How much do you Micromanage your battles?

Well, the question should be self explanatory, but ill explain it a bit more.

Do you use 1 or 2 lines? Do you group your infantry, cavalry? Do you use guard mode? Do you like your army being uniform and balanced?


Personally im fairly picky about my battles. I like to group my men into "Weaker" "Stonger" "Elite" sections, as well as my cavalry being grouped together. If I have a lot of the same Unit, I usually group the Lesser experienced men together to create the first line, and then the stronger men as the second line.

I usually try to create a strong infantry front and then Hammer the enemy with some good heavy cavalry when they are occupied. Not very unique, but it works.

I was wondering about this for a long time, as Ive seen many screen shots where people don't group their units.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vasiliyi

Well, the question should be self explanatory, but ill explain it a bit more.

Do you use 1 or 2 lines? Do you group your infantry, cavalry? Do you use guard mode? Do you like your army being uniform and balanced?


Personally im fairly picky about my battles. I like to group my men into "Weaker" "Stonger" "Elite" sections, as well as my cavalry being grouped together. If I have a lot of the same Unit, I usually group the Lesser experienced men together to create the first line, and then the stronger men as the second line.

I usually try to create a strong infantry front and then Hammer the enemy with some good heavy cavalry when they are occupied. Not very unique, but it works.

I was wondering about this for a long time, as Ive seen many screen shots where people don't group their units.

---

I could write a book on this :clown:

on number of lines: I typically use anywhere from 1-5 lines, depending on what I want, the army I use, and the stratification of units.

do I group infantry, cavalry, etc: of course I do! what kinda general would I be If I don't? :clown: and there are a lot of rules regarding that in my and my brother's case.

do I like my army balanced: yes-I need my army to fight in all sorts of environments, for all occasions and eventualities-from fighting in the woods to assaulting a city. no unit type comprises more than 30-40% of any given army.

as to how I sort my units: I do NOT group according to "strength" (experiece taught me there is no such thing-its all about the role, and how well equipped the unit is for said role, ie effectiveness). I group by function: assault troops are together, flankers are together, phalanx is together, etc. the more experienced and effective a unit is in a particular role, the more likely it is to be in the "place of honor" on the right hand side of a formation, due to the game engine and I may repeat this arrangement in all my lines.

tactics: they tend to vary alot. it depends on what I want-I may choose to leave a weak center, or leave my flank ungarded to lure the enemy. the hammer and anvil approach is actually considered the most innefective tactic in many a situation (rivers, woods, deserts, and assault). I recommend a recording of an IBFD IJ3 battle I had a week ago. its not EB, but it gives you an idea about the tactics I use.

I do most micromanaging when playing the romans. I guess most people already know which tactics to use playing them.

Hastati in first line on guard mode to tire the enemy out very usefull against gauls and other barbarian scum.

Principes on fire at will mode waiting for the right moment to engage when the enemy is tired enough to brake down their morale.

I usually place triarii on each rear to fend off enemy cavarly flanking on guard mode. One in the middle to support my center behind the principes.

My velites is placed eithter between hastati and principes to pepper target enemies or behind principes line (fire at will off). Slingers are placed in the farthes back infront of the general.

Cavalry on the wings, left for charging rear and back on enemy line. Right to harass and interupt enemy missle units.

Least micromange is probably fighting with cavarly armies like pahlava and saka. Send HA and missle cavarly to right and left to brake their center line and scatter the enemy. Then charge with cataphracts and go home to persepolis for some afternoon coktails.

I find grouping extremely useful for missile purposes. Havings dozens of javelins, pilae, arrows and (most of all) stones being thrown in my front lines back when my opponent routs on impact is something to avoid.

I don't group units because they're in the center. The AI often attacks only part of my main line, so grouping is of little use for me there. Cavalry isn't grouped either, because they're most often way off my main line and can thus be selected easily. (Yes, I admit, I often use pause to select and deselect my units.) As for summary: slingers are mostly one group (sometimes combined with archers), while javelin- and pilae carrying units are another. Once a unit runs out of ammunition, they're degrouped (so to be capable to use the Q-button at any time). During sieges, grouping is of little use to me.

About the amount of battle lines I need. I try to have only one line of combat-infantry. Behind them are my skirmishers (except when my opponent has quite a few missile units as well). In front of them I position my accensi, who should retreat once the enemy attacks. Sometimes these slingers are to be send to the flanks, sometimes I target enemy units in the center who refuse to close in.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Vasiliyi

Well, the question should be self explanatory, but ill explain it a bit more.

Do you use 1 or 2 lines? Do you group your infantry, cavalry? Do you use guard mode? Do you like your army being uniform and balanced?


