Army-Wide Formation Techniques

This thread is for anyone to post their example armies and their formation techniques. I made this thread because of the large variety of troops means that there are SO many more possibilities for formations that it might be nice to start a tactics/screenshot thread for it.

So post your whole army formation techniques. Post a screenshot of a good army for you. Whats your favorite formations for early, high and late periods?

Do you prefer to keep your calvary on the wings, or in the back for support? Archers in the front, middle, sides, back? Tell us everything so people here can go back to their campaigns and find a brand new use for their javalin tossers and billmen.

Thanks.

For my current english army,

AAAAAA At At AAAAAAAA
(BB)SSSSSS At At SSSSSSSS(BB)
CC G CC

A is archers, At is artillery (ballista out front and catapult in back) S are spear units (militia/levy, merc if possible), B is billmen, G is general, C is cavalry, usually heavier ones closer in and light ones further out.

I mix in armored swords/dismounted knights as reserve to back up my infantry line in center or to flank.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by katank

For my current english army,

AAAAAA At At AAAAAAAA
(BB)SSSSSS At At SSSSSSSS(BB)
CC G CC

A is archers, At is artillery (ballista out front and catapult in back) S are spear units (militia/levy, merc if possible), B is billmen, G is general, C is cavalry, usually heavier ones closer in and light ones further out.

I mix in armored swords/dismounted knights as reserve to back up my infantry line in center or to flank.

---

Nice formation. Does the Artillery at front pose any problems for calvalry charges? I usually never use Ballistae (should I be?) since they seem too weak for the exposed risk.

Often I have the classic Spears, Archers dual layer with calvalry on either side along with shock troops.

My armies tend to be pretty long and rather thin.

I prefer hannible's weak center formation for the double to full envelope.
__________________A
_________________MMM
_______________AHMMMHA
______________ H___G___H
__C ____________ H_____H____________C


M=Militia, other weak infantry.
A=Archers.
H=Heavy infantry.
G=General.
C=cavalry.

I usually let my archers pick off as many as they can, then retreat them to help my flanks with the envelope. My cavalry's first prority is to remove any and all of the opposing forces cavalry, then to eliminate archers in the back. I let them hit my main line and let them crave their way through it. While slowly moving my heavy infantry around and forming a double envelope. After that is formed I send in my cavalry directly into their backs and let the slaughter begin.

Because I don't fight fair.

Sally.

Current formation for use against Mongol hordes. Ranged units up on walls, cunningly placed to make as many of Kiev's cannon towers shoot as possible, as well as puncture any that come near. A unit of cheap but armoured infantry at the gate to run in and out taunting the nomadic morons closer.

Make a cup of tea, read the 'paper. Come back to see a distinct lack of horde.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BigTex

I prefer hannible's weak center formation for the double to full envelope.

---

I really like that formation; where'd you pick it up?

It seems like one of the major points of the game, army formations, isn't covered much by the game or the forum.

Pick it up from a history book, perhaps?

I had something here to represent my basic formations for both equal force on force and when outnumbered but the forum software here dosent seem to recognized spaces and I have no clue how you got your stuff lined up without it all stacking against the left side of the page after hitting submit, so... oh well, life is hard when clueless lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Grimmy

I had something here to represent my basic formations for both equal force on force and when outnumbered but the forum software here dosent seem to recognized spaces and I have no clue how you got your stuff lined up without it all stacking against the left side of the page after hitting submit, so... oh well, life is hard when clueless lol.

