* Reinforcements for both sides pop into existence from their respective spawn points, **not from the edge of the map**. If you’re winning, don’t push too far or you’ll be surrounded by peasants instant transmissioning around your lines
* Hold high ground if you can.
* Cavalry should either be mopping up stragglers or chasing archers around, not charging lines.
* Your reward for managing your archers well is that they’ll run out of ammo. It’s ok to retreat just to rearm.
* Don’t fight unless you get cornered or you see an opportunity to take on an enemy lord 1v1. You’re the only person on the map with a working brain. Also, it’s super boring watching the fight play out when you can’t interact.
Can you expand upon the archers rearming? You mean like fully retreat, and then re-engage for another battle?
Or is there a special thing to get more ammo for archers? My horse archers in particular ALWAYS run out of arrows.
This is for retreating specific troops from the battle, but continueing the battle otherwise.
If you want to retreat the whole army and re-enter the fight, you have to to over TAB->Retreat.
Archers can pick up arrows that are on the ground so sometimes you can restock a bit by moving them to where you had a shield wall get shot at a bunch then they should restock a bit. Its not a super reliable method though
I’m a big Battanian guy so I like to get my archers on a hill, with shield men in front of them, and I’ll have my mercenary cavalry just follow me as I go on charges to loosen up the enemy as they advance
I actually tear up the archers and distract cavalry
As their infantry pushes toward mine up on the hill, my archers rain hell. If they start to get close, they have to fight uphill against my superior melee.
My cavalry and I just keep weakening them up until I send my infantry and cavalry on a charge to kill survivors
Same - 4 (cav/HA), F1-F2 (follow me), and I usually end up just stalling and butchering their foot and my infantry rarely see action at all. I’m often at 70/30 archers to infantry so i reallly want to keep those Fians shooting and not swinging. I’d rather lose a few cataphracts to shield infantry since Fians will get 4+ kills apiece if they just shoot the whole time
Friendly fire would wreck the whole game’s strat, but it’d be an interesting challenge to do something other than just keep the Fians safe while they murder everyone
Overall great suggestions, one i might add is AI pathing is utter shit if you're using cav archers don't f1+f3 because rather than running rings around the enemy they'll run into a spear and die, move them around with f1, and if the enemy line is charging towards your center, just get them behind they'll mop up everything
f1+f4 works with archers too. They’ll “skirmish” and try to shoot while keeping their distance. It’s a little janky though, sometimes they’ll run back and forth looking for the optimal range instead of actually shooting
Just charge your archers. Reinforcements will come faster and every unit is replaceable. You don't have an army when you're broke. You can have them hold a line again after the frontline troops die off.
Stupid singular high ranked infantry man in the middle of a horde of recruits sniping me off my horse from 50 yards away somehow missing the fifty cavalry surrounding me.
F6 gives the order for the AI to take over. They'll charge, pull back, just do whatever the enemy AI usually does. F3 charges.
By hitting F1, F6 you just say something like "you guys do whatever you think is best. I'm gonna do my own thing."
F1, F3 is usually not the best tactic is you're feeling lazy. F6 at least usually works exactly as well as what the AI is doing for whatever that's worth. I'm an F6 guy unless the enemy is actually dangerous in which case I'll usually do a bit more micromanaging until it's clear I've won the battle. Then it's 0, F1, F6 or F3 if the enemy is obviously broken.
I just F6 then make a beeline for their cav so I can shoot all the horses. Fuck your lance charge.
Then when they finally try and come after me or attack my cav, I go to the archer line and smack dudes with an axe until I die lol
F6. Is not bad.. Horse archer will do kiting, skirmishing and charging sometimes... Its not bad choice for Horse archer.
For cavalry F1 - F3 to Enemy archer... Then F1 further.. Dont put fallback or return to prior position. Change to Skein Formation then charge again
No no, treat this like warfare, losses will be lessened, just my 2 cents. Only F6 upon enemy approach to your lines, full AI leads to high losses but it’s certainly an easy approach. Stem it by following traditional warfare tactics using F6 as an engagement over F3. Letting the AI takeover is not a great way to stem losses and win a battle.
The issue I have found is that unless you have a ton of horse archers, you generally aren't going to be able to harass enemies into attacking you. In this case it looks like his army chased them down, as the AI generally runs if the approaching army is more powerful.
This means they are going to sit there infinitely. So OP is going to have to take the fight to them.
Thanks for the advices folks! Just finished the battle and won by a good margin! In the end their losses were 3 times ours! Casualties were 267 - 820! :D Though I did use F1 + F6 for a good portion (It is 1200 so just followed the advice to let the sargents take command), but I did place my Infantry and Range manually first and commanded them for some parts of the battle, but at the end F1 + F6 for them too! I did get stabbed down, but by that point we were close too the end anyways.
