=== Just a little history of the empire, skip right to the end if you like ===
I've been playing as the French from the early period up until 1170 so far, i've been doing well, i control all of France, Normandy, Flanders, a province in the north of Spain which i stole when it rebelled, Genoa in the south-east and the most north-west province in Italy which i also stole after rebellion. I've just come out of a major war with the English and the Germans which re-shaped my empire into what it is today. It forced me to abandon some eastern provinces which were a problem to defend due to them being surrounded by other factions and conquer the English provinces on the mainland.
All in all i came out on top, but it was a very bloody war which lasted about 15 years and saw a lot of provinces reduced to nothing after being captured, lost, captured, lost, captured and lost again. The battles were huge with full stacks on either side, and i lost most of them.
Anyway, the war is mostly over now. There are small skirmishes here and there but nothing major, and the Germans have accepted an alliance with me after the Venetians made a comeback in one of their provinces with 3 full stacks of good quality troops. However, the English have established a large empire in Denmark and in some of the old HRE provinces who they were at war with for around 40 years, so i have the English on my north-east border in force, and war is inevitable.
=== End campaign history ===
Now, the question. During the war i lost almost every battle, even where i was numerically superior. I had archers fighting in melee and beating spearmen. I had enemy spearmen beating my feudal men-at-arms badly, even when my soldiers had experience and lords with command stars, lots of dread and honour and piety. I had hobilars (Hobilars!) decimating my mounted sergeants, royal knights and sergeant spearmen, which should all defeat hobilars with no problems at all. The only reason i came out on top was because i began using 4-5-6 units of archers in every army.
I'm only playing on hard difficulty, not expert, so i don't understand what's going on. Will my army fight better with a king or general who has more command stars? I know command stars affect morale, but does it affect the way they fight? I lost a lot of good generals early in the war so i was fighting with 2, 1 and sometimes 0 command star kings and lords.
Can anybody give me any tips? What kind of army composition do you use in the early period? Why are my units being defeated by grossly inferior quality troops?
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