Discussion on army tactics

[marlboro]

All,

Does anyone what share they favourite tactics during the battle stage? Flanking, faints, movements, terrain, etc are most welcome.

[Dionysus9]

I prefer to shoot my enemy from a distance when possible. I've had a couple singleplayer games where I took 500+ heads and routed armies without losing a single man. Of course, that was against AI.

If I lose the ranged war, or the enemy rushes me and my firing units do not turn him away, then I must fight hand to hand. So be it. Ranged units fall back behind the infantry and finish off their ammo.

Ideally I block the enemy's advance with holding units while I flank with high valor/high melee units. The trick is to hold the center for long enough to flank.

If the enemy stops my flank, then we are down to the nitty gritty and it is time for my archers/arques to get out their bayonettes and shortswords and give a last attempt at a flanking charge.

If that fails, then its usually curtains-- time to make sure the running shoes are on tight.

Sometimes Cav feints can be used to pull spears out of position and into range of my firing units. Othertimes they backfire and my Cav gets pinned and decimated.

Thats basically my strategy in a nutshell... of course there are tweaks and nuances, but most battles seem to work like I've explained.

[Bullethead]

Except for 1 thing, MTW's combat follows the same general tactical rules of any other wargame or even real life. There's a lot of room for finesse about what units/formations to use in which particular situation, but in general the basic principles are fairly simple and familiar. If you can win other tactical games, whether dealing with swords or tanks, you can win MTW battles.

The 1 major fly in the ointment is the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned Invincible General Syndrome http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/frown.gif. This throws all normal, sane, realistic tactical considerations completely out the window. Because you can't kill these bastards in the normal course of business, while they meanwhile can pile your troops in heaps and send the rest packing, you have to plan your whole fight about dealing with them or you could easily lose an otherwise decisive victory.

It seems pretty much a given that if the enemy general has 4+ stars, whether or not he's got royal blood, you can ONLY kill him with missiles, preferably some form of artillery. Arrows will work but only at great expense of ammo. Some of the best melee troops can maybe fight him to ALMOST a draw, thus neutralizing the enemy general until you bring a ballista to bear. But otherwise, he'll carve a swath through your army that could easily prove disastrous.

Because of this, when going up against multi-star generals, you MUST have at least 1 ballista to actually kill him with. You must also have at least 1 unit of crack troops whose sole purpose must be to contain him--under no circumstances can you allow this unit to get tangled up fighting mundane troops. Whatever other units you have must then deal with the main enemy army. So basically, you're limited effectively to a max of 14 units per army, plus must incur the extra expense of making the anti-general units for any army that might need them.

Then, in battle, you have to fight 2 separate battles simultaneously. One battle is your regular troops vs. the regular enemy troops. The other is your anti-general troops vs. the enemy general. You must strive mightily to keep these separate affairs, so the enemy general doesn't have a chance to wreck your army before you kill him.

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-Bullethead

In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is strength, in water there is bacteria

[Dionysus9]

Just for the record, the "unkillable general" does not exist in Multiplayer--no v&v's, valor capped at 4. So Multiplayer is a good place to sharpen tactics because you can concentrate your skills by adapting to different syles of play. You dont get stuck in a tactic that might be good against the AI, but doesn't work well against humans.

In fact, you will find if you are able to hold your own against experienced players (not green players) in multiplayer, that the single player tactics of the AI seem far easier to counter.

Find a good War Atlas and study what works by reading through a battle with some maps, flanking, cavalry, etc. Alexander was incredible with his cavalry, if you can find some of his battles, keep your eye on his Companions (heavy cav). They usually are where the enemy breaks.

Edit:

Oh, yeah, and High Ground, High Ground, High Ground. And dont just park your self in the middle of a "high" plataue and let your enemy climb up there and fight you. Many players (myself included when I'm not micromeanaging well) fight from the crest of a hill--the enemy climbs the hill (albeit under heavy fire), and once it crests the hill its on even ground. FIGHT ON THE STEEPEST INCLINE, NOT THE HIGHEST HILL.



[This message has been edited by Dionysus9 (edited 09-12-2002).]