---

I would just put it into MS Paint or something, or just use ___ to replace spaces since the board has unwisely decided to not include the code tag in the forum formatting

Running the army of horse archers, I generally put all the horse archers in a single line. The elite guys go on my left flank, the basic guys go on the right. All of them set up in pretty much a square formation, about as deep as they are wide. When the battle starts, the left and right wings both wrap around the enemy. The left wing, being as that's the unshielded side of most knights/infantry, stays on the left side. The right wing will generally go all the way around to the rear if there is room. The general, and any shock cavalry I may have, stay centered in the rear, well out of reach. The army skirmishes until they either run out of arrows, or the enemy breaks. Any unit that routs and moves away from the mass is pursued to destruction by one unit, which will then return to the line.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OMGLAZERS

Nice formation. Does the Artillery at front pose any problems for calvalry charges? I usually never use Ballistae (should I be?) since they seem too weak for the exposed risk.

Often I have the classic Spears, Archers dual layer with calvalry on either side along with shock troops.

My armies tend to be pretty long and rather thin.

---

Arty isn't that much of a problem for cav charges. I'd be more worried if AI was less passive. They seem to just take it. Arty out front allows me to take nice cracks at their formations. Ballistas can't shoot unless they are all the way out front (they are afraid of TKing the meatshield out front).

Either case, I keep my spears fairly close to make them charge up when needed. Ballistae are a bit more accurate than the catapult and often can take out nice long files. The flaming bolts also does a huge number on enemy morale.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OMGLAZERS

I really like that formation; where'd you pick it up?

It seems like one of the major points of the game, army formations, isn't covered much by the game or the forum.

Pick it up from a history book, perhaps?

---

I picked it up in a history book. Except the exact crescent doesnt completely work on the games engine. It looks like a stepped crescent ingame but the there's no way to really display that on the forum. If I could figure out how to change the game from taking pictures as TGA's to something like a bitmap then I could show you.

It's quite useful. More so in EB and RTW, which I would use phalanxes on the flanks. Stepping back crescent the enemy to engage 2 units at once, meaning ones going to be on its flank wreaking havoc on morale.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by katank

Arty isn't that much of a problem for cav charges. I'd be more worried if AI was less passive. They seem to just take it. Arty out front allows me to take nice cracks at their formations. Ballistas can't shoot unless they are all the way out front (they are afraid of TKing the meatshield out front).

Either case, I keep my spears fairly close to make them charge up when needed. Ballistae are a bit more accurate than the catapult and often can take out nice long files. The flaming bolts also does a huge number on enemy morale.

---

I never knew ballistae were so effective.

And as for AI passivity, hopefully that will be fixed in the next patch. It kills me that battles are pretty much gathering the troops and beating down on rag dolls. It's just stupid :P

Depends on faction really. With the early Moors I've been trying manipular formations of Nubian Javelinmen, but that doesn't work very well should the other side have much cavalry... and blasted Jinettes.

As the Venetians/Milanese so far (and with Early troops) I use something akin to katank's formation that goes like this :

_______CCCCCCC K K CCCCCCC
____K SSSMMMSSSSSSMMMSSS K
Lc______________G_____________Lc

K being Knights, Lc being light cav (either sargeants or merchant militiamen).
S is Spears, M is infantry-killing infantry, be them swordsmen, voulges or (surprinsly enough) Caroccio servants.


French formation is about the same, only with more knights and less crossbows up front.


I find that using knights in the middle I can better deal with enemy cav charging my crossbows (since crossbows skirmish like crud due to the length of their firing animation). I used to put them on the wings to deal with that sort of thing, but they would arrive too late in most cases, and suffer much friendly fire on the way. Seems to work better for me this way.


The front knights aren't that vulnerable to enemy fire either : bows aren't effective most of the time, and crossbows I can just charge right into and either slaughter them if the AI put them too far out, or scare them into a retreat and turn back while my own crossbows do the killing bit.


When the crossbows are done shooting, the wing knights take their place, charge right at and through the enemy, closely followed by inf to mop up.


If the enemy only has spear militia and weak inf like that, I'll put the crossbows on hold ground and have the swords charge through if attacked, if their inf is good I'll let the crossbows skirmish back, rely on Italian spears to hold their inf and use the side Knights to wrap around and charge their backs.


