suicide missions and bait

[King Kurt]

When I am attacked by large numbers, I usually fight - on auto-calc - as it usually says that if I retreat to castle etc, it will fall straight away. So I fight, loose, then retreat into the castle anyway and usually will be then designated as OK for a few years - giving me time for a rescue attack from other provinces or forcing an assault which inflicts heavy casualties on the attacker, making retaking the province easier.
I also like suicide/ fient attacks - usually light cavalry pulling off knights etc so they come back too late and usually tired.

[gaijinalways]

That's true, sometimes your units survive running away, but being scared out of their wits. Also, the tricky part is getting your sacrifise units close enough to draw a more valuable or annoying enemy unit after it. Sometimes the enenmy will just chase it away but not follow it off the battle field. I have even used peasants this way as a unit in the woods to draw off spearmen or some foot soldier that I don't want pounding my line. Of course, even better is when you can missile to death the chasing enemy unit as they chase after your peasants when they inevitably rout .

[matteus the inbred]

On that subject, I find that AI will often become 'obsessed' with chasing down an archer/cavalry unit or more usually your General, and will sidetrack multiple units after such a target, thus allowing you to flank them or concentrate your attack on the rest of their army.
Naturally, when using one's general to lure people around, caution is advised! I no longer use my King to lure archer fire in bridge battles, a common tactic with Daimyos in Shogun, but, as I have found, too dangerous in MTW (feasible because the faction leader's unit always regenerates after battles).

[Sensei Warrior]

On that subject, I find that AI will often become 'obsessed' with chasing down an archer/cavalry unit or more usually your General, and will sidetrack multiple units after such a target, thus allowing you to flank them or concentrate your attack on the rest of their army.
Naturally, when using one's general to lure people around, caution is advised! I no longer use my King to lure archer fire in bridge battles, a common tactic with Daimyos in Shogun, but, as I have found, too dangerous in MTW (feasible because the faction leader's unit always regenerates after battles).

I found that out as well. At the onset of a battle I sometimes catapult my King into something and then watch the opponents reaction to it. Often, their whole army will move to engage the King's unit and leave themselves wide open to a number of very nice counters. The King is typically sturdy enough to tolerate it, and the unit regenerates.

I also agree with ajaxfetish, that most of my suicides are at the moment. Whatever unit being the closest takes the brunt until help arrives. If I plan a suicide then I try a unit that's sturdy, with decent morale, and cheap if I can.

Be very careful with missiles and Artillery. I once lost my King from a catapult shot to the head, OUCH.

[gaijinalways]

I had an interesting battle last night. The Germans, after breaking our alliance over the flimsy excuse that the Italians were still at war with me (over 15 years, several cease fire offers refused) attacked me in Venice (where I routed them) and then in Milan.

I had my two cavalry units forward in an island of woods, with the rest of my troops comfortably perched on a small mountain with blocked access on one side. I attacked a lone royal knight with 20, and the jedi knight routed my knights ! To make matters worse, I tryed to scare some archers off with my other group of royal knights and maybe take down a few of the archers, but didn't reckon with the speed of the reteating archers and the peasants who roared forward to protect them , with the fighting, then pulling my knights out and losing almost half their numbers. The knights intially routed by the jedhi knight fled back toward my waiting troops, then flanked by another 20 enemy knights (who I saw earlier and forgot about). Finally I get 9 knights back and have my foot soldiers attack the 20 enemy knights, finally routing them and smashing them from behind with my other knights who had been routed by the peasants. The Jedhi knight fled as well (couldn't kill him ).

This same cavalry later helped kill ungodly numbers when I did a troop rush and cav rush (including my general in a third unit of 18) on the archers and their supporting troops when they attacked. For a battle I initially was going to shelf (after losing half my knights in both cav groups in the early portion of the battle to 3 enemy archers) I ended up killing close to 700 troops with losses of my own numbering some 131 ( missile fire/fighting on the slopes before the enemy broke). Not bad for a day's work, may even give those boys a day off until the next German slaughter, I mean invasion !

[macsen rufus]

Be very careful with missiles and Artillery. I once lost my King from a catapult shot to the head, OUCH.

Artillery seems to have a high chance of killing the general - if it can hit the unit at all, then it's the general that gets it. That's why I like to have a catapult when I'm on the defensive