YellowMelon's Guide to M2TW Multiplayer

[YellowMelon]

agree wholeheartily.

@ yellowmelon

you contradict yourself. just answer me one question. why under bugs and exploits did you not mention cavalry?

Your Answer:

Shield Bug
Currently any unit with a shield, no matter the size, does not have the defense attributed to it. So whatever their stat is, you minus the shield and that’s what their actual defense is. Now typically units that don’t have shields have a raised natural defense for balancing purposes so that they aren’t annihilated by units that do have shields, but because of this bug, they are instead way too powerful for their cost. So check to see if your cav has a shield or not, and then check the stats. Right now this makes Lancers, Gothic Knights, Broken Lances, Demi lancers, Scouts, Hobilars, Border Horse, and Famiglia Ducale extremely powerful, making Milan and Scotland premier faction selections on High Era.

Two Handed Bug
Infantry that use two handed weapons are unable to attack cavalry because the animation for attacking upward was neglected in the program. Try not to purchase two handed units because if they are attacked by cavalry, they are toast. The only exception for this is pikemen because they have a completely different set of animations than typical infantry.

Scotland – Border horse that is possibly the best cavalry in the game (read bugs and exploits). Upgrade them with a valour, defense, and attack, and they can beat heavy cav one on one. Very cheap infantry and archer/inf hybrids that are quite good. Feudal Knights are also the best heavy cavalry for the time period.

Milan – Bugged Heavy Cav (read bugs and exploits) Famiglia Ducale are the best cavalry in the game. You can get 4-5 of them without them exceeding their value in my opinion. You also can choose from 3 types of schiltrom spears, decent infantry, and Genoese crossbowmen.

Venice – Musketeers are a must in this era. Stradiots are a glitched unit, as they are light cav that has armor piercing and no shield. Good heavy cavalry, and an assortment of schiltrom infantry.

Cavalry is EVERYTHING.
Build your army around your cavalry. Depending on the rules in place (most clans play with 8-9 cavalry max), this should eat up around half of your budget playing on 10 000 florins. If you have more money than that, I would recommend spending around 2/3 of your budget on cavalry. You always want at least 4 units of heavy cavalry, no matter the era. Unless you are purchasing bugged units, I would recommend you don’t exceed 4 units per type, because it limits what you can spend on the rest of your army. My standard builds have 4 heavy cavalry, 4 light cavalry, and one general’s bodyguard. You don’t NEED the gen bodyguard, but it is always nice to have a few extra hitpoints on that unit. Sometimes it is nice to have 1-2 mounted crossbowmen, but if you only have horse archers to choose from I wouldn’t recommend it, they just aren’t effective enough.

Regarding your comment to Jesus:

@jesus

try superimposing a an all army stack of 16 papal states spears units. four of each and add as much in armor upgrades as you can and pit them up against an all cav army. you will see what i am talking about. and they can own against missile light combined arms armies as well.

Cavalry charges can win you the game. Remember that the longer your cav has to gain momentum, the stronger the charge will be. Also remember that for an optimal charge you must be parallel to your opponent. A perfectly employed cavalry charge will kill almost any infantry unit in a head on charge (with the exception of pikes). Elite cavalry are more effective in this case, but even units such as hobilars will be able to take out upwards of 50% of any infantry unit if the charge is done correctly, despite having a very low charge rating.

If your opponent moves his infantry without any cavalry support, you should take advantage of the situation and rush them head on. Even if a spear unit is in schiltrom, the charge effects will remain. Remember that there are charge bugs that might impede your ability to do this successfully. If your cavalry hits your own units they will lose their momentum; if you get snagged on a stray enemy unit before your cavalry hits the target they will lose momentum and might halt; if your cavalry start charging into one another it might decrease its effectiveness, so make sure to keep some room. Keep in mind that cavalry can practically negate the bonus of a charge, and it is only really effective on infantry.

You suggest an army that isnt fiscally efficient, and is not mobile enough.