Tactics Style

[Kommodus]

My favorite tactic, which I find most enjoyable, would have to be the Turkish cavalry-heavy approach, relying on the mobility of horse archers and other cavalry to get the job done. Of course, the army needs a core of infantry, including some good hybrid archers and solid spearmen, but the real punch comes from horse archers, which harass and isolate enemy units, and heavy cavalry, which delivers decisive blows to the flanks and rear. The Turkish army is my favorite one in the game.

However, I recently found a very nice tactic for Catholic armies, which has proven very effective and fun to use. The core of the army is polearm troops, particularly halberdiers and their variations. This core is augmented by the best cavalry available and enough arbalesters to win a missile duel. After maneuvering for position, the attack commences with an infantry advance, with cavalry to flank and take out enemy missile troops. Halberdiers have low morale, but as long as you keep them from being isolated or flanked, they can beat just about anything in a head-on fight and take very few casualties in the process, including elite heavy cavalry, which would otherwise be a problem. The only weakness this type of army has is fighting in the desert. Other than that, it can take on any army you throw at it, even the pesky Mongols.

[Boris of Bohemia]

In the early era I pump out mostly militia sargeants for frontal assaults, with any fast cavalry available, to chase down the archers and attack rear. I have mostly given up on spear types.

However, I recently found a very nice tactic for Catholic armies, which has proven very effective and fun to use. The core of the army is polearm troops, particularly halberdiers and their variations. This core is augmented by the best cavalry available and enough arbalesters to win a missile duel. After maneuvering for position, the attack commences with an infantry advance, with cavalry to flank and take out enemy missile troops. Halberdiers have low morale, but as long as you keep them from being isolated or flanked, they can beat just about anything in a head-on fight and take very few casualties in the process, including elite heavy cavalry, which would otherwise be a problem. The only weakness this type of army has is fighting in the desert. Other than that, it can take on any army you throw at it, even the pesky Mongols.

Once the high era comes, halberds+arbs are the shit. I place the halberds in a line close behind the arbs. It works this way: if they don't want to engage halberds, they get shot up by arbs. If they attack the arbs, the halberds charge and I have never seen them lose a frontal engagement with any reasonable commander.

[Kommodus]

Once the high era comes, halberds+arbs are the shit. I place the halberds in a line close behind the arbs. It works this way: if they don't want to engage halberds, they get shot up by arbs. If they attack the arbs, the halberds charge and I have never seen them lose a frontal engagement with any reasonable commander.

I agree. Halberdiers may have low charge and attack ratings, but their armor and defense ratings are so high that they will take very few losses while they methodically chew through whatever they're fighting. Their armor-piercing bonus also means that they will actually inflict significant losses quite quickly on most of their enemies, since they usually end up facing armored troops. Their low morale is not really that much of a problem, since as already stated, they easily win most fights without taking many losses, so the only serious blow to their morale will be if they are flanked, isolated, or surrounded.

Of course, they would have trouble against a mostly-elite army (for example, an army made up of mostly VG or JHI). Those elite troops could surely destroy halberdiers, with their ultra-high combat stats and indomitable morale. But any army would have trouble against such a foe, and you never face armies like that against the AI. Halberdiers are also inexpensive and not that hard to come by, making them an excellent core for an army in a single-player campaign.

As for Catholic variations on the halberd theme, Swiss halberdiers and billmen are, of course, fantastic units. However, it seems to me that Swiss halberdiers take more casualties in most fights. They kill a little bit quicker, and can fight better in difficult conditions, but they seem to be a little worse for wear at the end of most battles. The armor and defense of ordinary halberdiers help them receive charges better and survive better in the ensuing melee. As for billmen, I loved them when I played my English campaign. They were real battle-winners multiple times.

Curiously, I've never had great success with swordsmen as army cores. They lack the armor-piercing bonus of polearm troops, and are terribly weak against cavalry. Their greatest strength seems to be killing enemy spearmen and lesser-quality troops; however, this limits their usefulness, and they tend to take quite a few losses in most fights. That's why I've come to prefer polearms to both swords and spears - they are the best all-around troops, and they are truly weak against nothing. They are the only troops that break out of the rock-paper-scissors mold.

