Structured Practice for a Newbie

[seedmuse]

Can someone give me a structured practice routine for learning the units and battle strategies for this game?

I'd like to learn any of the Catholic countries.

What specific things could I practice in Custom Battle that could give me more confidence? Did any of you develop a practice routine?

Thanks for the help.

Matt

[katank]

practicing in custom battles is a good idea but playing in a campaign stage is fine too.

first introduce yourself to the standard tactic of spear wall with archers behind, swords on flanks and cav in rear.

then try with archers in the front, just be sure to move spears up or archers back when cav threatens them.

flanking practice is essential, so is rear attacking.

learn to use the terrain like hills and woods. gauge the effect upon missiles etc.

then try with specialist armies like pure HA, all cav or pure sword rush etc.

I tend to settle with missile heavy against AI. In this game, like most, going against the AI, you can use more missiles than vs. human opponents.

no game AI I've seen has the ability to counter heavily massed missiles with protection.

[Doug-Thompson]

In hindsight, I wouldn't practice with custom battles if I was learning this game all over again.

You have to learn to fight with whatever you have. Practicing in set-piece battles doesn't really prepare you for the random, think-on-your-feet situations you'll encounter.

If you have Viking Invasion, I'd launch straight into a campaign and save the battles before fighting them. If you lose, reload and try again. I know that's cheesy and can grow into a bad habit, but soon you'll learn to take your lumps.

Frankly, I'd concentrate on the strategic game. Get as many troops, better troops, upgrades and better leaders as you can. Then fight somebody and learn tactics.

If you must play Catholics, consider the Danes. They aren't very exciting in the early moves, but they have definite advantages for a beginner.

Danes have a good, strong, no-nonsense unit in the Vikings. They're simple to use and tough to beat.

Danes get plenty of heirs, for some reason, which will teach you to use Royal Knights.

There's the rebel kingdoms of Sweden and Norway to overrun, which will give you some tactical experience without getting you into a major war.

The Danes have only one province in the beginning. It's a small empire that's easy to manage, easily defended and isn't confronted with a lot of dilemmas. The challenges will grow as the empire grows.

Playing the Danes will teach you patience, how to trade, and the importance of controlling your spending.

=====================

Most importantly, go to the Guides section and read frogbeastegg's guide to MTW units and the beginner's guide. That will give you a crash course.

[katank]

try harder factions like early novgorod.

they teach you use of HA as well as hard core economy management.

Hungarians are also HA civ.

for tactical position difficulty, try the Aragonese too.

[ichi]

Read the posts here and look at the good Army Builder Tools at Berserk site. Play the tutorial and the Historical Battles, and play a few campaigns and do not use auto-resolve.

Custom battles are important, but can only take you so far. Practice using armies that have different characters. Learn to use inf, then focus on cav, then missiles, then cav archers. This can give you practice using commands.

To get really good, you gotta go online IMHO. Find a vet willing to show you some tips and play some 1v1 or 2v2. Wait a while to jump into the big games.

Look at the unit production file for the version you are playing. Learn about morale and valor, understnad what attack, defense, charge, armor stats mean.

Quit your job, drop out of school, cut off your friends and family. Spend all day and all night playing the game and cruising the forums. Move your computer into your bathroom (take the refrigerator with you too) so you won't have to stop to go whiz.

Take morale guides and unit guides (FrogBeastEggs is the best) and print them and then use them as wallpaper.

Soon you will be an expert

ichi

[Doug-Thompson]

ichi raises a point I neglected.

If you want to be really good, learn about morale.

The secret of battlefield success is to attack the enemy's morale, not his units.

You'll find the basics on morale in the beginner's guide.

[seedmuse]

Thanks Ichi.

The refrigerator is a must I promise to remember that.

Actually thanks to all, I'm off and running. I don't have to play Catholics if someone has another suggestion...

Matt

[Xiphias]

I find that spain can be a nice faction to play. Bribe the armies of Valencia, Portugal and Navarre to start with and ally with then Aragonese. You've got a reasonably secure European border and you can attack the almohads without the pope annoying you.

Denmark, Byzantium, Spain and Poland are probably the most secure factions. Novogrod if you're prepeared for 1230 and Almohads if the Egyptions and spanish don't eat you aren't bad either.

I would recommend the Byzantines to start with. Good solid units and strong generals. Constantinople is pretty easy to hang onto and a great source of income (for large armies).

If you play one of the northern factions then I'd recommend taking sweden ASAP as it has great trade goods (which equals lots of money when you get your shipping lanes up and running).

[Captain Kevin Darling]

[QUOTE]Frankly, I'd concentrate on the strategic game. Get as many troops, better troops, upgrades and better leaders as you can. Then fight somebody and learn tactics.

My computer was rubbish until I upgraded and I couldn't play the game at all, so I use to go to the local computer centre and play LAN games against my mates. I learned the 'complete guide' by froggbeast off by heart and went and played. After a couple of games you see where the real strengths of each units are cos we didn't upgrade and so it was real strategy stuff.

