Favorite unit(s)

[Innocentius]

As I mod my game quite a lot, I've come to love Handgunners. They're like somewhat weaker CMAA, just - of course - with handgonnes (in my game, that is). Of course, I made them available in late only, upped their cost and made them dependant on Swordsmith's Workshop and Gunsmith's Guild.
Great unit once you reach them anyway...

Otherwise (un-modded) it'd be Halberdiers, the workhorses of all sensible armies

[gunslinger]

As the English, my goal is always to start making Billmen. I play the Rock-Paper-Scissors strategy pretty consistently, and I've found that Billmen don't really have a counter unit. I know there are other units out there that can beat them, but they can always at least hold their own for awhile until help arrives. I like an army of Billmen, backed up by vanilla archers (with tons of archers in reserve), a couple units of light cavalry, plus my general (heavy cavalry) to fight the Mongols. I've never seen anything absolutely wipe out a unit of Mongol Heavy Cavalry, or any other heavies, as effortlessly as Billmen.

For the most part, I've always been a good Catholic when it comes to MTW, but right now I'm trying out the Kievans in XL. I'm really starting to like the Voi in early. They are light, fast swordsmen. I don't usually check stats, but in practice they seem to be as fast as Urban Militia with better morale and more killing power.

[Innocentius]

Oh, yes, speaking of the Russian XL factions: How can one not love the Druzhina Infantry? Their info-pic has to be the best there ever was.

[Kavhan Isbul]

Oh, yes, speaking of the Russian XL factions: How can one not love the Druzhina Infantry? Their info-pic has to be the best there ever was.

I agree with this, but I also find the Cherniye Klobuki info picture nice - there is something about helms with visors I really like.

[Deus ret.]

I like an army of Billmen, backed up by vanilla archers (with tons of archers in reserve), a couple units of light cavalry, plus my general (heavy cavalry) to fight the Mongols. I've never seen anything absolutely wipe out a unit of Mongol Heavy Cavalry, or any other heavies, as effortlessly as Billmen.

In my experience the Mongols actually field an army which is quite dangerous to billmen. In my first English campaign (a long time ago...) I remember fighting a Mongol stack with a force consisting of about 50% billmen. I had been quite impressed of their killing power vs. MHC, too, so I figured they'd do the job for me.

Wrong. Granted, they took out the Mongols' cavalry, although they had significant losses. But it was the MHAs and MWs who teared them to shreds, first with their arrows, then the remainders in melee. Billmen are lighter armoured than Halberdiers, making them less unwieldy, but at the same time they succumb to massed missile fire at an alarming rate. I didn't have enough heavy cav to fight off all those MWs with them alone and thus lost the battle.

I learned the lesson to better bring some heavy armour when facing the Horde (this convintion changed in MedMod where the Mongols have AP missiles ) and to fight them only with a lot of trees on the battlefield.

[Kavhan Isbul]

Deus ret. has given some really wise advise here - it is one thing tod eal with the Mongol Heavies, and a completely different thing to deal with the pesky Mongol Horse Archers supported bu hordes of Mongol Warriors. Finally, bring in some Chinese Spearmen in MedMod and the Mongols are the challenge they should be. Which reminds me of two favorite units I missed, but should have included - Mongol Heavies and Mongol HAs. I usually end up with a nice number of them after I kill the Khan in the first wave and then bribe whatever is left of the Horde (my strategy, which is probably a poor one, is based on losing the major battle in Khazar, but killing the Khan and then bribing the remaining Mongol stacks to replenish my armies and provide me with some troops I can never dream of training myself, especially in MedMod). I have discovered the Mongol HAs to be able to deal with most light cavalry, such as Steppe Cavalry and Mounted Sergeants, which makes them almost invincible. The stupid tendency of the AI to move its missile infantry when approached by enemy units makes sure that you will always hit pavise crossbowmen and arbalesters in the back, routing them as a result. I love Mongol HAs, and add to that the punch that Mongol Heavies pack (they get all sorts of valor and armor bonuses in MedMod when they appear in Khazar), and you have a superb combo.

[The Unknown Guy]

The Prononai Kavalliori Toxotai in Medieval´s pocket mod. AKA: byzantine cavalry on steroids. Of course, they´re also horribly expensive (l20 upkeep cost), so its not like you can field entire armies of them. Still, two units as battle assistance are enough to turn the tide, since you can pepper with arrows the enemy to follow you into position (into the position you have placed your archers, ideally), and then hold them there with some melee unit, while slamming the cavalry at their rear.

[Don Esteban]

If it rides a horse and has a bow I like it!

I often start an attack with an entire army of horse archers, pepper the enemy wth arrows, break up their formation then withdrawl and bring on a more melee based force to finish the enemy off. Obviously it depends what you're up against but it can be highly effective.

[King of Bavaria]

a) Szekely fast horsearchers, much better than vanilla ones

b) Steppe Heavies both horsearchers and strong cavalry

c) Welsh bandits

d) Huscarls real tanks

[Caerfanan]

If it rides a horse and has a bow I like it!

I often start an attack with an entire army of horse archers, pepper the enemy wth arrows, break up their formation then withdrawl and bring on a more melee based force to finish the enemy off. Obviously it depends what you're up against but it can be highly effective.

This is a funny strategy, this pile of horse archers progressively replaced! I'll give it a try. As soon as I can get OUT of the viking campaign!!!

