 LearningToMicromanageHorseArchers.zip
This is from a custom battle. High, expert, 10k florins. I gave the Spanish AI a fairly standard catholic army. Final casualty tally was 155 men lost, 905 enemy killed/captured.
In my opinion, if you want to learn to micromanage, playing the AI is better than playing online. The reason for this is that the AI tends to attack your line in multiple areas at once and can "think" and issue commands instantaneously. Humans do not have this ability.
Overall, a human player will be a more difficult challenge. Humans won't exhaust their infantry chasing cavalry. They won't commit units piecemeal without micromanaging them and pulling them out of harms way. They can employ tactics such as concentrating their army in one spot and using their foot-ranged units to try to ward off your HAs. They will often take that to the extreme and camp in corners with their ranged units up front. This is a difficult situation with a fully mounted, HA heavy army. One solution is to hurl vulgarities at your opponent, call him a cheap SOB and try to shame him into playing like a real man. Kidding aside, it is the only situation I have found in online 1 on 1s which there is no real answer to with a fully mounted army. Basically what you are left with is a headon charge into this corner. It can go either way, depending on what your charge hits and how much damage you do, but if you manage to rout some units they will not be rallied (too close to the edge of the map), so it's not hopeless. Hybrid armies (built of archers that have decent melee capability) are also a bane of a fully mounted army, but these are suspetible to a 360 degree surround and charge strategy. The Turks are the most notorious for hybrid armies and Janissary Heavy Infantry can do some serious damage to your cavalry, but done properly a surround and charge can cause a chain rout before prolonged melee results in your opponent coming out ahead by virtue of infantry superiority over cavalry in one on one combat. It is the corner camp that this type of army has no consistent answer for.
At the same time, you can actually charge a human player's units and not have them turn to attack you (with the unit you are charging) which never happens with the AI. The AI, if no other unit is attacking it, will always attack you (negating any flank or rear bonuses) unless the unit isn't meant for melee (eg a skirmisher). This means you can run cav in for quick strikes much more than you can against the AI. With the AI, you will have to (if you want to keep casualties to a minimum) draw units out and hit them simultaneously from both sides with cavalry.
In addition humans don't have the aforementioned omnipotence that the AI does.
So keeping this in mind, playing against the AI is actually very good practice for micromanagement. I find when I play online against humans there is much less micromanagement necessary, so offline play is a useful tool to learn the ropes. However, playing online requires you use more feints and disruption and requires you to take advantage of transitions (when the enemy is moving) to defeat human tactics. Learn micromanagement offline, then go online and learn the rest of the trade.
The key to learning to micromanage 16 units without pausing (if you pause, why bother learning to micro? you don't need to) is control and organization. Control encompasses unit groupings (both hard groups and control groups) that you are comfortable with. You need to be able to select any unit immediately and issue a command (or a series of commands) and move on. You don't have time to have your camera linger in one area too long (unless you cheat and use unrestricted cameras or -ian).
Complementing control is organization. Proper organization makes it easy to know exactly where all your units are at any given time. This means you can look at the minimap and immediately know what a particular blob is. Control allows you to quickly select a unit and issue it orders without having to move your camera back and forth. To facilitate this, keeping your units to the outside (and not allowing the bulk of the enemy army to separate your units from each other) is key. If the enemy moves the bulk of their army towards one part of your line, pull back and rotate your entire battle line so as to keep the bulk of the enemy army in line with your center. If the enemy army rushes your center then they are encircling themselves and saving you the hassle of doing it.
I'm familiar enough with this setup and style that my camera is almost in constant motion. It moves to an area, stops for a moment while I queue up several orders, then it moves on. There are a couple of close calls for my HAs in the replay, with one instance where the AIs chivalric knights decimates half a HA unit as I wasn't able to get it away fast enough (while in a hurry, I click-dragged a new formation for the two HAs which was narrow and deep - a big nono as this takes too long as you will see in the replay). The most efficient solution I've found is to setup units in average depth formations and keep them that way for the duration of the battle, barring special circumstances. I try not to click-drag new formations while I'm micromanaging, as that takes time I don't have. I still do it occasionally though, and it cost me half a unit of HAs here.
