Battle map

[ezoons]

In MTW, it was pretty simple to check what the battlefield would be like if you attack a province: right click, move mouse over, and voila, hilly terrain.

Is there a way to find this out in M2tw? My battle maps have been unusual at times. For example, the latest one I had was near Caen, on the Flemish coast. And we fought in some hills, forests all over.

On a different note, which kind of units should I use to face a cavalry charge? And how?
Again, in MTW all I had to know was "spears, hold position, hold formation, 4-5 lines". In M2tw (as the English), spears are useless, heavy infantry are useless, charging against cavalry is hopeless. The only unit that did quite well were the armoured spearmen, standing still, 5 rows. They survived the initial charge and won against a unit of Hospitalier knights. But this was a custom battle and I haven't got them in my campaign yet.
I'm lost.

[Caelus]

I can’t answer your first question, but here are my thoughts on the second.

There are several ways to stop cavalry as the English. The best of which is the use of stakes with your longbowmen, position them in the way of likely charge routes. If they move around your stakes, it will more than likely cause then to attack from close range, having little momentum. You can form your longbowmen with refused flanks; with the units in each flank deployed at an angle, making then difficult to flank. This will form your line in a “V” shape, with a blunt point. Even better deploy at the corner of the map.

Some players don’t use stakes as the computer tends to stupidly skewer itself on then, which make them (stakes) something of an exploit. I, on the other hand, am not so companionate to the computer.

Without stakes, the basic idea is to prevent their cavalry from developing momentum. You can do this by attacking then before they start their charge (although this can be very dangerous), or more usefully by making then change their angle to you and change direction. They need momentum in order to get a good charge. To get momentum you need space and open ground, as well as a clear shot. Having to change direction will destroy the coordination of the cavalry unit and thus their momentum. In addition an unintended engagement in one of their flanks will cause then to stop their charge if it is timed right (although this last one is not a very useful one, but I’ve certainly had it happen to me accidentally plenty of times).

Once you understand the factors which make a good charge possible, you can deny these to the enemy.

Any good infantry unit with high defense can beat cavalry in prolonged hand-to-hand combat. Your best and cheapest bets are levy spearmen and armored swordsmen. Billmen (with a two handed bug fix, in my case m2lite mod) have a strong attack against cavalry but little staying power, and can NOT take a charge.

The only way you can get armored sergeants (spearmen) in campaign is to mod the game.

In short the only infantry England can field which can stop a cavalry charge head on is longbowmen stakes.

You can also put a worthless unit in front of your strong infantry. They will be wiped out, but will also take the impact, letting your more important units take them out.

Also playing with cavalry will give you insight into how to charge, and thus how charges can be disrupted/fail.

Hope this helps!

[ezoons]

Thanks!!
These stakes are absolutely brilliant! I don't know why I've never even noticed them before!

The only problem is, how to make the enemy attack you once the stakes are in place.
And also, I didn't think my own cavalry would have to be routed around them (silly really) and had half my unit of mailed knights decimated when I gave them the order to return behind my longbows after dealing with some French crossbows.
"What's that? Stakes? They're OUR stakes, men! Charge!.. Run away, run away..."

Still, can anyone answer my question about battle map styles?

[grapedog]

another quick and dirty option is to form up a line of infantry, something with decent defense to take the brunt of the attack. Then come in with a high offense unit and attack the side right after the cavalry hit. Playing as Scotland I regularly use a combination of Dismount Feudal Knights/Noble Swordsman as a wall in guard formation 2-3 deep, and run highland nobles in from the side and that takes care of pretty much any cavalry pretty quickly...really any unit for that matter

If nothing else, a light fast cavalry unit can hit the charging flank since they are faster and disrupt their charge. Trying to time it to hit them just before they hit you is tricky, but can really destroy their unit.

[Caelus]

Oops! I should have warned you about the hazard to your own cavalry. Keep in mind (if this hasn’t happened already) that they will get killed running either way, even from behind the stakes. So keep your cavalry near each flank and behind the stakes. If you put them on the absolute flanks (to the sides of the stakes) it will encourage the enemy to charge them instead or you stake protected infantry.

You can make sure they attack the stakes by deploying in the corner or the map. This way there is very little for them to move around the stakes, and they can not do so in force, if at all. It is cheap (as in unfair), I know, and it doesn’t work on the offensive. But taking a defensive stance suits the English well and is historically consistent.

If you do this right the only problem is it will become too easy and you’ll start to feel like you’re cheating. But isn’t still a whole lot of fun!

My English stack would be 1 general, 8 longbowmen (no less then 6, but could be as many as 12), 6 or so armored swordsmen, 3-6 units of cavalry (most can be hobilars, as their main purpose is to chase routers), and maybe a couple of catapults.

To me the armored swordsmen are as important as the longbowmen. They are nearly as powerful as dismounted knights but with a much lower cost. Their upkeep is 150, same as armored sergeants! They’re perfect for defending walls, and when the shield bug is fixed they should be even better. I’d say for this reason you can pretty much do away with spears as the English (one you have fortresses).

It’s also a good idea to work on other methods of cavalry defense as there are only three units in the game that can deploy stakes (as far as I know, longbowmen, janissary archers and Lithuanian archers). The only units which I know to be able to take a full charge are units which can for spear wall.

I don’t mean to diverge off topic or tell you things you already know, just thought I’d share some of my English tactics.

I hope someone will answer the first question, I’ve always wondered myself!