Redux: Battle & Tactics

**Axalon** · 11-05-2008, 11:00

Hi guys and welcome to this part of the castle....

Obliqueattack: No worries I am not going to fry you, but I am going to ignore all stuff that isn’t redux because it simply is not relevant here (the circumstances for battle in those versions are too different from redux. It is not a mere chance that I set up this thread you know). No sir, no frying today. Instead I commend you for starting off this thread!

“I'm playing Redux expert Spanish now and 60 regular foot with swords can't beat 100 Moorish spear (all things being equal valour etc) (those Moorish dudes are disciplined as well). It doesn't seem to matter if the spear are moving also (I believe then they lose their ranks bonus)”

Now, your presented problem strike me as fairly obvious, you can’t use a single Regular Infantry unit and hope to beat a Moorish Infantry unit as long as valour and all that are the same. Your story here shows that with all clarity. So you’ll have to either upgrade them or do something else. As simple as that. It is a question of available troops, allocating resources and cost if you ask me. What you are describing is a classic example of allocating wrong tactical resources for the wrong places (granted that you don’t always have even that luxury). It seems quite obvious to me at least. Thus I would do something else and I suggest that you to do the same.

“This is a problem when you can't outnumber the Moors. Regular foot are probably your best swords infantry for quite a long time; problem is the Moors attack with huge stacks of 100 spearmen outnumbering you!!”

Well you can’t expect to outnumber the Moors as Spain that would simply being hoping for too much. Expect the opposite and adjust your strategy and tactics accordingly. Hence you need to make other plans and use other types of troops. It’s that simple really.

“In my last battle I tried to outnumber the Moors on their flank at least. I charged in 2 units of regulars in wedge into the one 100 man Moorish spear, but we still lost. Even when outnumbered they can fight for ages; that +4 plus disciplined keeps em going long enough for help to arrive eg Black Guard! Moorish bodyguards!!”

Concentrating on a flank is a good tactic but it will only work for a limited time. Once your time is up, you will have to move your troops out of there or drown in enemies. All this under the assumption that the enemy have numerical superiority and it is real soldiers you are fighting. When facing fighting against the odds you simply cannot afford to face the enemy head on because you’ll probably just get destroyed that way. As the above battle example shows, mobility is key and you should strive to never allow the enemy to use its full force against you. If you allow that to happen you fight on the enemys terms and that usually is a bad idea when you are outnumbered. Essentially you are forced by necessity to force the enemy to fight on “your terms” or at least more favourable term for you.

“I find missiles in combination don't help much either.”

I actually find that very hard to believe, my guess is that; if you feel that way you simply don’t use the archers in the right way or simply have not enough of them. I dare to say that reduxes projectile system is the most leathal to date! All other versions isn’t even close! So something is definitely wrong with this picture. Have you tried concentrated fire? The moors do have shields, granted, but they are not immune to arrows! Perhaps you should try crossbows? At any rate, archers is probably one of Spains more obvious weaknesses thus you should consider to hire mercenary archers because they are quite good actually.

“Perhaps I should use the Longbow!”

Well, apart from everybody else I actually leave that choice to you...

In an overall sense I think that if you find Spain too hard to play you should play another faction instead. There is no prestige here, prestige is silly, play on the level that suits you and be happy about that instead! Spain is difficult faction to play in a universal sense. Spain set on “Expert”-level is simply not for everyone and it is not intended to be either. Besides this is not the original! This is redux! You cannot expect to have the same impressive results as in the original because redux is a lot more unforgiving and demanding even if you don’t play Spain!

Personally I wait for my royal infantry (and spearmen), in the mean time I use knights. With these you can fight superior forces and especially if they are upgraded and have lots of moral bonuses (churches and stuff like that). High valour is very helpful also and a favourite of mine. But in the end of the day you must be a decent commander as well otherwise it will be hard.

At any rate, if you can’t handle the Moorish onslaught play some other faction instead! Nobody will think any less of you for doing that, it – is – ok – you – know...

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William: Overall I think that your suggestions are both good, viable and interesting. One thing that especially caught my interest is the fact that you, quite correctly, pointed out here is that one don’t have to win every battle! Something that might not be an obvious choice for many perhaps, still it might be just the thing to do! Sometimes you might fight just to destroy as much as possible for the enemy. Just to wear them down a bit or perhaps there is some target units that needs to be cleared out in battle before the big attack! However this is something that strike me as only advisable while you got buffer zones to work with.