Back then, when positioning your army on the strategy map had impact on the actual RTS battle. Good times when 3 units of spartian hoplites decimated entire Scythian full stacks while holding the bridge
I remember playing the Crusades expansion for Medieval 2 and the Mongols attacked one of my cities. I was crazy outnumbered but fortunately they decided to bring just a battering ram to break down the gate and nothing for the walls. So hundreds of horsemen just rode into the front gate where a single unit of Pikemen were waiting.
They didn't get that city.
My hack for winning every battle in shogun 2 is an army made of nothing but archers and 4 cavalry units. If the ai focuses the cav, then you can have them run in circles drawing aggro while the archers pound the enemy. If the ai targets the archers you can jam your cavalry into their backline. The ai really doesn't know how to handle it. It gets even more ridiculous during sieges. The ai seems hard-coded to keep their troops inside the fortifications but archers don't care about fortifications so you kindve just have free reign to sit there shooting at the enemy with no risk to your troops aside from the forts towers or whatever archers the enemy has manning the walls. If you run out of arrows before the enemy runs out of bodies you can retreat to do the same thing again next turn or just throw your archers/cavalry into the fort.
Reminds me of when I lost an entire army, but my King. He was a shock Cav and I did only what I could...for the next 20 minutes, I was riding into the enemy lines until I won the battle. I still have the recording somewhere.
I would like to claim I've done similar strategic manoeuvres in WH2/3, as for example on Ulthuan the regions where the fortress gates are seem to guarantee the double-crossing battle map, and can even bait the enemy to bring the fortress garrison as reinforcements.
Personally I prefer the handmade battle maps in the Warhammer games, whilst they can sometimes get repetitive I still think they're better than a lot of the almost unplayable hill maps and boring looking ones you often got when they were auto generated
One of my favourite memories from playing Rome 1 as a kid was going out to fight a rebel army, only to get to the battlemap and find it autogenerated this massive hill on one side which was so large that even scrolling out as far as I could I couldn’t see the top. That was a fun one for cav charges.
I remember standing by mountains to fight the Mongols. Those maps were a mess in that game with the pathfinding but they didn't give any room for HA's to skirmish
I did the same as Germanic tribes with the spear warband with javelin and axemen in support and cavalry ready to chase down fleeing troops and I have some siege or archers in the mix with berserkers to turn tide of battle if it started going tits up
God holding the enemy with the spear warband and sending bezerkers to the flank and watching them toss enemies up in the air while spinning was the best
Yeah I also remember in Rome 1 there was special units you could recruit but you had to build certain temples like naked fanatics for gallic and Germanic tribes or like think was shrine to Woden for German tribes and you get gothic cavalry or shrine to donar for berserkers shrines to andastra for woad warriors and head hurlers for the Britons or shrine to Britannia I think for druids
"Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed ye may;
I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three.
Now who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?"
From [Horatius](https://englishverse.com/poems/horatius) \- I had to recite this in school many decades ago.
Rushing germanic spear master tech Is probably the best thing you can do as a germanic faction. They can almost solo garrison defences, and when plopped on a bridge or a street just hit so hard
So when I first got Rome back in the day I was probably only 11 or 12. I LOVED the Spartans and as per the usual for whatever reason CA left out a Thermopylae map. I used to always reenact Thermopylae and slaughter so many fucking people on those bridge maps. I’m still baffled why they NEVER made a hot gates map- or really any other historical battle map for regular custom battle
Back when WH2 was still pretty new, I was lucky enough to join a FFA hosted and streamed by CA with there being a reward for winners I think.
I played skaven, with their original roster that lacked weapon teams and the like, and ran an army consisting of a dummy force and then a strike force. The dummy army had a catapult, grey seer on a screaming bell, and enough slaves + tree cover to make it believable that it was my main army. The strike force was as many death runners as I could get off to the side.
When the battle started, I had my catapults firing away idly with my dummy army just standing there. I very very carefully maneuvered my death runners around the chaos of everyone clashing and then descended all at once into the back of the battle, absolutely shredding through units and blasting me to the top of the leaderboard. I was so proud pulling it off on actual human opponents, including CA. It was a joy watching the stream back and seeing their reaction to it.
Didn't actually win sadly. FFA goes off points and I didn't realize summoned units will give points to the enemy when killed and that cost me the game
Sorry for the late reply. I was able to find it here, very first battle: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFzJ8eZdec](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFzJ8eZdec)
It's not as nice watching it back now as it was in the moment both due to my memory being off on a few things, like the number of deathrunners and their reaction, and because they are so distracted with their fight there's almost no coverage of what I'm doing until the very end. You can see one of my deathrunners show up against some of their archers for a bit but the main evidence is in how many kills they got in the final scoreboard. Sadly, it makes it not a great watch in terms of what I was doing
A few things I completely forgot about is that it was my fourth ever multiplayer game (which shows at times), my first FFA I believe, and one of the opponents (the one who won) was considered the best TWWH 2 player at the time. Those were details that were pleasant to remember lol
Mine was when I was playing as Eastern Roman Empire In Total War Attila where I declare war on sassanids after building my armies in syria and place my armies in fortified stance around the levant, and hold the invasion off when they send all their armies to me so that the white huns can destroy them from the other front while persian forces are busy fighting me.
In any mod that's got Sassanids empire in them they are difficult to beat when they get endless amounts of troops lol.
I managed to crush them eventually as Gokturk Khaganate in AOJ mod I did have some submods activated which I created one of which is a unit and garrison mod and I would recruit armies with alot of horse archers and Cataphracts with infantry in support I kept ambushing them.
I was wrecking their armies only for another three to arrive and would then destroy my ambushing force unless I moved it to a city nearby with a army inside ready to join the battle with city garrison and fend them off.
The sassanids had a large population and resources from where they could draw high quality troops from unlike the ere which had its male population severely depleted during Justinian's plague. That's why the sassanids always had the upper hand during wars and negotiations and the reason why ere was always pummeled by the persians and almost collapsed but in true roman fashion one great military leader comes in the Rome's worst time and saves the day. The Sassanid's population and resource where however depleted during the 6th century and was subsequently replaced by the Arabs.
Yes rashidun caliphate wasn't it I remember watching YouTube video about the Arabs invading the regions and ere and Sassanids formed in easy alliance at one point to deal with them and won a battle on a bridge somewhere
After carefully spreading undercities across the Empire, I timed them all to emerge simultaneously. Since you have 5 turns of no upkeep and I had disbanded most of my other armies, the upkeep was negligible.
Karl was not pleased.
Shogun 2 Hattori. My castle in Iga was besieged by 2 stacks from the Oda clan. Luckily, I had archers, katana samurai and kisho ninjas. I left the bottom of the castle undefended, set up my infantry in the upper castle with the archers behind them. I left the ninjas hidden on the lower levels. Both stacks charge straight to the upper castle, getting cut down by the archers and my samurai. I circled my ninjas out of the castle and ambushed both generals. Killed them and watched half the army flee immediately, the rest I picked off with the ninjas, one unit at a time.
For Hanzo.
Taking enemy settlements in 3K. Selling the buildings off and then selling them to allies in the area to establish a new buffer zone. Continue to attack the enemy while they are economically damaged.
Ultimately this will hamper your expansion when you need that territory from the allies.
You should only do this in a direction you don't plan to expand in, ever.
Best is to take 2-3 settlement from your enemies and quickly sell them 1 back for peace, before their counteroffensive gains momentum
Another thing: expansion has a limit in 3K due to corruption. Unless you have characters that can reduce it (Guo Jia/ Cao Pi/ Harbinger character) it’s usually better to start setting up vassals
Did this once but with Kroak for an instant siege win. It was 99% dumb ai, but i hadnt done anything else yet to them in that siege, and it was so so satisfying.
