Reinforcements

[Legorreto]

I play with MTW-VI/XL (excellent Mod if you haven't try it!)

In various battles I have had the opportunity/need of using reinforcements and I got the next questions:

What would be the most appropriate way to deploy them into the battlefield?

I mean, In which order should I bring them in?

Should I consider the highest valour units first, or the melee, or the Cavs, or the archers...?

Where should I position them within the Battefield?

In general, What is the best suggestions you have for reinforcements?

[matteus the inbred]

if i have a mix of complete and incomplete stuff coming on, say in a Crusade, i like to leave the very small units till last in order to keep as many men on the field as possible.

if you're fighting in the desert, try keeping some of your heavily armoured units in reserve so they're fresh for a counterattack and don't get exhausted, or keep something to replaced armoured units that do get exhausted.

i like to use reserve archers as well; once my starting archers run out of ammo they can be replaced, which allows you to avoid having to sit there and get shot without being able to do much about it. particularly in defensive situations where you need to keep shooting throughout. if you field artillery, try to have reserve units to come on and replace them once they're out of range or ammo.

reserve cavalry of any kind is a good idea; coming fresh to the field they can coutnerattack strongly and see of the opposition, particularly fast light cavalry, which is not good for melee but great for pursuit. it's very annoying to see the enemy fleeing the field and realise that you have nothing that can catch them.

on the whole though, it all depends on who you're fighting and whether you're attacking or defending. i personally try and and start with the highest valour and overall best units i have, cos it's very hard for your reinforcements to come and win the battle for you if the main army's (and especially the general) is gone, so you might as well field your 'A team' from the off.

[gunslinger]

I didn't think it was even possible to choose the order that reinforcements come onto the field. I play vanilla MTW, though. Does VI or XL change this? I always just have to take what I can get.

I agree that most of the time, you're better off putting your best units in the fight first, always making sure, of course, that you are using the correct type of units that you will need to defeat the specific enemy army you are up against.

One exception is when you are attacking a large, tough army in very hilly or mountainous terrain. In one of those situations (in the early period) I had a large army with a ton of urban militia in it as well as a bunch of more advanced troops like Feudal men at arms and cavalry. I placed my General (royal knights) with one unit of Feudal Sergeants and one unit of archers on a hill. I then placed all of those urban militia in one long line, and marched them straight at the enemy up on their big hill. Once my UM were halfway up that hill, the bad guys delayed them with an archer unit and a cav unit while they evacuated to the next hill over. (standard AI defense: wear your army out chasing them from hill to hill) So, by the time my UM actually reached the enemy army they were pretty worn out, but I kept them spread out and made sure they engaged as many different enemy units as possible at the same time (no flanking, or trying to double team a unit). Of course, the result of this is that my worn-out UM did not inflict too many casualties before half of them were routing. I then ordered the other half of them to withdraw. All of those high tech enemy units they had been engaged with chased them all over the map trying to capture/kill as many as possible. As each unit was destroyed or routed off the map, I brought in my feudal sergeants, FMAA, and cavalry reinforcements and formed them up with my general who was still sitting on his hill near my edge of the map. Quite a few of the newly worn out enemy units attacked that formation, and quickly died or routed. As you can guess, the AI was worn out and spread all over the battlefield, making it easy for my army to mop them up along with the cheap reinforcements that the enemy later brought on.

Of course, I lost a lot of Urban Militia, but I no longer needed them anyway, since my newly acquired Feudal Men at Arms and militia sergeants had rendered them obsolete. My higher class units gained decent valor due to all of the casualties they were able to inflict on those worn out bad guys.

You don't want to attempt this strategy if you have time limits on your attack.

I can't take credit for inventing this strategy. I got the basic idea for it somewhere else on this website.

[matteus the inbred]

damn, that's clever though! i'm too protective of my men to try that, probably...i have to admit, the AI 'hill-hopping' is a royal pain in the fundament, but patience and good manoeuvring usually works.

in the pre-battle screen, where it shows you both armies, you can scroll down and view your reinforcement units. if you click on them, you can swop them with your initial army units, or change their position in the queue by clicking on them and dropping them to the back of the queue. don't know if this works in MTW, but it certainly does in VI.

[gunslinger]

I knew about swapping out for the units I wanted to start with, I've just never had the patience to figure out how jiggle the extra units into the order I wanted them in.

Normally, I'm more protective of my guys too, but these UM were getting obsolete anyway. I had spammed them at the very beginning of the campaign since they were the only offensive infantry I could make.

[Ludens]

If you install VI, you will get a pre-battle menu at the start of each battle showing your and the enemies army (provided it is known), the commanders and their command abilities and a snap-shot of the terrain. You are also able to quicksave at this point and change the order of reinforcements.

My order or reinforcements depends on the kind of battle I expect. If I think it is going to be an intense, bloody melee I put powerful, high-morale units at the top of the queue: they are likely going to enter the battlefield while others are routing, so I don't want them to rout as well. A fresh unit of heavy cavalry at the right time and place can turn an almost-defeat into a stunning victory. If on the other hand I expect much skirmishing and archery, my reinforcements will be mainly missile troops with the occasional strong unit thrown in. In the desert, it will be mainly lightly armoured troops. They will probably have a long walk ahead of them, and even waiting reinforcements will tire in the desert sun.

[The Darkhorn]

One thing though. It seems that no matter what order I put my reinforcements in, all the cavalry units come first. They are in order as are the infantry that follows...it's just all the cavalry first. Although somewhat logical, this is still frustrating to me sometimes when I what I desire is to replace leg missile troops with more of the same in a large defensive battle.

[gunslinger]

You've just given me all the reason I need to get VI. I've always hated not being able to choose the order of my reinfocements and not knowing what kind of army is attacking me even though I could see them before on the campaign map. I also like the idea of being able to do a quicksave. I don't know how many times I've been surprised by an attack and realized that I didn't have time to fight the battle because I had something to do in real life. You always get screwed when you autocalc.

Thanks for the tip. Now I just need to find VI without MTW attached to it at a reasonable price.

[Roark]

You'll find that it has heaps of other desirable features too, mate. Lots of cool new units, and it's a gateway to some of the best fan mods written for a PC strat game ever.

[matteus the inbred]

Normally, I'm more protective of my guys too, but these UM were getting obsolete anyway. I had spammed them at the very beginning of the campaign since they were the only offensive infantry I could make.

yeah, i feel the same way about urban militia! and Slav warriors.