Personally im fairly picky about my battles. I like to group my men into "Weaker" "Stonger" "Elite" sections, as well as my cavalry being grouped together. If I have a lot of the same Unit, I usually group the Lesser experienced men together to create the first line, and then the stronger men as the second line.

I usually try to create a strong infantry front and then Hammer the enemy with some good heavy cavalry when they are occupied. Not very unique, but it works.

I was wondering about this for a long time, as Ive seen many screen shots where people don't group their units.

---

I use 2 lines mostly. One main phalanx line, followed by a line of flankers and reserves. Missile troops in front and behind the phalanx I guess don't really count, as change their positions frequently. I group my main phalanx line together, as well as my missile troops by role. Meaning archers together, slingers together, javelineers together etc. This is mainly to be able to carry out an order faster. For example, if I want all my phalangites to form a phalanx simultanously, which is only possible when they are grouped together. The same rationale goes with the grouped missiles, in order to let them fire at will at a specific moment. This helps when I have a plan that requires I move fast and that, in turn, means that I have to carry out orders to many troops at once.

I never group my cavalry together. My typical army has from 2-4 units of them, varying from missile cavalry to medium and sometimes heavy cavalry. I don't group them together, because ordering a whole group of troops to attack a specific unit, many times results in each of the grouped units attacking a different enemy. I know, it's strange but it's true.

Maion

I rarely group units, micromanage every single unit, except marching forward the entire army.

Micromanage move, run, stop, attack, skirmish mode on off, guard mode on off. Lately mastering to NO PAUSE at all.

That's why no one is allow to bother me when I am in the middle of battle or they will get "GO AWAY!". Even my wife...:oops: :laugh4: then I will say sorry......after the battle.


My hayasdan army formation basically skirmishers and slingers or few archers in front with skirmish mode on (sometime off to hold the enemy for a while) and guard mode on. Second line spearmen of factional units and hellenic mercenaries (hoplites or thureophoroi), sometimes native phalanx, all guard mode. Third line are the real gunners (archers). 4th line cavalry, during battle, they will run to either left or right wing. Then......argh......I so lazy to continue. But my favorite micromanage part is cavalry charge of 2 to 3 units to enemy successively. First cavalry charge...impact...melee few seconds...withdraw, second cavalry charge...impact instantaneously after the first cavalry withdraw...and so on.

Pause and battle time limit is for weaklings *runs and hide*


:beam:

I use two lines normally with any factions, unless I'm using horse archers.

Line troops up the front, archers behind. Wingers and flankers.

I normally play on triple speed until the enemy get close. When they get too close, I often pause out of panic but if everything goes well, I set it on normal speed then massacre begins :beam:

I never group my troops, I just organize them before the battle.

the only time i tend to use issue orders to groups is for missle troops (so they aim for targets away from the main line to minimise friendly fire)

my typical formation is something like this

m
i i i i i
c a mmm a
a a


m = missle/skirmisher
i = standard infantry/phalanx (something with decent shields)
a = assault/heavy troops (my flanks are quite deep, so it's hard to outflank me and i can also tell a whole column to charge forward and then into the side of the enemy flank and behind)
c = cavalry (i rarely have more than 2 light units, mainly harrassing & mopping up - some light missle units do have suprisingly good charge)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dake

Pause and battle time limit is for weaklings *runs and hide*


:beam:

---

I'll try to leave them off next time...

Any idea what the consequences would be of playing with the 'General's restricted camera settings' (or something like that)? It locks your camera view to your general's unit, which may be cool (and costly)...

I micromanage... A lot.

I've a little tendency for perfectionism, and every casualty is a casualty too much. So, I pause often, never group units, and maneuver my troops using waypoints if necessary, et cetera.

I'm waiting for the day when a game will feature able NCOs...

Hint from Heloise: try just being an infantry commander, or cavalry commander, or just a captain of a single unit in a battle (group the others and put them under AI control - then either follow their lead or lead them!). :grin:

Ok, I'm being selfish - I just want to see a really good AAR written this way, with everything on "autonomous local control' except for one general's decisions or one captain's or something like that, maybe until he moves up through the chain to become FL.

Grouping units ensures they remain in formation and are ordered properly, right to left. This is particularly true with the phalanx, and it also gives you the ability to wheel your main line quicker than doing it unit by unit.

Generally speaking, I try to issue as few new orders as possible once the battle starts, changing the plan is never a good idea just for the sake of it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by godsakes

m
i i i i i
c a mmm a
a a

---

For some reason this looks like a warcry :beam:

Maion

I love micromanaging. Outmanoeuvering the enemy is the key of success for me.

I tend to use mixed troops for my armies, and to make them roleplyaing compatible. For example, with Baktria i use only 4 phalanxes and 2 heavy cavalries, the rest Iranian and light troops, missile and cavalries.


