"Staking" out your territory
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...
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