what type of commander are you?

[Betito]

Generally, i will have 4 to 6 HA units, of which at least 2 should be melee capable ones (like mameluk, mongol heavies or sipahis). One or two other medium cav, something in the spirit of sipahi lancers, my general, and one or two heavy cav, such as qapukulu . About 3 or 4 foot missiles, if they are melee capable, like ottomans, or can deploy stakes, like yeomans or janissaries, much better. Then 3 or 4 spear infantry and 2 or 3 other infantry. Depending on the faction, it can be halberds or swords. One or two artillery units complete the roster.

The HAs go first, harrassing, shooting, retreating, and repeating; i have yet to try the combat group Doug suggests in multiplayer, sounds good to me. I try to focus on the troublesome units, such as knights, artillery or really good infantry.

The rest of the battle depends on the specific situation, but generally it's me seeking high ground, sending the foot missiles a bit forward, using the artillery with fire/explosives, sometimes with fire at will. Spear units on guard mode, i try not to move them too much, they are for containing purpouses mainly. The HAs double as flankers when needed, or when they run out of ammo (this is why i need some melee capable ones). If i need some more staying power, my missiles can usually handle it (this is why i choose janissaries/ottomans). A farily versatile formation, IMO, can attack and defend nicely

[andrewt]

I'm a missile cav fan. I love horse archers, javelin cav and gun cav. I send them at the start to shoot from the flanks and generally harrass. Then I send my heavy infantry and heavy cav. Depending on faction, I'll have infantry missile troops with the heavy infantry and cav as well. I typically like the hybrid ones like dismounted Dvor where you can sometimes turn off skirmish and watch them own anything that gets close.

I remember fielding armies of dismounted Dvor, Dvor and Cossack Cav with Russia. The Dvors pack the punch while the Cossack are really good chasers and can chase most cav. I usually kill/capture 95%+ of the enemy after a fight. Sometimes, I sacrifice troops by making cav mop up before rejoining the battle.

[Rozanov]

In terms of army composition:

a nice mixture please (you never know what you're going to be facing in the field.)

So (if available): 2/4 units spears or pike; 2 archers; 2 x-bows or musket; 2 light cavalry; 2 missile cavalry; 2/4 heavy cavalry; 4/8 heavy infantry; general's unit; a couple of artillery pieces and whatever specialist units I take a fancy to.

always merge damaged units and send the remnants back to be retrained; rarely use mercs except if attacking a settlement or castle and then I demob them once the garrison doesn't need them.

On the battlefield, once I have every one lined up I assigned units to attack the enemy units (unless I'm adopting a purely defensive posture.) I let them finish the job, reform and then send them off to their next target.

[Skott]

I guess I'm a combined arms type commander with a leaning more towards infantry.

[Sir Robin the Brave]

Im a terrible commander!

Really I tend to have mainly infantry, with archers or skirmishers and light cavalry

[Plebian#10]

I am a combined arms commander who likes small well trained and heavily experienced troopers. There is nothing like having a little bit of everything to take your enemies apart. In addition small armies cost less and gain experience faster. I rarely use mercenaries because when you sack a city you get significantly less money.

[Mordon]

I've always been a fan of combined arms, especially if I can do combined arms with hybrid units.

I have a Milanese campaign going now, and I find that my armies consist of the general, 2-3 Italian Calvary Militia, 1-3 Caroccio(sp) Standards, 3 Italian Spear militia, and the rest as many Genoese Crossbow Militia as I can get.

The Standards supplement the spears if the enemy is cavalry heavy, and keep morale high.The Cavalry Militia help with routers and charging the enemy from the rear once they engage my battleline, and simply look cool.

I use the General to support weak points in the infantry line.

The spears are mainly there to hold up cavalry so they can be gunned down readily.

For everything else, its the crossbows. What they don't gun down at range, they can chop up in melee, they do *very well* as swordsmen. I find that with the archers in a checkered two-line formation(so everyone has clear LOS, but still two lines of units), the rear can usually swing around to slightly flank the engaged line, and enfilade fire the enemy to death.

I take some losses to friendly fire, but I find overall I can defeat equal or greater numbers with ~5-12% casualties. And there's nothing like watching a full unit of DFK's take a few hundred crossbow bolts in a single volley and wind up with like 15-20 guys left instantly.

The only time this hasn't worked for me was when the blasted Sicilians sent two almost-all-cavalry stacks against mine. That wasn't pretty...