Bridge Battles

for me, defending a bridge depends on the number of bridges to be defended.

two bridges; i adopt an ordinary defencive layout, as you would on a normal battlefield, i just make sure that it is as far away from the bridges as possible and in the highest position i can get to.

the enemy will cross, but by the time they reach me they are going to be real tired climbing to my lines.

the enemy will also be broken up to a degree, allowing me to just focus everything on them.

lastly, if i have reserves the withdrawing units don`t have far to go and reinforcement will arrive at my lines pronto. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...icons/cool.gif

one bridge; i always use the Blocker, it requires less maintenance and i get to focus all my archers on the units stuck on the bridge, just keep feeding spearmen into the fray on the bridge to keep them pinned.

accept the casulties from friendly fire, it goes with the job.

don`t underestimate having a couple of catapults when defending, don`t fire them at the bridge fire at the units to the rear to lower morale and disrupt their formations. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...ns/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...icons/wave.gif

If they have two bridges, often the enemy AI is too stupid to cross both of them. Mass all your men at one bridge and they will attack only that bridge 90% of the time. If you put guys at the other bridge they will go over there to mee them often so watch out.

Best way is to fight them on the one bridge and when the battle is heavy and fierce then send your Cavalry and fast infantry across the other bridge to slam into the rear.

Ok for an example of how to defend a bridge from attack... check out this replay.

Bridge Defence Replay

That should teach you the basics of how to effectively whoop ass on a bridge http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...ns/biggrin.gif

I have a specific question on the Historical Battle of Stamford Bridge. The one where the English force marched north, and are tired out from the start and have to defend against 3 armies of vikings.

HOW? I have tried and tried the bridge defenses mentioned here and either I run out of time and lose, get creamed and lose, or MAYBE rout them all but because they killed so many of my men I lose on valor points.

Any tips for me other than what's been given so far?
Thanks.

Actually I very much use archers in the "longshanks role", the enemy tends to have no problems with it why should I. I'm usually sending the arrows in to hand to hand as there are the tighter formation making them that bit easier and as they are too busy fighting hand to hand they struggle to defend themselves properly. Of course, by targeting the troops towards the rear of the melee as you will quite often find, with the exception of the enemies archers will all be clambering onto the bridge.

Well aimed salvos on the rear units will cause causalties on them and simultaneously take out troops from several units at once. Great at whittling down the bogged up enemy.

Defender should be able to destroy the bridge with culverins.

Never overlook the effectiveness of 1 or more Organ Guns on a bridge defence. The routs can be spectacular http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...ns/biggrin.gif

Ouchhhhhh... YESSSS Hahahahahahahaha http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cg...ns/biggrin.gif

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Vanya @ Sep. 29 2003,10:12)]GAH

Vanya sez...

1. Put chiv sergeant on hold/hold at mouth of bridge. Practically nobody will get through, as most of its attrition will come from enemy fire anyways. Rotate units in and out of plug duty as needed. (So make sure you have several. Halbardiers are also ok here, but them be best set to attack the closet pig, which means they slowly push the enemy back across the bridge.

2. If have 2nd bridge, send cav raid across it once enemy is engaged. Sweep behind enemy and attack from other end of bridge Result: total liquidation of enemy manpower Of course, youz have to wait until you sap enough strength from the foe so he doesn't try to intercept your raiding party.

Works for Vanya... could work for youz... or maybe it already does...

GAH

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Tremendous advice from Vanya...
Let them have the bridge, the bridge is a killing zone so let them be the ones who die. Plugging the end ( your end ) with one unit on hold/hold will hold the enemy for ages and your units will be mostly out of range. His however, are just targets for your ranged units. Have your h2h units ready to take over the holding job and send them in one at a time as required.

I used three Saracen infantry units this way...hehe unfortunately I had no cav and there was no second bridge but we held an army that outnumbered us 10 to 1....routed in the end but there were precious few left of the enemy

....Orda

How about offensive bridge battles? I usually try and lure the enemy across by sending out a sacrificial lamb like crossbows or HA's, hope the enemy charges, then hightail it back to my side with spears ready to charge onto the bridge (the enemy usually stops their charge and begins to withdraw before fully crossing). Have missile troops up against riverbank to enfilade bridge.

Hell, make your sacrificial lamb something cheaper than that. I prefer peasants. Let the enemy chase them and then have your archers shoot the hell out of the enemy. Rally the peasants and repeat.

ArchLight, I played Stamford Brige last night and went on the offensive. (I believe the English are the attacker). I began the assault with whatever troops were not exhausted and brought the others across as they got one or two bars. The Vikings didn't fight together and took awhile to get organized so I was able to beat each army in detail. I concentrated on routing each of the three generals and after that most of their army would break.

Not a whole lot left to fight the Normans though.

I should probably point out that I play on max unit size.

When using the bridgehead technique, I often found that the furthest third or so of archer units would be out of range of the bridge or would only be in range of the close half of the bridge.

By using the blocker strategy, I can get them all to fire at the far end of the bridge & thus get an extra full salvo or two in before they hit the blocker.

Arrse:

I modded the game for every unit to be doublesize (I wanted Royals to be twice as big too, not just 20 guys) and I never really have a problem with the archers in the bridgehead strategy.

Ah, so it is possible to go on the offensive and win with that one. Sounds tough to do though I'll try it. Thanks DojoRat.

put your archers on fire at will and they will fire at clear targets. Targets specific units and they will shoot regardless of the danger of friendly fire. so once melee is in full swing cancel all specific targets to minimise friendly fire. unless there is a unit that you really what to shred regardless of friendly targets.

When I attack a bridge I figure that the units most dangerous to me are the missiles, followed by the spears.

I usually attack with two stacks:
Army 1: Two Pike Units -- One to guard the bridge and one to guard the flanks if there is a second bridge. The rest an even mix of Pavise Arbs and Longbows. I first clear out the missiles by sending moving my longbows and P-arbs close in, as soon as a missile unit moves in range to fire I put all of my fire on it, and it falls back, repeat as needed. Then I can focus on the infantry. I move the P-Arbs up onto the bridge, and put the longbows on the banks. As an enemy unit moves in I hit it with all my missiles. It wears them down. I advance and retreat one missile unit across the bridge, with all the others on standby to fire. As soon as the enemy unit gets in range I hit it with everything that I have. I stop the retreating unit and let it fire into the enemy too. This chews up a lot of enemy units pretty badly. I try to group my missile units so they run out of ammo in little bunches, as soon as they do I send them off and bring on reinforcements. Eventually I have a full compliment of horse and infantry on the field. I break off the cav and ride it around to the second bridge and get it across, once it is across, or about to be engaged I send all the infantry across the first bridge. It works pretty well. Casualties are a little higher than I would like, but that's the danger of attacking a bridge province.