In conclusion, Victory! I will try some of the other advices for the future, was one of the most fun battels I have had!
Edit: Got 71 kills (mostly archers I swooped around behind the enemy) before I fell so was still worth it! Highest I have ever gotten! :D
I used F1-F6 in the beginning a lot as well, the i switched to placing my units carefully. Archers on "Engage" so they position themselves in a position where they can shoot and fall back when enemys engage.
Infantry on shield wall pushing the enemy.
Cavalry "Follow me" and i take out the enemy cavalry protecting on flank, then the other flank. so its always 100% of my cav vs 50% of enemy cav. Then i let Infantry charge when they are close and i position my cav. behind the enemy lines and let them charge as well. Hammer and Anvil them suckers.
Line your infantry up somewhere good and then line your archers up at a kind of obtuse angle to your infantry. Have them stand back a little bit. The lines will look kind of like this, but with the archer line creating an even larger angle:
\\ \_\_\_
If you set things up right, and make sure your infantry line is closer to the charging enemies than the archers are (so that the infantry is targeted) your archers will have an absolutely devastating crossfire into the enemy’s main body.
Use your cav to screen your archer’s flank and keep a close eye on them so they can be pulled back behind the infantry if their part of the battlefield starts getting too hot.
I have tried this before and it works great! Tried it here aswell, and used that spear head formation for the infantry. I don't know if this was the right use for it, but just needed a way to protect the archers. Was a slanted battlefield btw.
But that cav thing have I never tried before! Will definitivly give it a try next major battle! Thanks for the advice!
Seconded. Even once you get a hold of managing larger armies and deploying effective formations, it is still hardly worth it unless you are up against a particularly difficult battle or you really, really want to crush someone for havng raided a caravan ages ago.
Ah right. If you know what the buttons are on Xbox for the command that would help. I hate having to pull my cavalry out of a charge against the enemy archers while I’m trying to smack someone on the head with a billhook
The weapons and especially armor -> XP machine is absolutely broken OP.
One swing through Battanian villages connected to castles, one through Sturgian anything, gather scrub troops and same day have a shitload of Fians and heavy infantry with a single battle’s worth of loot. It’s nuts, I stopped slowing myself down with t6 prisoners with this one simple trick
(Armor more than weapons so you can smelt those bitches for your smithing crew)
I know the battle is over but here some things for you to know. All the tips of the other players here stand.
However, while it's vital to stay a live at all cost, your personal performance can drastically impact a fight and even turn it around if your skill is appropriate even on the highest of difficulties.
I had legendary battle, with thousands of troops in the beginning, which had me dismounted halfway and in the end fight 1vs 10 cataphracts alone. If I went down it would be a hard hit for me and for the kingdom, but I prevailed.
So work on your individual combat skills.
I usually charge alone to against the enemy CAV , i try not to charge facing them but getting them from behind and making them stop or divert and letting them chase me , while my infantry , archers and CAV kills theirs , usually i kill around 20-25 before them leaving me eventually and join thier army but after their army being shattered already
I typically do 1-2 shield walls that are next to/near each other that’ll funnel the enemy between them, archers in 2 loose formations behind them, then a wing of Calvary in a skein on each wing of the army which I send one after each wing of the enemy Calvary formations, then horse archers can kinda just do anything. It’s easy to setup/control, I know there’s much crazier formations but this is simple and works
set groups up decently, use companions w banners well.
I do group 1 is main infantry w 70% of total inf. generally 3 man deep shield wall
group 2 and 3 is 15% blocks that wait on the sides of group 1 to pincer. shield walls until group 1 is engaged, and advanced then.
group 4 is archers, ideally spread on a height advantage
5 is cav, which should be used to prod and skirmish (at least until you know its safe to charge them) - but better yet, wait til their archers are exposed and use cav to wipe them.
I know it's over, but what I usually do
Is place the archers on a high ground, the inf at the bottom of that high ground, I keep my cav at a safe distance from the fight, and when the enemy inf engages my inf, I send my cav to their archers, and with my horse archers I shower the enemy inf with arrows from behind.
How did it go?