Another point of interest is skirmish mode. Many players say it's a bad thing, but I disagree. In situations where your unit is standing idle and is being charged by enemy cav, skirmish mode can buy you that extra half second you need to issue a new order. If you did not have skirmish on, the charge would nail your vulnerable HAs and that would be the end of it. If/when you are near the edge of a map, skirmish mode can cause problems. But for this reason I switch off skirmish when I'm moving units near the edge of the map and turn it on again later. Personal preference will dictate what you're comfortable with, but in my opinion, for all its faults, skirmish is still highly useful.
The army selection and tactics are heavily influenced from Wolf_MagyarKhan's HA replays found on TotalWar.Org, which I highly recommend. You will pickup many of the finer points of using HAs against humans watching his replays. He did all the work, I just copied them and wrote some junk about it :).
Mike
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Viking_Invasion-Sigtuna_CustomBattle.zip
For Medieval: Total War - Viking Invasion (Custom Battle)
This is a follow-up to my scenario Birka
Sigtuna, 1187
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After Birka was abandoned in the year 1007, the new trading center moved to the city-state Sigtuna, the old Episcopal see in Sweden. During the next nearly 200 years Sigtuna was the intermediary for the trading between Russia and Western Europe, and therefore the city was often visited by Russian merchants. The city was also after a while made the new capital. Between the years 1160 and 1190 the Swedes and the Russians fought over the sovereignty of Finland. This led eventually to an attack on the political important Sigtuna in august 1187, when the Swedes were weakened by civil wars. Joined Baltic fleets advanced through the lake Mälaren and moored south of Sigtuna (in Sigtunafjärden).
After a quick march up through the landscape, the Russians met King Erik Knutsson's army at the narrow passage Almarestäket, just north of Sigtuna, and defeated Knutsson's army in a bloody battle.
The Baltic forces then begin pressing through Sigtuna's damaged northern port, and after a hard fight the city defenses fell. The castle Stäket was looted and, among other invaluable treasures, the famous Bronze Gates were taken as spoils home to the Russians' capital Novgorod. Sweden's spiritual leader arch bishop Johannes was probably killed at this time. The National Mint, located here, was also pillaged. The devastation of Sigtuna (the whole attack is often referred to as "The Sigtuna March"), fastened the decision to move the administrative center to a safer place among the islets and isles in Mälaren. Hence Stockholm was founded and became the new capital, and is still so in our days.
According to a legend the burghers in Sigtuna launched a hollowed stock after Sigtuna was burnt down, filled with gold and silver, and decided that where the stock floats onto land, a new city shall be built, thence the name Stockholm (stock-islet).
In this scenario you take the role of the attacking Russians (The Novgorod Realm).
Attacker: Baltic Vikings* (You)
Defender: King Erik Knutsson
*= This is at the end of the Viking era.
Installation descriptions
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When unzipping the files you can check the "Use Folder Names" to place the files automatically in the right folders. Otherwise,
Sigtuna.inf, Sigtuna.jjm, Sigtuna.doc, Sigtuna.txt goes to
\Program\Total War\Medieval - Total War\SaveMaps\
Sigtuna.cgf goes to
\Program\Total War\Medieval - Total War\CustomGames\viking\
Sigtuna.vrp goes to
\Program\Total War\Medieval - Total War\SaveGames\Battles\
General
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This scenario is on a normal difficult level, but requires some patience. You can look at the replay (Sigtuna), where one of the goals was to sustain as light casualties as possible. (Unfortunately, the replay takes about 12 minutes before it starts!)
TIP: Deploy the army before battle, in a march formation (column) on the road just before the south-eastern bridge.
Ulf V Norlinger
2004-02-01
PS. The file "Sigtuna - Battle Results.jpg" is my result from the replay with default settings.
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Battles for Fun.zip
Readme for Battles for Fun
These are three single player, custom battles by me (The Silver Knight, sparkle sparkle). These are not historical, but are just to be played for fun because of the purpose of being fun. I hope you enjoy these.
Where to place the files?
Place Lisbon and Sweden in c:/programfiles/totalwar/mtw/customgames/early
Place Dalriada in c:/programfiles/totalwar/mtw/customgames/viking
Start up the game, go to single player, custom battle, and choose Early or Viking to play these battles! I hope you enjoy them.