Light cav is only for chasing down routed missiles, or for what I call knight-baiting :1 unit moves forward, he charges his knights at it, light cav races across the battleline from one wing to another with the knights in tow, crossbows pumping them full of wood all the while, and the side knights finish them off. Well, that's the idea at least, doesn't always work that smoothly :sweatdrop: .

As England I normally use

AT_____AAAAAA_____AT
___C__BBSSSSBB__C
__________G

AT for arty, I normally have it right on the edge of the map so I can fire down a rank of men. A for archers, B for billmen or levy spearmen, S for swordsmen, whether fuedal knights, armoured swordsmen etc. and C for cav, G is for general.

Heres a very simple formation for an all-cavalry Eastern Army. I use it a lot with Russians and Egyptians.

HA---HA---HA---HA---HA---HA
[
-------JA---JA---JA----JA
--------------MC-MC
----------------GN


HA= Horse archers (Kazacks or Mameluke Archers)
JA= Javelin Cavalry (Boyar Sons or Desert Cavalry)
MC= Melee Cavalry (Druz or Mameluke Cav)
GN = General

The HA are deployed by stretching them out in a long single line, then using the "-" button to form them into squares with wide spaces in between.

JA are deployed two ranks deep. Skirmish is left on but fire-at-will is turned off.

Melee cav are also in two-rank lines.

The HA "bag" the enemy formation, firing from all directions.




---------------------HA------------------------HA
[
-----------------------------EEEEEEEE
-----------------------------EEEEEEEE
----------------------HA-----------------------HA
[
------------------------------HA---------------HA


The javelin units prevent armored cavalry from breaking out of the bag, and the melee cav do that if the javelins can't. Once the enemy is disrupted by HA fire, the melee cav and javelins close in for the kill. HA also cut off or chase routing units, especially once they are out of arrows.

My English army comprises:

5 Knights
5 Bowmen
6 Armoured Swordsmen
4 Dismounted English Knights

B B B B B
DEK AS AS AS DEK
DEK AS AS AS DEK
K K K K
K(General unit)

As I am playing the English the bowmen are my greatest asset. Therefore I put them at the front behind their stakes.
Since cavalry is the weakest arm for the English I use 5 since I need to be able to pursue the routers successfully to complete victory.
I put my infantry in 2 lines so when in defence I have a reserve.
THe DEK are put on the flanks to protect them since my cavalry is not strong enough to repel a cavalry attack.

For most armies, i'd say im also a fan of the "weighted flanks" formation of Hannibal and the Greeks at Marathon, though to be honest, as Byzantines so far it's been mostly HA + everyone else waaaay back (spliting HA into 2 flanks + going for an army-wide envelopment goes well)

My tactics vary depending on the enemy army's composition...

Often I use the static line:
SSSSSSSS
AAAAAAAA
C_______C
___RRR___

Where S are spears, A are archers (Or crossbows or muskets), C are cavalry, and R are artillery...

This is when I don't intend to do anything fancy.

Sometimes I'll put the missile troops out in front on skirmish, but only if I want to provoke an early charge and generally only if I have high quality missile troops who can do ok in melee.

Two somewhat unique situations I've run into lately...

Playing as France I had 2 units of Armored Sergeants, two units of either Crossbows or Aventurier, and my general's bodyguard. I was significantly outnumbered, but the enemy was mostly town militia so I wasn't too worried. The general's unit was Armored Sergeants though, and they had one unit of peasant archers.

I deployed in the static line formation expecting them to hit me and try to overwhelm me with numbers, but instead he had deployed somewhat back up the hill in order to force me to approach uphill where his peasant archers would be able to outrange my high end crossbows...

I didn't feel like marching up the hill... and also all I could see was his general's Armored Sergeants and the Peasant Archers out in front of them. So, I briefly considered trying to flank with my general's unit, but I'd been having REALLY horrible luck with generals dying in successful charges. So I thought about it and came up with an interesting solution.

