the difference in armies

[A.Saturnus]

I have experienced that I typically have two different kinds of armies. The first one are "grown" armies. When I need troops quickly somewhere I grab what I can get of troops, give them to the best general available and send them into action. Later I send reinforcements, take up garrison units I don`t need any longer or former crusade units, merge armies, things like that. These armies consist of the units I got somewhere and those who survived the last battles. Often, most units are not entirely full. Crusades are a subgroup of grown armies since they chance a lot even before coming to battle.
The other kind are "design" armies. These armies are built when I find I have room in my budget and have a very good general or I plan a campaign somewhere. They are built on effectivness. Usually I built the units for design armies in provinces with the most boni and I only use the state of the art of troops. These armies are well balanced and have just the troop types that I expect to need in the next campaign. After a few battles, parts of the army has to be reinforced, sometimes with units that are at hand. So a design army gets a grown army over time. That`s why I always have more grown armies than design armies.
Design armies are much superior to grown armies. With design armies I rarely loose any battle even against much greater numbers while grown armies (especially crusades) sometimes get slaughtered by smaller armies. The AI seems to use grown armies exclusively, that`s why it usually get beaten so easily even without better tactics.
So, do you mainly use design armies or more grown armies?

[Spetulhu]

Depends on if I have time to build up, of course. If I`m attacking someone I`ll do it with selected armies lead by good generals. When I absolutely positively want to keep control of a province getting attacked, I`ll use anything that can walk and assign anyone with a star to lead them. There are times when my fine armies get stretched so thin in a campaign that I have to reinforce them with something available, but that`s rare. I rather use a few more of the common troops than a super-elite special army that can only get replacements in one or two provinces.

[Naagi]

Mostly the grown armies, due to the need to reinforce with whats available. Though currently building a huge design army to meet the golden horde when it arrives. Lots of VG and PC, then i'll turn em lose on the HRE, Hungarians, and Polish. Im saving the pope till last.

Naagi http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Al Qasim Hussein]

Mostly grown armies, but during periods of peace I try to either retrain or replace what units I can in any given general's stack(s) to get better armor/weapon upgrades and of course newly developed units which kinda makes the grown armies turn into designed...

I also just created an uber-army of tons of feudal and chivalric sargeants, CMAA, chiv. knights, and a few trebuchet just for kicks. Combine that with my pavise xbows and arbalesters and I have an army that is poised (as soon as I get off work, god willing&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif to march thru the entire Byzantine empire and plunder everything they have so that they will leave me alone. Good times.

[LadyAnn]

The old guards, those units I used to rely on in the early days such as ubr.mil., peasants and spears, now semi-retire and garrison in key provinces. The newly trained units, with their most advanced weaponry are waiting at ports, ready to jump into action. The battle-harden units are percolated and used to station new key front-line provinces waiting for enemies' counter attacks.

Of course, to storm the castle and climb walls like ants, you need ... ants.

Annie

[Mr Frost]

I sort of play by instinct , but I am quite particular about what I want , so kind of grown armies by design http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif
I'll try to get an army just they way I want then if it is less than 16 units I'll throw in whatever might be usefull untill I can replace them with the units I really want there .
I also tend to build constantly {nearly all my leaders and goverors get a building virtue fairly quickly} so I often find myself updating my main armies . I almost always outclass my SP opponents this way which sort of proves my strategy is on the right track {if you find yourself in a fair fight , then you're strategy needs improving - I think Patton said something along those lines http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif} .
I love a nice well developed all-arms army Very satisfying . After a while , the units tend to get fairly high valour anyways , even with the constant upgrading and reinforcing .

[ShadeFlanders]

I use mostly design, for ex against the horde I create armies filled with arbs, billmen, sergeants and light cav. For use against the HRE I use lotsa swords and heavy cav. I also often retrain units of these kinds of armies to keep them in "top shape".
Grown armies I only use when I need to slap together a hasty defence or urgent invasion army. When I start using grown armies I know I'm in trouble.

[el_slapper]

Mainly grown armies. It adds to the challenge. And when I have several Stacks, I do not choose wich units to use.

It leads to bad things, sometimes. But I find it waaaaaay more fun. And I'm focusing on producing a balanced amount of modern armies, so my grown armies are not THAT unbalanced.

[chunkynut]

Mine are mostly design.

But only in the sense as in i am either creating an army to defend against a mass of troops (ie almos) or i want to carve another slice of europe http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Planning, of course, is every thing and i find when these 'grown' armies go into the field i have a great lack of something like archers or cav etc. Something in my battles are always left out of grown armies and it pisses you of when you think 'DAMN cos have used there ARRRGGGGHHH' http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

So i build these design armies and i have certain territories producing troops so within 4 - 6 turns you can have a elite unit army, abeit green, to throw at the AI.

[deejayvee]

If I have the time, money and reason I'll go for a design army every time. That way I've got the best possible army for my tactics.

Having said that, I often don't have the either the time nor the money.

[A.Saturnus]

Interesting.
I find it more fun to use design armies cause this way I can apply my favorite strategy. Of course you could use grown armies just to force yourself being flexibe http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
I try to re-design my armies when they get grown, but because it takes to much micro-management, I often leave it.

[Exile]

Building the army you want is one of the best traits in the game IMO and its great when your elite army can kill and route forces many times its size. I'll take a smaller army of elite troops over a mass of rabble or mixed troops any day, but I can see the benefit of either style. Mid-Late in the game I use my low power troops to garrison and I send the rest in on sieges (which I auto) to get rid of them http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Psyco]

I find that i "assign" different provinces for different troops
as in:
_ makes archers, ____ builds cavalry
but i dont really have an arm,y that i try to make
i just try too make my armies as balanced as possible