Defending

[Jeanne d'arc]

My tactic when defending is simple, i place my archers and put them on hold position, then when the enemy army storms my forces i send in the spears to keep them busy while trying to flank them with swords or heavy cavalry.Is this a good tactic and if not could u tell me how to make it better.Can someone also help me with a suitable tactic playing as spanish?
And i wonder what buildings are needed to train knights of Santiago, note that i already had 2 succesfull crusades but still they dont become trainable units for me. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

[Jeanne d'arc]

can someone also change my avatar http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

[RZST]

to my knowledge you cannot train KoS, even though it says you can Oo, go to the dungeon and ask how to mod the game so you can build em http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif.

as for avatar i think you can go to your control panel then choose layout. wait. control panel >> account options >> see where it says "Board Skin" change it from "Guild Med" to "Custom Avatar".

[HopAlongBunny]

Sounds good http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

I do much the same most of the time. You could try light cav. as deep flankers. One jinette or a horse archer can keep a unit or more busy until the battle is over. 2 jinettes can destroy almost any unit.

The AI sometimes really gets lost with skirmishing. I had one battle where the king marched up to my lines all alone http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif the rest of his army was chasing or getting slaughtered by light cav.

Skirmishing can be tedious...but it has its moments http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

Avatar change? No idea.

[frogbeastegg]

On the battlefield - your idea is sound. If you want you can take a look at the last half of the beginner's guide (not to imply that you are a beginner, the guide has become a good reference for more advanced strategies as well as simple ones) posted at the top of this forum, it has a lot on the battlefield including formations and strategies.

On Knights of Santiago - Ky Kiske is right you can't train them without modding your game. You can sort of train the crusader units without modding if you don't mind a little micromanagement and expense. If you build a crusade and target a province very close to your lands you should get a few knights in it, them when you conquer the province you will get to keep the knights. If you do this in an ordinary war (i.e. use crusades instead of normal armies when attacking non Catholic factions) you can build up a reasonable number of crusader units for later use. You won't be able to retrain them to replace their losses or improve their equipment; instead you will have to keep combining the units as they diminish.

On avatars - To quote my reply on another topic:
"You have to wait until your post count hits 500, at which point you can choose an avatar and a custom title (the bit that currently says 'mercenary' above your avatar). Your avatar and title will automatically change as you hit pre-specified post totals (25, 100, 200, 325, 500). Some of us have different avatars taken from Shogun: Total war, this works differently from the standard ones in that you have to ask TosaInu very politely to change it for you. You are also stuck with the Shogun avatar until you hit 500 posts as it doesn't automatically update like the standard ones." It is also possible to get several special icons to put above your avatar, take a look at this topic (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=15;t=10254) to see some examples along with their explanation.

[Jeanne d'arc]

ok thx for clearing that up

[TheViking]

on the far end of my battle line i have light and/or heavy cav then i have spears and in the middle i put swords and axes.

behind sword and axes i also have archers on hold and behind them the gen, cus if he need to help on either side or in middle he must be able to go there quick.

why i have the spears as flankers is cus thats where 98% of the time the ai are sending his cavs, and then i flank or rear attack his cavs with my cav and if he dont have so many cav as i, i send them to attack his softer units as archers, artillery and units like that, and when they are done with that or he dont have any of those units i rear attack where he starts to rout or where its going real bad for me.

[Jeanne d'arc]

Citaat[/b] (TheViking @ Aug. 26 2003,08:35)]on the far end of my battle line i have light and/or heavy cav then i have spears and in the middle i put swords and axes.
Why dont u put some spears in the middle with the bowmen on hold position in front of them, this way u can fire more arrows before the enemy troops are closing in.The spears will also last longer wich will allow your swords to flank the enemy units.

[Jacque Schtrapp]

Quote[/b] (TheViking @ Aug. 26 2003,08:35)]on the far end of my battle line i have light and/or heavy cav then i have spears and in the middle i put swords and axes.
I agree with having the light cav on the flanks. I disagree with putting swords/axes in the center of the line unless you are facing an army that has no cavalry of its own. It has been my experience that when I place the swords/axes in the center of the line and the opposing force contains cavalry units the AI always charges the center of the line because of the mismatch with sword vs. cav and I end up losing my best infantry troops as the cavalry charge pushes the infantry into the archers and then I have a big mess to clean up. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[TheViking]

if i have spears or swords/axe in middle doenst matter if the archers can shoot more or less arrows before the enemy reach me.

