Newbie Question - Best Formation and Tactics

[The Highlander]

What is the best fromation, units and tactics to start out with early in the game -attacking and defending and do the opposition start out with the same units as you.

Sorry this is more than one question but what i am looking for is just a basic idea to get started with and not suffer humiliating defeats right at the start of the game.

[Anthur]

Quote Originally posted by The Highlander:
...
Sorry this is more than one question but what i am looking for is just a basic idea to get started with and not suffer humiliating defeats right at the start of the game.[/QUOTE]

Hmm, why not ?
You are in a wonderfull position. Actually, I am a little jealous. You don't know the game and all those tactics. You still have the possibility to learn it by yourself and come up with your own strategies.

Maybe, you will be slaughtered the first battles. Who cares ? Learn from your mistakes and use the knowledge you already got about medieval warfare.

Thats much more fun than "replaying" some veteran strats.

Just my 2cents. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Shrinkwrap]

Highlander,
You might want to use the 'custom battles' feature to set up battles and experiment with different units. I agree with Arthur that learning about units by using them yourself is a better method than just listening to what other people's experiences have been. At the same time, taking others' experiences into count can also be important. Maybe about 80% experimenting and 20% ghetting tips from others.

[Arkatreides]

Well, one way to approach the issue is to use common sense. Look at your units and see what weapons they have. Also press F1 to see their stats. Now order your groups according to function. You have archers, spearmen, swordsmen and cavalry (broadly speeking).

Archers are good against troops which are slow (i.e. not cavalry) and/or lightly armoured.

Spearmen are ideal at defense and they are especially useful vs cavalry. So, protect your vulnerable archers with spearmen.

Swordsmen are ideal to break through spearmen formations.

Finally, cavalry is ideal for flanking due to its speed. Never rush spearmen head-on.

This should help for starters. Now go and develop your own strategies on top of these basics.

[Vanya]

GAH!

Just go forth and cut heads off! You'll have fun, and the outcome will be irrelevant, although you will win by doing such!

GAH!

[marlboro]

Another thought to consider is the formation itself. How deep should it be? MTW does take this into consideration when calculating moral, just not sure how!. The rule of thumb I use is 4 to 6 deep on infantry and 3 to 4 deep on archers.

However, you might want to make it 2 or 3 deep to stretch a line. You could encircle and enemy or prevent flanking. The down side this that your moral and bonus goes down.

Again, do some experiment and find out. The important thing is to know when to use different formation for different situations.

[TenkiSoratoti]

always keep your line of H2H (hand to hand combat) troops backed up from behind with some more h2h men, this effectivly creates morale boost and stronger attack to rout the unsuspecting fo.

oh yeah and dont use cannons it pees me off (hehe)

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"The good fighters of the old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an oppurtunity to defeat the enemy."

[TheLastEuropean]

Always, always, always keep a couple of units in the rear as a reserve. NEVER commit all your units in the battle at once (where possible).

Lay out your formation as you see fit and then as the battle progresses use the reserve units to:-

a) help other units under pressure that are approaching the verge of breaking.

b) plug gaps that have appeared in your formation - nothing worse than having a central enemy unit dispatch 1 of your central units then turn and attack those to the sides of them in the flank.

c) supplying a charge to finally overwhelm those enemy units about to break (usually just charging without actually engaging will be enough to route some broken/depleted units).

d) to engage any rogue enemy units that have maybe flanked around the melee to appear in the rear of your army.

e) flanking! (of course!)

whatever! It will increase your options of what to do in the battle once the melee begins. If you aren't doing this I am sure it will help you out quite a bit. Without a reserve you simply have to rely on all your units overcoming the enemy units they are engaged with. Therefore, if 1 unit fails you are IMMEDIATELY stretched. With a reserve that shouldn't be a problem!