Spanish Jinettes

[Quokka]

I need to know how to kill Jinettes. I played this game as the English and came up against the Spanish very early. The English have nothing that can chase these guys down. I only overcame the Spanish due to superior numbers, they were fighting the Almohads at the same time. The Jinettes just circled me and decimated my units. All of these battles could be politely called Pyrrhic victories.
Shooting with grouped archer volleys worked somewhat but not against armies with 8 Jinettes, I'd run out of arrows.
I made sure to wave goodbye to any Hobilars I sent after them as that was the last I would see them. I ended up just hiding until they ran out of ammo and retreated. I could beat his foot units then.

So not just for the English but any faction that lacks a fast cavalry unit to swat these annoying buggers, how is it done? Its even more annoying because I am not good enough to use them like that when I play as the Spanish http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

[jLan]

Get some Kerns and beat them with javelins. They are 40 men, you're 60. Add in some archers and they'll get destroyed.

[Cebei]

Horse archers are the way to go. If you can come across turcoman cavalry, or mamluk horse archers, use them http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wacko.gif

[hrvojej]

Later on, you would be able to mow them down with crossbows and arbalests, especially on defense. But for now, try to get them into pincers, e.g. one unit of hobilars charging from one side, and another from their back. This also works with infantry on rare occasions. Also, jinettes are usually on skirmish, and they have a short range. Whenever you see them trying to shoot, make a dash for it, and they'll skirmish back. Stop since you cannot catch them, and repeat. At least you'll keep them off of your back until you deal with the rest of the army, and maybe you can even sneak a unit behind them to catch them in pincers. Also, try to get yourself involved in a defensive battle, where you can shoot more volleys at them. After you've sufficiently depleted them, they'll get a morale penalty for being depleted and outnumbered if they approach to shoot, and they'll rout. On attack, try to overwhelm them with numbers so they retreat to the castle to rot. Or when doing actual battle you may try suckering them into engaging with some fake weak spots or something similar (I remember doing this with cavalryless Almohad armies).
Cavalry in very early game can be a real pain. Especially when you don't have any, and your opponent does. This makes playing factions like HRE even more difficult.

[The_Emperor]

The best ways is to shower them with Arrow fire, Jinettes are larger targets on horseback and will always lose in an archer duel.

If you only have melee units you will need to force them to skirmish into your own units and the best way to do this is to get Cavalry to move behind them while another advances from the front or the sides... Then you get them to Charge forward at the unit from all directions, the Jinettes will skirmish one way and then another and then will give up and rout.

I used a similar tactic on foot to rout the Mongol Horse archers with nothing but foot Troops and exhausted royal knights in the HRE PBM Campaign.

Here is a screenshot...

http://home.clara.net/ralphwolf/HRE/kiev5.jpg

They are tricky but they can be beaten

[Quokka]

Later is not a real problem. English longbows murder them. I like hiring Mtd X-bows to take them (and much more) out. It is just in the early going that they were a real handful. The Spanish are a pretty aggressive faction so if I start anywhere near them I end up against Jinettes early.

I did try the charge as they prepare to fire trick which was succesful when I caught it, but I am trying to play this campaign minus the pause button and that requires a lot of micromanagement that I am not very good at yet.

I've never really used Kerns and in fact don't even have Ireland yet and its 1238. I have many other concerns now and Spain is dead so Ireland will have to wait.

Thanks for the advice.

[Divine Wind]

If your having problems in early best thing would be to build Hobilars and use the tactic Emperor mentioned. Take your Hobilars on a flanking mission behind the Jinettes and drive them into another unit or your main force. Once they are commited to melee fighting they will rout quickly. Only problems are its all about micromanagement skills so its quite tricky to learn and it can take a few bars from the fatigue levels on your troops. Good hunting http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Nowake]

you'd better use Alans. They'll smack through them, and are faster.

[Vanya]

GAH

Vanya's Guide to Killing Jinetes
===================================

If you have a spear, poke 'em till they fall off their high horse.

If you have a sword, take swipes at their horse's legs.

If you have a bow, fire your arrows at his gut and get the heck out of dodge before he gets pissed off and decides to shove a javelin into your noggin.

If you have something else, do as the sword folks do.

If are are on horse, do any of the above.

If you are a peasant, just rout. If you rout while still far away, you can get off the field alive.

But, at the end of the day, no matter what weapon you use or what beast you ride (ie, horse, dog, cow, chicken), it still comes down to the basics.

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/idea.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/idea.gif GAH CUT HEADS OFF GAH http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/idea.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/idea.gif

[NewJeffCT]

When I got MTW last year for my birthday in December, I started off playing the English and the Jinettes gave me more trouble than any other unit in the game - so much so that my next campaign was as the Spanish.

Definitely swing some quicker cavalry way wide of the jinettes and then around behind them. As they are skirmishing units, the jinettes will retreat when charged by spearmen - hopefully by this time, your hobilars will be behind the jinettes and can charge them as they retreat, causing confusion and routing. It's frustrating at times, as you can sometimes play the angles wrong and allow the jinettes to escape and re-group...

[Martok]

Quote[/b] ]Horse archers are the way to go. If you can come across turcoman cavalry, or mamluk horse archers, use them


Hate....horse archers....so....much.....

Truly, they're about the most frustrating units in the game to fight against; at least they are for me. They're just as fast as Jinettes, and with better range. One of these days I'm going to try playing as the Turks just so I can try out those SOB's on the battlefield

[Vanya]

GAH

In Vanya's last campaign as Turks... very interesting. Vanya attacked the Russians in Chernygov (sp?). The army crossed over from Khazar and, thus, had to cross a river (at the time, unbeknownst to Vanya until the battle started... LOL). Well, Vanya had 700 odd men. Mostly turcomans, some camels, a unit of steppe heavies, a pair of Ghulans and 3 saracens. Then stinkin' Russians had like 1200 men Defending a river GAH

Fortunately, there were TWO bridges. Vanya sent the main force to one bridge, and horsearchers and turcomans plus 1 saracen to the other. Game over The single saracen was enough to wear down the vikings on the "small" bridge. The heavies smashed their will to fight, and the river was crossed. Vanya massacred the reinforcements as they came in. When all were dead, He hit the remaining campers from both sides, resulting in a blood bath indeed

Vanya thinks its quite humorous that now that He has Jannissary heavies, that its the old Turcoman horse that is winning the battles versus the infidel chivalric armies.

(No chivies in the Russian army above, but many in other cases...)

GAH

[bhutavarna]

mounted archers are awesome, if used properly. i once defeated a larger polish army comprised of royal knights, spears, etc., with only 4 mounted xbow and a spear.

the key is mobility. destroy their formation, then kill them one by one. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[ShaiHulud]

This is not really a tactic but the use of the program.

All cav archer types KNOW when you have them targeted for an assault and will retreat accordingly when your unit gets within the programmed range. Therefore, assign a point to move to which is beyond the target unit. They seem to ignore units not specifically targeted on them longer.

This works particularly well when you approach them from their flanks. The 'accordion' process of their closest individual units compressed onto others, as they retreat due to your proximity, quite often allows you to catch a number of them. Then target them normally.

I've seen it work best when they're busily targeting a line unit. My cav was perpendicular to their line. I directed my cav to a point somewhat to their rear. When they finally began to retreat some of my cav were already behind them and various of their horse indecisively first moved directly away (towards my line) and then retreated away from my line, as well, back into the fire, so to speak.