Tips for MP Battles

Having played quite a few M2TW online battles, im finding a lot of players dont know the basics(including me). Id like you people to contribute your tips, advice and questions on how to win a battle.

Tip: For the inexperienced player i think unit selection is the biggest hurdle. If you bring only 10 units to the battlefield, you are going to lose against an opponent of equal skill. Try to bring close to 20 units. The game is all about flanking, and you will find it hard doing that being outnumbered 2 to 1.

Question: What is the best method to attack an opponents missile units with cavalry. I find this a lot harder than i did in MTW1?

By missile, do you mean foot missile or mounted missile? The best way depends on what's happening at the time... There isn't a magic method or anything though. During an archer battle, separately skirmishing archers with a couple of units of light cavalry is often a good idea, being sure to pull them back when enemy cavalry comes out and repeating. You often can get some shots off on their cavalry during this too. Later, archer numbers will be more reduced so they'll be easier to rout and tired (and so slow). Often it can be a good idea to charge the archers after an infantry melee engagement (as the archers will generally be behind the lines) and to then turn onto the rear of the infantry. This gets the units a morale penalty from the routing units as well as helping to make sure you have enough room for the cavalry charge to be effective. You shouldn't get drawn away from your infantry however.

Against horse archers, you shouldn't get too obsessed with chasing them down, mainly using cavalry to disrupt cantabrian if necessary (or you can just ignore it) and shoot them with archers, or to just push back the horse archers away from your more expensive units. Though sometimes I just leave a unit of light cavalry chasing them if they get particularly annoying.

With regards to inexperienced players and unit selection, taking say 10 unit armies to me means that they're trying to make a more exploitative army to help them win more easily. Basically don't, and just take something balanced, as people don't necessarily know what is really exploitative, or be able to use it. Balanced armies are much better to practice and more fun to play with anyhow.

Well cow getting 10 units is an easy way to win against unexperienced players but no matter how exploitative the army a good player with a balanced army will almost always be able to beat it fairly comfortably, especially in mtw2 compared to rtw as i'm finding it alot more balanced.

But generally I find 2 types of ppl who use 10 unit armies or exploitative armies, those being good players who know how to use it effectively which is as hard as a normal game to win agaist them, or they're a complete noob and end up charging head on into your army if they have all cav where u can just surround and kill them without any effort.

Kronos I believe you misread what cow wrote lol.

I have found that unlike rtw, the spearmen play a more crucial role on the outskirt of your main force. They can be used to intimidate enemy cavalry or if they are foolish enough they will try and charge them. If you attack their cavalry with even weak spearmen will usually take the battle.

I've noticed alot of Archer units, particularly in the Byzantines and Muslim factions have strong melee and defense, so you can use them as archers then double them up as infantry when the melee engages. Be careful, though because they may be tired and could route fast causing a morale penalty. It might be a good idea to use them to flank or stand near the melee bout to offer morale bonus for numbers/flanks being covered.

Don't make your general an archer/artiller/anything easily routed.

Take notice to the small details such as armor piercing ability and stronger armor types. Sometimes these are not listed in the descriptions so you have to guess, most likely late units have more defense due to armor than early units. You can sometimes tell by their appearance though this is not reliable yet since we do not have the info unpacked *shakes fist at cow* Units using maces and Axes usually have armor piercing, and check what secondary units cavalry have, because they might have a mace (Cataphracts were great for this in RTW).

Hope some helped, PS Cow im gonna msg you on msn for a proposition.

no I just randomly started talking about something else halfway through a sentence for some reason :P

well, the probably most effective type of army is balanced, containing as well cheap as expensive units. i personally like to use cheap pikemen, strong firearms and strong cavalry, as like this, you can force your enemy to attack you directly (as he wont be able to ignore your firearms). in face to face meelee combat, thers nothing more effective than pike formations, even the cheap ones. the heavy cav can prevent enemy flanking maneuvers (especially there i like the expensive, strong armoured ones) and as i choose only strong cavalry, it is likely that they will destroy the enemy's, being then able to flank themselves.


...or it should work like this, theoretically.... in fact, i've not yet played multi player, but against the computer it works out really fine ;)

Well you sohuld go Try your tatic against Human Players because we don't know if it actually works :-) :-)

There are claims that some players though *no names* are worse than the AI ;)

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Originally Posted by Sephriel

well, the probably most effective type of army is balanced, containing as well cheap as expensive units. i personally like to use cheap pikemen, strong firearms and strong cavalry,

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So basically you use Spain in late era :P

@ Barret: Lol :laugh4:

nah, rather the holy roman empire ... ;)

MP battles tips:

-Always buy 20 units. Dont go below 18 if you have too. Against an experience player you wont stand a chance with only 10 units, even if upgrades.

-Keep your forces as coherent-grouped as possible. Its ok to send a large part of your troops on a mission, like doubling another army. But be sure its worth it. Sending 6 heavy cav around the enemy just to get caught there and annihilated is not worth it.

-Dont mass in a bunch. Keep your army as wide as possible. Bunch army give the easy chain rout.

-Dont attack an enemy by moving away from your allies. You'll leave a gap in wich an experience player will go to isolate you from your allies.

-Protect your allies flank. Its not always easy, but do it as much as possible. Lets say you are in center in a 3vs3, your ally who is right wing attack. Try to slide with him to keep his flank safe from the enemy center. If you dont your ally left flank will be open for a quick hit and you'll be too far to react fast enough.