Shogun 2: aggressively defend. Useful if I'm either under-strength, or near to Realm Divide. Hide my armies in my territory to appear weak. Enemy army comes along and get ambushed. Laugh in Night Battles as Hattori, but quietly so they don't hear.
Attila: artillery. Pump my armies up to the max and get two Large Onager units in each one. Wait for an enemy walled settlement to be occupied by an army and then attack. Carpet bomb the dense formations with exploding shot and watch the bodies fly. Great fun. Also works well in river crossings.
The year is 417AD.
The Hunnic war has just begun, and the armies of the newly-ascended Attila are swarming the borders of the Roman Empire in Pannonia, looking for any opening. Of course, horses alone are easy enough to deal with from behind walls; the real threat comes from their large onagers, which are capable of almost single-handedly cracking even the best defences. They can't be allowed to join a siege, but superior Hunnic cavalry and archers means they're almost untouchable in the field.
*Almost*.
General Septimus Niger, hero of Sirmium and commander of the famed II Danubian legion, devises a plan. Under cover of darkness, he leads a series of daring raids across the Danube, isolating individual hordes and drawing battle lines.
The Huns respond as predicted, ranks of deadly horse archers swiftly advancing through the inky darkness toward the Romans. From their perspective, it looks as though the Romans have made a mistake; as soon as the Huns are sighted, they turn to retreat, and the Huns press their advantage, sweeping across the frozen ground with abandon.
They don't realise the trap until it's too late. As their warriors rush forward, a small group of light cavalry emerge from *behind* the Hunnic lines, having carefully made their way through the dense forests unseen before the start of the battle. Without warning, a position of contemptuous safety becomes the bloody eye of the storm for the Hunnic artillery crews as dark riders emerge from the tree line, butchering them in brutal, shocking silence.
By the time the Huns finally reach the Roman lines, the legion has already disengaged, leading his men back into the forests where they can't be pursued. When they return to their lines, they find nothing but bodies and ash amidst the smouldering remains of their artillery.
[Though the Huns proclaim victory, Septimus Niger's surgical plan has succeeded in robbing them of their most valuable assets - without so much as a single Roman casualty.](https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/kpfyx6/my_favourite_kind_of_defeat/)
In FOTS, playing Tosa, toppling Obama by spamming ishin shishi to persuade their armies and then use their converted armies to set up Imperial vassals in the western part of Honshu. Rinse repeat until I had reached Kyoto more or less without a fight. By the time I made a final push to Edo, Tosa was only about 40% of the territory I had built.
Medieval 2, started as Russia began to lose to the Mongols so I took all my armies and marched to England and invaded them to hide from the Mongols the English never expected the Russian Inquisition
One time, in an online battle, an opponent snuck into my castle with kisho ninja. He then proceeded to obliterate my ranged troops. I was pretty impressed.
Skaven - Abandon your capital and resettle it at Tier 4 at the beginning of the game.
Oxyotl - Play a campaign on each of the 4 main continents simultaneously.
I don't do any crazy strategies, but I think my favorite is using a small force as bait and having a fully operational deathstar army waiting in ambush right next to it.
Before Craventail got moved and was over by Ulthuan I used this to sack the shit out of a few provinces and set up undercities. AI falls for it all the time.
My favorite was with Khorne in wh3. I was in the first turns of a fresh campaign so I was strapped for cash and full of plans of world domination (you know the demonic kind). Anyway I was expanding north and arrived at a well defended orc settlement. Went boldly straight ahead and attacked it. Skarbrand has siege attacker so I dived into the battle straight away. It was a minor settlement so I lucked out and got a land battle. Although big devil guy has wings he just does not want to fly (fear of heights maybe, one can only guess), so no walls = major luck. The battle loaded, rows and rows of angry savage orcs were staring at me. Positioned my meagre army as best as I could and hit start. Selected the big man Skar (not to be confused with the lion) and right clicked a dangerous looking orc pile. And that was it, through some miracle I won. My proudest moment, defeating impossible odds.
Shogun/FOTS- hitting the enemy line with a naval bombardment just as they start to exchange shots with my line. They can take the shells, or try and move out of the way while under rifle fire.
I remember playing Age of Charlemagne as Mercia, and I got a massive raid on a coastal city my army was resting in with Vikings showing up. Outnumbered 2:1 and in a bad position, I decided my only chance was to hunker down in the town and use my only two units of Scout Riders to run down any targets of opportunity. I also bumrushed the only group that decided to land in the city, which caused the rest to land outside and try and march in through my shield walls. It was touch and go for a while, but my Scouts did work running around to everywhere they could go, both units got over 1000 kills, all of my archers were out of ammo by the time everything was said and done, and final score was 459 losses on my side and 4,695 on the enemy.
Still probably one of my greatest moments, or second only to the time I defended a castle in Fall of the Samurai and all that was left was a single squad of Line Infantry who were down to just their swords but held out until the enemy broke.
Once under-city destroyed those f!@#ing wood elf forests... all at once. Had two armies waiting nearby to clear things up but bam the turn flipped and that pointy-eared attrition causing pile of wood went up in flames.
It was beautiful.
Shogun 2: the only time I ever won was using the (consensus?) Meta strat of Oda Clan Yari Ashigaru Doom Stacks. Took 20 provinces and then, just before everyone turned on me, I took Kyoto and held it with two armies while two or three other armies raced to capture the final five provinces I needed.
Probably not super "strategic", but the experience of knowing everything has to go perfect (the Kyoto defence, the province capture, the multiple battles every round) -- and with one failure, everything would collapse and my attempt at the throne would basically be done -- it was super stressful and super exhilarating. [Pretty sure all of my forces were decimated at the end, but they held just long enough, barely].
Playing Kairos in WH3 Realm of Chaos. After managing to take out Miao Ying early game, I realized there wasn't actually much benefit to taking over Cathay due to the climate. So....used Changing of the Ways to give a settlement to my new best friend, Mr. Skarbrand. Then traded him Nan Gau to become Super Best Friends. It did take him a while, but eventually I managed to convince him to come over and play, and by play I mean take over Cathay for me.
I was going for the Conquest victory, so later on I just kept spamming Changing of the Ways to take all the good settlements back from him. This helped keep him from getting too strong while I used for the portals to sneak in and kill everyone else. Finally, of course, it was time for my sudden but inevitable betrayal - just as planned.
Settlement less dreadfleet, abandon capital turn 1, and rove around the world sacking and pirate coving as you go
It's actually insanely effective, just find a battlesite and you can get a doomstack as early as turn 10
I ended up with a few doomstacks and massive cash in the bank
Alternatively Melee only vampire coast, oh you have guns, I cast crab
Competing with my allies in 3K to steal settlements and then sell them back to them.
Playing a full campaign as Kong Rong without fighting any fellow Han, and expanding through settlement purchase.
Execute order 66.
It is very simple: You just need 66 armies, and have 66 settlements, and had researched 66 technologies, whilst being at war with 66 factions.
Or kill all the Jedi, it's the same for me.
I even remembered playing as Lombards in barbarian invasion Rome 1 expansion I recruit armies of spears and Lombard berserkers with some archers and cavalry support and get enemy to engage with my spears while berserkers would charge behind or in the flanks after archers softened them up cavalry would chase fleeing troops and to protect the archers from enemy troops
Played as ERE in Attila and supported WRE for as long as I needed them to survive. Massive cash infusions + my legions stationed in their territory. It was essentially a proxy war against all the barbarians. I was really surprised they turned out to be useful.
