When fighting against enemy that has archers you must remember that enemy will rarely move first.
it’s possible for you to force him to move in four ways.First - siege machines.
It is one of reasons why every army should have at least one catapult.Second - your shooters.
It’s not a perfect solution, but at least it will force enemy to react.Third-cavalry.
The simple fact of shooting enemy forces will be a sign for them to react.Four - direct attack.
A final solution, if all others have failed or aren’t currently available.
If you have shooters and enemy doesn’t, then most of all think about positioning them correctly.
Their reach is most important.
Because of that, archers should be closer to the front line than machines.
In best case on hills, but not every battlefield offers such luxury.
If enemy is standing in one place, move your shooters closer to him and force him to attack.
If he attacks, wait for him, shoot at him and them make place for infantry.
When a melee battle starts, don’t move your archers at back.
Archers fire is a two-sided weapon and it hurts both your enemy and allies that are too close.
For each enemy unit that fights in close combat there should be two your units of similar pop in.
Fighting one on one is also good, but it greatly lowers chances for victory.
In general, don’t allow your formations to fight lonely or cut away from rest of the army.
Formations should fight face to face, at least when they fight one on one.
Groups with low morale attacked from the back can quickly give up and retreat from the battlefield.
During melee combat don’t forget about using all available abilities.
A small morale boost can have great influence on the outcome of the battle.
First to start a melee combat is always the cavalry.
If you have it, don’t let it ride to far away from main forces.
And tired because of forced run.
Formations become tired because of long battle or run.
It means limiting unnecessary running to minimum, as the movement in general.
If you’re not in a hurry, march.
Run only when you’re under fire or you hunt running enemy.
After battle let your formation rest a while.
If you’re free to, change him with another, rested one.
Use tired units for attack only if you have no other choice.
Use tiredness against enemy as well.
Don’t give assaulted units a moment of rest.
Use horse archers to force enemy infantry to run at them or away from them.
Shoot at enemy positions with archers and catapults, forcing enemy to run at you.
Attack main enemy forces before reinforcements arrive, which will force the latter to move more quickly.
If two of your formations face a single enemy formation, order only one of them to attack.
Flanking can be used by any pop in of unit.
Position your infantry in a line.
Then move the formations on the edge slightly in front and wait for enemy.
When your central forces start fighting enemy, order the edge ones to attack from the side.
Flanking can be used as protection from being surrounded as well.
Because of that, venture to always have one or two formations as a reinforcement.
Cavalry is best for that, as it can react faster to risk of being surrounded.
you’re able to use even archers for flanking, especially if they are out of arrows.
Just watch not to flank too strong enemies with archers.
First situation greatly limits visibility for both sides, especially on large maps.
Second situation requires positioning infantry troops in the forest and waiting for enemy move.
Formations hidden in forest are invisible until enemy gets close enough, which allows for creating ambushes.
Place a group of archers with infantry backup in the forest.
Let shooters start attacking enemy forces.
When enemy gets close to the forest, he will be attacked by hidden infantry.
Cavalry is one of most versatile unit types in the game.
On forest and fogged maps it can be used as scout.
On plains it can avoid enemy ranks and attack general formation at the back.
He can focus archer fire on himself and allow the infantry to get to enemy without losses.
He can distract enemy shooters, and even kill them before infantry will have time to react.
Equipped with bows it can shoot and immediately run away, forcing the enemy to run after it.
It can also be used for quick raids, weakening enemy positions and luring enemy troops into traps.
Infantry weakness is limited mobility, and archers don’t do well in melee combat.
It is especially visible when playing nomadic tribes likeHuns.
A large and well commanded horse army is able to win most battles with small casualties.
Machines can be divided intotwo categories.Firstis tasked with allowing army get inside a city.
Because of that they are being build before a siege and after it they disappear.
Insecond categoryyou will find all machine throwing missiles, that can be used against buildings or formations.
In this category you will find various catapults and ballistas.
Damage dealt by aonageris four times larger than by asagittarii, one of archer units.
Every army should have at least oneonager.
That is, if it hits the target, as charging cavalry is a hard target.
An infantry formation will be much better target.
You must take the softness ofartilleryinto consideration.
Because of that, around a catapult a friendly formation must always be found.
It forces you to place it at the back of your army as well.
When it is in front, it can be easily destroyed by enemy.
Siege artilleryduels give most fun during battle.
Because of simple reason - it is a strong, but very inaccurate weapon.
And it has smaller reach thansiege artillery.
In this category you will find all forces that join the battle gradually after it begins.
Reinforcements show on the battlefield gradually, and where they appear depends on their location on the strategic map.
Because they appear gradually, reinforcements can be a great trouble for army that doesn’t have them.
It all depends on their numbers, speed and army punch in.
If army is small and reinforcements are large, you must quickly dispose of army, before reinforcements arrive.
If army is large and reinforcements are small, then you don’t need to hurry.