How many lines? Usually four.

First one- missile troops, ready to retreat behind the second one when the enemy approaches

Second one- Line infantry (phalanx or other high-number, low-cost defense infantry)

Third one- Assault Infantry (high-attack ones) and the general

Fourth one- cavalry, ready to destroy the enemy's one and to outflank the enemy


Tactics? It depends on too many factors. Ofter i choose a simple envelopment manoeuver, sometimes i try to break the center. Very often my goal is to shatter enemy formation thanks to rapid manoeuvering.

As the Casse, most of my micromanaging is making sure my Cidainh don't 'accidentally' run into the enemy spears :embarassed:

That, and hiding a few units around woodland to 'surprised by enemy emerging' the enemy.

And with that long line of tactics it really gets complicated, a non-pause battle is like suicide :clown:

I've tried to don't use pause button, and i managed to win against the Hard AI, but it's a damn stressing thing.

That's why i avoid multiplayer: it's too fast for me XD

Anyway, i tried it only in vanilla RTW, mauybe EB is slower

I group units by function: line troops (these are put into guard mode and serve as the first line), flankers, missiles, light cavalry, and heavy cavalry.

I also pause often (usually to take screenshots).

I would like to have a standardized, balanced army; but the truth is, a stack of Drapanai, Komatai, and Scythian foot-archers can deal with just about anything (when playing as Getai).

I rarely group the units together (as they tend to ruin their formations.... for somewhat reason I prefer holding alt key to maintain their formation). But in exchange, I usually sort my units, especially in my full stack army to get an easy quick acess (very much influenced by playing starcraft and CNC 3).

In battle, when playing all cav army, with some footmen maybe... I generally order waypoints to my HA circling the enemy "block" with fire at will and skirmish mode on.... pretty much waypoints, so I just leave the skirmish mode to take the rest, and controlling only lancers and melee cavalry manually... one by one. If some infantry present... I usually hide them in the forest... or place them in the frontline as bait... (depending on the class of infantry... the ambusher/ strong archers/ skirmisher w jav/ or light infantry is usually go into hiding, Heavy infantry or assault infantry usually go as a bait)

But when playing phalanx army, I usually put all the phalanx to form a battle line... 1 line... and put missile troops in the left position after the phalanx line. FM in the right with "elite" or the heaviest cav, and the rest cav is in the left. Some infantry with greater flexibility than phalangitais placed to guard the flank..... and if the battles start, just hold alt and walk all my melee infantry so they start Phalanx bulldozers..... pretty much need micro with the missiles and cavs.... If I got tired of microing the infantry, I just put them in place, guard mode, and controlling only my cav... sometimes I do group and leave the infantry to the AI.

Playing non-phalanx infantry army.... I usually put a two line, with light infantry and missile troops in the front, and heavy infantry in the back... the missiles and lights are usually moved to the flank as the battle progressed.... encircling the enemies while the cav slammed enemy blocks in a good shape for killing...

your centre should be your weaker troops with your elites on the flanks. My usual strategy is like the battle of Marathon. Pull the centre back and push the flanks forward. collapsing around them in a V shape. Usually ends in a hugely destructive rout for the enemy.


btw cute wolf i just noticed you spelt balloons in your signature wrong.

As Epeiros or Kart-Hadast, I usually just go for the standard hammer-and-anvil/envelopment tactics, but as Saka, extreme micromanagement is key, especially with the insane late bodyguards. Proper management of their charges and stamina can lead to stuff like this:

https://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c...2/ebheroic.jpg

I don't group units for the same reason as Maion. It seems to result in them all doing what they want.

Envelopement is too easy against AI, i like to find other ways to victory.

I micromanage alot, especially at the onset of the battle..when setting up units is key. If you don't plan to succeed, you plan to fail.

Lately I haven't used the pause button once which creates incredibly dificult battles. Also, I am trying to use the "General's Cam" but can't figure out how to rationalize it for sieges (since you can't see over walls :smash:). It really adds a realistic feel to it. One good way to use Generals cam is use delete instead to follow a unit. This way I can switch between family members.

I don't normally group my units when playing balanced army factions, as the AI tends to redo my formations whenever I move (I hate the AI's formation logic, if I wanted to use the AI's default, I wouldn't go to the trouble of deploying my troops...the AI also has the idiotic tendency to send all my grouped units forward at running speed, which sucks, since I try to manage fatigue. ). When I play nomads, I'll group my forward and rearward horse archer wings, and the "command group" (heavy cavalry). I also use the "group-ungroup" trick to place the unit cards next to each other, so I can use shift to select them quickly. Mostly, I don't really need to set groups, as I can use CTRL-I, CTRL-C, and CTRL-M to quick-select my infantry, cavalry, and missiles.