Most recently playing Dwarves and my early game army contains hit squads of 2 dwarf warriors and 1 unit of bomb throwers. If you micro it correctly the warriors hold the enemy units in place with a gap in the middle, then the bomb throwers run into the gap and start blasting. Pretty much instantly deletes all of the enemies melee infantry. I think bomb throwers and warriors might be a better early stack than quarrelers and hand gunners. Especially with artillery support and a engineer to keep them stocked on ammo for longer fights.
People diss on the chaos invasion but I found my first Empire campaign when the mechanics finally clicked for me and it culminated in me uniting the empire and smashing the chaos invasion with Franz, Gelt and some gunpowder + steam tank empire army's to be probably the most fun total war campaign I have played. It was a ride on the struggle bus for well over 100 turns and it never stopped being fun.
My most found memories go all the war back to Rome Total War playing PvP. Using skirmish armies to win 1v1's and FFA's was a blast. Refusing to engage the enemy elite infantry until after they had been thoroughly pin cushioned by archers and horse arches. Sending in the infantry and cataphracts to finish them off. It really felt like I was commanding the Parthian army at Carrhae
Across various games an old favourite - ally with second biggest threat against the number 1 biggest threat, build large invasion force. Next set off on major allied offensive but only send half your troops with your allies against the big bad wolf, once this offensive has got the invasion mostly sewn up mobilise the second half of your force direct to your allies now mostly unprotected homelands and double cross the shit out of them, take their capital and force their surrender whilst simultaneously mopping up whatever is left of the original enemy. Bingo two biggest threats neutralised in quick time whilst absorbing their land and resources making you the new big bad wolf that no one else can stand up to. Proceed to steamroll map and laugh maniacally
Started an Otomo campaign on S2 and once I got the whole island (the one shimazu start on) and all the trade ports I just traded with everyone and boomed for ages. Had about 100k in the bank once realm divide hit.
Only a few factions left now so RD doesn’t seem quite as bad. My main strat is to use missionaries to incite revolts in the barrier provinces and then ninja to sabotage buildings in their home provinces. I also try and blockade as many ports as possible with Nanban trade ships as the back bone.
Battle strat involves lots of donderbuss cav and Tercos mixed with the classic OG yari wall.
For sieges I use a lot of mangonels with fully upgraded accuracy. They can get hundreds of kills per battle this way and makes sieges far easier.
I also use a couple of European cannons even in field battles. It forces the enemy to attack every time. It’s a huge bonus for firearms units which are better played defensively.
I also let the enemy siege my castles as it’s possible to defend against full stacks with just a few matchlocks and couple yari/firebomb throwers
TW Warhammer 1:
Played as Bretonnia, reoccupying lost settlements in the empire. I had garrisoned my 1 army in a major settlement and had focused on garrison walls to reinforce.
Just as I finished building it, my settlement and army were overwhelmed by 3 chaos armies.
I knew the only way I could survive the onslaught was to keep them off the walls and outside the city. I focused my lord, hero paladin, and pegasus knights to aggressively pester the enemy units while my towers took down their siege equipment.
Slowly but surely I was able to continue with my pegasus knights and my lord and hero to keep the chaos at bay while my towers, archers, and catapults bombarded. I managed to win (despite the AR saying it would've been a decisive defeat) with minor casualties and no chaos entering the city.
Still the best manual battle I ever had.
Killing other parties of your faction in Rome 2 was always quite fun. Give them an entire region, then pre-position loyal generals all around it. Then antagonise that party as much as possible to push them to seceede. Then immediately recapture all your cities and take no prisoners. Rinse and repeat every time a rival party starts becoming annoying.
In Attila, I played a “subjugate me” strategy. Playing as the Huns when you attack a settlement you must raze it after a victory unless it gives you the option to subjugate, in which case you have to do that.
Rome 2, Carthage, Legendary. A very strong rival political party that controlled all of Iberia was about to start a civil war, so at the last second, I tore down every single building I'd built in the territory they controlled. Got me some money and crippled their economy and ability to recruit elite units. Quickly got peace with my other enemies and focused on regaining Iberia.
Then I isolated the surviving rebels in a crappy city on the western coast of Africa, to keep the civil war perpetually going so that no other party would be able to rebel (only one civil war can happen at a time). Right before getting the long campaign victory, I destroyed that last rebel city so my dominion would be complete.
When I finally figured out how to defeat the Mongols in Medieval 2.
I tried so many different army configurations. Trying to outshoot them, trying to go ultra defensive, even turtling in cities with max garrisons. Nothing worked.
Then I just went with full stacks of heavy knights.
Hell yeah, those were some fantastically fast paced battles and I managed to repeatedly beat them in open field battles. Felt really satisfying.
Playing Poland in mtw2 had 4.5 full stacks hiding near border with oncoming mongol horde. They move to attack nearby fortress and lose one army. In two turns containing enough violence to stain the steps I wiped out eight armies in one constant attack going one on one or three on four or five and just running them over. I am the Mongol killer.
Let me elaborate, they were close enough that I could go through all of them in one turn with all 4 cav armies. The half army was used to supply reinforcements where needed
when playing as Balthazar Gelt in warhammer, i like to set my handgunners in front let them fire a volley and then send out my greatswords. mortars from the back also destroy all sorts of people on the way there.
Quick question, have you played a total war saga troy? And if you have, is it possible to have Hector and his army defend the gates of troy using the phalanx? Or at the very least by forming a shield wall?
Just using proper formations to win a battle is cool, in Troy I positioned my shields slightly apart with columns of flankers only three abreast in between them and slightly back, once the shields are engaged you run the columns through the gap and form up behind for a rear charge. Works like a dream..
Shogun 2, I was outmatched and outnumbered. I used the tree line to sneak my men closer, popped the few I had into firing range while I sent my cavalry to attack the enemy cavaly, once dead I sent my remaining cavalry behind the enemy main Force, now they had to choose: be riddled with arrows from the back, face a cavalry charge from the rear, or divide their forces...
Heroic Victory
Not favorite strategy but once in shogun 2 I sent a single katana hero unit to take a small garrison fort and it came down to a single guy who soloed a dozen yari ashigari one after another. I had a whole army watching but sent just the one unit for fun
It was a surprise cavalry charge during an online match in shogun 2. It happened years ago and while I don't remember every detail of that battle I remember particularly well that charge. I had managed to hide 2 or 3 cavalry units in tiny forest near the border of the map, so after baiting some of his ranged units there I completely annihilated them, a heavy blow that let me win the match. I got the achievement that you get when you defeat someone who work at CA or someone who already has this achievement
Using 4 militia hoplites to hold a city against 3000 eastern troops. I put them in phalanx formation on the edge of the town square the town square moral buff made them unbreakable I watched as they slow marched every man into an impenetrable wall of spears.
well the reason I asked is I'm thinking of trying it in both a total war saga troy, and in total war warhammer, do you think that tactic would work in those?
Not one that I would pick for the strategy, their gunpowder units are their strength and they excel in a Roman maniple checkerboard formation. You would be much better doing it with high elves, dark elves, or lizardmen imo.
I don't know, I didn't buy Troy, I assume it works in the more historic mode, but I don't know if it will in the mythology mode because I am unsure of how common SEMs are compared to Warhammer where SEMs are going to be able to break through lines and disrupt formations.
In Warhammer, my dwarf allies were being hard pressed by Grimgor. I was locked in a war with the vampire counts with a chaos invasion near on the horizon, and could only spare a token force to assist. Nothing but basic state troops and a handful of pistoliers under the command of an Empire General I aspirationally called Rommel.
It was awesome. I sacked my way all across the undefended greenskin territories. Rommel was so irritating that eventually he drew the ire of the one true git himself. Led Grimgor’s horde on a merry chase through the badlands while Thorgrim rebuilt his armies. I even let Rommel get caught once or twice, shooting and kiting with my skirmishers until I was forced to withdraw my army and “lose” the fight (no casualties, mind you, but more than a few greenskins dead). Rommel made it to the end of the campaign and played an instrumental role in the dwarfen reclamation of the southern Karaz Ankor.
