Combat cheat sheet

[Gingivitis]

After playing the first time though a campaign mostly auto-calcing battles I'm trying to manually control them this go round. Not positive however on some matchups for troops so I thought I'd ask. I'm sure there's no 100% right answer, but in general, ideally what troops should concentrate on what?

Light infantry - Cannon fodder?
Spearmen - Cavalry?
Pikeman (bugged?) - Cavalry?
Javelinmen - ?
1H/Shield Infantry - ?
2H Heavy Infantry - Armoured things?

Archers (bow) - Missle Cavalry?
Archers (Xbow/Longbow) - Armoured things?
Gunners - Armoured things ?

Light Cav - Archers/Routers?
Heavy Cav - ?
Missle Cav - Heavy Cav?

[dismal]

Generally, you're not going to be able to micromanage your unit matchups that much.

The "basic" formation I employ looks someting like this:

A is archer, I is infantry, C is cavalry, G is general

Enemy
________________________
---------A-A-A-A----------
---I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I---
C-C----------G---------C-C-


Infantry: Some will suggest putting spears on the flanks because this is where enemy cav will target. The most important thing with infantry is keeping the line together. Having a longer line than the enemy helps. Having better troops than the enemy helps. Not standing around taking missile fire helps until you're demoralized and depleted helps. Infantry is not glamorous, but generally the guy whose infantry breaks first loses.

Cavalry: The primary job for cav is to hit the enemy infantry's rear/flanks once engaged. If your infantry is weaker this the critical way of turning the tide. When the enemy commits his infantry, I usually flare my cav out to the side where they can protect my flank and charge his. If your infantry is stronger, or you have a lot of cav, you can send some cav even further out to chase his ranged units out of range or take out his siege units. All this depends to a degree on what cav the enemy brings and how he uses them. Generally, I like to see him commit his cav before I commit mine. Most of my battle micro management involves cav.

Archers:
Start in front to maximize range, but be ready to skirmish behind the line. If you have more/better ranged units than the enemy, you may just want to exchange volleys. If the enemy has better ranged, and you have superior infantry, you'll want to engage his line as fast as possible. I like having the ranged unit advantage because it forces the enemy to come after me, but generally it doesn't seem as important in M2TW as it was in earlier games.

That's a very simplified version, since there ate lots of permutations, but it's a basic approach to field battles.

Horse archer armies are a special case that require a whole different set of tactics.

[Skott]

Dismal's setup example is pretty much what I use too. Only difference is that I like artillery units like ballistas, cats, cannons, etc., and put them behind the infantry line and then the General behind them in the rear. Its a good all round basic formation that can be adapted on the fly as needed.

[Alatien]

There is no single winning battle deplyment, you really have to be flexible. In general the deplyment mentioner (archers, infantry, cav on flanks) is good for most battles, especially when you are superiour (in numbers and/or quality).

However, if you are facing superiour enemy I recommend you deploy far from enemy deployment zone. Also I would deploy in a rather loose formation (more space between units). Why? To give you time to adapt to enemy deployment. In a close battle, you have to use each unit to its full potential - use it vs. what it was designed to kill:
Spears vs. cavalry, swords vs. spears, cavalry vs. swords. If you see enemy formation - adapt.

Personal example was a siege. I was sieged by HRE stack full of Dismounted Feudal Knights (DFK) and catapults. By coincidence, most of my garrison was cavalry (Mailed Knights and Feudal Knights). I have exited the city via 'side' exits, and charged DFK with my cav. Few repeated charges have wiped out many enemy units, silenced the artilery, and allowed my militia infantry to rout the remains. Most of cav was reducec to 5-10 men strong (out of 80-70) but my 8 (5 cav) units killed entire stack. That would not happen if I stayed in city.