[mfberg]

The swordsmen are for killing spears. If the enemy puts his spear wall up in front with flanking cav and bows behind I send out a cav unit to draw spears forward, and then pull it back. The spears will face my cav unit (usually HA) and I will walk my swords right up to the flank of the spears and carve my way through. In engaments where the enemy is moving all his units up at once my swords are right behind my archers, ready to reinforce any spear unit in trouble or rout an enemy that looks weak.

My current favorite Hungarian army is a front of spear/armoured spear, a line of archers, and a line of mtd crossbows with 2 HA/Szekely on the flanks and HA/Szek as my reinforcements. I will use avar nobles, but like to keep them for the killing blow against the Byz Kat units.

mfberg

[_Aetius_]

Yeah halberdiers are pretty good but the poor morale stat is just to much, theproblem is they lack staying power and often run if a strong charge hits them, whereas some units wont run if say 15 out of the 60 men die from a charge halberdiers will quickly give up and flee.

Swiss halb's havent got great defence but theyll cut through cavalry even faster and the charge is davastating, not sure if they are better than billmen its hard to say both the same but slightly different ways to use them well. Also maybe not as important but still swiss halbs are faster than regular ones sometimes regular halbs are painfully slow.

I use swordsmen as the centre depending on the enemy and what kind of swordsmen i can train, swabian swordsmen are brilliant but if the enemy has cavalry heavy armies i use swordsmen on the wings and spearmen in the centre.

The army I use for the byzantines is 6 byzantine infantry, 2 units of varangians, 2 units of allagions, 2 units of kataphraktoi, 2 units of pikemen, 2 units of trebizond archers.

Its four byzantine infantry in a line in the centre, the 2 units of trebizonds behind them in the centre, one unit of varnagians on either side of the archers, the 1 pikemen unit on either side of the byzantine infantry, 2 units of byz infantry on the deep flanks as reserves and the kataphraktoi and allagions on the wings.

Thatll beat most enemy armies, it may not be very anti cavalry heavy but the amount of heavy cavalry in that army is more than enough to defeat enemy heavy cavalry.

[Boris of Bohemia]

Yeah halberdiers are pretty good but the poor morale stat is just to much, theproblem is they lack staying power and often run if a strong charge hits them, whereas some units wont run if say 15 out of the 60 men die from a charge halberdiers will quickly give up and flee.

Always mystified by this kind of comment. I countercharge all the time with halberds, straight into Mongol heavies and high royals, I just love it when cavalry charges my halberds. Makes my day.

[derF]

Always mystified by this kind of comment. I countercharge all the time with halberds, straight into Mongol heavies and high royals, I just love it when cavalry charges my halberds. Makes my day.

Yes they hack up mounted troop easily. But they do have low(ish) moral. So in the instance of being victim to a flank or something, they will waver.

As they have done in a few instances with me.

[Hold Steady]

Halberds are in fact militia kinda-guys, except the swiss. Billmen, don't know, but I think it's in fact still peasant class, though (as many other English unit types were) probably very well trained and led. Not that it matters really, but in the game it is represented by morale stats. The Halberd bearing units (except the swiss) bear, IIRC, low morale stats. Of course, Halberds and pikemen became (even more than crossbowmen, longbowmen and firearms) the scourge of Knights, being lower class and low trained, so plentifull in supply.
However, as much as you blow the horn of praise about them halberds here, as much as I believe that is the most independent and versatile unit in the field, I believe a well executed attack at these troops by high quality swordsmen, combined if possible with heavy cav and preluded by firearms fire (or other armour piercing things) will break them in any way. CMAA, VG, CFK or even heavy Carls will make short work of them, preferrably in wedge, because when the attack is executed probably, the low morale of the defender will be their doom.

But if you hadn't noticed, my favorite tactic involves anything with swords and axes, accompanied with Heavy or Medium Cav. I Like all aspects and units of this game, especially the mix, but any decend attack has heavy cav and swords, else no fun!