Defensive Strategy
This strategy only works with relatively slow armies, or armies with only a few mounted characters. This strategy will not work against armies with high firepower either.
For the defensive strategy you will need to take a good selection of troops. Most of your units should have ranged attacks eg. magic spells or bows. Therefore one or two knight units (doesn't matter what kind), one or two men-at-arms units (again, doesn't matter), a few units with bows, such as bowmen or squires, and a couple of spellcasters.
What to do:
Hold back! Because your opponent has very little firepower they will have to move right up to you in order to attack you. As his/her army moves towards you, shoot at them with any units of yours that have taken bows. Cast your magic at them if it's suitable as well.
Try to kill the unit or model which poses the most threat to your troops. This model might be a mounted character who will reach you fairly quickly, or a character with magic spells who can attack your troops from a distance.
When your opponent's troops come within charging range of your knights: charge at him. Try to leave this for as long as possible so that you get more shots with your bowmen or squires.
Men-at-arms should also be held back and can then be used to hold up an enemy unit for a few turns if the knights are busy. Alternatively they could charge enemy units along with the knights.
This strategy works well against most other armies, with some fast moving troops, some slower moving troops, and some archers.
Your army should have more faster moving units but still keep ranged weapons/spells. Do not get rid of all of the infantry though because men-at-arms, for instance, can be used as cannon fodder, to protect your flanks, or just to hold up smaller units and maybe kill a few of them before they themselves get killed.
If you are intending to use the men-at-arms as cannon fodder you should try not to spend too many points on them. Do not give them champions, standard bearers or musicians unless you have to, because they will just get killed.
Archers and spellcasters can be placed behind the other troops on top of hills to provide much needed extra firepower. If you can kill just one enemy soldier per turn, with the archers, your opponent will have slightly less chance of killing a knight. Of course if you can kill more than one or two enemy soldiers per turn that is even better!
Move your knights towards the enemy relatively quickly so that they can start fighting before they have received too many wounds from enemy bowfire/cannon fire. In order to protect your knights from some of the enemies ranged weapons place your men-at-arms in front of the knights this slows progress down because the men-at-arms move at half the speed of the knights. When the men-at-arms reach the enemy line they can hack away for a few turns, hopefully killing a few enemy soldiers. When all of the men-at-arms are dead charge your knights into the remains of the enemy and finish them off.
This page
was last updated on:
24-Apr-2003