-Communicate as much as possible. Some situation may force you to attack, like being shoot to crap by your enemies 10 missiles units. You'll have more chance if you can warn your allies that you attack. Sometime just a message saying "i attack" will save you from being double. You'll warn your allies wich will be able to react faster.

-Be honorable and respecfull in victory like in defeat. Its not a battle tip, but eventually it will make you a better ally and opponent.

-Follow what's going on in front of you. Lets say you are in a 3vs3 and you are the right winger, and the general you are facing send 6 heavy cavalry in front of your ally who is holding the left. You can bet that if you do nothing, your team will loose as your ally on left will be double teamed by the enemies. You dont have to absolutely counter that move by sending 6 units on the far left. You can attack your outnumbered opponent. Just dont wait to attack that both of your allies have been double and destroyed. You win and loose as a team.

-Have fun. Some times, you'll be teamed with new players, or players with less tactical abilities. Be patient and adapt your game to his. You'll have more fun if you adapt than expecting a new player to play like a veteran. Any game/battle can provide fun. Most of the time its to you to make it fun for you.

-Remember you were also a newbi once ....

At the end of the day ull beat ure opponent more so through movement and coordination of attacks rather than builds...
I personally like to move as much as possible to keep my opponent busy... Once ure gd enough at coordinating many units at once try turning ure main force like a clock hand around the enemy before u engage.
The less experienced players in response to this will often make a mistake/panic leaving u an opportunity to attack.
Dont be afraid to be agressive, but also show a level of patience and thought before doing anything rash...

Wait until enemy is engaged then use 1 light cav , run behind him and make charge per charge.

non-spear noblemen take heavy casualties from a good charge.

it IS worth the time to set up your heavy cavalry for a good charge.

it can be a good idea to use medium-quality troops instead of top-quality troops (this is especially true for pikes), so that you have more money for other things.

If you're facing elephants, remember that they spook easily - so either send a mice their way, or flank them ASAP. Once they're running amok, getting out of their way is probably a good idea.

I haven't tried this, but a few peasants in front of your line may be a good idea for cavalry and missile fodder.




Is it really worth it to get a general's bodyguard unit for your general?

The peasants absorbing the cav charge might seem popular, but the rest of ure army takes a large morale drop as the routing peasants run through ure ranks....

The answer to the Generals bodyguard is open to debate. For me personally i use them for the western factions, they are great at routing depleted units.
For the Muslim and Byz/russian factions i use heavy horsearchers so that they can participate in the whole battle from range, only going into melee in dire need.

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The answer to the Generals bodyguard is open to debate. For me personally i use them for the western factions, they are great at routing depleted units.

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But their best for rallying your own. I always take one.

when someone uses horse archers and deploys them at the start of the battle i give them the initiative since they are basically launching an attack. so i will choose to fight defensive until i can defeat that attack. the best way is if you have good missile units such as long range bowmen is to draw your army within their missile umbrella. if the opponent uses the more accurate regular skirmish formation his horse archers get shot down. if he uses cantabrian circle he will waste a lot of arrows and still get shot up but not as bad. also face your targeted units toward the horse archers so that their shield will protect them.

i am beginning to guard mode a lot for my infantry just like in mtw/vi. it seems pre patch 1.2 it did not work so well.

of course sword and shield infantry seem to be the best infantry because of the shield fix. axemen are valuable but should be used when they can deliver their irresistable charge. they are good to keep in guard mode as well but i would not leave them stationary to recieve a charge. they should be commanded to attack when they are used where as opposed to advance to a postion as you would other infantry.

keeping a solid well organized line can by itself cause enemies to become shaken if they approach it disorganized.

of course my advice will be looked down upon as i am written off as a fanatical loon by some in the community.:laugh4:

also use any unit that does not have a special ability and you can use the bugle option just like a generals bodyguard and that bugle can make a big difference if you have that unit in the right place as it not only increases your troops morale but it can cause a drop in the enemies morale.

Mongols are always a good faction to use, if you pick the right army,good enough and aren't bounded by cav rules.

I've found that HAs work much, much better if i use them with light melee cavalry.

To be concrete: if i get to play turks, i try to make 'combat groups', as Doug-Thompson suggests. The group consists of 2 sipahis and 1 alan cavalry. If it's a low budget game, i might replace one or both of the sipahis with turcoman horses. It helps a lot against light cavarly attempts to rout the HAs, because a single light cavarly unit won't do to stop your harrassment. If the enemy tries it regardless, you should be able to crush them.

Another thing is to set guard mode for all spears. It makes them a bit more solid when it comes to recieving charges and holding their ground, which is what you want them for, after all. Also, spears are not top notch attackers, let them recieve the charge, especially if its against horses. Keep them away from Sword and shield infantry as much as possible.

Never underestimate the power of naffatun. Those little guys are extremely effective, both kill and morale-dropping wise. If you can get them, make sure you get at least one of them. Additionally, you might want to set skirmish off from the start and place them right behing your spears, or some other infantry

After the main engagement has started, i find it useful to set skirmish off for all my archers, so they can keep on firing at all moments. Thweir flanks must be protected if you want this to be effective.

I once saw a gyu using a different approach ofr light cav: This guy playes as the moors, and he set a line of missiles (peasant x-bows, or something with that reach) and his light cavalry right behind them. Behind the light cav there was his inf and heavy cav a little back in the flanks. I had a very hard time trying to attack that formation with HAs, and maybe it's worth a try.

Never attack with all your armie just 1 unit. If you decide to attack, try to click behinde enemy line with all your units. While they are marching forward, micro manage your attack then.