Soly's suggestions for defense

[solypsist]

[Vlad The Impaler]

good stuff solypsist; i remember that u posted an image almost the same in old shogun times refering to anfilade fire when the enemy cross a bridge
normal tactics but very effective

[Naagi]

Well i have similar but different tactics for the bridge. I make a sortof cup at the end of my side of bridge, and place the archers right behind them. Same effect, though i feel my archers are better protected. Nice screenshots though.

Naagi

[solypsist]

yes, actually 99% of my MTW strategies are the same as my STW tactics, so the bridge stuff is pretty much the same.

[Exile]

Thank you for the tactical advice. I never played STW and I've had MTW for only a couple weeks. I usually keep my archers behind my front lines, but now I am going to try with the archers as you suggest.

I see you are using Italian Infantry. I'm playing the Italian faction for the first time right now (I've only had Italian infantry as mercenaries before) and I think I met my match yesterday. The French king, who I'd all but pummeled out of existance, attacked my king and his 1500 troops with 1300 troops. As they approached my Genoans, catapult and arbalesters killed quite a few. When our lines engaged, I brought my calvary around, wiped out his archers and then charged his flanks and rear. But soon enough, the French Halbrediers and fuedal footmen decimated my Italian Infantry and the result was an embarassing rout. My King has only one star vs. the French King's three, but my King has no vices that reduce morale, etc. We both had Fuedal and Royal knights, the real difference was the foot soldiers that made up our lines. Should I have a new respect for Halbrediers, or might there be some other reason for the shameful loss?

[Musashi]

You should have a new respect for halberdiers. They have an excellent melee and armor piercing weapons (This is the advantage of polearm troops ) as well as a bonus against cavalry, and they are platemailed infantry.

Essentially, throwing italian infantry at them is like pissing into the wind. Italian infantry is a defensive spear unit with a relatively low attack and light armor. The Halberdiers will crush them like ants because what little armor the Italian Infantry has is worthless against halberds but the Halberdiers' heavy armor will stop the Italian Infantry's weak attacks cold.

Halberdiers' only real weakness is their speed, but there are only two or three units in the game that can beat them in a head on fistfight.

-Musashi

[LadyAnn]

Exile,

The Italian Infantry, as versatile as they are, are only supped up spearmen. As such, they have shields, some light armour, medium defense, but terrible attack. They don't have punching power, so to speak. They can hold the line long enough for your other units to go around and kill whoever run into them, but they can't kill.

The Feudal MAA, being a sword unit, have the punching power. Even Halberdier has better attack and much better defense. So the It.Inf. is slowly chipped away by the Halberdiers but can't scratch the halberdiers, while the the FMAA will carve some chunks out of your It.Inf. line.

It.Inf. is a quite useful unit for Italy because it is available early and fairly easy to produce. But you need more swords/axe/halberdier types such as FMAA, Chivalric MAA, etc.

Annie

[Musashi]

Actually I find Halberdiers outfight FMAA and CMAA most of the time because even though their attack is lower, their armor piercing poleaxes make up for it in spades.

-Musashi

[HopAlongBunny]

Is it just me?

Halbadiers, IF they get into melee are great, but they're just too slow. If I see them coming at a unit I can't support I just retreat; they will never catch up I don't see anything they can do that militia won't do better; militia are faster easier to flank with, and thats where the carnage begins imho.

Almost forgot; nice defensive set-ups and advice Thank you Soly

[Musashi]

Well, they're great if you play defensively. A proper defensive formation and the enemy has to engage them eventually.

-Musashi

[Alrowan]

what ive found with archers and such, is they make awesome charge stoppers

instead of running through them, let your enemy engage them (especially arbs) have weighted flanks, with a thin center, and let the engage your archers in h2h, making thier charge ineffective, (note you need at leat 2 valour to do this).

once they are engaged, bring arround your flanks and hit them hard while they are still engaged with your archers, then hit them from min front with your other units. Keep 1-2 units on each side to counterflank, and you should see yourself rout the enemy before they can blink

[Gregoshi]

soly, nice use of screenshots to illustrate your point. We should use them more often. You gonna open a SP clinic?

[Marco]

I think the optimum row for your missiles unit should be 3. All three rows should be able to fire at the enemy if they are close enough. And I usually have my missiles a bit more in front of the spears so that any stray enemy fire will not hit my melee units.

Being further away the spears would not be so effective in protecting the missiles from a cavalry raid so I position some of my own cavalry on the flanks of my spears to protect them (usually heavy cavs).

[Alrowan]

i find archers work best in rows of 2

[LadyAnn]

Has anyone considered seige weapons as the tool to attack/defend bridge?

** Annie is now prepared to bring 4 catapults to a bridge province to test this idea out **

[chilliwilli]

Yeah I know people who have done it, but results vary, and I never use arty on bridge maps. Bridges mostly result in lost of casualties and can last quite a long time. I think every unit slot counts since there is less room for tactics such as flanking and you really need to be able to field a force that packs a punch, so you can overwhelm the enemy. Being pushed back even a little can mean the difference between victory and defeat on bridge maps. Thats just my opinion, I'm sure others might disagree.

[Hosakawa Tito]

Defending a bridge with catapults is fun. I like to line one or two up with the bridge so that they fire right down the road on the opposite side. Even if you overshoot/undershoot your intended target, the boulder usually bounces into the other attacking units that are forming up to cross over. I used this against the Mongols while defending Kiev. My 2 catapults racked up 100 kills a piece. Mongol bowling is fun and a great way to train up your catapult units to higher valor.

[LadyAnn]

chilliwilli:

On MP, perhaps lost one slot on the 16-slot army will be hard to recover. I am talking about Seige Weapon in SP, where you could have reinforcement.

Annie