack can be more powerful in the case of some cavalry who draw a weapon with armour piercing, or less powerful such as missile
units who often draw a weaker sword. these modifiers are discussed further on.

Defense

defense is broken up into 3 different stats. Armour, shield, and defense skill.
these stats can be found in game by pausing a game and right clicking on a unit card or ENEMY unit.
they can also be found by downloading The FAUST, an excellent program which breaks down a units stats and lists special abilites for
all units broken down by faction, it also shows the exact range for all artillery pieces and show the difference between javelin, regular, and long
range missile units for example.

Defense skill: this stat reflects a units ability to block an enemy weapon attack with his own weapon, this stat does not apply against a missle attack
this is one of the reasons why a missile attack can be a low number and still kill a high defense unit. this stat also does not apply against attacks made
to the rear. Also note that when a unit gets bonus's to defense from experience this number is where the bonus (+1) is applied, so against large missile
armies the experience defense bonus would not be useful. An example of a unit which is weakened significantly by this would be Scots guard of France,
there defense is 17, but drops by -9 to 8 against arrows.

Shield: this reflects a units ability to block an attack with his shield. Against attacks to the left or right only 50% of this stat is used, against rear attacks the
stat is not used at all. Not all units have this stat, two handed and some cavalry such as famila ducal are therefore more powerful against flanking attacks than
mailed knights whose defense is total 14 also, but has 4 shield and is therefore weakened by a left or right flank, where shieldless units would not be.

Armour: always applies against all attacks from all directions. modified by the armour upgrade. high armour units are more vunerable to armour piercing attack
so the 9 armour of the famila ducal is suddenly a hiderance compared to the 5 armour of the mailed knights. even though they both have 14 defense.

Special attributes

Armour piercing: As attributes go this is probably the most powerful, units with it ignore half of the enemy units armour stat,
an example of how this could combine to allow for a really powerful attack would be against scots guard with armour piercing arrows or crossbow bolts,
there attack against missile drops them from 17 defense to 8, all of which is armour, this drops that by half to 4 defense against your attack, thats right down
there with meleeing against peasents.

Bonus against cavalry: this gives them either +4 or +8 to there attack value against cavalry, the bonus depends on the unit, see the FAUST to determine which.

Gunpowder: a gunpowder attack ignores skill, shield, and half of a units armour, making them very lethal if they can get enough shots off.

Scare horses/Infantry: lowers a units moral making it more likely to rout. Elephants and camels scare horses, aztecs scare infantry.

The formations should be self explanatory.

Hit Points: some units have 2 hitpoints, have to score 2 hits instead of a single hit to kill each member of the unit.

Now that we've broken down each units stats i'll break down the different unit types and there uses.

Infantry

sword and shield:
basic infantry, i believe they get a bonus attacking spears, but beyond that they're standard infantry, there high defense makes them excellent for holding a line.

armour piecing weapon and shield: normally the defensive abilites of these units are lower, as such they should be used to kill enemy cavalry by supporting yours
or by flanking enemy units where there high attack will allow them to do more damage faster causing a unit to rout quicker than a flanking attack by a sword and shield.

two handed infantry:
there high attack often accompanied by armour piercing makes these units powerful on the attack, there slow attack speed itself however and low defense
means there best use is in deploying 1 or 2 with your cavalry, they will make short work of enemy cavalry, whos low numbers negate there advantage in attack speed
and defense. a flanking attack can do even more damage in the first few seconds than an armour piercing and shield unit causing units flank to rout very quickly.

Spearmen:
although these units have bonus's against cavalry there stats are often so bad cavalry can still harm them, and there low defense means they are extremely vunerable to charges
best used to support your own cavalry or because they often have higher than normal unit numbers, to buff up a line to hold, although with low moral a +1 to experience can
help them hold alot longer.

Pikes:
when made deep enough these units will stop any attack head on. Often the threat of these units approaching can cause an enemy to run away with cavalry even in the middle of
combat with your own cavalry, allowing you to get several free kills while they run away or even route the enemy unit. If the enemy cavalry doesnt run the unit will make short work
of it.

Foot archers:
there vunerable to pavise units, there vunerable to charges, there attacks are weak unless you use the expensive armour piercing units, there bad against cantabarian circle cavalry,
on the plus side they fire faster and there melee stats are often higher, especially with units like ottoman infantry who are designed to be as powerful as regular infantry with the
bonus of archer attacks. Overall with the exception of perhaps longbowmen or a few other units these units are generally very weak in mtw II.

