I’m trying to understand why I keep getting smashed by the opposing side. I have an army of 700. Personally, I have 125 units, mostly tier 3 and above. The rest of the army, I’m not so sure about
Is it purely because they have a ton of cavalry and I have half of theirs? I believe I have 30 cavalry, they have 60ish. I’m having my cavalry follow me and try and keep theirs from getting to my troops.
Any tips?
Posted Feb 22, 2023, 7:54 PM UTC
You could be pushing too far and getting overwhelmed by reinforcements, or just using bad tactics overall. The rest of the army could be mostly recruits.
Is there anywhere I can learn not bad tactics? I have my infantry in front of archers and I stagger when I order engagement. Both are set up in line formations
You can look up best tactics and formations on youtube. Strat gaming has videos on it. Personally I do infantry in a 2 man deep shield wall in the front, archers loose formation behind and on high ground if available, cavalry on both flanks, and horse archers on right flank. When enemy infantry get to my line I put my infantry in line formation and tell them to charge. I charge my cavalry from the flanks. Pull everyone back once enemy wave is defeated. Holding archer fire until enemies are 115 meters away is also helpful to avoid wasting ammo. Avoid using bad units (strat gaming also has videos on unit performance).
Thanks, I’ll watch some vids when I get home. Your formation advice is the same as the other users, so that checks out for me
I’m still playing Warband where I would solo armies pretty much by myself and haven’t adjusted to using REAL tactics in Bannerlord lol
Shield wall, flank from the side with cavalry, only charge when you have numbers advantage and then reset to shield wall unless you want a war of attrition.
I'd have the infantry in a shield wall formation so they soak up all the arrows and have the archers in a loose formation keep the cav in reserve until they charge theirs then send them
So, dumb question, do infantry not shield themselves against arrows?
They do but only once the first arrow has already landed and they only raise the shield they have temporarily but in a sheild wall its constantly up so they have a higher chance of surviving till they get to the enemy
Just to make sure, try to do this battle but when the fight start, ask everyone to delegate to sergeants. If you win, it might be because of your tactics
If im stuck against a large number of calvary, i just use the basics. Front line shield wall, archers in the back and give command to Sargents for calvary. They always split the group into two to cover flanks. You kinda have to hope your infantry can hold it together while you crush as many enemies as possible yourself.
If you are on PC, get RTS Camera mod. Quick overview of what is happening is amazing.
Now, focus infantry into shieldwall in front of your archers and F1 F3 them when they are about to get engaged on, keep archers in line or loose formation, wide enough so that they all are shooting, if they are about to get engaged on, see if you have a way to save them (some other line of infantry or anything that can take the preddure off them), otherwise tell them to charge, they are better with their AI this way rather than being picked off 1 by 1 by shielded infantry, let your horse archers do their thing with F6, take cav to follow you and ride sideways through enemy archers and at the back of enemy infantry...
additionally before engage save and see how autoresolve does fare... if autoresolve wins, then do that and forget about the long paragraph...
Quality of troops matter a lot. You might have 200 good units but the rest being low tier won't cut it against a seasoned 500+ army. You can still win battles that are uneven though, it will just be difficult.
The best strat is usually to have archers on loose formation and infantry shield wall to protect. Cav can charge once the enemy engages. Horse archers delegate command and let them do their own thing. Once the enemy breaks and starts fleeing, you can either all charge and clean house OR reform your lines and call back your Cav to get ready for another wave.
Yeah, I ran it yesterday and I think it’s a low tier unit issue. I’m gonna give it another shot tonight, the issue I’m facing on this particular battlefield is that it’s a valley, so I can’t maneuver my cav without getting pelted by arrows early.
Shield walls helped slow the bleeding
I’m basically some guy but I’m confident in my strategy skills. First off the way I see you speaking about this makes me think you are in a joint battle and not in control of all 700 units? If this is the case I recommend staying back and focusing on tactics. Typical infantry shield wall archers put somewhere higher up but close enough to help in the battle. If you have ranged cavalry I suggest you let them do their thing. If you have regular cavalry I recommend having the cavalry follow you and do regular assaults on the enemy archers and back line infantry (basically cav charge archers and pick off any infantry freshly spawning in or just flat out attack the rear when the enemy engages your infantry) as for what to do with enemy cavalry like horse archers and regular cavalry, I recommend skirmishing but specifically not sticking around long enough to get hit. Cavalry is best used for flanking and quick hits. Also if the soldiers suck then I recommend holding YOUR position. If this is a team fight then let the lords do their thing and wait in spawn with a devilish formation. Have the infantry spread out (2 men Columns spread out in a line) and have them in shield wall formation. Behind the infantry would hopefully be a higher position for archers to sit and fire arrows. Keep them there, and while the other lords fight you will send out your horse archers to battle and pick off enemies and you will roll out with the cav to attack other groups of cavalry or pick off enemies or attack the archer lines.
Now if you are attacking I forbid you from just having all units charge. Have a shield wall formation and use the move to position command to organize positions and troops in the field. (Defending AI rarely attacks while playing defense) once you like your setup I recommend having the infantry charge to the enemy and do hit and runs with the cav. I forgot to mention that while doing all of this your horse archers should be picking off enemies already.
Good luck.
Joint battles are horrible ... Im just gonna advance towards the enemy out of formation and I want you to skirmish freely
Yeah, I avoid joint battles unless I need to rescue a dipshit companion that thought it was a good idea to join the army.