What to do with AUM

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Shoot them full of arrows on their approach, stop them with a group or two of militia sergeants and then flank with whatever you have to hand. Simultaneously, focus any remaining firepower against some of the easily routed units in the Almo line up (plenty to choose from), as soon as they start to run, your outnumbered and flanked AUMs will turn tail.

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I agree with that, but it kind of illustrates the point: shoot them up, hit them with two units, flank them, make another unit rout, and then you might break them. :-)

I haven't fought an almo campaign yet, I find their skirmishing style infantry is pretty effective when the AI has it but I suspect its a pain in the backside for a human to micromanage. Sadly my PC is too ancient to support RTW so until i upgrade thetre will be plenty of time to experiment...

AI manages skirmisher units well? are you kidding? they run away instead of properly discharging their javs and will often dance in range of your archers instead of charging in melee like they are supposed to.

jinettes can easily outrun berbers and the AI will always eventually give you an opening to shower the AUMs with some deadly javs.

Almos are great in the hands of a human player as AUMs, DAs, and Murabitins can take most anything in early. throw in a few nubians for fighting the cav and you are set.

Eggy can't really compete with Almos. A flood of AUMs can cut down their initial lineup before getting tired and also Nubians backing up mountains of DAs will make pincushions of the Eggy camel and peasant hordes.

Hitting the Spanish fast is essential before they crank out more jinettes which are serious trouble for your AUMs

Is AUM really so great? I've used them several times, and they were ground to paste by italian infantry and other spearmen. ~:confused:

I've found that Arab Infantry perform much better, but maybe its just me.

what are you talking about? what version are you playing?

AUMs have 3/3/3
Arab inf have 2/4/-2

these are charge/attack/defense

the arab inf would just die like flies in frontal assault. both have small shield but this doesn't change relative comparison.

against Italian Light, AUMs should be put into 1.5-2 ranks. in order to not be flanked by wrap around, they need to deploy in fewer ranks and wouldn't get sufficient rank support, giving the AUMs the victory.

even if the Italian light was in shield wall and can't be flanked, the AUMs will be enough to make it a phyrrhic victory for the Itlaian Light and can beat them cost effectively.

they do far better than arab inf which just die like flies against a defensive beast like Italian inf as if the first charge doesn't break em, the arab inf is screwed, having negative defense.

@Katank

Of course the Jinettes can outrun the Berbers, but the Berbers can shoot the Jinettes up, and the Jinettes are not able to compete in hand to hand combat. This renders the Jinettes irrelevent on the battlefield. While the Berbers keep the Jinettes away from the main engagement, the remainder of the armies can duke it out. Without the Jinettes, the Spanish don't stand a chance. Once the main engagement is over, the Jinettes will usually withdraw, if they haven't already run because of loses sustained from the Berber's arrow fire.

A counter to a unit need not necessarily be effective at destroying that unit, so long as it is capable of forcing that unit to irrelevence.

Italian Infantry require a castle to build. AUMs require a only a keep.

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I haven't fought an almo campaign yet, I find their skirmishing style infantry is pretty effective when the AI has it but I suspect its a pain in the backside for a human to micromanage.

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One of the unfortunate losses when this website changed was the loss of a "how-to" thread on using javelins.

Any pain in the backside is more than compensated for by the sheer delight of watching a whole unit of royal knights die.

Murabitins are ther best javelin troops in the game -- by a long shot, except for a few mercenary units.

Here's the drill:

1. Take them off skirmish mode. It doesn't work. The AI will usually back you up out of effective javelin range before your guys have a chance to throw.

2. Drag them out in a line that's two deep.

3. The simplest method is to put them behind a melee unit that's only two men deep. This greatly shortens the throw. Putting them behind a spear unit, for instance, that's four ranks deep is not as good. You'll probably kill some of your own guys, too.

4. Get them a height advantage if at all possible.

5. Get them as close to the target as humanly possible, then throw.

6. When and if they run out of javelins, or if the opposing unit is an infantry unit that routs, order a melee charge. Murabitins have a decent melee attack and are fast, making them a good reinforcement unit and a superb rout-chaser. Battles against well-managed Almohads tend to produce lots of enemy casulaties, then lots of prisoners if there are any survivors.

As you gain skill and confidence, you'll learn how to use your Murabitins to flank and attack from the rear, and to ambush. For instance, one of my favorite Almohad tactics is to rout an enemy infantry unit and have the Murabitins pursue -- but not too far. Have them break off the pursuit when they have made their way through the enemy line and then have them attack some other unit from the rear.

McGowan, ever tried to not play like the AI and actually stay out of range of the bow? it's not so hard.

I've made pursuing berbers run straight into a protected archer battery mutiple times and they are quickly neutralized.

a few feints also frequently leave the berber on one end of their line with my jinettes on the other, wreacking havoc on their AUMs.

Of course I stay out of the range of the bow when I'M using Jinettes. I was talking about how to use Berbers against Jinettes when playing against the AI. What part of this concept was so difficult to understand? ~;)

If I have to fight against berber camels I, in order of preference a) shoot them with archers b) try to entice them into becoming shishkabob on my spears or c) just charge with my cavalry since the computer fights with skirmish mode on and despite being camels they can't survive being plowed into from the rear while disorganised.

well, if I was playing almos, I'd forgo the berbers.

the DAs can do a good job of turning jinettes into pincushions and the AI never tries to close in melee. if they do close, they die on nubian spear tips or get slashed to bit by AUMs.

Granted Desert Archers are good, but I don't necessarily build the most efficient armies. I prefer to play a game with the flavour of the times and the factions, and since the Almo's get Berber Camels, and a valour increase for them to-boot, then of course I'm going to have a few units sitting around in my armies. Just my style I guess.

true.

I build a few but early on I use DAs and frequently just use those as well as abusing the starting berber but not many berbers after that since they aren't that cost effective for me in most cases.

Agreed. Once the Spanish are gone, you won't find a Berber of mine in Europe. I do keep them on for desert service in North Africa and the Middle East, though once I take Egypt their numbers begin to be thinned by Bedouin replacements.

But the Spanish are gone after about turn 4-5 in my game and I don't get a chance for bowshop so the starting berber's all I ever see unless on crazy sim mode in which I must "preserve faction flavor" by adding em.

1. Shoot the AUM a bit with archers (to soften them up).
2. Charge with strong Spear Units (Saracen Inf./Armored Spearmen/Feudal Sergents etc.)
3. Charge immediately with strong horse on wedge (straight their back). They rout pretty fast.

They are pretty powerful when you use them yourselves. Just be careful when you bring them across the deserts vs. the Egyptians. You must be quick or they will bake in the sun. They can't take too much Camel charges so must bring enough.

My army got routed because I didn't bring enough. The Egyptian had a ton of Camels. Needless to say my archers were toast without enough protection.
I could have easily won if I was able to hold the line because my archers were shooting down the camels. But one AUM flank broke under tremendous pressure.
Half of my archers routed as well.

Even with successful rally, I couldn't keep up because of reinforcement of the enemy. :surrender:

:knight: