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What army do you find gives you the fastest victories with minimal casualties?
I haven't played a HA/Cav army yet but to date have found a heavy infantry army with a strong flanking cav contingent gives me the fastest results. Armies based around slinger/archers tend to take much longer whilst phalanx based armies take forever (unless the enemy is attack and charges straight at you).
Any thoughts?
I've had some pretty quick ones with mixed forces (slingers and skirmishers to whittle down theirs; heavy infantry to pin their front; some cavalry to rout from the rear), but the real determinant of swift battles is morale. If they're only led by a captain, or you kill their general, they'll rout pretty fast.
Heavy HA's such as the Sarmatian Noble Horse Archers, seem to rout enemies pretty fast (particularily If you have an entire ARMY of them.) It's just the sheer amount of fire they can put down. Plus, you can defeat an entire army with no casualties, and the xp arrives by the bucketful.
It all depends of what enemy you are fighting.Quote:
What army do you find gives you the fastest victories with minimal casualties?
Against heavy armoured enemy army:
Elephants + Heavy and Medium Cavalry + Infantry
Battle should become full enemy rout when Elephants + Cavalry steam roller reaches canter of enemy line ( going from side to side )
The easiest or quickest are usually if you place your army closest to the enemy line as possible, and have ambushes or flank troops on each wing. When the enemy come towards your centre, envelop them (ambushes add extra morale...um....drop) then kill their general and they scarper. Basically just ticking all the boxes to do with lowering the enemy moral:-
-Ambushes
-Kill General(s)
-Surround
-Superior numbers
-Quick numerious casualties
Infantry with a lot javelin units against weak armoured enemies is usualy a very one sided affaire, in particular when your are defending. Such would be Romans vs. Celts. If you had been able to get all or most of your missles away before first contact, the enemy will most likely break without real fighting.
Because most of the armies you'll face in EB are composed of weak or average spearmen, having some good longsword units might also result in a 1:10 casulaties victory; such had done for example my Milnaht ripping through two units of Balroae and one of Lugoae in an assault on a town (was some 40 dead Milnaht vs. about 450 enemies killed by them).
All-cavalry armies will have difficulties to achive crushing victories because of the dominance of spearmen on these battlefields. But when you have a real hammer, like say five units of Pontic bodyguards, you can be able to smash the enemy in no time.
I spose the quickest victories would be 6 full stack armies of cavalry versus one lonely archer....that could be over quick
I suppose that I should have clarified that I was assuming that the opposing army was of similar strength (if not composition).
6 units of Saka General with 14 units of Saka Late Heavy Cataphract. 4 Saka Generals behind enemy lines, 2 saka generals in front (formation line of ai will be disrupted). 3 units cataphract to kill the enemy general first, the rest charge on to enemy disrupted single unit in different direction.
I think the best way to achieve a quick victory is by creating a mixed arms army according to the "Hammer and Anvil' concept. First you soften up the opponent with missile troops. Then make contact with his main line and hold it steady while assaulttroops attack the flanks of the enemies line. At the same time your cavalry circled around the enemy, and the missile troops let loose their remaining arrows (best is in the flanks or backs). When you cavalry is in position they charge and job is done by achieving one great big encirclement.