Military Academy, the gathering of .ORG strategic minds

[Ars Moriendi]

Regarding strategies and tactics, I would refer any serious person who's interested in warfare to Sun Tzu: http://www.chinapage.com/sunzi-e.html
The information could very well be used for a series like TW.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but the TW series is indeed inspired from the works of Sun Tzu.

From Wikipedia :

"In the 2000 PC game Shogun: Total War, text from The Art of War is quoted often during gameplay and its strategies recommended by the computer to the human players."

[Bijo]

Never played Shogun TW.... *deep shame* I was thinking of getting it, though. Just to experience the goodness that people spoke of about this game.

[Shahed]

You can still buy it and I believe you can run it using the advice in the Sword Dojo.

It's the game that got it all started and it has fundamentals that the rest of the TW series is still struggling to regain.

[IrishArmenian]

I have most of my battle experience as Russia and that allowed me to field the most versatile armies in the game (Russia is incredibly flexible: heavy infantry, heavy calvary, light calvary, heavy horse archers, dismounted heavy archers but I digress) Besides my general my armies normally were quite balanced in my mind. I used 3/12 Heavy Horse Archers who double as my heavy Calvary, 2/12 Horse Archers, 1/12 Javelin Calvary, 3/12 Heavy Archers who can also fight in close combat (Dismounted Dvor and Janisarry infantry are the only ones in game, I believe) and 3/12 Heavy Infantry.
Also, I have come up with a few guidlines.
Raid the areas of highest fertility in enemy regions with missile calvary because when an enemy attacks you, you can cause casualties in battle and then withdraw very fast!
As long as you keep your mind on the war of attrition, you should win.
Ambush, hide in trees at most chokepoints, enemies should wander by.
Build forts at chokepoints!

[Bijo]

More advice on strategy:

Not just battle tactics, but strategically know what's going on. I always have spies and towers everywhere: in my settlements; at borders; in enemy settlements; neutral settlements, and so on. Then you can minimize your military costs by effectively countering the enemy armies.

Logistics: unless you have some army able to continuously conquer lands, it's good to replenish your forces along the road. I'd stop once in a while or let another army take over.




Sinan, I think I will. I saw it for sale at this internet shop for €6 or so. But I was wondering if there's also like an edition that has both the original and the expansion, and everything else. Something like RTW Gold Edition. I saw this Warlord Edition, but haven't seen any good description of it anywhere.

[Shahed]

Warlord edition is both STW and STW: Mongol Invasion.

Be sure to do some searches and have a look through the Sword Dojo for the most hassle free version (although you can't lose much for 6Euro).

[Bijo]

Thanks, Sinan. Checked out the forum and internet. Saw the Warlord Edition for €15, and the Gold Edition for €6. The release dates said, for Warlord 2001, and for Gold 2006, so I got the last one, seeing as I also don't have to patch it (so it seems).



More advice on strategy while I'm here:
A nice way to defeat the opponent is while you do it the sneaky dirty way. I like to play like this, because it can save you some expensive military funding. It's a non-violent way of fighting, using spies and assassins. I use them as they come in handy taking care of the enemy while you're not at war with them. Eventually, when they're severely weakened by your dirty strategy, you might decide to march in and take over the scattered remnants using typical military methods of course.

Here is a nice guide by Braedonnal: https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=75937

I would've written one myself on this, but he beat me to it :P