Backup that consists of cavalry will quickly reach main forces, so there is no need to hurry.
But infantry reinforcements can be too slow and they can reach the main army after it is defeated.
Grade the army, grade the reinforcements and based on that make a decision.
If you decide that you oughta hurry, then do it.
If not, then act slower, but remember that enemy will gain strength with every moment.
Situation becomes more complicated when both sides are waiting for reinforcements.
In that case you must look at strength of each group and where it will appear.
If reinforcements are small or they are far away, first destroy main army, then focus on backup.
In most extreme case one of armies have two or more reinforcements group that come from different sides.
Frequently main enemy forces are waiting for reinforcements to arrive and they attack after that.
Once again, it all depends on size and numbers of reinforcements, but with one important annotation.
Enemy army usually can be found in the central part of the map, and reinforcements on the edges.
Many factors have influence on morale, but it is easy to guess when morale changes.
But it only affects the beginning of the battle and it will surely change during combat.
The lower the morale is, the greater possibility of breakdown or running away.
After breaking down a formation will start to retreat, but you will not lose control over them.
If morale will drop again, a formation will give up and start running away from the battlefield.
During that, enemy can start hunting your units and capture them.
Breakdown can happen rapidly because of sudden and wide morale drop, for example after death of general.
Remember, that sudden drop of morale doesn’t depend on a single event.
Death of a general might happen at the beginning of battle and cause only one formation to run.
Every unit capable of range attack has a limit of ammunition.
Siege machines have ammunition as well.
The amount of ammunition depends on strength and tasks of unit on the battlefield.
Archers have more of it, because their main way of fighting is by shooting.
Infantry have less, as it is supposed to fight directly.
As one can guess, usefulness of a unit on the battlefield depends on the amount of ammunition.
In longer battles archers might become completely useless unless you decide to use them to hunt running enemies.
Because of that you should save missiles.
Let your archers concentrate fire on single enemy formations.
Let catapults shoot at tight groups, not dispersed ones.
Let spearmen throw at cavalry that charge at them, not infantry group walking nearby.
Additionally, don’t shoot at formations wit which your soldiers fight, as you will hurt both sides.
They are given randomly and after the battle they disappear.
Sudes caltropsblock the way for cavalry formations.
On plain territories traps aren’t very useful.
Especiallycaltropsandstakes, that are visible after getting close to them.
The biggest advantage, and in the same, biggest disadvantage of general is his worth on the battlefield.
In other words it is a very useful unit, but his death usually ends with catastrophe.
Because of that you should use general carefully.
Never leave him alone.
If he must fight, let few formations accompany him.
Send them there, where morale of your troops starts dropping.
Use his skills as frequently as possible.
If he becomes surrounded, immediately send him backup.
Do everything that is possible to keep him alive.
If you worry about his state, don’t send him to battle.
Let he instead move behind fighting units, thus increasing their morale.
You should treat especially well generals with high rank, and even more the ones from your family.
Death of a fifth rank general, although painful, can be survived.
Death of a fifth rank king might end with civil war.
A formation that is in the middle of combat can be given an order to move.
In other situation enemy will immediately start the pursuit, which won’t allow you to stop the fighting.
It’s even worse when fighting cavalry, that is too fast for infantry to walk away.
Because of that retreating units from battle is hard, but not impossible.
If you want to move a formation away from battle, send another one on its place.
Enemy fighting two formations at once might let one of them retreat.
Retreating must be done selectively.
you’ve got the option to order your formation to completely leave the battlefield as well.
If it gets there, it will leave the battlefield.
This allows to keep general alive after losing a battle.
He simply must retreat before he gets surrounded and killed.
After morale breakdown formations will start to run away from the battlefield.
Broken formations can be recognized by a white flag in place of their icon.
Leaved broken formations will get to the edge of the map and disappear.
If the battle haven’t ended with complete failure, they will become part of retreating army.
If army have been destroyed during battle, those formations will disappear after the battle.
Broken formation won’t fight back, so instead of killing enemy soldiers, your units will capture them.
Captured prisoners count only if the battle have been won by you.
So you shouldn’t hunt broken formations if the victory isn’t obvious yet.
And you shouldn’t hunt them with infantry, unless they are close by.
Light cavalry is best for capturing prisoners, especially a rested one.
It will take some time for infantry to get to defeated formations and thus it will catch less prisoners.
And, for obvious reasons, infantry is completely ineffective when capturing cavalry.
First order will increase your treasury, but lower armyintegrity.
Your soldiers won’t be happy that you release enemies captured by them.
On other side, because of their presence abilities of your army will drop.
Third order harms diplomatic relations with defeated enemy and his allies, but increase with their enemies.
There orders from above are available after winning a naval battle as well.
This site is not associated with and/or endorsed by the SEGA or Creative Assembly.
All logos and images are copyrighted by their respective owners.
