What would you do?

[m52nickerson]

You have a force of the following units
2 Arches
3 light Infantry
1 Horse arch
1 light Calvary
1 Spear
1 Medium Calvary (Generals unit)


This force is waiting to defend against a attacking force of twice your size. Same general make up except for one unit of Heavy Calvary, and Infantry.

Between your forces is a old river bed, about 10 - 15 feet (3 - 6 meter) deep and wide enough that arches can just hit the other side. It runs the length of the map. The rest of the ground is, for the most part flat with sparse trees. The only real dense grouping of trees in in the river bed, just to the left of center.

With retreat not an option, what would your course of action be?

[Papewaio]

Anchor the infantry with the trees on the left. Spearmen behind ready to move to a flank to counter cav.

Archers directly the 3 infantry. Horse archer deep out on the other flank from the trees. Use them to make the infantry approach the non-tree flank and or the cav to the trees.

Medium cav ready to counter charge at the rear of the archers. Behind them on a flank put the light Cav to protect the rear/exposed flank of the general.

[m52nickerson]

No one else whats to share there ideas on what they would do?

[Ludens]

Initially I would set up in the river bed, some distance from the trees, in the formation Papewaio describes but with one difference: between the trees, I would hide my light cavalry.

As the enemy approaches, I would pull my forces back to the top of the incline, thus drawing them away from the trees. All the time they would be harrased by my horse archers. I would place my army so that both my archers and infantry have height advantage (this may require some maneuvring during the battle).

Sometime after the infantry has engaged, I would spring my ambush. Exactly which unit is targeted depends on the situation on the field. I could either hit the battle line if it severly weakened, or go for their general. At the same time as the light cavalry charges out of hiding, my general and the horse archers (what is left of them) will charge in to support them as well.

Not a garuanteed win, but then I am not a great general ~;p .

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Personally I would try to make the enemy come up the river bed. Give them a little space to hit your main line, then push them back into the river bed. Pushing an enemy down a hill/river bed is always a moral killer as well as horrible footing for your enemy.

If you have confidence in your archers, put them on the other side of the river bank to harrass the enemy before they get too close then retreat them behind your lines. Keep your horse archers IN the river bed a little ways from where the main battle will happen. That way you harrass the flank of the enemy and when you're out of arrows hit the flank.

Keep your light cavalry and general behind lines to plug up holes. What you need in this kind of battle IMO is time because you have lots of archers. So plug up the hole to give a moral boost and hold them.

This is what I would do, but everyone has a different opinion...

Good luck~:cheers:

[Breeze]

Send the horse archers to pull the enemy to me in skirmish mode have two to three units of the light infAntry in a fromation as wide as the bridge and then ready and waiting to plug it as the other units were coming to me as the other army comes to you throw your infantry upp into the bridge as a plug throw your general close to them to keep morale high and then use the archers and to hit the enemy on the bridge at an angled shot I took out overwhelming odds like this granted i had more archers but its easily do-able

[m52nickerson]

Good luck~:cheers:

Its not a battle I have to fight, I just wanted to see the different ways people would approach a certain situation.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Oh. Do you like mine?~:)

[m52nickerson]

Sounds like a solid strategy to me.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Cool, I've got solid strategies!!!~;)

[Al: Total Gore]

First, I would order the 2 units of archers engage in melee with the heavy cavalry. Then I would order the horse archer unit to charge the enemy spearmen. Next I would have my 3 infantry spread out in different directions and charge the enemy, but just before they attack, I order them to withdraw from battle. I would have my spearmen attack their Infantry and I would use my light cavalry to support the horse archers against the spearmen with a frontal assault. Finally I would have the general charge right into the center of the enemy line.

So what do you think of my strategy?

[m52nickerson]

After I came up with the situation I started to think about how I would handle it.


I would position 2 units of my infantry right along the bank, with the spears on the right just behind the infantry line (there is a reason for this). The last units of light infantry would be hidden in the woods in the river bed. My light cav would be far off to the left, hopefully not to be seen. My general would be behind my infantry line and my HA would by to the right, with in sight of the enemy. My arches would be protected by my line.

I would try to use my HA to keep the enemies approach away from the woods as not to detect my hidden unit. My light cav would be working it way to the enemies rear, but still out of sight. The plan would be to draw the enemy into the river bed and start up the bank to engage my line. as they did I would attack with my hidden infantry units and bring my light cav to attack the rear of there line, most likely there arches. Now the spear unit I had to the right of my line protected would run down and hold formation on the opposite flank as the ambush units. This would surround the enemy. My Generals units would be used at any trouble spots.

Now if the enemy put there archers out front to duel with mine I would start to back my troops away from the bank, drawing the enemy arches into the river bed. If the whole of his army followed my plan would be the same. If only his acrhes followed I would draw them as far away from there lines as possible then spring my hidden unit on them. This would most likley cause the rest of his army to enter the fray and I would just moddify my plan with my generals units swinging to the left flank to replace the hidden unit that is already in combat.