I’m so far into this game that I have amassed 11,3Million gold, still a clan and have been hitting the rebels to get their towns. Married Ira and got 3 daughters that I have given away to Sarranid, Sturgian and Northern Empire. So if done right. My family will inherit the thrones after a couple Coupe’s 🫣
* Reinforcements for both sides pop into existence from their respective spawn points, **not from the edge of the map**. If you’re winning, don’t push too far or you’ll be surrounded by peasants instant transmissioning around your lines * Hold high ground if you can. * Cavalry should either be mopping up stragglers or chasing archers around, not charging lines. * Your reward for managing your archers well is that they’ll run out of ammo. It’s ok to retreat just to rearm. * Don’t fight unless you get cornered or you see an opportunity to take on an enemy lord 1v1. You’re the only person on the map with a working brain. Also, it’s super boring watching the fight play out when you can’t interact.
Can you expand upon the archers rearming? You mean like fully retreat, and then re-engage for another battle? Or is there a special thing to get more ammo for archers? My horse archers in particular ALWAYS run out of arrows.
I think if you run far away from the battle you can Tab, retreat with some losses, and then come back
you can just F1-F6(i think it is) to give order retreat. And everyone will run back to edge of map.
This is for retreating specific troops from the battle, but continueing the battle otherwise. If you want to retreat the whole army and re-enter the fight, you have to to over TAB->Retreat.
F1-F7 F6 is LISTEN TO YOUR SERGEANTS or whatever Which… now I think about it, could use adjustment. Perks say “Captain” (of a troop) not sergeant
Archers can pick up arrows that are on the ground so sometimes you can restock a bit by moving them to where you had a shield wall get shot at a bunch then they should restock a bit. Its not a super reliable method though
I’m a big Battanian guy so I like to get my archers on a hill, with shield men in front of them, and I’ll have my mercenary cavalry just follow me as I go on charges to loosen up the enemy as they advance
Sweeping that front like a wiper
I actually tear up the archers and distract cavalry As their infantry pushes toward mine up on the hill, my archers rain hell. If they start to get close, they have to fight uphill against my superior melee. My cavalry and I just keep weakening them up until I send my infantry and cavalry on a charge to kill survivors
Same - 4 (cav/HA), F1-F2 (follow me), and I usually end up just stalling and butchering their foot and my infantry rarely see action at all. I’m often at 70/30 archers to infantry so i reallly want to keep those Fians shooting and not swinging. I’d rather lose a few cataphracts to shield infantry since Fians will get 4+ kills apiece if they just shoot the whole time Friendly fire would wreck the whole game’s strat, but it’d be an interesting challenge to do something other than just keep the Fians safe while they murder everyone
Overall great suggestions, one i might add is AI pathing is utter shit if you're using cav archers don't f1+f3 because rather than running rings around the enemy they'll run into a spear and die, move them around with f1, and if the enemy line is charging towards your center, just get them behind they'll mop up everything
f1+f3 causes them to charge into melee, f1+f4 causes them to engage, keeping them at a distance.
f1+f4 works with archers too. They’ll “skirmish” and try to shoot while keeping their distance. It’s a little janky though, sometimes they’ll run back and forth looking for the optimal range instead of actually shooting
Yeah and they'll occasionally start retreating if a few enemies break through which can cripple your damage output.
Huh, didn’t know that thanks niba
If you use cavalry to flank and hit from behind the infantry, that works too.
Just charge your archers. Reinforcements will come faster and every unit is replaceable. You don't have an army when you're broke. You can have them hold a line again after the frontline troops die off.
Didn't know that about reinforcement! But does explain some stuff. Also thanks for all the advice!
Dont die.......no seriously. Everytime i go down my sargents suddenly lose command and everyone charges
Yeah, seen that happen a few times in my game aswell :c So many red pop ups Will keep myself safe!
Update: I did not keep myself safe :c But the battle was won!
Javelin to the face?
Stupid singular high ranked infantry man in the middle of a horde of recruits sniping me off my horse from 50 yards away somehow missing the fifty cavalry surrounding me.
The one legionary becomes Agent Smith mid battle and just launches at you and only you.
Dude straight up abandons the fight to kill you.
It took me a minute to learn I’m more effective alive giving commands than dead after rushing in for a few kills
Every commander ever since like 1740
But the glory!!
Troop captain tactics skill 4tw
F1, F6
Facts haha. F1, F6 and get out there and make a difference
Enemy never expects it
What do these buttons do?
F1 highlights selected units, but I’m not sure what F6 does off the top of my head. I’m an F3 man myself, which is just the charge order
F6 gives the order for the AI to take over. They'll charge, pull back, just do whatever the enemy AI usually does. F3 charges. By hitting F1, F6 you just say something like "you guys do whatever you think is best. I'm gonna do my own thing." F1, F3 is usually not the best tactic is you're feeling lazy. F6 at least usually works exactly as well as what the AI is doing for whatever that's worth. I'm an F6 guy unless the enemy is actually dangerous in which case I'll usually do a bit more micromanaging until it's clear I've won the battle. Then it's 0, F1, F6 or F3 if the enemy is obviously broken.