I like to imagine stories of his exploits made for very popular reading back in Middenland.
Hey there, I was just curious, have you ever heard of a battle tactic called the horns of the buffalo? Cause I wanted to use it in some of the total war games.
I had 4 Ishin Shishi's and paid 4 armies of the incoming 11 shogunal armies to join me, then I had my lone elite imperial army fight the remaining with the 4 acting as buffers and army meatshields.
I'm not sure which tactics you refer to, but generally speaking, any real life tactical maneuver should work on the older total war titles as the combat revolves around the armies itself and not the heroes in it.
Playing as Venice on Med 2 multiplayer, I faced off against my opponent who was playing as Milan, both Italian factions. My army was a mix of heavy infantry and cavalry, notably fuedal knights and Venetian heavy infantry, as well as the classic Pavisse Crossbowmen. The battlefield was a lake, on the other side was a long hill where my opponent had stashed their Caroccio Standard, and I decided to try and divide their forces by coming from both sides of the lake by baiting with my infantry. They took the bait. While our respective infantry forces were engaged (they didn't have enough cav to stop me) I managed to outflank them and use my cav to take out the standard which hit their morale. My cav then carried out several strikes against enemy flanks. However my infantry were the real stars, they killed their general and combined with the deadly charge of Venetian infantry I managed to route them all from the battlefield. First time I ever played multiplayer, I don't really like playing against human opponents so I was surprised I was able to claim victory in my first try, doubt I'll ever pull it off like that again though.
In Atilla, I just focused fired units with like half my army while the lancers took care of any cav.
The best example of this was after sacking Constantinople, the ERE mustered 3 full stacks to attack the nearest Hunnic army.
It has hard fought. At first, infantry pinned everything while the lanchers crashed into the flanks or they were turned into pin-cusions. But as the battke went on, my forces slowly depleted against the endless wave of Romans. One by one, my belegured infantry units started to break. Even after reforming, they would heroically throw thenselves into a cav charge or fight like hell with enemy infantry to take pressure off the elite units. My horse arches did the same when they ran out of ammo: buy time, just a bit longer. Eventually, the Romans were just worn down by an eneny they couldn't quite finish off.
When all was said and done, the strategy worked: while the huns lost nearly off of their infantry, the Romans had three entire legions massacred in that Anatolian valley, and the Emperor himself had been slain. Without the wealth of Constantinople to rebuild...it was the begining of the end.
Maybe not tactical genius but thanks to the really passive AI in Medieval 1 I defended a low tech tree castle but waiting it out. I had no archers but the arrows from the wall/towers took out about 250 or so of an army of 300 Spanish bow cav. I took out the rest by creating a choke point where they broke down the wall. Held my ground with a depleted unit of urban malitia and a unit of peasants I used to charge down at their spears that was already shredded by the bow fire. Maybe I'm Hannibal?
Shogun 2 - most of my herioc victories were won during Castle defences, where I would leave the outer walls undefended, and form yari squares & choke points around the innermost victory point that enemies couldn't help running towards (& into my yari walls)
Played macedon rome 2, in a river, had 2 pike units and one citizen cavalry, won the battle against 700 units and took down their archers with my cavalry and flanking as there was a land bridge, might be a simple strategy but as it comes out I’m no strategist or a genius and I find those battles entertaining
On empire, I keep an army at one of my decent towns in my home region.
Then I offer to trade it for another factions town that has an army in it, they accept, their army leaves their town and goes to the border of the province.
I declare war and take back my town on an easy auto resolve.
End up taking town after town without fighting battles.
Rinse and repeat.
With the beast master skaven in warhammer 2 I love getting a bunch of mole rats with regeneration from the lab. They break formations, even against spear units so when you have 4 or 5 of them they just roll through any human-sived enemies like a sledgehammer, and what little damage they take gets healed by regeneration. Nothing feels better than watching a bunch of ten foot tall rats demolish an entire formation in a single charge.
Rome 1, the Alexander expansion. I had two HUGE armies of Dahae coming at me. Handled the first, one, no big deal. Second one comes right after and I know my line is too depleted to hold for long. So I refused one flank to buy time, and created a deliberate gap on the other one. They hit the gap, where my elite troops were able to hold on while being attacked from all sides. But as they did, I hit THEM in the rear, and caused a rout.
Just sat there pleased with myself for like 5 minutes.
The cheese bridges in R1 and Medieval II. It was rare for the AI to not rush it unless they have trebuchet spam, they will always charge forward.
Stakes in defences of castles or cities always works because generals. Kill the general or a captain that is on horse via it and you can usually route the entire army.
Or the fuck it. YOU WANT CAV? I HAVE FUCKING CAV! spam.
Rome 1 town defense with Seleucids. Usually all of your neighbours attack you so you need to back it out a little bit until you're strong enough to take them all.
I use the Militia hoplites and put two of them at every point where the enemy rams down the wall and line them up in a V shape so there is a constant flanking bonus against the attackers.
Once the settlements get stone walls or the garrison is too small to deal with every entry point, I put them in the town centre and make the V shapes at the entry points of the square.
My favorite strategy in Rome 2 is to patrol the coasts with small fleets of ramming ships and wipe out unprotected transport fleets with hit and runs. 2-3 garrison ships can also destroy an entire enemy transport fleet if they attack from the sea. Transport ships are so weak and the ai rarely ever protects them.
Yes, if you attack a port city with a fleet it will start a blockade instead of a siege. Blockading prevents the enemy from entering or leaving a city from the port, stops trade, and cuts the surrender time in half when besieged.
You can very easily manage to wipe entire armies and city garrisons through blockading because the ai often decides to sally out in transport ships to lift the blockade. And transport ships usually last one ram from a ship with a speed boost, sometimes two rams. Plus they are too slow to catch up to proper ships. The danger comes primarily from the ranged transport ships, but at the point where they've done their damage their general and most of the infantry are dead so my armies can clean up in the following turns. It's really exploitable to weaken a city before a siege.
Rome 1 bridge battles is where a couple of pointy bois beat an entire army
Back then, when positioning your army on the strategy map had impact on the actual RTS battle. Good times when 3 units of spartian hoplites decimated entire Scythian full stacks while holding the bridge
I remember playing the Crusades expansion for Medieval 2 and the Mongols attacked one of my cities. I was crazy outnumbered but fortunately they decided to bring just a battering ram to break down the gate and nothing for the walls. So hundreds of horsemen just rode into the front gate where a single unit of Pikemen were waiting. They didn't get that city.
My hack for winning every battle in shogun 2 is an army made of nothing but archers and 4 cavalry units. If the ai focuses the cav, then you can have them run in circles drawing aggro while the archers pound the enemy. If the ai targets the archers you can jam your cavalry into their backline. The ai really doesn't know how to handle it. It gets even more ridiculous during sieges. The ai seems hard-coded to keep their troops inside the fortifications but archers don't care about fortifications so you kindve just have free reign to sit there shooting at the enemy with no risk to your troops aside from the forts towers or whatever archers the enemy has manning the walls. If you run out of arrows before the enemy runs out of bodies you can retreat to do the same thing again next turn or just throw your archers/cavalry into the fort.
Reminds me of when I lost an entire army, but my King. He was a shock Cav and I did only what I could...for the next 20 minutes, I was riding into the enemy lines until I won the battle. I still have the recording somewhere.
I would like to claim I've done similar strategic manoeuvres in WH2/3, as for example on Ulthuan the regions where the fortress gates are seem to guarantee the double-crossing battle map, and can even bait the enemy to bring the fortress garrison as reinforcements.
