MTW Reinforcements - How to Handle them Best?

[BigC5]

I rout them as they enter the battlefield before they can mass.

Again, well said But if this isnt possible I agree with most people and tend to keep some archers back. I find reinforcements tend to rout quicker when they are under missle attack.

[Tomcat]

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions .

Maybe I should have said in my original post I am talking about English Early - currently at 1140 AD. So no arbalesters, no crossbows, no mounted archers, no longbows (except the excellent remainder of the 3 bribed units from Wales), no Billmen, no heavy cavalry but plenty of plain Archers, Spears, Fyrdmen, Highland Clansmen, Hobilars, Mounted Sergeants, Feudal Men at Arms and yes, my forces are usually well balanced.

I am not a fan of very large battles but I often find the situation where the AI keeps retreating its forces until they are all concentrated in the remaining 1 or 2 Provinces where you end up fighting large battles. This is even when I am attacking the initial Provinces with considerably less than equal forces. For example, I just attacked Hungary, 3 Provinces in 1 turn with less than than equal forces for each and they all retreat to the final and last Province meaning they have about 3,000 troops concentrated there so you cannot avoid a large battle.

Interestingly when I did this, I get a message from the Pope telling me our Treaty has been cancelled - as expected and I'm waiting for my 2 Year Warning. Funny thing was on reading the message closer, he had cancelled his treaty with the Hungarians and keeping his alliance with me lol ! At last he knows which side his bread is buttered !

As I said originally, I do not have a problem with my spears or swords being decimated by the enemy. They never seem to let me down. Also, I can usually get the initial enemy units routed without too much trouble with my archers, spears and swords and the odd Hobilar/Mounted Sargeant flank charge. It is the fact the archers use all their arrows and then the length of time it takes to get new archer units onto the field and into battle for which I was trying to find the best solution.

So I'll definitely have to try the "enemy reinforcement funnel" tactic and slaughter the enemy reinforcements as they enter the map and before they realise what is happening. Thanks for that suggestion .

Tomcat

[CherryDanish]

Tomcat, I can see why you're having minor problems with reinforcements. The use of archers and strong points in high and late periods is common and getting reinforcements in those scenarios is covered already. I find though that that tactic on English Early isn't really needed unless you're not fighting the French and are facing loads of HAs (from slavic or muslim factions)and/or heavy cav (Byz or crusade cav).

With the French I used a simple cost effective tactic. I basically used 1 or 2 units of spears, 3-4 units of hobilars and filled out my roster with highland clansman. No need for reinforcements. I advanced clan formations through wooded areas keeping the hobilars close, but in open areas. If the French advanced on my cav I'd feint to draw them deeper and throw the clan on them from the woods (where they were mostly protected from missle fire from archer units). My clansmen would eat their vanilla spears, peasants, and archers for lunch and on impact I'd send in my hobilars as the clansmen's attack would generally expose the French flank and I'd rout them quick. It took lots of patience for this tactic to work, but when it does, their reinforcements tend to rout as they walk on the field. My spears I tended to try and keep on high ground (there isn't much of that on most French maps) and I kept them close to my cav. If the AI countered with a cav charge I'd flank with the spear and any height advantage seemed to make the spear charge more effective. If I wasn't threatened by enemy cav I'd send the spears in the enemies rear marching double time (shortly after my cav charge) so that by the time they routed they'd run into my spear and be trapped (use a long thin double or single rank formation for best effect). If you capture/kill the general in this tactic the morale of the French forces is so low from losses and the general hit that reinforcements rout when you look at them funny. The other advantage is you don't waste money on too many vanilla archer units as you'll be ditching them in 1205 for LB. That said, if you're playing a defensive strategy, vanilla archers are VERY effective in that time period.

One of my favorite fights was English early/hard. I had 7 units of Hobilars, 2 units of peasants and 3 units of vanilla archers and I was attacking 2+ stacks in Britany (mostly peasants). I had no reinforcements (obviously). The French AI was unusually timid keeping their primary forces in the tree line. I figured I'd try to draw out their units into my missle fire, but after 25% of the timer had expired it was clear they were not having anything of it. I marched the archers to the edge of the map to entice the French by putting the odds in their favour, feinted with peasants and cav (one of my cav units routed without suffering a single casualty during a feint and would not give me the option to rally). I finally got spear units to exit the wood, trapped 2 spear and one peasant unit and routed them charging with peasants and then charging the rear with hobilars. I took horendous losses, but won the fight charging the wooded French formations with my archers (after marching them back). While this fight is off topic a bit, I think it shows to some extent what you can do in your campaign to avoid having to call in reinforcements. Honestly, I found the English to be a slow start financially (I had bribed the scots, wales, norway, and sweden and had NO cash left for troops and and teching up).