Maybe i should said startup battle line, cus i dont know how the enemy setup his men. but its true if teh enemy have many cavs he use to charche the center, but its not so hard to change place with the swords/axe units http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

before i had the spears in the center and i always got enemy cavs on the flanks, but i think its better to have the enemy cavs in center on battle field. cus they can get a quick counter flank attack with the cavs, if they not in center of the field.

if i know the enemy have many cavs specially heavy cavs i have the front line like this:

CAV CAV, S/A, SP, S/A, S/A, SP, S/A, CAV CAV
with bows behind the infantry

anyway, its hard to explain like this and would be best if it was shown. i guess all can agree with that.

[ShaiHulud]

The AI is very good at seeking mismatches so I like to stagger spear units between the other foot types. That way I can better direct the match when the AI attacks.

I actually like heavier, more reliable, foot units on my flanks because if a flank collapses, the battle may well be lost. Encouraging the enemy to attack the center (by showing strength on the flanks) allows all my archers to influence the key battles in the center and assures that my centralized general's unit provides his morale boost where most needed.

I don't place archers in front of the line much. That's an invitation to the AI to send cavalry directly at them to force their retreat (which it invariably does). It might seem like a usable ploy, but, the time between my archers retreat and the enemy's foot advance is often nil. However, occasionally you can lure cav units far out in front of their army's advance. In such a case, you'll get some easy kills and still have time to ready the archers behind your line, before their foot advances.

In my book, cavalry are flankers. The general's unit is my final reserve and gets committed either when the enemy has broken and run or when the battle is so desperate that it's my last option.

[The_Emperor]

My defensive formation consists of layers on a hilltop. I tend to have a Wall of Spears in the outer layer, all in Hold Position Mode. Next I have Archer Units one or two rows deep also in hold position/hold formation modes.

Behind the Archers would be Men at Arms, Swords & Axes.

Cavalry would also be in the third row but staggered between the Men at Arms, ready to charge out and flank.

If I have a couple of Naptha throwers in the army they will hold position in key places in front of the spearmen, ready to sow their exploding terror upon the enemy.

This formation hasn't failed me in a Campaign yet.

[Daveybaby]

Heh, if you have an easily defensible hilltop to sit on then of course youre almost certain to win. The difficult bit is defending on an open plain.

Jeanne, as others have said - your strategy is pretty sound. But it gets boring after a while to use the same strategy all of the time, so sometimes i try to win with 'non-standard' formations.

I've had a couple of successful defences using about 75% arbs+archers, with the remainder being some spears to defend the flanks. Find a ridge and deploy your Arbs 2 ranks deep, so that the increased elevation of the 2nd rank still allows them to fire. Archers behind the second rank fire over the heads of the arbs with a greater R.O.F. (rate of fire) than arbs can muster.

Focus all fire one one enemy unit at a time. The target enemy unit will be decimated in seconds by the concentration of fire, and will be almost certain to rout. Once a few units have routed the rest have a marked tendency to follow, then regroup and try again.

If you are up against a VERY large opposing force then you will need a LOT of archers in reserve to replace those that have run out of ammo. Your probably wont need arbs in reserve because by the time their R.O.F. drops the enemy will probably be demoralised and very vulnerable to routing. I have beaten off huge mongolian hordes using this technique.

Of course, the downside to this tactic is that, if it starts to go wrong - it will go VERY wrong and be totally unrecoverable in any way. You will have to retreat ASAP to try to save as many units as possible to fight another day.

Another consideration is armour. If your opponent is heavily armoured, and you dont have longbows as archers, you will probably fail - the rapid R.O.F. supplied by archers is essential to inflict maximum damage during enemies first charges. If your arrows just ping off then the enemy may get through.

[hoom]

Sod mixing archers & arbs.
Just go for the arbs.
6 units of arbs + 3 or 4 units of Chiv Sergeants & a couple of flanking units = cheezy, extremely strong defensive force.