[caravel]

The Prononai Kavalliori Toxotai in Medieval´s pocket mod. AKA: byzantine cavalry on steroids. Of course, they´re also horribly expensive (l20 upkeep cost), so its not like you can field entire armies of them. Still, two units as battle assistance are enough to turn the tide, since you can pepper with arrows the enemy to follow you into position (into the position you have placed your archers, ideally), and then hold them there with some melee unit, while slamming the cavalry at their rear.

I'm amazed that anyone is still playing the Pocket Mod to be honest. Most seem to have moved on/back to XL or vanilla, I myself have mostly been playing Rome for the last month or so. I haven't touched Medieval for ages now. I will probably get back to it at some stage though, Rome lacks Medieval's depth, not a game I could stick to for years and years.

The upkeep should be lower as the Pronoiarioi basically support themselves. I would decrease it just a bit and increase training costs further if necessary to balance it off.

Good to see someone still playing the mod though (you're probably the only one).

[The Unknown Guy]

The upkeep should be lower as the Pronoiarioi basically support themselves. I would decrease it just a bit and increase training costs further if necessary to balance it off.

But that was at the cost of taxes going straight to them instead to the state, so it´s not too unfitting. Besides, it helps to limit the number of PKT in the field, which would otherwise lead to one-unit-type-armies (they´re THAT good. I fielded three units of them against three byzinf and one psiloi unit, and massacred the defenders to the last man, suffering only thirteen losses or so-althrough, truth to be said, using the increased maneuver of cavalry against such a small garrison would have been easy with any kind of heavy cavalry, but instead of charging straightfoward-like I´d have done with chivs- I peppered them beforehand.)
Another alternative would be lowering the support cost and raising both the training cost and training time (justifying it in-game, the time&money investment symbolizing convincing 40 members of the gentry to join your armed forces)

I'm amazed that anyone is still playing the Pocket Mod to be honest. Most seem to have moved on/back to XL or vanilla
Good to see someone still playing the mod though (you're probably the only one).

Well, the mod fits rather well my concept of an "ideal" mod (as in altering the existing gameplay to make it more interesting as opposed to altering everything -XL is one mod I tried and didn´t like (and unfortunately deleted before I could think up looking into things I´d have liked to copy), and vanilla alone is rather tepid after trying your mod. Not that I have much time, as I have to keep up pharma, epidemiology, and general pathology, but when I do a TW, it´s with the Pocket Mod.

Sidenote: I don´t know what did you do with the "compound bow" projectile exactly, but Trebizond-trained Psiloi are MURDERERS. Not only they´re extremely effective in combined arms, but as single units they´re particularily
lethal as well. I moved one to çuell one of the infamous "siege weapons uprisings", and it managed to pull a shot as the rebels were running away, and still managed to kill 4 of the twelve crew. (It does lead to "historically accurate" armies composed mainly of bowmen, and it makes them be worth the extra support, but renders arbalesters a bit accessory, just for bridge battles and/or fencing off the first waves of the mongol invasion -which in my current game has opted to ignore me altogether-.

Maybe it´s just that the Hungarians are weaklings, in truth. In most of the former games I avoided them because Serbia and Bulgaria made a nice border, and this time they took them before I could, so I decided to bring my wrath upon them instead of the turks or the Sicilians-High Age beggining, took Trebizond, then Constantinople, then Greece, then leaped north)

[gunslinger]

Wrong. Granted, they took out the Mongols' cavalry, although they had significant losses. But it was the MHAs and MWs who teared them to shreds, first with their arrows, then the remainders in melee. Billmen are lighter armoured than Halberdiers, making them less unwieldy, but at the same time they succumb to massed missile fire at an alarming rate. I didn't have enough heavy cav to fight off all those MWs with them alone and thus lost the battle.

That's why I bring along all of the archers and the fast cav (like Mounted Sergeants). For the most part, I concentrate my fire on the MHAs. The cav works well against the warriors, but I really don't remember the billmen getting slaughtered by them. I should have mentioned that I keep quite a few cavalry units in the reinforcement pool along with the archers. This is just because they usually get exhausted.

[Deus ret.]

That's why I bring along all of the archers and the fast cav (like Mounted Sergeants). For the most part, I concentrate my fire on the MHAs. The cav works well against the warriors, but I really don't remember the billmen getting slaughtered by them. I should have mentioned that I keep quite a few cavalry units in the reinforcement pool along with the archers. This is just because they usually get exhausted.

Well IIRC Mongol warriors have quite decent melee capability, decent enough to fend off most light cavalry, and together with their ranged attack they are superior to billmen....in my experience

It might also be that
a) I wasn't feeling at ease on the tactical map yet, since it was my 2nd or so campaign. In the retrospective, I should have looked either for cover to hide the billmen in or for a bridge to better defend against the onslaught.

b) I've become too influenced by MedMod in myjudgement since I play it almost exclusively; in this mod, MWs are CMAA stat-wise plus they have very nasty AP missiles, which makes them quite deadly.

[caravel]

The problem with mongol warriors is the AI's reluctance to disable Skirmish mode. The AI can do it, but only against units that are judged as very inferior. Trebizond Archers for example will come out of skirmish mode and charge vanilla horse archers, but they won't often take on Spearmen or UM. Because the Mongol warriors don't know when to stand their ground and fight they get mopped up with ease by a half decent cavalry charge.

[ULC]

I love the entire gothic unit line, excellent units, especially the foot knights.

Boyars and CFK are good to, and I definitly love the Janissaries, main reason I play as the Turks! I had a test battle with fully upgraded GFK versus JHI, and the JHI won by a long shot.