View Full Version : AUM = superduper units
MajorPain
10-05-2002, 15:13
I was complaininga while ago how easy it was to attack bridges and that it was to easy to defend them. But that was before I met these units.
The Almohads attacked me on a bridge map (Im turkey faction).
The Almos had mostly crap units peasents and spearmen and stuff like that plus 2 AUM. I had several saracen and muwahid and lots of diferent bow units, a couple of cav´s too.
I thout it would be an easy battle the bow units made the enemy run all the time they never come near my units exept these AUM units they made it I began to send in my defens but my men kept dying so I send in more men and they died too. So I looked on the enemys unit and there they were the AUM stomping thru all of my men. The arrows didnt do so much damage on them.
I won the battle but if the Almos would have 2 more of the AUM I would´ve lost. The AUM´s must have slaughterd about 300 men each.
Later in my campain I thout I should see what my heavy janiss.. could do. Nothing. Not even when I hold the AUM with a unit of saracen so I could flank the AUM. They smacked both of my units.
Does anyone know how the AUM are against other factions late units in the field??? Not 1v1 test. I havent played the Almohads yet.
I wish that other factions would be as hard as the Almohads in the campain.
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STW will always be #1
Yeh ! AUMs are a pain in the .... lower backside http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/biggrin.gif.
I always try to soften them up with my Bowmen and then face them downhill with a unit of spearmen. Then move my Cav around and fall in their BACK !! Flanks don´t work that well with AUMs.
When I finaly route the enemy from the battlefield the AUMs are always those, that get the most `attention´ when my Cav chases the Enemy back to his borders.
If you can´t fall into their backs ... hold them and try to route their nearby frinds to make´em run.
Did you try Gazi Inf on them I wonder?
AUM are armor 6, use armor-piercing units on wedge formation.
Frontally, saracen inf on hold should hold out pretty well against AUM. If you have an honor advantage and/or a height advantage you can probably beat them 1v1.
AUM are just like feudal men-at-arms except with +1 defense. They are very strong early-game but units like Byz inf and saracen inf should be more than a match for them.
You probably were facing a very good general so the enemy's AUM were high honor, probably higher than your troops.
Oh and if you have Ghazi on wedge theyll chew the AUM up fast.
MajorPain
10-05-2002, 18:16
Ive used the Ghazi, I didnt like them. They have great honor and dont run easy but they dont have any defens and die real quick.
My gen were better then the enemy and I think the valour were the same. Ive seen them chew thru anything I throw to them only when I attack them from 3 directions or a front and rear attack I break them.
And now im in deep shit in the campain almost of my high star gen´s have died all I have now is many 3 star gen´s, facing the Almo´s 6-9 stars.
I control about half of the map the almos a quarter and novgorod, hungary, poland and the rebels the rest. this have bn the toughest campain of them all and I really enjoying it http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif
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STW will always be #1
turken00
10-05-2002, 20:45
Yeah, i'm playing as the Turks as well(Expert). Its 1209 and I've conquered all the way up to Austria and I hold the plains next to the Black Sea. I probably made the biggest mistake in my whole campaign by declaring war on the Almohads. The AUM is ridiculously strong. I had 3 Saracen infantry units surround them and they came out as the victor. I also have some complaints about the weakness of some Turkish units. For example, the Ottoman Spahi should be a lot stronger. They should definitely be able to hold their own against other heavy cavalry. Right now, the only use I have for them is to charge peasants, archers, and flank some stronger units. I have not been able to field Janissaries yet, but I hope they are as strong as they were in history. Obviously the Spahis are not. I really don't understand why the AUM are that strong though. The Almohads did not even use infantry effectively. They relied mostly on cavalry, however this is not case in the game. Some tweaking could help.
ravenking
10-05-2002, 21:07
Ghazi's can suck, but both they and the abyssinian guard (if you are egypt) have an advantage over AUM. They are both armor piercing. This allows them to charge and possibly break the line.
Well, in my experience, Alm urb militia fear almost nothing, even in the late game. Jan hvy inf are a fight, but given that they cost like 4x more, and are practically the hardest unit to get in the game, an even fight is not something you would expect.
The only infantry unit that comes close is the byz inf. They seem to take out AUMs if you use a wide formation (enveloping tactic).
