Arcturion
01-30-2007, 04:59
I was playing Spain on my first grand campaign, and just wrapped up my first open field battle with a Timurid stack.
The first time around, I deployed my army in a standard formation in the centre of the map, like so:
Enemy
Musketeers
Tercio pikemen (3 rows)
Almughavar javelin
The elephants charged and broke through my centre, and my troops routed (my general was only command 4 with no chiv). Needless to say, I lost.
I reloaded the battle, only this time :
1) I deployed my main army on one corner of the map, to give my basilisk more time to snipe the elephants. I also deployed Jinettes behind the elephants to snipe them (also to buy more time for the basilisk).
2) I placed one unit of crossbows on my right flank at 90 degrees so that I could enfilade the elephant's left flank if they crashed my centre.
3) I increased my tercio formation depth to 5 rows (hopefully they can hold the elephants now)
By the time the elephants neared my front line, they had lost about 1/3 of their men. Instead of breaking my lines, they stood off and traded fire with my units.
I believe this is ultimately what won the battle for me. My question is, what factor or combination of factors convinced the AI not to charge the elephants through my centre like in the first battle? Any ideas would be appreciated.
The first time around, I deployed my army in a standard formation in the centre of the map, like so:
Enemy
Musketeers
Tercio pikemen (3 rows)
Almughavar javelin
The elephants charged and broke through my centre, and my troops routed (my general was only command 4 with no chiv). Needless to say, I lost.
I reloaded the battle, only this time :
1) I deployed my main army on one corner of the map, to give my basilisk more time to snipe the elephants. I also deployed Jinettes behind the elephants to snipe them (also to buy more time for the basilisk).
2) I placed one unit of crossbows on my right flank at 90 degrees so that I could enfilade the elephant's left flank if they crashed my centre.
3) I increased my tercio formation depth to 5 rows (hopefully they can hold the elephants now)
By the time the elephants neared my front line, they had lost about 1/3 of their men. Instead of breaking my lines, they stood off and traded fire with my units.
I believe this is ultimately what won the battle for me. My question is, what factor or combination of factors convinced the AI not to charge the elephants through my centre like in the first battle? Any ideas would be appreciated.