Help! I can't beat the Byz...

[bretwalda]

I am with the Polish, Normal difficulty, time is 1230. Actually I hope that the Mongol horde will save me...

I have all of Northern EU, British isles, former territory of HRE, Greater Hungary, Northern France.

So my industrial base is pretty much built up. But I can't do fight on multiple fronts. Unfortunatelly I am at war with the Spanish (I attacked them, no fights in the last few turns), Byz (they attacked), Hungarians (they attacked :( , they are extinct now, but there is a rebel province in on of their former provinces that I dont have the manpower, nor the money to take) and Novgorod (they attacked).

I seem to be able to keep all of the at bay, but I have great difficulty winning against the Byz in battle. Especially the Varangian Guard gives me hard times. The only way I can win is that I try to wore down the troops in at least to battles after each other. I dont have good commanders unfortunatelly: used to have 3-4 3* general (two of the killed by the pesky Byz) and still have my uber-general of 5* (pathetic...) The Byz are running around with 7-8-9* generals, killed the emperor in battle and the heir is a 7* general again. Some forces of the Byz are trapped in Provance. Trapped means the can't get out, because port is destroyed and I also moved in some ships there, but they are alive and kickin' as they took Milan from me. However my resources are strained: no money reserves, having difficulty producing new troops (another money problem) and my troops seem to be of lower quality.

Any tips how to defeat the Byz in attacking and defending? What to use?

Also strategy wise, will the Mongol Horde save me? How to play to help them crush the Byz, but rather crush each other?

[Quietus]

Hey Bretwalda,

Feed the Byzantines with a lot of Armoured Spearmen! Isolate the Varangian Guards and shoot them with Archers or X-bows. Say, they start with 100 Varangians. Once they are down to 80, quickly sandwich them with 1) Armoured Spearmen full charge and 2) your best Cavalry on "Wedge" (also full speed charge; upon 2 seconds of hitting, revert them back to normal formation). They should rout so fast with this.

Make sure your Armoured Spearmen got the Kats in check in the process of doing this. You don't want them to counter flank. Hide your troops in the forest since Cavalry gets so vulnerable there. When Kats charge, charge back. Don't let any units charge you while you aren't in motion.

Also, If you aren't looking for ransom, shoot their general with archers to death. And don't forget the ever-important cavalry on "wedge" at the the very back. Do the same with extra Armoured Spearmen. Bring at least 1 fast chaser (such as Steppe Cavalry so the enemy won't rally). Don't use all your Spearmen to chase routers. Just enough so that the Cavalry can chase fleeing troops one at a time and not allow the others to rally.

Do this when they have reinforcements. If they don't have reinforcement, chase them all the way!

Use the same tactics vs. the Mongols eventually. In general, just use a wall of spear and limited archers (about 2 and 2-3 cavalry). Mongols have horse archers so you might want to increase archers into 3. When they start shooting at you put the archers in front, and they will be tempted to charge. Charge back with your A. Spearmen to protect the archer. If they chicken-out, they are still being hit with archers.

Oh, one last thing. It might be good to pin two Kats with a Spearmen. If a third hits you, you might break, so flank quickly and make a mental match which spear units will go to which Kats or VGuard.

[bretwalda]

Thanks for the tips! I also have great difficulty killing the enemy generals. In one battle I had 2 Hobilars (15 horsemen each) charging the enemy general's unit which was 1 man on a horse (1 man Kat) and both of my units run away in fear... Later on I charged it with 4 units, 2 Hobilars and 2 Mounted Crossbowmen and they did not succeed killing that 1 man. Of course I attacked from several directions...

[rayoftoul]

High valour assassins are your friends - because, as I remember reading on the forums - "Byz Generals wear stars like christmas trees" :)

[mfberg]

On defense

Archer/Mtd Xbow/catapult
Armoured Spear

Kat Tr.archer V guard

mtd xbow mtd xbow

Get 2 mounted crossbows behind the byz, if you are lucky the kats will chase one and get tired, leaving the other to shoot up the v guard. Use the covered archers to shoot up the naptha/Tr archers.

On the offense go for raids of just mtd crossbows with 1 armoured spear. Position 2 mtd crossbows behind the armoured spear in a defensive position and use the other mtd crossbows like any good horse archer, concentrating on the Kats first.

mfberg

[bretwalda]

Thanks, again! ;) Armoured Spearman: is this a unique unit or just the plain spearman with good armor? It could be pretty well that I used mostly sword inf. that was the reason I did so bad...