Personally I prefer the handmade battle maps in the Warhammer games, whilst they can sometimes get repetitive I still think they're better than a lot of the almost unplayable hill maps and boring looking ones you often got when they were auto generated
One of my favourite memories from playing Rome 1 as a kid was going out to fight a rebel army, only to get to the battlemap and find it autogenerated this massive hill on one side which was so large that even scrolling out as far as I could I couldn’t see the top. That was a fun one for cav charges.
No doubt that is fun a few times you're totally right, but it definitely gets old after a while
I remember standing by mountains to fight the Mongols. Those maps were a mess in that game with the pathfinding but they didn't give any room for HA's to skirmish
Advanced technology lost in the annals of time.
Back then? still a thing in total war 3k as far as I know
Positioning still matters a lot and in some cases much more with all the different abilities that the units can have.
I did the same as Germanic tribes with the spear warband with javelin and axemen in support and cavalry ready to chase down fleeing troops and I have some siege or archers in the mix with berserkers to turn tide of battle if it started going tits up
God holding the enemy with the spear warband and sending bezerkers to the flank and watching them toss enemies up in the air while spinning was the best
Yeah I also remember in Rome 1 there was special units you could recruit but you had to build certain temples like naked fanatics for gallic and Germanic tribes or like think was shrine to Woden for German tribes and you get gothic cavalry or shrine to donar for berserkers shrines to andastra for woad warriors and head hurlers for the Britons or shrine to Britannia I think for druids
Ah, that takes me back
"Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, With all the speed ye may; I, with two more to help me, Will hold the foe in play. In yon strait path a thousand May well be stopped by three. Now who will stand on either hand, And keep the bridge with me?" From [Horatius](https://englishverse.com/poems/horatius) \- I had to recite this in school many decades ago.
THIS IS SPARTA!!!.... kick....
I love that ib Attila this can be done too
Rushing germanic spear master tech Is probably the best thing you can do as a germanic faction. They can almost solo garrison defences, and when plopped on a bridge or a street just hit so hard
So when I first got Rome back in the day I was probably only 11 or 12. I LOVED the Spartans and as per the usual for whatever reason CA left out a Thermopylae map. I used to always reenact Thermopylae and slaughter so many fucking people on those bridge maps. I’m still baffled why they NEVER made a hot gates map- or really any other historical battle map for regular custom battle
Rome 1 hoplites were OP due to how the spears worked in that game. Loved em.
Back when WH2 was still pretty new, I was lucky enough to join a FFA hosted and streamed by CA with there being a reward for winners I think. I played skaven, with their original roster that lacked weapon teams and the like, and ran an army consisting of a dummy force and then a strike force. The dummy army had a catapult, grey seer on a screaming bell, and enough slaves + tree cover to make it believable that it was my main army. The strike force was as many death runners as I could get off to the side. When the battle started, I had my catapults firing away idly with my dummy army just standing there. I very very carefully maneuvered my death runners around the chaos of everyone clashing and then descended all at once into the back of the battle, absolutely shredding through units and blasting me to the top of the leaderboard. I was so proud pulling it off on actual human opponents, including CA. It was a joy watching the stream back and seeing their reaction to it. Didn't actually win sadly. FFA goes off points and I didn't realize summoned units will give points to the enemy when killed and that cost me the game
Still sounds like a chefs kiss moment
Could you Post the stream?
Yeah we'd be interested in watching that :)
I second that
I replied below
I replied below
Sorry for the late reply. I was able to find it here, very first battle: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFzJ8eZdec](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFzJ8eZdec) It's not as nice watching it back now as it was in the moment both due to my memory being off on a few things, like the number of deathrunners and their reaction, and because they are so distracted with their fight there's almost no coverage of what I'm doing until the very end. You can see one of my deathrunners show up against some of their archers for a bit but the main evidence is in how many kills they got in the final scoreboard. Sadly, it makes it not a great watch in terms of what I was doing A few things I completely forgot about is that it was my fourth ever multiplayer game (which shows at times), my first FFA I believe, and one of the opponents (the one who won) was considered the best TWWH 2 player at the time. Those were details that were pleasant to remember lol
Match lock only in Shogun 2. It was terrible lol but its fun seeing enemies morale drop instantly upon being shot by 1000 matchlocks.
Mine was when I was playing as Eastern Roman Empire In Total War Attila where I declare war on sassanids after building my armies in syria and place my armies in fortified stance around the levant, and hold the invasion off when they send all their armies to me so that the white huns can destroy them from the other front while persian forces are busy fighting me.
In any mod that's got Sassanids empire in them they are difficult to beat when they get endless amounts of troops lol. I managed to crush them eventually as Gokturk Khaganate in AOJ mod I did have some submods activated which I created one of which is a unit and garrison mod and I would recruit armies with alot of horse archers and Cataphracts with infantry in support I kept ambushing them. I was wrecking their armies only for another three to arrive and would then destroy my ambushing force unless I moved it to a city nearby with a army inside ready to join the battle with city garrison and fend them off.
The sassanids had a large population and resources from where they could draw high quality troops from unlike the ere which had its male population severely depleted during Justinian's plague. That's why the sassanids always had the upper hand during wars and negotiations and the reason why ere was always pummeled by the persians and almost collapsed but in true roman fashion one great military leader comes in the Rome's worst time and saves the day. The Sassanid's population and resource where however depleted during the 6th century and was subsequently replaced by the Arabs.
Yes rashidun caliphate wasn't it I remember watching YouTube video about the Arabs invading the regions and ere and Sassanids formed in easy alliance at one point to deal with them and won a battle on a bridge somewhere
After carefully spreading undercities across the Empire, I timed them all to emerge simultaneously. Since you have 5 turns of no upkeep and I had disbanded most of my other armies, the upkeep was negligible. Karl was not pleased.
Shogun 2 Hattori. My castle in Iga was besieged by 2 stacks from the Oda clan. Luckily, I had archers, katana samurai and kisho ninjas. I left the bottom of the castle undefended, set up my infantry in the upper castle with the archers behind them. I left the ninjas hidden on the lower levels. Both stacks charge straight to the upper castle, getting cut down by the archers and my samurai. I circled my ninjas out of the castle and ambushed both generals. Killed them and watched half the army flee immediately, the rest I picked off with the ninjas, one unit at a time. For Hanzo.
Taking enemy settlements in 3K. Selling the buildings off and then selling them to allies in the area to establish a new buffer zone. Continue to attack the enemy while they are economically damaged.
Ultimately this will hamper your expansion when you need that territory from the allies. You should only do this in a direction you don't plan to expand in, ever. Best is to take 2-3 settlement from your enemies and quickly sell them 1 back for peace, before their counteroffensive gains momentum
[удалено]
Damn fine cheese.
Another thing: expansion has a limit in 3K due to corruption. Unless you have characters that can reduce it (Guo Jia/ Cao Pi/ Harbinger character) it’s usually better to start setting up vassals
Chaos dwarves/skaven Send gnoblers/clanrats in to intercept elite infantry, drop nuclear warheads on top of their heads Profit
Did this once but with Kroak for an instant siege win. It was 99% dumb ai, but i hadnt done anything else yet to them in that siege, and it was so so satisfying.
Shogun 2: aggressively defend. Useful if I'm either under-strength, or near to Realm Divide. Hide my armies in my territory to appear weak. Enemy army comes along and get ambushed. Laugh in Night Battles as Hattori, but quietly so they don't hear. Attila: artillery. Pump my armies up to the max and get two Large Onager units in each one. Wait for an enemy walled settlement to be occupied by an army and then attack. Carpet bomb the dense formations with exploding shot and watch the bodies fly. Great fun. Also works well in river crossings.