I split my infantry into two groups, one spear unit and one crossbow unit each, and had them move into position on either side of the enemy, keeping my general's cavalry in the middle. The enemy couldn't afford to turn to engage either unit of infantry without being shot in the back by crossbows and having my general's unit charge them in the side, so... They just sat there while my crossbows wiped them out. Naturally I focused on the general's unit since the Peasant Archers couldn't actually hit my troops now that they were level with them.

They sat there until the general died and his unit was nearly wiped out and then they routed. I charged in with my general, and the Archers routed as well, seeing the general's squad leave and a unit of heavy cav closing on them. I pursued them taking tons of prisoners until I got close to the woods and noticed his town militia were hiding in there... peeled off, and sent the armored sergeants in to flush them out.

I think I took all of 5 casualties in that battle.

Another trick... I was playing as Venice, moving against Milan who had my city of Florence besieged. I had 8 Pavise Crossbow Militia, 10 Italian Spear Militia, and 2 Cavalry Militia. He was bringing a lot of horse archers and other cavalry to bear (Not sure where he got them). I knew I could beat him if I could keep his men off my missile troops long enough to break them.

So I thought about it and came up with this idea:

_M_M_M_M_

S-S-S-S-S-S
CAAAAAAAAC

Basically I deployed four of the spear units in a very compact line, probably 8-10 ranks deep each, and then flipped them to Shiltrom formation. They're represented by the M's.

I left a fair sized gap behind them and then spread the other spear units in a long thin single line there, and backed them with my Pavise Crossbow Militia, with a unit of Cav Militia at each flank.

Effectively, it created a forward barrier the enemy had to either charge, which would obviously beat up their cav quite badly, considering they were in Shiltrom, or else they'd have to bypass them, charge the spear behind them, and risk the squads in Schiltrom dropping formation and hitting them from the rear while they were engaged.

I basically annihilated the AI in that battle... we were fairly evenly matched, but I came out with 1700+ kills to his not quite 300.

My HRE armies have a tendency to look like this is I expect to have time on my hands.



---------(XX)AAACCCCCCCAAA(XX)
---(HHH)SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS(HHH)
---------HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
------KKKK----------GG----------KKKK


'A' for archers, 'C' for crossbows, 'X' for artillery, 'S' for spears, 'H' for heavy infantry, 'K' for knights and heavy cavalry and of course 'G' for general.

The brackets indicate that these positions are dependant on availability and total numbers. If I have few troops, the heavies go next to the spear, if I have a lot then they get their own line. And artillery don't really serve in my field armies that often (though ballistas are good indeed).

The point with teh army is simple enough.
Archers and crossbows are meant to take out enough enemies to make it hurt. At the same time they need protection. Protection heavy infantry is a bit troubled giving at times. Instead a cheap and effective spearline will take the enemies if they are hasty. Then the heavies will join in when the spears have worn out the enemy (at which point the spears are pulled back), meanwhile the heavy cavalry does what it is supposed to, smash the enemy heavy cavalry, archers and flank.
If the enemy either wins the ranged duel or soaks up the arrows/bolts, then I let the heavy infantry deal with the enemy first, while the spears break off to protect their flanks and hold any other infantry the enemy might have. Meanwhile the heavy cavalry hags back and awaits the enemy's next move. If there is no move they do the usual, otherwise they react, but always they wait a bit to see how things develop.

This is a very cautious formation, and one that relies on reaction and superior timing. Meanwhile it is very adaptable and generous to your heavy eaxpensive troops in that it is the cheaper units that takes the brunt of the losses (ranged losses and charges).

