Stronger Player - Turtle vs. Hare

[Zim]

Well, it's a Crusades hotseat, so I have to autoresolve and there's no Rome. I'll have to remember that about autoresolve. It could very well have been the reason I lost. I had a general as the first unit, but number two was a kazak, whose crappy stats couldn't have helped any.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I approve of jihads as a means of troop recruitment and fast marching.

I approve of massively overwhelming the enemy and crushing them under the pure weight of numbers.

Blitzing can be boring if you're only attacking on a single front. Try blitzing against the entire map as soon as possible (and as soon as you've extracted whatever you can through diplomatic means from your enemy) and DO NOT STOP the blitz... ever. Not until every province is securely in your hands.

Tip: Save Rome for last.

Auto-resolving doesn't get you as many prisoners. If they can rout, they can escape. The computer seems to end the battle as quickly as possible...

Oh and by the way

The computer has a BIAS against your first few units. If you have a weakened peasant unit or two in front of a stack of useful troops, and you beseige someone who has serious defenders (but you should theoretically still win easily) guess what... the computer will make your whole army rout.

Pretend the computer is comparing them, one at a time, lead unit versus lead unit. Thats why you don't lead with cavalry. Thats why you don't lead with weakened infantry or peasant archers. Too easy to rout your army in auto resolve.

Test it for yourselves. I took Vilnius with a vastly superior force and I lost the battle every time on auto resolve because I had religious zealot peasants as my lead troops and mercs and crusader knights in the back of the stack.

Ummm bad idea. Lose every time to routing. But on a human-controlled battle, I won EASILY every time.