FMAA and CMAA.

[Jxrc]

Something I have been trying to work out by myself but I give up.

FMAA and CMAA, what's the deal with those guys ?

When I first started playing the game, I thought these guy looked cool and used them a lot but ended up in a lot of trouble most of the time. Thus all my armies where made of missile units, spears and cavalry (most of the time that is quite enough to deal with any army managed by the AI). Added some poleamrs in the high period and that was pretty much it.

Then I read somewhere than most armies used in online battles were made of swordmen rather than spearmen. Thought I must have missed something and tried again to use more FMAA and CMAA. I did get sliightly better results than before (not really an achievement) but I still feel that those two units make things more difficult for me since at equal valour:

- they do ok against spear but nothing exceptional. THey make mincemeat out of vanilla spearmen but it takes them quite a while to deal with FS or CS;
- they suffer heavy casulaties against any unit with AP bonuis;
- they get rolled-over by cavalry (except in woods).

Evne though the loose some mobility when placed that way, I almost always use them in two ranks as recommanded in the unit guide ... I thought it has something to do with the weak charge but that does not seem to be than since I found out that in many cases the AI is silly enough to let my FMMA "walk against" its units without ever charging.

Anything I would have missed ?

[CBR]

They are only good in MP because they are cheaper and therefore players can buy more upgrades. With equal valor they are not that much stronger than heavy spears. In SP you will worry more about the upkeep which is different than the initial cost.

If you face spears you can use the wedge formation as that is very good at disrupting spears and will remove the spear rank bonuses.

FMAA are 50/50 v Billmen so apart from the shield that gives added protection against missiles and slightly better v unarmoured targets the Billmen are the best to buy really.

Using 2-3 rank formation is so they can overlap the spear unit and get into the flanks and have more 1v1 fights with no spear rank bonuses.


CBR

[Vladimir]

Flanking and woods. Never go toe-to-toe and attempt to cleave through troops. Very unrefined.

[Jxrc]

Never go toe-to-toe and attempt to cleave through troops. Very unrefined.

Unrefined indeed and it does not work very well either. There are huscarls for that sort of brutal thing.

[Heidrek]

MAA's are good all round troops. Great vs cavalry in the woods, but equally good at flanking and face to face combat. There's not much a CMAA's can't take on and not do well against. The combination of good attack, defense and armour means that they can give and take well. If you can flank something with them, they will apply pressure like a vise that slowly tightens and crushes the victim with few losses. Don't expect instant results from them though, they lack shock value but act like acid against most units, slowly but surely wearing them away.

[caravel]

The thing to remember when ambushing from the woods - that is emerging from the woods in a charge to surprise and enemy - is that you should click to select the ambushing unit and then once on the enemy unit, any subsequent clicks will negate the surprise attack penalty that is inflicted on the target.

So for example if you had your Ghazis in the woods on engage at will and in wedge formation, you would click once on the target and do nothing more. I believe that double click to run also negates the effect as it counts as a second attack order. The way to have the unit run is to do CTRL+R after you have ordered it to attack. I have massacred pinned units of Kataphraktoi from the rear using Ghazis in this fashion.