Spearmen of all types do ok as well -- they don't do a whole lot of damage but they sure can hold their position. I'm still trying to figure out why; I guess it has something to do with rank bonuses to defense? Because, for example, feudal sergeants' stats are underwhelming. Yet they manage to defend AUM charges amazingly well.
PS I belive AUMs armor value is 4 not 7. I've also heard that there are some problems with AP weapons having no effect on the vast majority of units. That would make sense, as in my experience, AP units do no better against my AUMs than other units, ceteris paribus.
I play almohads a lot in MP, and the AUM is my main unit. AUM rip up order foot or pikemen pretty easily if you valor them up. As for ghazi, they almost always take 90% casualties because they have such a low defense value. However, ghazi are awesome flankers. A unit hit with a ghazi flank is almost sure to break. I usually take 2 3 or 4 valor ghazi units in MP.
AUM is just between feudal and chivalric men-at-arms. It is cheaper and weaker than the latter but stronger and more expensive than the former. I play Almohad and it is the good generals the Almohads get that make AUM powerful. My heirs are all rank 5-6 and Granada give +1 valor to AUM. I have lots of valor 2-3 (w/out general) AUM. Another thing is that AUM get many hero (w/ command rank) units and these guys have bonuses. Also, they only need town guard and Iberian peninsula has lots of iron deposits so I can easily concentrate on upgrading weapon and armor as I get the town guard.
Yes, they are extremelly difficult to contain when they attack the bridge. And only arbalests can help, since any other missile does not seem to get through. Another option are the javelins, they will decimate them. The only thing that has saved me in my current Spanish campaign are the jinetes placed directly behind my spears. They don't look like much when you look at the stats, as I can easily get rid of both FMAA and CMAA, but on the field it's another story. I wonder if it would be the same if I play the Almohads (which is my plan for the next campaign), or if it's going to be the same thing that I have with militia sergeants: they are extremelly effective against my units, but when I use them, they die and run in no time......
[This message has been edited by hrvojej (edited 10-05-2002).]
Perec_Dojo
10-06-2002, 03:14
hrvojej, are you playing on Expert? The AI gets +2 morale for all units on that setting, which could be responsible for the divergence in performance for the same units.
FacelessClock
10-06-2002, 04:51
All things being equal, Saracen inf should be able to kill AUM without a problem.
Quote Originally posted by Perec_Dojo:
hrvojej, are you playing on Expert? The AI gets +2 morale for all units on that setting, which could be responsible for the divergence in performance for the same units.[/QUOTE]
Nope, on hard at the moment. It's not only the morale, but their ability to cut through the units that MAA do not possess. Even if I was playing on expert, the MAA would get the same bonuses as they do; however, the AUM vastly outperform the MAA on the field.
On the side note, I believe that on expert, the ai in fact gets a bonus of +4 to the morale.
insolent1
10-06-2002, 05:04
Just fought my first big battle against the Almohads in my latest campaign as the Polish. Whenever I see an AUM unit I get my arbalests to target them till they get to my line, then I engage them with my general a valour 10 feudal sergeant. So far in that one battle he slaughtered 7 AUM units. The arbalests ran out of ammo eventually but my general still slughtered the 2 units of AUM's that came after my arb's had left.
I also find high valour halberdiers as very good AUM killers. Chiv footknights chew AUM's for breakfast so long as their valour isn't to high both the halb's & chiv FK's are armour piercing so ideal for heavily armoured AUM's and the have very good defence
Quote Originally posted by Dorkus:
PS I belive AUMs armor value is 4 not 7. I've also heard that there are some problems with AP weapons having no effect on the vast majority of units. That would make sense, as in my experience, AP units do no better against my AUMs than other units, ceteris paribus. [/QUOTE]
Yes, they have 4 in Armour and a large shield which would add 2 to def and Armour, but their shield has a 0.5 modifier, so it is really only +1 to each.
Since there is a bug with the AP, it only works on units with 5 in Armour (should have been 4 and will be 3 after the patch http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif), but it does not count in shields... So AP has indeed no effect on AUM, unless they have an Armour upgrade, but then it is basically useless anyway (upgrade +1 to def, AP +1 to attack, they equal each other out), while the AUM gets better ability to withstand arrows...
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Mr Durian
10-07-2002, 16:04
My byz infantary smashed AUM even with -2 morale!!!
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