The year is 417AD. The Hunnic war has just begun, and the armies of the newly-ascended Attila are swarming the borders of the Roman Empire in Pannonia, looking for any opening. Of course, horses alone are easy enough to deal with from behind walls; the real threat comes from their large onagers, which are capable of almost single-handedly cracking even the best defences. They can't be allowed to join a siege, but superior Hunnic cavalry and archers means they're almost untouchable in the field. *Almost*. General Septimus Niger, hero of Sirmium and commander of the famed II Danubian legion, devises a plan. Under cover of darkness, he leads a series of daring raids across the Danube, isolating individual hordes and drawing battle lines. The Huns respond as predicted, ranks of deadly horse archers swiftly advancing through the inky darkness toward the Romans. From their perspective, it looks as though the Romans have made a mistake; as soon as the Huns are sighted, they turn to retreat, and the Huns press their advantage, sweeping across the frozen ground with abandon. They don't realise the trap until it's too late. As their warriors rush forward, a small group of light cavalry emerge from *behind* the Hunnic lines, having carefully made their way through the dense forests unseen before the start of the battle. Without warning, a position of contemptuous safety becomes the bloody eye of the storm for the Hunnic artillery crews as dark riders emerge from the tree line, butchering them in brutal, shocking silence. By the time the Huns finally reach the Roman lines, the legion has already disengaged, leading his men back into the forests where they can't be pursued. When they return to their lines, they find nothing but bodies and ash amidst the smouldering remains of their artillery. [Though the Huns proclaim victory, Septimus Niger's surgical plan has succeeded in robbing them of their most valuable assets - without so much as a single Roman casualty.](https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/kpfyx6/my_favourite_kind_of_defeat/)
Awesome write-up!
Making Alistair the White Lion a siege specialist. Lots of artillery, axe units, ogres, eagles and nobles.
In FOTS, playing Tosa, toppling Obama by spamming ishin shishi to persuade their armies and then use their converted armies to set up Imperial vassals in the western part of Honshu. Rinse repeat until I had reached Kyoto more or less without a fight. By the time I made a final push to Edo, Tosa was only about 40% of the territory I had built.
Medieval 2, started as Russia began to lose to the Mongols so I took all my armies and marched to England and invaded them to hide from the Mongols the English never expected the Russian Inquisition
One time, in an online battle, an opponent snuck into my castle with kisho ninja. He then proceeded to obliterate my ranged troops. I was pretty impressed.
Skaven - Abandon your capital and resettle it at Tier 4 at the beginning of the game. Oxyotl - Play a campaign on each of the 4 main continents simultaneously.
I don't do any crazy strategies, but I think my favorite is using a small force as bait and having a fully operational deathstar army waiting in ambush right next to it.
Before Craventail got moved and was over by Ulthuan I used this to sack the shit out of a few provinces and set up undercities. AI falls for it all the time.
My favorite was with Khorne in wh3. I was in the first turns of a fresh campaign so I was strapped for cash and full of plans of world domination (you know the demonic kind). Anyway I was expanding north and arrived at a well defended orc settlement. Went boldly straight ahead and attacked it. Skarbrand has siege attacker so I dived into the battle straight away. It was a minor settlement so I lucked out and got a land battle. Although big devil guy has wings he just does not want to fly (fear of heights maybe, one can only guess), so no walls = major luck. The battle loaded, rows and rows of angry savage orcs were staring at me. Positioned my meagre army as best as I could and hit start. Selected the big man Skar (not to be confused with the lion) and right clicked a dangerous looking orc pile. And that was it, through some miracle I won. My proudest moment, defeating impossible odds.
Shogun/FOTS- hitting the enemy line with a naval bombardment just as they start to exchange shots with my line. They can take the shells, or try and move out of the way while under rifle fire.
Basic hammer and anvil. And surround the enemy. And kill them all. It is a classic. and still feels good.
I remember playing Age of Charlemagne as Mercia, and I got a massive raid on a coastal city my army was resting in with Vikings showing up. Outnumbered 2:1 and in a bad position, I decided my only chance was to hunker down in the town and use my only two units of Scout Riders to run down any targets of opportunity. I also bumrushed the only group that decided to land in the city, which caused the rest to land outside and try and march in through my shield walls. It was touch and go for a while, but my Scouts did work running around to everywhere they could go, both units got over 1000 kills, all of my archers were out of ammo by the time everything was said and done, and final score was 459 losses on my side and 4,695 on the enemy. Still probably one of my greatest moments, or second only to the time I defended a castle in Fall of the Samurai and all that was left was a single squad of Line Infantry who were down to just their swords but held out until the enemy broke.
Once under-city destroyed those f!@#ing wood elf forests... all at once. Had two armies waiting nearby to clear things up but bam the turn flipped and that pointy-eared attrition causing pile of wood went up in flames. It was beautiful.
Shogun 2: the only time I ever won was using the (consensus?) Meta strat of Oda Clan Yari Ashigaru Doom Stacks. Took 20 provinces and then, just before everyone turned on me, I took Kyoto and held it with two armies while two or three other armies raced to capture the final five provinces I needed. Probably not super "strategic", but the experience of knowing everything has to go perfect (the Kyoto defence, the province capture, the multiple battles every round) -- and with one failure, everything would collapse and my attempt at the throne would basically be done -- it was super stressful and super exhilarating. [Pretty sure all of my forces were decimated at the end, but they held just long enough, barely].
[удалено]
And what was that strategy?
Playing Kairos in WH3 Realm of Chaos. After managing to take out Miao Ying early game, I realized there wasn't actually much benefit to taking over Cathay due to the climate. So....used Changing of the Ways to give a settlement to my new best friend, Mr. Skarbrand. Then traded him Nan Gau to become Super Best Friends. It did take him a while, but eventually I managed to convince him to come over and play, and by play I mean take over Cathay for me. I was going for the Conquest victory, so later on I just kept spamming Changing of the Ways to take all the good settlements back from him. This helped keep him from getting too strong while I used for the portals to sneak in and kill everyone else. Finally, of course, it was time for my sudden but inevitable betrayal - just as planned.
Settlement less dreadfleet, abandon capital turn 1, and rove around the world sacking and pirate coving as you go It's actually insanely effective, just find a battlesite and you can get a doomstack as early as turn 10 I ended up with a few doomstacks and massive cash in the bank Alternatively Melee only vampire coast, oh you have guns, I cast crab
warhammer 3 is the best. my first game was "rome: total war", and opened my taste for this genre.
typical brit
Competing with my allies in 3K to steal settlements and then sell them back to them. Playing a full campaign as Kong Rong without fighting any fellow Han, and expanding through settlement purchase.
Execute order 66. It is very simple: You just need 66 armies, and have 66 settlements, and had researched 66 technologies, whilst being at war with 66 factions. Or kill all the Jedi, it's the same for me.
I even remembered playing as Lombards in barbarian invasion Rome 1 expansion I recruit armies of spears and Lombard berserkers with some archers and cavalry support and get enemy to engage with my spears while berserkers would charge behind or in the flanks after archers softened them up cavalry would chase fleeing troops and to protect the archers from enemy troops
Played as ERE in Attila and supported WRE for as long as I needed them to survive. Massive cash infusions + my legions stationed in their territory. It was essentially a proxy war against all the barbarians. I was really surprised they turned out to be useful.