Foot xbows:
they have armour piercing and a much higher attack which can make up for there lower attack speed if they fire enough. The pavise versions are excellent against enemy missile units.

Foot gunpowder:
I play high era so I dont know too much about these, other than to say there powerful and there stats are generally very good, there expensive compared to other missile units but
often worth it.


Cavalry

Light cavalry:
if its fast moving then its bonus is obviously its speed to catch enemy units and charge enemy missile units quickly. If it is a normal speed unit such as hobilars, then beyond
the fact thats its cheap its advantage is thats its excellent for absorbing a charge so that infantry can engage an enemy cavalry unit without having to take a charge to do so.
Hobilars combined with billmen is an example of how 2 units that are cheap could beat an excellent cavalry unit, by combining the hobilars ability to absorb a charge, which a billmen
could never do, with the billmens ability to beat cavalry in a melee which hobilars could never do.

heavy cavalry:
excellent charge, good stats, high priced, the best of them draw into armour piercing, such as english knights, imperial knights,teutonic knights, mamluks and alot of mongol cavalry.
if it draws a mace or an axe (zoom in to see) then it probably has armour piercing, to be certain check the FAUST.

Horse archers:
cantabarian circle, fast moving, those combine to allow them to survive against missiles(hopefully) and run from non missile troops while they shoot.

Horse xbowmen:
fast moving, more powerful attack. if you can shoot a flank during combat or manage to shoot enemy cavalry without taking return fire there nice.

Elephants:
there is a secret to commanding elephants, a simple secret, here it is.
charge a unit, once it makes contact with that unit, charge the next nearest unit, then the next, this is easiest by starting on a flank and working your way down an infantry line,
they will never stop, ever, nothing will hit them because nothing has time to swing, they attack tons of stuff one after another, all with charge bonus on constantly the enemy formation
is completely thrown into disarray.Ohh and please dont be stupid enough to think you spent 2.5k for a missile platform, if you want gunpowder then buy gunpowder this is a quarter
of your money your throwing into it, it better get more than a few archer kills.It shoots while you charge so theres nothing to be lost and everything to be gained.
These units were aweasome but not overpowered (though many will say so) in rome total war, they are however in high era WAY overpowered in MTW II because cavalry no longer
stop there charge so you can't get them to stop so you can engage them and beat them if the enemy uses them properly by repeatedly charging.

Artillery:

unfortunatly i'm not much of an artillery man, if i bring it its either trebuchets for their cow flinging and ability to force the attack, or cannons to kill enemy elephants.
experiment :P


now that we've looked at units i'll discuss some basic tactics and strategies,

army setup

often a balanced set up, where you deploy half your cavalry on each flank and your infantry in the middle is not that great a set up, it pretty much forces you to fight the enemy equally when
really what you want to do is fight battles where the enemy is at a disadvantage. here are in my opinion two much better alternates.

the easiest is cavalry in the middle behind your infantry, wait until battle is about to be joined and send all of them except 1 at one flank, the weaker flank if you can. you can plow through there flank
taking half there cavalry with it, with the remaining cavalry and 1 solid good moral sword and shield hold till i cant any more unit. Hold the other flank.
Even if you still end up splitting your cavalry half and half, having ALL your cavalry able to respond to either flank is much better than half, against a single strong flank attack your much better off this way.

the other is simply a weak and strong flank. place most of your cavalry on one flank place 1 cavalry and 3 infantry or 2 cavalry and 2 infantry, on the other flank. they can often hold long enough to win
the other side.

attack or defend

attacking is more difficult to command than defending but if you build your army to attack by placing few missile troops you can have the advantage of being the actor not the reactor, not be concerned
about an enemy rush, and making the enemy defend is not difficult

defending is easier to command but comes with the risk of your missile troops being made moot by a huge rush, and if the enemy is a defender as well and brings more missiles than your army
can be forced on the offensive where it probably wont fair nearly as well as it would had it defended, or as well as an attacking army that started with the intent to attack.


