Armour in the desert

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Thats only if those Pavs don't move in and mow you down. I just use straight Arbelasters and I've had some very good results in the desert as the Byzantines.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Thats only if those Pavs don't move in and mow you down. I just use straight Arbelasters and I've had some very good results in the desert as the Byzantines.

How their the slowest units in the game?

Regular arbs arent much better nor are Byz inf. It may work in sp but you will loose in mp.

[antisocialmunky]

I always found archer hybrids great in the desert. Heat exhaustion and massive arrow fire equals sad and funny at the same time.

[Roark]

I don't know how you guys do the big battles without the pause button...

I need it just to get all my units into good position, especially lining up ranks of spearmen/sarges.

[antisocialmunky]

I don't know how you guys do the big battles without the pause button...

I need it just to get all my units into good position, especially lining up ranks of spearmen/sarges.

You really need to remember 3 simple things if your playing with Cathys and using a spearman core or the Byz with a Infantry core:

1. Simple = Good - For example with your spearmen. Select them all, group them, and drag them into a 5-6 deep formation. This allows them to be side-by-side each other and reduces the time it takes to line your troops up on an offense if the enemy starts running around.

2. Camera and Minimap - Set the camera as high as possible so you can see as much as possible and always check on any unit with a fighting symbol or is doing something not right(moving while should not, staying still while should be moving). For example, if your line is surrounded by archers, you can double click on them to instazoom to where the enemy is advancing. Learn to use it and love it all the time.

3. Only micro 1-4 units at a time. Main battleline units can usually take care of themselves unless they get really really messed up. Besides, you can really move those guys around. Cav is what you really have to concentrate on when you're microing something.

[EatYerGreens]

I don't know how you guys do the big battles without the pause button...

I need it just to get all my units into good position, especially lining up ranks of spearmen/sarges.

a.s.m. beat me to it ...........but another variation is to create the group using Ctrl-clicks on the unit icons, press G for group, then right-click on the group header bar to get the group actions menu, hover your cursor on 'group formations, then browse the pop-out list of available patterns. Then press the number for the required formation. '1' makes them all line up nicely.

That's the menu-driven way but I have to admit it is cludgy by comparison. However, once you know which number is which pattern, you only have to create a group and press '1' for single line, or whatever.

Actually I hate the GUI since, if I'm rushed and I slide the mouse pointer sideways in anything less than a horizontal straight line, the sidewards pop-out menu vanishes when the cursor misses its mark and I have to repeat the process. Perhaps it's best to do this in pause one time and write down the various formations on a quick reference card. (I ought to take my own advice here, so I don't have to keep browsing the menu to see what's available).


The method a.s.m. described is far better though as you can click on units in a logical order L to R across the field (or vice versa) then drag out unit shapes to exactly where they're wanted, with a clear idea of how much ground they will cover. Much more intuitive.


With regard to what I described, the hazard of clicking on the unit icons at the bottom of screen is that they frequently don't relate to the relative L to R positions within your army. When you select the icons, group them and tell them to form line, sometimes they all bunch up as they bump into each other halfway to crossing over to their new positions according to how the game decided to sort them. Oops.

A fast-reacting and wily enemy will charge into you while you're temporarily in a disorganised mess like this, provided you were close enough.

It is also the only clean way to 'wheel' your entire army into a particular direction and retain overall formation. As far as I can see, there is no game command to do this, seemingly, most fundamental behaviour.

Alt-right-map-click only makes units turn to face that direction but they all swivel on the spot, whereas I'm talking about entire formations turning (in reality it's quite tricky to do, as the flanks need to run many times faster than the centre ranks).

There are times when I've tried to use 'march with fixed facing' to achieve this but muddled my keypresses, pressed Alt-map-click instead of Ctrl-map-click and ended up with all my units charging to the assigned map point, then standing, arranged as previously but obligingly with their collective flanks facing the enemy I was lucky that a crash to desktop saved me from the ensuing massacre I was suffering as the enemy took advantage of the mess created by my attempts to re-orient everything.

Basically all attempts at whole-army maneuvres (conducted with all 16 units highlighted) have the inbuilt hazard of a clumsy click here or there...

[Roark]

@ Eatyergreens & Munkiman

You have no idea how helpful those posts were. Thanks gentlemen.

[antisocialmunky]

That's actually a few things I've forgot to add.

4. Spacebar is your best friend, EVER. It shows where your units will end up. I personally issue more of my commands with spacebar pressed. It's great for foramtions.

5. The closer the more micro. The closer the enemy is, the more you have to respond without using mass moves. The computer may not process correctly if too many things start to happen. Thus, if a mass move(ALT + LEFT) scatters your forces by having them turn 60 degrees when they arrive at their location, YOU WILL DIE HORRIBLY and should run or halt and charge into the enemy and try to flank desperately. It is much better to manually move your forces one by one when the enemy is close unless it is an end up facing this the same direction.

You CAN ALT+ RIGHT DRAG TURN YOUR ARMY. You have to group them all in one group and have them in hold position to make sure 90% of the time it works. It may have problems when too many things are happening. It's easier to rapid deploy in rows sometimes if your formation is simple.

Also, knights are evil and the AI likes to send them on ridiculously wide edge hugging Hail Mary flanking missions and will try and force you to move. This is bad in unpaused. Thus, you REALLY need something to deal with annoying cavalry, either better cav or habs will do. HA running them around is useful. They are good to jack up a attacking cav force if you put them near where the enemy starts.

6. Remember where specific units are. It's usually good to group your units from your left to right or soemthing. That's not good enough though. When your guys are taking casualties, remember the unit sizes so you can identify the position and status of units you're not microing just to make sure they're not dead... or sitting there doing nothing. Double clicking is rather... disorienting compared to knowing where your units are and how they're doing. Scrolling also allows you to check things along the way unless your guys are getting pwned. Battlefield awareness almost guarentees victory.

7. Archers. Archers will stop firing automatically if your units are engaged, but they will not stop if you order them to target a unit. Archer management is nice to learn. If you're busy microing, it's a good idea to keep them in hold position, formation and fire at will. Fire a will can be troublesome because archers like to have optimal everyone-is-shooting formations. Hold position will keep them form turning in an annoying way that would run a corner of them into a melee.

[PittBull260]

turks freakin own in the desert :)

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Nope english do.

[BAD]

turks freakin own in the desert :)

Exactly. Coudn't ask for a better lineup than, Futtuwa's, Ghazi's, Jannisary Heavies, Turocoman Horse and Armenian Heavy Cavalry.

[bretwalda]

Well, I love Turks, just that Ghulam Cavalry seems better to me than Armenian HC. Armenian HC either rout the enemy on contact or slowly lose...

[tigger_on_vrb]

I think Armenian heavy cavalry are much superior, although I'm talking campaign game here and not multiplayer as in the campaign its easy to quickly build a master horse breeder in Armenia and you've got +2 valour armenian heavy cavalry.