I also use a soft center with pincers technique, sort of a Russian WWII meets Hannibal sort of thing.. but i have 4 different combination depending of the make up of the army and the age in playing in... almost all of the formations i use are missile heavy so i need a lot of space to make it work

HC - Heavy Cav
HA - horse archers
LC - light cav
XB -Crossbows
HI - heavy Infantry
SP - spears
PK - pikes
A - archers
AT - artillery
MK - muskets
G - General

HA-LC_______________________HA-LC




____XB_________________XB


________HI_SPSPSP_HI
_________HI_SPSP_HI
__________A_A_A_A
___________AT_AT
_____________G


. the idea being let them march to me, while i work my light cav/HA around the sides (pincers) to work over the general and any arty they have and to be ready to cut off retreats. i use the XB to soft the the flanks and help finish the general if needed, they also take the incoming missiles.the archers behind my mail lines, take the flanks aswell then on to the flanks to come in the on rear. i wait for the lines to meet then the HI start to encircle their lines. AT targets the flanks or any enemy AT. i should note i always fight open battles from hill tops if possible.

this changes with powdered units wear i have flatter lines that are thinner and far more simple. The muskets and archers all focus on the back lines while the arty focuses on the front lines after the last likely volley the muskets are retreated behind the pikes and then around the the flanks to volley at the back units (if they havent routed already) from there the pikes hold the line while the Heavies work their way in the sides. the heavy horse is there to counter other horse and the encircle them as usual.


HC__HI_MK_MK_MK_MK_MK_HI__HC
__HI_P--K_P--K_P--K_P--K_HI
______A_____G_____A
_________AT___AT

the last formation i have is a something i took from the great Australian general Sir Leslie Morshead (AKA Ming the merciless, the first general to defeat the great Erwin Rommel), anyway he used a retreating core or honey pot system, where the middle lines of his army retreated into the rear trapping the army with his flanks...it looks something like the below. mind you the units are pretty far apart and facing inwards.

_HC___________________________HC
HI_MK/A_____________________MK/A_HI
HI_MK/A_____________________MK/A_HI
HI_MK/A_____________________MK/A_HI
HI_MK/A_____________________MK/A_HI
HI_MK/A_____________________MK/A_HI
HI_MK/A_____________________MK/A_HI
____________A___A___A________________
______________AT__AT___________

________________G_____________

The way it works is the archers in the middle entice the enemy to advance to wards them while retreating, once in the middle the flanks open fire while the HC and the inf move in to close the trap.. this is the hardest to get right and i mostly do it from hill tops, where it is easier to trap the army.

My Turkish Army;

Quote:

---

HA HA HA HA----------------------------------HA HA HA HA

------------------HI SP SP SP SP SP SP HI-------------------------------------------------
----------------------AT---------AT----------------------------------------------------------
------------------G------------------------G

---

I dont remember the exactly how many units i use, but its ussually like this, sometimes more HA units. I ussually send the HA forward immidiatly to harass the enemy. Those Sipahis is really good....

I have a few preferences, depending on faction I am playing:

As Venice I find this somewhat useful:


____S_X_X_X_S
____H_SSSSS_H
_C__H___AA__H__C
_________________
_______C_G_______

X = crossbows, probably pavise xbow militia
C= Cavalry, I prefer Knights/Heavy cav. Might even be militia cav as Venice has heavy cav as militia.
S = spears (=italian militia)
H = heavy infantry, Venetian heavies or footknights etc.
A = Venetian archers
G = general

The crossbow militia are the first line, but they will quickly retreat to the second line - > flanks when the battle lines close.

The first line spears are there to guard against cav charges, the idea is that they react to any cav threat and buy time for missile fire. The crossbows are not on skirmish usually. The spears take the front quite quickly if the enemy is close.

The heavy infantry is a flank guard, and flanking force when needed. They can also wade into the center if things get too hectic. The second heavies are sometimes replaced by cavalry or crossbows firing to the left/right front side, depending on what I have to use.

The rear cavalty is there to protect the general and to react to surprising threats once the battle lines are closed. Paired with the general it can start charging loose enemy troops - probably missile troops left behind etc.

The Archers are there if I have any. Mostly their function is to have some missile harrasment that works over the battle line. Sometimes there is more, sometimes none.