counters to common strategies

cavalry spam:
cavalry cannot beat infantry in a prolonged melee, especially if those infantry weren't charged ahead of time, absorb the charge with cavalry retreat through your infantry with your cavalry, then go for the flank
with your now freed infantry, or protect against as yet unengaged infantry.
A key here is DO DISENGAGE with cavalry once the infantry start getting up tehre with the cavalry. you must have some cavalry, and since he's cav spamming you will not have as much as him, dont waste
them in a melee you can win simply by allowing your infantry to do what there best at. if he tries to retreat punish him with a cavalry charge then, force him to melee or flee resulting in free kills and you will win.

massive amounts of archers, artillery things of that nature.
rush rush rush, they spent half there money on ranged attacks, get up close and personal. try to get around behind there thin line of infantry and engage there missile units quickly,
do this by making your own infantry line as thin as theirs and then use the infantry advantage you should have to support your cavalry or go around and flank.

infantry spam:
who brings infantry spam? :P
well if you can flank with cavalry it shouldn't be all that hard to win.

horse archer spam:
high defense, pavise units, and fast moving cavalry
pavise forces them to cantabrian that tires them so you can catch them with fast movers, high defense and pavise mean they dont hurt, fast moving means you can get them once your ready

mass pikes:
naptha is the best way to take this down if you cant flank. then crossbowmen, then archers.

spams often dont work against well balanced armies.
the key to beating them is spotting them before they happen based on the enemy faction

often the key is looking at the enemy teams faction and knowing in general what they will bring,
and also what you dont have to worry about. This can really help you maximize your advantage and negate theres

England:
strength: foot archers, english knights, good infantry
weakness: no glaring weakness's mostly its negate there strengths and overwhelm them somewhere
negate: pavise, only 4 english knights so bring lots and sacrifice elsewhere, there infantry are great its probably best to overwhelm the knights

Holy Roman empire:
strength:imperial knights, tuet knights combo, dismounted imps and two handers.
weakness: solid archer units, holding infantry
negate: cavalry infantry combo, overwhelm with solid infantry

Scotland:
strength:pikes, good supporting infantry, decent archers
weakness: cavalry,
negate: naptha is aweasome against scots, pavise and horse archers can also do an excellent job against the low defense of there units


you can look at every faction and basically go, there threats are going to be this, and there weakness's will be this, too many people
fail to take into account the enemy's faction choice when choosing there own units, if you just load up the same army every time
your not going to do nearly as well.

advanced tactics

don't bother to read unless your interested in squeezing every last inch out of game mechanics.


A slightly more advanced way of predicting enemy armies (this is most useful in 1v1)
is to save your army once you have it and briefly delete your whole army, look at the
total soldiers count on the left, this number if your unit roster is empty will tell you how many soldiers
the enemy is fielding, from this you can deduce some tactics some as all cavalary, all infantry,
and also see if the numbers seem fairly balanced, a balanced number can still be rushing though.

some basic numbers

normal unit size:
800 soldiers = all cav
1000 soldiers = half inf/ half cav (regular infantry size not peasent unit size)
1200 soldiers = all inf (regular infantry size not peasent unit size)

large unit size:
1200 soldiers = all cav
1500 soldiers = half inf/ half cav
1800 soldiers = all inf

note that even the half and half mix implies a 10 cav army, so on normal unit size
11000 soldiers would be more standard
8 cavalry, 4 spearmen, 4 infantry, and 4 archers would equal 11000 men.
8 cavalry 4 spearmen, 8 infantry would equal 11000 men but would rush.

use of artillery

Often if both sides bring artillery you start out just out of range of each other (trebuchets and below).
Do not target the enemy artillery target the infantry directly in front of it, now you will be firing around the
enemy artillery (which is about as close as you can expect to get with artillery) and while your firing,
often the enemy will attempt to move there own artillery up to fire on yours, this gives you several free
shots while they try to gain range. Once they move up into range simply switch targets, hopefully targeting
now a unit that is weakened by having lost 1 of the 2 pieces of artillery.

Deploy artillery WELL seperated, having a shot miss one artillery to hit another artillery piece just left of it
means you didn't seperate them enough.

artillery block charges, place in a hole between stakes, place several in front of your infantry line, because
charge is so incredibly buggy often a single guy getting stuck up on an artillery piece can cause the unit of
cavalry to run into an enemy, not charge into an enemy.



ANY RESPONSE WOULD BE MUCH APPRECIATED :beam:

negative, positive, constructive or just wow i managed to read half of it
before i got wore out :P