Starting with P&MTW

[The Lizard Pope]

It's an unfinished mod so I suggest that you start with one of the western powers. The muslim and steppe armies have far fewer unit and building types.

You are best starting off in an early era as you'll be familiar with a lot of the units: pikemen, arbalesters, lancers and shock infantry armed with halberds or two-handed swords. Gunpowder units are not very effective until later when muskets and regimental cannons (you'll love these) arrive, until then arbalests are your missile weapon of choice.

There is a large difference in strength between the major and minor powers. Spain have the most powerful military of the early era and are a good first choice. The central European countries have good cavalry but might not have the financial muscle that the Spanish or French kings can command. The Swedes are the first to adopt modern military techniques but they have small armies and start in a difficult position as they have to fight the Russian bohemoth for control of the Baltic. The Italian states are small but rich and have access to the best in western soldiers, they were my choice to start with

Tactics vary with country and era. For early western European states pike, shock troops, arbalesters and cavalry are used much as you'd find in MTW. Pike and heavy cavalry units are expensive to raise and maintain so keep their use to a minimum. Pike are very tough, deal out a lot of damage in melee and have excellent morale so are hard to rout. You'll have to use missile troops to disrupt them before melee. Arbalesters are great at this and you can never have enough of these excellent troops. Shock troops are used to attack the flanks of shaken pike units and some can even hold off cavalry. I use some gunpowder units to affect the morale of enemy pike but they aren't essential. Cavalry are used much as in MTW. It's all about combined arms and using a variety of units to their best effect. I have a core of 2-3 pike, 3-4 shock infantry units, 4 arbalesters, 2-4 cavalry (mainly lancers) and maybe 2 arquebus units. The A.I loves pikes and will field them in large numbers

This changes as gunpowder becomes more effective. The introduction of the musket means that pike become less important. Muskets are best deployed in long thin lines which are vulnerable to cavalry. Armies are now lines of muskets backed by pike or halberds to counter enemy cavalry and shock infantry. As soon as you can build regimental cannons do so, I usually field four batteries of these. It's all about maneuvering your troops to deliver maximum firepower while remaining protected from enemy cavalry. As guns become more effective you find yourself fielding melee infantry less and less. Eventually it's just muskets, cavalry and artillery.

There's some information in the forum but as it is an unfinished mod there's a lot figure out by yourself. You will have to come to terms with this new era in warfare, much like the Europeans at the time had to do. It's one of my favourite mods, Cegorah has done a fine job.

[seireikhaan]

Well, a few things I would say:

First of all, for starting factions. Spain is my recommendation. They have lots of titles, lots of rich provinces, access to elite late troops as well as having early stalwarts to boot. Additionally, some very powerful historical generals, like Pizzarro and Cortez who emerge early. Plus, the tactical situation of Iberia gives an easy to defend situation, unlike France who can get ganged up on.

Battles are a very different monster for most factions in this game. Early on, the best units will be "mercenary" units who require an inn to be trained. These include a couple variants of pikes, a musket unit, and a zweihander unit. The pike and zweihander units are incredibly powerful in melee, and will decimate almost all non-merc units in melee. The musket mercs are fairly substandard in melee, particularly in comparison to the pikes and zweihanders, but are your best bet for trying to wear down the giant pike units who, though very powerful and pretty well armoured, are quite slow.

Early cavalry include light lancer units who basically exist to run down archers(yes, there are some still left around to train in the "early" period of the game) and muskets. They hold no water in melee and are generally quite weak. After a bit though, you'll be able to start caracole units, who are essentially mounted pistol wielding troops. These guys are great for harassing the pikes and zweihanders for ages and ages, particularly in western europe and the eastern steppes.

As the game progresses, you'll get to a point where you can start training more "native" pikes who are comparable to to the mercs, at least as Spain. Spain has various Tercio units who are considerably cheaper(not that the Spanish need to be thrifty ). Other factions tend to be later coming in such native powerhouses. Anyways, after a bit you'll get to the point where battles are basically, well, pike and musket battles (). Battles can turn into giant, field long skirmishes of each army trying to out-position the other while trying to concentrate fire onto individual units to cause routing. Lots of fun.

Also, if you're in the mood for a bit of exploitation, regimental cannons are monstrously powerful units. Mobile cannons who fire in barrages of four shots. Quite accurate, and given they only have four men each, they pile up valor like crazy. I had a battle as the Ottoman Turks(defensive one, I should point out) where I literally had zero casualties against an army of roughly 1300, because I parked on a very steep hill and had 6 units of regimentals, in addition to a lot of muskets and horse archers. Enemy never got within firing range.



Factions to watch out for(ie, the powerhouses): Spain, Ottomans, Russians, and potentially the French. Russia will often stampede Eastern Europe with giant armies of very poor and badly trained troops and will often simply smother other factions with a giant zerg rush. Spain and France are both extremely rich and have lineups stuffed with powerful troops from top to bottom. Ottomans start with a lot of territory and have some of the game's best troops in the mid-game.



Hope that helps.

[Peasant Phill]

Thanks a lot for the advice.

I was considering Spain, France and Italian states to start with. Apparently Spain is the way to ease into the mod so I'll go with that. I'm more of an early and viking age general so a forgiving faction is really what I need.

[seireikhaan]

I must offer my apologies Phill.

I forgot one rather important thing for early starts. Cavalry is NOT going to be 'light lancers' as I stated, at least so long as you're in Europe and not using border riviers. The show in the west can be WON early on with men at arms and Lancers, both of which are absolutely insanely heavy cavalry. They have so much armor that that they actually resist early bullet fire. Plus, they can tear most units pre-mercenary period to pieces. The catch to beating and using them is fatigue. Play as though you were in the deserts of Sinai, as even in lush western Europe, they get very exhausted very easily. If fresh, they are almost unbeatable. However, if exhausted, they are incredibly slow, and I've actually repelled, with few casualties, men at arms in the past with town militia. As if you're wondering, yes, town militia are quite lousy.