I run around with Mamelukes and khuzaits, F3 works fine for me 90% of the time lol. But that’s a good tidbit to know! I’ll try it out
Here's another one, archers on advance (f4) will try to keep max distance. Not necessarily the best option however.
Bowmen work better with F4 than xbowmen do - crossbowmen running around basically never stand still long enough to load and shoot
A couple of bowmen on f4 will do wonders against small bands of looters
Truth, but in a hugeass battle like OP’s I wouldn’t trust F4. Maaaaybe F6 once I’m personally too involved in murderin’
I just F6 then make a beeline for their cav so I can shoot all the horses. Fuck your lance charge. Then when they finally try and come after me or attack my cav, I go to the archer line and smack dudes with an axe until I die lol
F6. Is not bad.. Horse archer will do kiting, skirmishing and charging sometimes... Its not bad choice for Horse archer. For cavalry F1 - F3 to Enemy archer... Then F1 further.. Dont put fallback or return to prior position. Change to Skein Formation then charge again
F6 is let the AI command them
Let's the AI take command so you can go on your one man killing spree.
Give command to the sergeants.
So everyone keeps saying that but for me F1, F6 is ‘stop’ if you are talking about ‘delegate command’ that’s F3,F4.
No no, treat this like warfare, losses will be lessened, just my 2 cents. Only F6 upon enemy approach to your lines, full AI leads to high losses but it’s certainly an easy approach. Stem it by following traditional warfare tactics using F6 as an engagement over F3. Letting the AI takeover is not a great way to stem losses and win a battle.
The issue I have found is that unless you have a ton of horse archers, you generally aren't going to be able to harass enemies into attacking you. In this case it looks like his army chased them down, as the AI generally runs if the approaching army is more powerful. This means they are going to sit there infinitely. So OP is going to have to take the fight to them.
Thanks for the advices folks! Just finished the battle and won by a good margin! In the end their losses were 3 times ours! Casualties were 267 - 820! :D Though I did use F1 + F6 for a good portion (It is 1200 so just followed the advice to let the sargents take command), but I did place my Infantry and Range manually first and commanded them for some parts of the battle, but at the end F1 + F6 for them too! I did get stabbed down, but by that point we were close too the end anyways. In conclusion, Victory! I will try some of the other advices for the future, was one of the most fun battels I have had! Edit: Got 71 kills (mostly archers I swooped around behind the enemy) before I fell so was still worth it! Highest I have ever gotten! :D
I used F1-F6 in the beginning a lot as well, the i switched to placing my units carefully. Archers on "Engage" so they position themselves in a position where they can shoot and fall back when enemys engage. Infantry on shield wall pushing the enemy. Cavalry "Follow me" and i take out the enemy cavalry protecting on flank, then the other flank. so its always 100% of my cav vs 50% of enemy cav. Then i let Infantry charge when they are close and i position my cav. behind the enemy lines and let them charge as well. Hammer and Anvil them suckers.
This is the way
Break into that settlement and defend instead
F1, F3
Stick them with the point end
Line your infantry up somewhere good and then line your archers up at a kind of obtuse angle to your infantry. Have them stand back a little bit. The lines will look kind of like this, but with the archer line creating an even larger angle: \\ \_\_\_ If you set things up right, and make sure your infantry line is closer to the charging enemies than the archers are (so that the infantry is targeted) your archers will have an absolutely devastating crossfire into the enemy’s main body. Use your cav to screen your archer’s flank and keep a close eye on them so they can be pulled back behind the infantry if their part of the battlefield starts getting too hot.
I have tried this before and it works great! Tried it here aswell, and used that spear head formation for the infantry. I don't know if this was the right use for it, but just needed a way to protect the archers. Was a slanted battlefield btw. But that cav thing have I never tried before! Will definitivly give it a try next major battle! Thanks for the advice!
Just win
"f1+f3" -Sun Tzu
Depends on troop types and the map you get
Just give command to the Sargents the AI for them is pretty solid.
Seconded. Even once you get a hold of managing larger armies and deploying effective formations, it is still hardly worth it unless you are up against a particularly difficult battle or you really, really want to crush someone for havng raided a caravan ages ago.
Here's one: if you use chopsticks while you eat you consume your food in amount that easier for your organs to digest. Your welcome, bro.
F1F6.