I like the idea of doing custom battles first, I wouldn't have, I would of dived straight in and got my arse whooped. The best thing would be (IMHO) is to pick your army and theirs as good as you can and move up the difficulty rating, expert really isn't that hard.

If you play the game and you've got two more stars than your opponents you'll easily win, and that's without the upgrades. To be a better commander you'll have to make the fight a lot fairer first, and then go online

[katank]

@ xiphias, that much bribing is gonna break the bank.

navarre is certainly not worth it.

take it using king's BGs and some backup.

with valencia, the cid is worth it for the good general. even so, on expert it's a bit steep

portugal is not worth taking until after you finished off the Aragonese and pushed the Almos into Algeria or Tunisia.

I would actually finish the North Africa crusade run before dealing with portugal.

better have crap load of peasants ready too.

agreed on the morale part.

MTW is a game about morale. your men don't win if they run.

the reason you want elite troops rather than rabble is morale

[Xiphias]

I don't recall spain being especially poor. Assuming you're going to be playing on easy or normal then you should have enough to bribe them after a couple of turns.

[Doug-Thompson]

Spain doesn't start out poor, but will quickly be reduced to that condition by paying bribes.

You can get the 20 percent farm upgrade in each of your provinces, build a chapter house, build a Crusade, build an inn, hire a bunch of mercenaries and take both Valencia and Cordoba for the cost of bribing El Cid alone.

[katank]

yep, el cid costs 5500 at the beginning and drops to aroun 3400 on turn 3 or 4 but that's still pretty steep when playing on expert and you only start with 4k.

even on easy or normal, he's expensive.

is it really worth that much to get 2 jinettes and 1 peasant?

I like to do crusade run across north Africa and then use the order foot and santiagos to unite Iberia including crushing the Cid.

besides, prince Garc is usually a very good commander as my king would already have gotten good influence killing the infidels by the time he gets born.

[Xiphias]

The first son always becomes the king though. I like to keep my generals for a while.

[katank]

I don't think Garc is the first.

I think he's the second.

besides, what's this stigma against having your best prince become king?

true you lose that general but you get better heirs so it's one less good general now for lots more good general later.

it's a good long term investment.

[Agravain of Orkney]

To all of the great advice given so far I would like to add that one of the first things to do is practice movement. Go into single player - custom battle and form for yourself an army of 16 units (missile, infantry and cavalry). Give the computer a unit of peasants. Pick steppes map and start the battle. The computer will be at the other side of the field and will generally stay out of your way. Now practice moving your army around as a group. Forward, backward, side-to-side. Learn how to move it without changing facing (ALT + left click). Learn how to have it rotate facing (ALT + right click). Learn how to move sub-groups quickly (like pulling your forward archer line backward while marching your infantry forward). Learn how to set way-points (works great for ordering units on your wings to flank). Practice these until you can do them all quickly without having to think about it. Then do all the other great stuff suggested in this topic. Have fun. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[Serpent]

One thing is that just stay away from easy campaign ... Play whit normal it maybe hard start but still it is more rewarding and you will learn faster.

And Spend time in here....

[son of spam]

Hang out on the forums and follow these pieces of wisdom:

1). Backstab everyone-they are only gonna backstab you later if you don't do it first
2). Rebellions are a good way to build up gen stars. Thus, provoke as many rebellions as you can. Loyalist ones are the best for this
3). Use the kill prisoner button as an order confirmation button
4). Drop those tiny dudes with a cloak and a stick on all your princes and royals. That way, you can up the valor of them (at least one of them will survive).
5). Use your king to spearhead attacks on islands. That way, the islands are more loyal.
6). Peasents give you the best bang for the buck. They are 100 men units, and only cost 50 florins

General Battlefield Tips:

1). First arrange all of your units in wedge formation
2). Then, double click on the enemy gen
3). If the enemy wins, then you haven't brought in enough peasents. Is your general peasent too? If not, that will lower morale because the men will grumble and say that the gen is not one of us
4). Cav is best used to break spear formations

Hope this helps-be prepared for a long, fun game

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

[R'as al Ghul]

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

I'm sure Vanya will add some more usefull hints
as soon as he sees sonofspams list.

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-jester.gif

P.S: I must admit that I follow rule nr. 3 since I know
what the button does. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/bigthumb.gif

[katank]

@ son of spam. LOL

anyhow. I'm the one who first suggested using the kill all prisoners as order confirmation.

I scan my troops and order them about flanking or rear attack maneuvers and amek sure nothing is going terribly wrong.

then, I hit kill prisoners and go back to surveying troops as to how they are doing.

I think that dragging thousands of prisoners after them isn't going to improve combat efficiency.

I wonder why all my generals have blood lover and/or butcher http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-jester.gif