"Staking" out your territory

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Having recently completed a CH/M campaign as England, I have -- as have many -- come to love those stake-using longbowmen+ that the English field so readily.

I generally do not stand my archers behind the stakes, but move the archers away and replace them with other units. Here are some of my favorite uses for them:

1. Inside a castle, as a second "wall" just inside the gate that is oh-so-likely to be broken by a ram.* Put a sword or spear unit right at/just behind the stakes and when the enemy cav pours through the gate to punish your troops, they get a nasty shock. Doesn't work as well in cities due to the copious paving areas that you can't stake --- but can still work.

2. Replacing a demolished section of wall in one of those back-to-back so you can't repair sieges. With a little luck he'll charge and your sword spear unit can enjoy a great advantage while your archer gets up on the wall to help.

3. Turning a hilltop firing position into a bastion.

4. Putting a fence up in front of my artillery to discourage cavalry quick attacks.

5. Using them (with some spear help) to block the gaps in hills and force eastern cavalry armies to take a circuitous route....under the eyes of my shooters.


What fun staky things have you done?



*Edit: My defenses, even with ballista and canon towers, seem to have a great deal of trouble burning or smashing all the rams. The towers drop pretty readily, and you can usually defend against ladders even with lesser quality troops because of the slow feed dynamic in your favor. If they've got multiple rams, however, one always seems to make it and then the cav dive in...

[TheDruid]

in those sieges, i mostly havent got stakes so i cant use them :) i send a spear unit on defensive to hold up the rams. , let the towers and archers do what their good at.
many times the enemy only has cav left :) run out the junk troops till the cav come to attack you, run them back in en fire them up :). didnt knew you could place the stakes in castles though. guess i only tested them in cities with not such great help. idem with with bridges.
those darn roads :(

[Ramses II CP]

I absolutely love to construct stake forts with extended lines to protect my retreat. That way I can field an army solely comprised of longbowmen who can fight until their arrows run out and then, if necessary, retreat and do it all again. There is nothing this force cannot maul (especially with the upgrades to armor and experience available to the English), in fact the only time you will need any support from other troops is if you face an AI army with a lot of artillery. If it's just a single catapult or gun shrug, spread out, and accept a few losses.

You reach a point, though, where it starts to feel like stakes are a total AI exploit since a player wouldn't have the trouble dealing with them that the AI does. If the AI only realized that cavalry can walk through stakes the stake fort strategy would be entirely unworkable.

[Monsieur Alphonse]

You can place stakes in cities and in castles. You cannot place them to close to the wall or gate. I always want the enemy to break through the gate so my stakes / swordmen / spearmen combo can do its work. If you place the stakes where you think the enemy will break trough the wall or gate and you set your units up like a U shape defending a breach is almost sadistic.

[The New Che Guevara]

Defeated Sicily's last Province with essentially just archers. It was originally a crack team of some knights and cav, but my cav retreated into the stakes I had set out... It was then I cursed stakes... but they still worked.

[TheLastPrivate]

It's kinda sad since it only works thanks to AI's stupidity to run through stakes. I actually stopped using them except when I have 0 cavalry because it often impedes my own cavalry flanking/rear charges.

I'm also using improved battle AI and the AI never, ever, runs through stakes.

When I face a whole stack of cavalry I put them behind my lines to protect my archers to a degree but then the AI manages to find holes...