What does this do? I play on Xbox and I see this comment a lot on this post
gives command of the army to the ai
Ah right. If you know what the buttons are on Xbox for the command that would help. I hate having to pull my cavalry out of a charge against the enemy archers while I’m trying to smack someone on the head with a billhook
i think it’s rb then down on the right stick, if it’s not down you should see it
on pc f1 brings up the command menu so I can make them do shield wall or etc
Don't die early on
Banners and captain perks make ALL the difference
As Sun Tsu said "F1 + F3"
charge all archers let all your infantry hang back and put you cavalry’s right behind the infantry in a shield wall
fuck em up
Keep in mind that you are the commander in that battle, not some invincible death bringer so be careful and try not die till the near end.
F1+f3
0 + f6 and don’t die
Give em hell
Press F1 and then F3 and you will win and sun tzu himself will commend your strategic performance
I just do the “follow your sergeants” command and I don’t lose
But who are the sergeants
Dilos who is a dipshit peasant that is apparently a “Imperial Veteran” 6 hours later after I dumped some armor on the road
The weapons and especially armor -> XP machine is absolutely broken OP. One swing through Battanian villages connected to castles, one through Sturgian anything, gather scrub troops and same day have a shitload of Fians and heavy infantry with a single battle’s worth of loot. It’s nuts, I stopped slowing myself down with t6 prisoners with this one simple trick (Armor more than weapons so you can smelt those bitches for your smithing crew)
Is that like an actual feature in the game or is it some kind of thing you jus made it up 😭
Its a stewardship perk, and its a BLESSING
FIGHT!!!!! AND WIIIIIN!!!!!
Pikes in front, archers behind!
I see what you did there...
This is called the Rhodok mindset
Stickem with the pointy end.
Don’t loose😂👍💜
I know the battle is over but here some things for you to know. All the tips of the other players here stand. However, while it's vital to stay a live at all cost, your personal performance can drastically impact a fight and even turn it around if your skill is appropriate even on the highest of difficulties. I had legendary battle, with thousands of troops in the beginning, which had me dismounted halfway and in the end fight 1vs 10 cataphracts alone. If I went down it would be a hard hit for me and for the kingdom, but I prevailed. So work on your individual combat skills.
I usually charge alone to against the enemy CAV , i try not to charge facing them but getting them from behind and making them stop or divert and letting them chase me , while my infantry , archers and CAV kills theirs , usually i kill around 20-25 before them leaving me eventually and join thier army but after their army being shattered already
Cavalry
press 0, f1 and f3, like a true chad strategos, and if this fail alway can go ctrl+alt+f4
Kill them with the pointy pointy end.
With that disparity you can just "send troops" and generally be okay in my experience.
I typically do 1-2 shield walls that are next to/near each other that’ll funnel the enemy between them, archers in 2 loose formations behind them, then a wing of Calvary in a skein on each wing of the army which I send one after each wing of the enemy Calvary formations, then horse archers can kinda just do anything. It’s easy to setup/control, I know there’s much crazier formations but this is simple and works
set groups up decently, use companions w banners well. I do group 1 is main infantry w 70% of total inf. generally 3 man deep shield wall group 2 and 3 is 15% blocks that wait on the sides of group 1 to pincer. shield walls until group 1 is engaged, and advanced then. group 4 is archers, ideally spread on a height advantage 5 is cav, which should be used to prod and skirmish (at least until you know its safe to charge them) - but better yet, wait til their archers are exposed and use cav to wipe them.
Don't lose
command everyone to charge n hope you dont lose
Just win baby
Shriek like a banshee.
Like others said: F1 F6. Doesnt matter what you do, no way in hell youre going to lose. Take a walk in nearby woods if thats what interests you
You gotta make sure you kill more of their guys, than they can kill of yours
F1+F3 is always a good start
I know it's over, but what I usually do Is place the archers on a high ground, the inf at the bottom of that high ground, I keep my cav at a safe distance from the fight, and when the enemy inf engages my inf, I send my cav to their archers, and with my horse archers I shower the enemy inf with arrows from behind.
F1, F3
Less talking, more raiding!
Don't get anyone killed.
Hill, shiekd wall at bottom, archers in middle, cav solit in two amd flanking either side of the arny at the very top at the hill
Just hit f6 and hope for the best
-0 -F1 -F3
Yeah let your troops do most of the work cause when you die they just all rush the enemy and get killed quicker
Don't die, you lose when you do that.
Charge!
How did it go? I’m so far into this game that I have amassed 11,3Million gold, still a clan and have been hitting the rebels to get their towns. Married Ira and got 3 daughters that I have given away to Sarranid, Sturgian and Northern Empire. So if done right. My family will inherit the thrones after a couple Coupe’s 🫣
click send troops and win in 1 sec, easy peasy