I usually group my main line of infantry troops as I find its easier to keep them marching together this way. Otherwise I rarely group units. House rule never to use pause, as Im one of those that likes to lose occassionally for a better campaign game experience.

As for frantic double right clicking micro-management. Well it depends a lot on who Im fighting. For example fighting vs phalanx with Romans, you NEED to micromanage a lot in order to split the line up and get behind the phalanxes at the right moment. ie timing is very important. Whereas, with say Bactria, I mostly just stand still as I tend to let the enemy come to me while I shoot them, then let them wear themselves out against my guard mode line before eventually finishing them off.

Sieges are a different thing altogther, mostly I dont fight siege battles as I find a) field battles are more fun (even sallies) and b) this way it takes a lot longer to conquer the map which means stronger opponents and a natural end to blitzing.

The number of lines I use depends on which faction Im using, but its generally at least 2 infantry lines as I love charging into battle against exhausted troops with my fresh reserves.

Pretty simple micro

Skirmishers

Light line / Levies

Heavy Inf / Phalanx

Cav (as reserve) w General

Missile trops at the flank


Never group, but just sort them. Controlling the skirmishers first and set all other infantry in guard. Then attack their line with the light after skirmishers was spent. After that, the heavy infantry took place. I rarely use cavalry, except to attack another cavalry.

A lot.

The only units I group are the ones I actually intend on using as a block of units. This means usually phalanxes, my missiles (so I can retreat them behind my lines all at once), maybe cavalry (I like having a big block of cavalry to steamroll individual targets, but if I have missile cavalry and heavy cavalry I won't put them together), or some flanking troops, but not really anything else.

Since I like putting all cavalry together I usually put them all on one flank so my flanks are uneven, although depending on the situation this obviously changes sometimes.

Right now, I'm playing as Getai, and my new strategy is split my main line of spears (usually dacian heavy phalanx and hoplites in guard mode) in two and fill the gap with Komatai skirmishers. Behind this I put my medium infantry (gallothracians, thracian peltasts, taxeis triballi, and dacian elite skirmishers), and in the back I put my Drapanai. On one flank my cavalry are grouped, and in front of the main line I have some slingers or archers.

When the enemy comes forward, they charge at the main line, and while the spears hold, the Komatai fall back. This sucks some of the units into the area between my spears and the medium infantry, who use their maneuverability to isolate and destroy these unfortunate units. the rest of the enemy's line is stuck on the front of the spears and soon destroyed once I bring up the mediums, the Draps, and the cavalry to flank them from both sides and from the center gap in the line, so their line is basically getting flanked from 4 sides at once (5 if you include the rear). This can be dangerous as your split spear line ends up getting flanked early in the battle, but if you move quickly you can destroy or route the enemy before your spears break. Also, the isolated units in the gap are really easy to flank and rout, and since you have three lines of infantry, it's a very difficult formation for the enemy to flank. It may not be the best strategy, but I really enjoy it, even though it does require a decent amount of micromanagement.

This is NOT a strategy to use against steppe factions, or any cavalry-heavy army for that matter. It does work really well against Hellenes (those inflexible phalanxes get tangled up all over the place) and good enough against Celts.

slingers in front

kretikoi archers behinde the main line

cavalary as reserve (way back the line to either take advantage of a gap in the enemy line counter flank or flank an enemy weaker flank)

peltastai mixed with some medium light infantry on the flanks (normally mixed with thurepoi or some other type of light or medium infantry)

main batle line of hardened troops on defence mode with fire at will (love throkitai and the main reason why i deslike makedonia they don´t have it)

all turned in with fire at will

the slingers and archers can pretty much force any enemy to attack you and on the initial contact whoever arrived first gets totally obliterated by heavy darts

then the thurepoi can flank or hold the flank while the peltastai behinde them can continue to take a dent on the enemy morale and then go around to the enemies back to put more pressure on them

and if after slingers archers and peltastai and fire at will from my regular infantry hasn´t broken the bastards (remember thorokitai on guard mode are unbreakable and almost impossible to defeat from the front) a call for the horses and a direct charge in their backs or a chase the enemy general game should finish the enemy

ofc this doesn´t always work when they hide in the forest or having to take them on uphill ... but normally a vast line implies that they must also increase their line open gaps or fill their line with weaker infantry wich should allow you to open gaps for your cavalary (if they haven´t been broken yet by the rhodian and kretan combination wich is trully deadly)

ofc my strategy is based on your hability to forçe the enemy to fight on your terms by forcing them to react to skirmishers thats how much micro management i make :juggle2:

Every battle is different, so i manage it all differently. But i usually use the strategy of the battle of marathon.