TheSilverKnight
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Viking_Invasion-Birka_CustomBattle.zip
For Medieval: Total War - Viking Invasion
(Look in the .doc file for images)
Birka, 1007
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Twelve hundred years ago, the king of the Swedes established a new trading port at one of the inlets from the Baltic Sea. The place was called Birka, and became Sweden's first real town and later capital. Birka is today a popular site for excursions, where the archaeologists' continuing excavations provide insight into the daily life of the former Viking town.
Birka was an important centre of trade for Northern Europe for 200 years. The town was founded in the late 8th century and abandoned in the beginning of the 11th century. During its period of prosperity, it had close on 1,000 inhabitants. Pagans and Christians lived side-by-side, and plenty of foreigners dwelled in Birka as well. When the king visited the town, he and his company lived on Hovgården (The Warrior Hold on the battle map), the King's estate on the island across the water.
Birka was part of a global commercial network. Arabic silver and Russian pearls were traded for iron or skins. The plentiful archaeological findings tell a story of a society with a distinct hierarchy and inequalities between both the classes and sexes. Merchants, artisans and farmers were all part of Birka's population, which was ruled by the King's representative when the King was absent.
The island of Birka is today called Björkö and the inlet from the sea is nowadays Lake Mälaren. The grounds on Björkö were cultivated long before Birka's heyday and the island still has a thriving landscape with grazing animals and verdant fields.
On Birka archeologists have found more than 3000 graves! Many probably the consequence of the attack by the Norwegian king Olaf Haraldsson 1007, which resulted in Birka being burnt down and abandoned, and the center of trading moved to the new capital Sigtuna.
Defender: King Olof Skötkonung's representative (You)
Attacker: King Olaf Haraldsson
Now you have the chance to change history!
Installation descriptions
-------------------------
When unzipping the files you can check the "Use Folder Names" to place the files automatically in the right folders. Otherwise,
Birka.inf, Birka.jjm, Birka.doc, Birka.txt, Birka.bmp, Birka2.bmp goes to
\Program\Total War\Medieval - Total War\SaveMaps\
Birka.cgf goes to
\Program\Total War\Medieval - Total War\CustomGames\viking\
Birka.vrp goes to
\Program\Total War\Medieval - Total War\SaveGames\Battles\
General
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This is an extremely difficult battle. If you have problems defeating the Norwegian vikings with the default settings, you can get some strategic suggestions by looking at the replay (Birka), or change to easier settings.
HINT: Use Wedge Formation, and quickly march out of town, if you need to.
Ulf V Norlinger
M.A. in History
2004-01-22
PS. The file "Birka - Battle Results.jpg" is my result from the replay with default settings. Can you beat it?
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Viking_Invasion-Lindisfarne_CustomBattle.zip
2004-01-19
By Ulf V Norlinger
Copy the file to your local drive, below:
...\Medieval - Total War\SaveGames\Battles
NOTE: You should have installed the Viking
Expansion Pack first.
Custom Battle
=============
Lindisfarne 793 (Viking Era)
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The year 793 the first verified Viking attack
took place on Brittish ground, through the
plundering of the monastery Lindisfarne in
Northumbria. This was an important cultural centre
in Britain, and contained many invaluable objects
of art (Before the Vikings arrived!). The monks
were as defenseless against the Norwegian Vikings
as many of the other settlements along the English
east coast. The Nothumbrian army didn't stand a
chance, and soon Nothumbria and later Mercia
were occupied by Viking settlers.
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Constantinople1453.zip
Constantinople 1453
Background: The Sultan of Turkey was growing very powerful, and he needed land. He had pushed back Byzantium, and decided that the stab to the heart would come at Constantinople
The Battle: Sultan Mohammed fought the Byzantine Army at Adrianople and won, and put Constantinople under siege. He attacked the town for a month, and it finally fell on May 27th, 1453. Emperor Constantine was killed in the fighting.
Claims: Do not yell at me if this is not historically accurate, I'm trying to do my best.
TheSilverKnight, 25th of September, 2003
Installation: place this in the c:/programfiles/tw/mtw/customgames/late
start up the game, and then play! I hope you enjoy!
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UsherGajda_Polacy.zip
Created by: UsherGajda
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This is a "classic" mod of Jaffa Battle - install it if u wants to play as Poles vs. Germans at Grunwald. It is not an original battle, but only imitation (I don't know what units were there) so everyone who heard about this battle - i'm mistaken for sure.
Apologize for my English
Have fun!
UsherGajda
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