This works as long as the enemy has no massed artillery, if they do, I use a double line, quite thin one at that. Also, if I am losing the missile fight, I tend to assault swiftly. The main point in the formation is sort of a fist. The footprint can be squeezed tight if or spread out quite flexibly. Also, the archers in the center can fight in melee if needed.

Helpful hint: when inputting army formations, the CODE block is your friend. Edit the layout using a fixed space font (e.g. in wordpad) using spaces, not tabs for alignment, then paste into a code block.

My generic bog standard defensive formation:

Code:

---


                HI SP SP SP HI
        HC  LI  AAA AAA AAA AAA  LI  HC
                ART  G  ART

---

Might swap out the Light Inf or the Arty for more archers depending on whats available.

Give this another try. Also, I've never played multiplayer so no clue how this would work that way.

I like to keep things fairly simple and straight forward.

In instances where I'm nearly on par with or out number the enemy I like:


----------II___II___II___II
-----------------------------II
------------A____A____A
---------HC _____G_____HC
-------HCHC____________LC

II = Infantry arainged in line formation.

This I use to pin their front or abosrb their initial attack. The infantry is kept heavy to the right to act as an anvil. The cav on the right is to screen cav attacks on that side or to sweep out and around into the enemy backfield to take out missles/arty.

The cav on the left is to smash the enemy line starting on my left and working to my right toward the anvil.

Additional forces might be added to the second line as available, there's slots left open for expansion there.

The archers work to reduce the attacking force as it approaches or soften up the enemy defenders as I approach, then act as light infantry once contact is initiated by the front line.


When heavily out numbered and on the defense I go with:


-------------------------- ii
-----------------------iI _A_ Ii
----------------------iI _A_A_ Ii
--------------------HC___G___HC
--------------------HC_______HC------------LC

ii = infantry in deep "block" formation
iI = infantry in deep block formation oriented 45 degree angle to left
Ii = infantry in deep block formation oriented 45 degree angle to right.

This is to abosrb the initial charge and then sweep down both flanks of the enemy with HC. LC is to harrase and chase missles troops.
As in the other case, archers will work to reduce enemy numbers as possible, then work as light infantry once contact is made.

Currently working with a massive line of crossbows, with any direct fire artillery to the side, indirect behind. If I can work a balista around to provide raking fire, all the better - nothing like 5 or 6 knights falling to one bolt...

Behind, or working up one flank, a large contingent of heavy cavalry, to either hit anyone who dares approach my lines, fall out of formation, or just to provide the killing blow when my missle troops have run out of projectiles.

Just started playing yesterday...

Why do you put the archers in your front line? Don't they get slaughtered by a charging enemy?

Wouldn't it be best to put them in the rear? Or are they not smart enough to fire over your own units?

Because your melee units will get shot at if you do that. and melee are much more expansive. In RTW this was not the case since missiles were nerfed in MP and it was harder to reach routing threshold of infantry. Now, coupled with the stronger cavs, an 70% strengthed foot unit will get annilated and fold the line.

Most people use crossbows at the front as they shoot straight (better when shooting straight) nad most of the Italian factons have paivse (sp) corssbow militia, they have shelds as well, it means they do great damage and take little losses from enemy missile fire. also you can normaly get your archers back behind your lines when the charge comes...

lately i have been using upgraded pikes in a long thin line in guard mode, with muskets in a long thin line in their spears also in guard mode, with heavy inf and cav on the sides, arty at the back. it means that in a charge your muskets, or any missile troops can stand there ground and keep shooting. it has been really effective against the mongols (seiges) or other cav heavy armies.

I usely go with this one


A=archers AT=artillery C=cavalry G=General I=infrantry melee MH=mounted archers


----- -----------MH - MH - MH - MH - MH - MH
------------------- C AT A A A A A AT C
----------------- ----I I I I I I
------------------- G