Army-Wide Formation Techniques

[katank]

Nice formation. Does the Artillery at front pose any problems for calvalry charges? I usually never use Ballistae (should I be?) since they seem too weak for the exposed risk.

Often I have the classic Spears, Archers dual layer with calvalry on either side along with shock troops.

My armies tend to be pretty long and rather thin.

Arty isn't that much of a problem for cav charges. I'd be more worried if AI was less passive. They seem to just take it. Arty out front allows me to take nice cracks at their formations. Ballistas can't shoot unless they are all the way out front (they are afraid of TKing the meatshield out front).

Either case, I keep my spears fairly close to make them charge up when needed. Ballistae are a bit more accurate than the catapult and often can take out nice long files. The flaming bolts also does a huge number on enemy morale.

[OMGLAZERS]

Arty isn't that much of a problem for cav charges. I'd be more worried if AI was less passive. They seem to just take it. Arty out front allows me to take nice cracks at their formations. Ballistas can't shoot unless they are all the way out front (they are afraid of TKing the meatshield out front).

Either case, I keep my spears fairly close to make them charge up when needed. Ballistae are a bit more accurate than the catapult and often can take out nice long files. The flaming bolts also does a huge number on enemy morale.

I never knew ballistae were so effective.

And as for AI passivity, hopefully that will be fixed in the next patch. It kills me that battles are pretty much gathering the troops and beating down on rag dolls. It's just stupid :P

[Kobal2fr]

Depends on faction really. With the early Moors I've been trying manipular formations of Nubian Javelinmen, but that doesn't work very well should the other side have much cavalry... and blasted Jinettes.

As the Venetians/Milanese so far (and with Early troops) I use something akin to katank's formation that goes like this :

_______CCCCCCC K K CCCCCCC
____K SSSMMMSSSSSSMMMSSS K
Lc______________G_____________Lc

K being Knights, Lc being light cav (either sargeants or merchant militiamen).
S is Spears, M is infantry-killing infantry, be them swordsmen, voulges or (surprinsly enough) Caroccio servants.


French formation is about the same, only with more knights and less crossbows up front.


I find that using knights in the middle I can better deal with enemy cav charging my crossbows (since crossbows skirmish like crud due to the length of their firing animation). I used to put them on the wings to deal with that sort of thing, but they would arrive too late in most cases, and suffer much friendly fire on the way. Seems to work better for me this way.


The front knights aren't that vulnerable to enemy fire either : bows aren't effective most of the time, and crossbows I can just charge right into and either slaughter them if the AI put them too far out, or scare them into a retreat and turn back while my own crossbows do the killing bit.


When the crossbows are done shooting, the wing knights take their place, charge right at and through the enemy, closely followed by inf to mop up.


If the enemy only has spear militia and weak inf like that, I'll put the crossbows on hold ground and have the swords charge through if attacked, if their inf is good I'll let the crossbows skirmish back, rely on Italian spears to hold their inf and use the side Knights to wrap around and charge their backs.


Light cav is only for chasing down routed missiles, or for what I call knight-baiting :1 unit moves forward, he charges his knights at it, light cav races across the battleline from one wing to another with the knights in tow, crossbows pumping them full of wood all the while, and the side knights finish them off. Well, that's the idea at least, doesn't always work that smoothly .

[Aracnid]

As England I normally use

AT_____AAAAAA_____AT
___C__BBSSSSBB__C
__________G

AT for arty, I normally have it right on the edge of the map so I can fire down a rank of men. A for archers, B for billmen or levy spearmen, S for swordsmen, whether fuedal knights, armoured swordsmen etc. and C for cav, G is for general.

[Doug-Thompson]

Heres a very simple formation for an all-cavalry Eastern Army. I use it a lot with Russians and Egyptians.

HA---HA---HA---HA---HA---HA
[
-------JA---JA---JA----JA
--------------MC-MC
----------------GN


HA= Horse archers (Kazacks or Mameluke Archers)
JA= Javelin Cavalry (Boyar Sons or Desert Cavalry)
MC= Melee Cavalry (Druz or Mameluke Cav)
GN = General

The HA are deployed by stretching them out in a long single line, then using the "-" button to form them into squares with wide spaces in between.

JA are deployed two ranks deep. Skirmish is left on but fire-at-will is turned off.

Melee cav are also in two-rank lines.

The HA "bag" the enemy formation, firing from all directions.




---------------------HA------------------------HA
[
-----------------------------EEEEEEEE
-----------------------------EEEEEEEE
----------------------HA-----------------------HA
[
------------------------------HA---------------HA


The javelin units prevent armored cavalry from breaking out of the bag, and the melee cav do that if the javelins can't. Once the enemy is disrupted by HA fire, the melee cav and javelins close in for the kill. HA also cut off or chase routing units, especially once they are out of arrows.

[peri]

My English army comprises:

5 Knights
5 Bowmen
6 Armoured Swordsmen
4 Dismounted English Knights

B B B B B
DEK AS AS AS DEK
DEK AS AS AS DEK
K K K K
K(General unit)

As I am playing the English the bowmen are my greatest asset. Therefore I put them at the front behind their stakes.
Since cavalry is the weakest arm for the English I use 5 since I need to be able to pursue the routers successfully to complete victory.
I put my infantry in 2 lines so when in defence I have a reserve.
THe DEK are put on the flanks to protect them since my cavalry is not strong enough to repel a cavalry attack.

[jimmyM]

For most armies, i'd say im also a fan of the "weighted flanks" formation of Hannibal and the Greeks at Marathon, though to be honest, as Byzantines so far it's been mostly HA + everyone else waaaay back (spliting HA into 2 flanks + going for an army-wide envelopment goes well)