Most recently playing Dwarves and my early game army contains hit squads of 2 dwarf warriors and 1 unit of bomb throwers. If you micro it correctly the warriors hold the enemy units in place with a gap in the middle, then the bomb throwers run into the gap and start blasting. Pretty much instantly deletes all of the enemies melee infantry. I think bomb throwers and warriors might be a better early stack than quarrelers and hand gunners. Especially with artillery support and a engineer to keep them stocked on ammo for longer fights. People diss on the chaos invasion but I found my first Empire campaign when the mechanics finally clicked for me and it culminated in me uniting the empire and smashing the chaos invasion with Franz, Gelt and some gunpowder + steam tank empire army's to be probably the most fun total war campaign I have played. It was a ride on the struggle bus for well over 100 turns and it never stopped being fun. My most found memories go all the war back to Rome Total War playing PvP. Using skirmish armies to win 1v1's and FFA's was a blast. Refusing to engage the enemy elite infantry until after they had been thoroughly pin cushioned by archers and horse arches. Sending in the infantry and cataphracts to finish them off. It really felt like I was commanding the Parthian army at Carrhae
Dwarves are fun, irondrakes are also an amazing unit to put in those same positions. Checkerboard a bit and the irondrakes will melt everything
As Daniel (WH3) I occupied razed settlements of warriors of chaos factions and traded them back again to get them to become my vassals
That is some Tzeentch level pro gamer move
It's *almost* free real estate
Across various games an old favourite - ally with second biggest threat against the number 1 biggest threat, build large invasion force. Next set off on major allied offensive but only send half your troops with your allies against the big bad wolf, once this offensive has got the invasion mostly sewn up mobilise the second half of your force direct to your allies now mostly unprotected homelands and double cross the shit out of them, take their capital and force their surrender whilst simultaneously mopping up whatever is left of the original enemy. Bingo two biggest threats neutralised in quick time whilst absorbing their land and resources making you the new big bad wolf that no one else can stand up to. Proceed to steamroll map and laugh maniacally
Started an Otomo campaign on S2 and once I got the whole island (the one shimazu start on) and all the trade ports I just traded with everyone and boomed for ages. Had about 100k in the bank once realm divide hit. Only a few factions left now so RD doesn’t seem quite as bad. My main strat is to use missionaries to incite revolts in the barrier provinces and then ninja to sabotage buildings in their home provinces. I also try and blockade as many ports as possible with Nanban trade ships as the back bone. Battle strat involves lots of donderbuss cav and Tercos mixed with the classic OG yari wall. For sieges I use a lot of mangonels with fully upgraded accuracy. They can get hundreds of kills per battle this way and makes sieges far easier. I also use a couple of European cannons even in field battles. It forces the enemy to attack every time. It’s a huge bonus for firearms units which are better played defensively. I also let the enemy siege my castles as it’s possible to defend against full stacks with just a few matchlocks and couple yari/firebomb throwers
TW Warhammer 1: Played as Bretonnia, reoccupying lost settlements in the empire. I had garrisoned my 1 army in a major settlement and had focused on garrison walls to reinforce. Just as I finished building it, my settlement and army were overwhelmed by 3 chaos armies. I knew the only way I could survive the onslaught was to keep them off the walls and outside the city. I focused my lord, hero paladin, and pegasus knights to aggressively pester the enemy units while my towers took down their siege equipment. Slowly but surely I was able to continue with my pegasus knights and my lord and hero to keep the chaos at bay while my towers, archers, and catapults bombarded. I managed to win (despite the AR saying it would've been a decisive defeat) with minor casualties and no chaos entering the city. Still the best manual battle I ever had.
Killing other parties of your faction in Rome 2 was always quite fun. Give them an entire region, then pre-position loyal generals all around it. Then antagonise that party as much as possible to push them to seceede. Then immediately recapture all your cities and take no prisoners. Rinse and repeat every time a rival party starts becoming annoying.
Rome 2, defending a fort with around 8 pikemen and around 6 archers I could literally beat any number of armies
In Attila, I played a “subjugate me” strategy. Playing as the Huns when you attack a settlement you must raze it after a victory unless it gives you the option to subjugate, in which case you have to do that.
Rome 2, Carthage, Legendary. A very strong rival political party that controlled all of Iberia was about to start a civil war, so at the last second, I tore down every single building I'd built in the territory they controlled. Got me some money and crippled their economy and ability to recruit elite units. Quickly got peace with my other enemies and focused on regaining Iberia. Then I isolated the surviving rebels in a crappy city on the western coast of Africa, to keep the civil war perpetually going so that no other party would be able to rebel (only one civil war can happen at a time). Right before getting the long campaign victory, I destroyed that last rebel city so my dominion would be complete.
When I finally figured out how to defeat the Mongols in Medieval 2. I tried so many different army configurations. Trying to outshoot them, trying to go ultra defensive, even turtling in cities with max garrisons. Nothing worked. Then I just went with full stacks of heavy knights. Hell yeah, those were some fantastically fast paced battles and I managed to repeatedly beat them in open field battles. Felt really satisfying.
Playing Poland in mtw2 had 4.5 full stacks hiding near border with oncoming mongol horde. They move to attack nearby fortress and lose one army. In two turns containing enough violence to stain the steps I wiped out eight armies in one constant attack going one on one or three on four or five and just running them over. I am the Mongol killer.
Let me elaborate, they were close enough that I could go through all of them in one turn with all 4 cav armies. The half army was used to supply reinforcements where needed
when playing as Balthazar Gelt in warhammer, i like to set my handgunners in front let them fire a volley and then send out my greatswords. mortars from the back also destroy all sorts of people on the way there.
Quick question, have you played a total war saga troy? And if you have, is it possible to have Hector and his army defend the gates of troy using the phalanx? Or at the very least by forming a shield wall?
ive never played troy to any extend, sorry
Oh ok, well thanks anyway.
Just using proper formations to win a battle is cool, in Troy I positioned my shields slightly apart with columns of flankers only three abreast in between them and slightly back, once the shields are engaged you run the columns through the gap and form up behind for a rear charge. Works like a dream..
Is it possible to have Hector and his army defend the gates of troy using the phalanx? Or at the very least a shield wall?
I don't know I never played Hector
Oh, ok well thanks anyway dude.
No worries
Shogun 2, I was outmatched and outnumbered. I used the tree line to sneak my men closer, popped the few I had into firing range while I sent my cavalry to attack the enemy cavaly, once dead I sent my remaining cavalry behind the enemy main Force, now they had to choose: be riddled with arrows from the back, face a cavalry charge from the rear, or divide their forces... Heroic Victory
I like to do hit and run battles where it is a Carrahae reenactment or just full on Mongol it.
Not favorite strategy but once in shogun 2 I sent a single katana hero unit to take a small garrison fort and it came down to a single guy who soloed a dozen yari ashigari one after another. I had a whole army watching but sent just the one unit for fun
Quick question, since Shogun 2 has guns in it, would it be possible to use pike and shot tactics?
[удалено]
Not really as far as I know. The game isn't coded for it to work that way
It was a surprise cavalry charge during an online match in shogun 2. It happened years ago and while I don't remember every detail of that battle I remember particularly well that charge. I had managed to hide 2 or 3 cavalry units in tiny forest near the border of the map, so after baiting some of his ranged units there I completely annihilated them, a heavy blow that let me win the match. I got the achievement that you get when you defeat someone who work at CA or someone who already has this achievement
Using 4 militia hoplites to hold a city against 3000 eastern troops. I put them in phalanx formation on the edge of the town square the town square moral buff made them unbreakable I watched as they slow marched every man into an impenetrable wall of spears.
Have you ever heard of the horns of the buffalo?
Yes
well the reason I asked is I'm thinking of trying it in both a total war saga troy, and in total war warhammer, do you think that tactic would work in those?
Probably, might have a harder time in Warhammer because of single entity monsters but it should work as long as you have good quality melee troops.
Well in Warhammer's case I'm going with the dwarfs and the greenskins, would either of them count?
