Is anyone else here as rotten a General as me?

[Lokiss]

I'm with Cynwulf here in so far as I'm pretty good at everything but sieges; and god help me if I try one without at least a ballista. We're talking 10:1 casualties here... minimum

Those arrow/catapult towers are killer, especially since I love spamming Feudal Sgrts and Spearmen. One good shot with a catapult tower and... boom.

[Innocentius]

I'm either a good general or a completely average one, I can't really make that judgement myself. I usually play on Normal and most of the time I achieve rather good kill ratios; between 10:3 and 10:1 if defending and between 4:1 and 1:1 when attacking. This is mostly since I've become rather good at interpreting and predicting the strategic map, which makes me able to pick my battles more often than not. When it is I who am surprised and forced to fight a battle I didn't expect/wanted, I either retreat, suffer a defeat or manage to win a pyrrhic victory.

If you want to be able(r) to choose your battles, you could deploy the "levies" tactic, which means that you simply gather a great number of cheap but useless troops (Peasants in Vanilla or VI, Spearmen/Slavic levies in XL or other mods) and keep them for a single campaign. The AI counts number of troops rather than quality, so with 2,000 Spearmen you can scare an enemy force of 800 CFK away, even though they would normally win. This is also a great way to force the AI to attack you, which is preferable since defensive battles tend to be a lot easier: gather a large army containing a core of good units that you would normally use and than excess amounts of "levied" units for your invasion and then once you've ousted the enemy from the province, disband your superfluos troops and provoke the enemy to attack your much smaller elite core of troops, assuring you an easy victory with a good casualty rate.

[m52nickerson]

The biggest thing that I have learned is the be patience. When ever I rush a battle I have much larger casualties, or may even lose. This is particularly important when attacking.

[gaijinalways]

When ever I rush a battle I have much larger casualties, or may even lose. This is particularly important when attacking.

This is very true, patience definately helps.

As to the earlier comments about deploying less troop types, yes, simplicity does make things easier, though I prefer sometimes various bow types (cross, albs, regular archers) and some sword and spear types.

As to cavs, if they are the same types, that's fine, but I often pick up mercs in some cases as I tend not to specifically raise cav familes. I think tropps that are similar can be grouped for deployment in battle, so handing them isn't that difficult.

[Ciaran]

The biggest thing that I have learned is the be patience. When ever I rush a battle I have much larger casualties, or may even lose. This is particularly important when attacking.

Indeed. Move your army in small steps, and keep everything in formation. That is much, much more important than it is in M2TW or, to a lesser degree, though, RTW. Especially if you´re using units which gain a rank bonus, i.e. spears and pikes. And I suggest taking Frogbeasteggs Beginner Guide, and there the section on the battlefield, to heart. It helped me immensely when I started playing MTW. I still make the mistake to send in my knights prematurely, though.

[Agent Miles]

Save your battles and replay them. This way, win or lose, you can review what happened and actually learn from your mistakes. By zooming in and pausing, it also allows you to study what the AI did, which is an insight that is otherwise not as apparent.