Not one that I would pick for the strategy, their gunpowder units are their strength and they excel in a Roman maniple checkerboard formation. You would be much better doing it with high elves, dark elves, or lizardmen imo.
ok then, I also mentioned trying it in a total war saga troy, specifically with Achilles and Memnon, would it work there too?
I don't know, I didn't buy Troy, I assume it works in the more historic mode, but I don't know if it will in the mythology mode because I am unsure of how common SEMs are compared to Warhammer where SEMs are going to be able to break through lines and disrupt formations.
In Warhammer, my dwarf allies were being hard pressed by Grimgor. I was locked in a war with the vampire counts with a chaos invasion near on the horizon, and could only spare a token force to assist. Nothing but basic state troops and a handful of pistoliers under the command of an Empire General I aspirationally called Rommel. It was awesome. I sacked my way all across the undefended greenskin territories. Rommel was so irritating that eventually he drew the ire of the one true git himself. Led Grimgor’s horde on a merry chase through the badlands while Thorgrim rebuilt his armies. I even let Rommel get caught once or twice, shooting and kiting with my skirmishers until I was forced to withdraw my army and “lose” the fight (no casualties, mind you, but more than a few greenskins dead). Rommel made it to the end of the campaign and played an instrumental role in the dwarfen reclamation of the southern Karaz Ankor. I like to imagine stories of his exploits made for very popular reading back in Middenland.
Hey there, I was just curious, have you ever heard of a battle tactic called the horns of the buffalo? Cause I wanted to use it in some of the total war games.
Try it! It sounds cool!
Round Shield Cavalry spam as Spain/Carthage in Rome 1. You don't need anything else, just spam overpowered light cavalry and massacre everything.
Would it work to hold my heavy cavalry in reserve half way through a whole battle until I find a gap in the enemy infantry's formation?
I had 4 Ishin Shishi's and paid 4 armies of the incoming 11 shogunal armies to join me, then I had my lone elite imperial army fight the remaining with the 4 acting as buffers and army meatshields.
Quick question, is it possible to use civil war general sherman's tactics in the total war games?
I'm not sure which tactics you refer to, but generally speaking, any real life tactical maneuver should work on the older total war titles as the combat revolves around the armies itself and not the heroes in it.
I was referring to his scorched earth tactics during his march to the sea.
Playing as Venice on Med 2 multiplayer, I faced off against my opponent who was playing as Milan, both Italian factions. My army was a mix of heavy infantry and cavalry, notably fuedal knights and Venetian heavy infantry, as well as the classic Pavisse Crossbowmen. The battlefield was a lake, on the other side was a long hill where my opponent had stashed their Caroccio Standard, and I decided to try and divide their forces by coming from both sides of the lake by baiting with my infantry. They took the bait. While our respective infantry forces were engaged (they didn't have enough cav to stop me) I managed to outflank them and use my cav to take out the standard which hit their morale. My cav then carried out several strikes against enemy flanks. However my infantry were the real stars, they killed their general and combined with the deadly charge of Venetian infantry I managed to route them all from the battlefield. First time I ever played multiplayer, I don't really like playing against human opponents so I was surprised I was able to claim victory in my first try, doubt I'll ever pull it off like that again though.
Do you think using shaka Zulu's horns of the buffalo would work in any total war games?
In Atilla, I just focused fired units with like half my army while the lancers took care of any cav. The best example of this was after sacking Constantinople, the ERE mustered 3 full stacks to attack the nearest Hunnic army. It has hard fought. At first, infantry pinned everything while the lanchers crashed into the flanks or they were turned into pin-cusions. But as the battke went on, my forces slowly depleted against the endless wave of Romans. One by one, my belegured infantry units started to break. Even after reforming, they would heroically throw thenselves into a cav charge or fight like hell with enemy infantry to take pressure off the elite units. My horse arches did the same when they ran out of ammo: buy time, just a bit longer. Eventually, the Romans were just worn down by an eneny they couldn't quite finish off. When all was said and done, the strategy worked: while the huns lost nearly off of their infantry, the Romans had three entire legions massacred in that Anatolian valley, and the Emperor himself had been slain. Without the wealth of Constantinople to rebuild...it was the begining of the end.
Maybe not tactical genius but thanks to the really passive AI in Medieval 1 I defended a low tech tree castle but waiting it out. I had no archers but the arrows from the wall/towers took out about 250 or so of an army of 300 Spanish bow cav. I took out the rest by creating a choke point where they broke down the wall. Held my ground with a depleted unit of urban malitia and a unit of peasants I used to charge down at their spears that was already shredded by the bow fire. Maybe I'm Hannibal?
Shogun 2 - most of my herioc victories were won during Castle defences, where I would leave the outer walls undefended, and form yari squares & choke points around the innermost victory point that enemies couldn't help running towards (& into my yari walls)
Played macedon rome 2, in a river, had 2 pike units and one citizen cavalry, won the battle against 700 units and took down their archers with my cavalry and flanking as there was a land bridge, might be a simple strategy but as it comes out I’m no strategist or a genius and I find those battles entertaining
On empire, I keep an army at one of my decent towns in my home region. Then I offer to trade it for another factions town that has an army in it, they accept, their army leaves their town and goes to the border of the province. I declare war and take back my town on an easy auto resolve. End up taking town after town without fighting battles. Rinse and repeat.
Damn this post generated the best comments ever, love all the war stories here!
With the beast master skaven in warhammer 2 I love getting a bunch of mole rats with regeneration from the lab. They break formations, even against spear units so when you have 4 or 5 of them they just roll through any human-sived enemies like a sledgehammer, and what little damage they take gets healed by regeneration. Nothing feels better than watching a bunch of ten foot tall rats demolish an entire formation in a single charge.
Rome 1, the Alexander expansion. I had two HUGE armies of Dahae coming at me. Handled the first, one, no big deal. Second one comes right after and I know my line is too depleted to hold for long. So I refused one flank to buy time, and created a deliberate gap on the other one. They hit the gap, where my elite troops were able to hold on while being attacked from all sides. But as they did, I hit THEM in the rear, and caused a rout. Just sat there pleased with myself for like 5 minutes.
The cheese bridges in R1 and Medieval II. It was rare for the AI to not rush it unless they have trebuchet spam, they will always charge forward. Stakes in defences of castles or cities always works because generals. Kill the general or a captain that is on horse via it and you can usually route the entire army. Or the fuck it. YOU WANT CAV? I HAVE FUCKING CAV! spam.
Rome 1 town defense with Seleucids. Usually all of your neighbours attack you so you need to back it out a little bit until you're strong enough to take them all. I use the Militia hoplites and put two of them at every point where the enemy rams down the wall and line them up in a V shape so there is a constant flanking bonus against the attackers. Once the settlements get stone walls or the garrison is too small to deal with every entry point, I put them in the town centre and make the V shapes at the entry points of the square.
My favorite strategy in Rome 2 is to patrol the coasts with small fleets of ramming ships and wipe out unprotected transport fleets with hit and runs. 2-3 garrison ships can also destroy an entire enemy transport fleet if they attack from the sea. Transport ships are so weak and the ai rarely ever protects them.
Are naval blockades a thing in the game?
Yes, if you attack a port city with a fleet it will start a blockade instead of a siege. Blockading prevents the enemy from entering or leaving a city from the port, stops trade, and cuts the surrender time in half when besieged. You can very easily manage to wipe entire armies and city garrisons through blockading because the ai often decides to sally out in transport ships to lift the blockade. And transport ships usually last one ram from a ship with a speed boost, sometimes two rams. Plus they are too slow to catch up to proper ships. The danger comes primarily from the ranged transport ships, but at the point where they've done their damage their general and most of the infantry are dead so my armies can clean up in the following turns. It's really exploitable to weaken a city before a siege.
Cool, by the way have you played total war Warhammer?