Re: (Very) Basic Battle Tactics
 

Doh! Yep, missing the obvious. Thanks for the clue.

Re: (Very) Basic Battle Tactics
 

Chaff is not just for lances, of course. It will suck up a few volleys of all kinds of damage, from lances to crossbow fire to shadow blasts. And because it's so weak and vulnerable, mages like to target it. When you get larger and larger army groups, it's sometimes much easier to stick a line of chaff in the front than try to use shielded archer decoys with tricky battle orders.

Re: (Very) Basic Battle Tactics
 

It's easier but much more costly. Tactics mentioned above are not for those who just want to win at any cost, they're mostly for those who want to win with minimal causalities.

Re: (Very) Basic Battle Tactics
 

It's not much more costly if you are using freespawn or very cheap units, if doing so eats (for example) a shadow blast that would otherwise have caused significant casualties to a group of expensive units.

Re: (Very) Basic Battle Tactics
 

No doubt that it is worth the cost in case of deflecting shadow blasts or other area spells. But, in my opinion, counting chaff as "easily expendable" is a mistake. No troop is expendable unless it eats a lot of upkeep.
For example, maenads are decent troops that cost no upkeep and thus are (and that is not obvious!) more valuable than, say, satyrs or regular infantry. If you plan to have losses, upkeep cost is a serious factor to take into account when thinking what to use as a arrow\spell decoy.
Also, later in the game with many buffs in serious battles initial quality of troops means much less than in the beginning, and if you managed to keep enough "worthless free chaff" alive, it will help you much.

Re: (Very) Basic Battle Tactics
 

@ano: You're most welcome! Giving new ideas to any regulars was not something I had counted on... hoped for, but not counted on. :D As for HaA-C rather than GC orders on Archer decoys: You're absolutely correct, but it's my habit to use a commander with a shield and by the time arrows would be raining down around him, the archers are usually on my side of the field and sorrounded by my forces. I assumed that everyone would use shielded commanders... :doh:

@Panpiper: That's my :doh:. Thought I got all the abbreviations. Thanks for pointing that out and I'll fix the omission.

@OmikronWarrior: Exceptionally salient points; I'd just copy and paste your post into the original post if I didn't hate needless duplication of data. I'll definitely refer readers to your post, though.

@Taqwus: The point of lance absorbing is well taken (a great use for Markata). I'll throw in a final thought about taking on heavy calvary that includes this. Thanks!

Which brings me to why I'm posting this before I make any changes... How many times can I edit the Original Post?

Re: (Very) Basic Battle Tactics
 

You're not limited in it.
The problem here is that early on you don't want to recruit commanders in your capital because you need mages, priests and whoever else. Later, when you can recruit indy shielded commanders, you should of course use them. Frankly speaking I always knew about GC trick but rarely used it because two decoys with HaA-C orders worked quite fine. Probably, I'll start using it more because it may be efficient indeed.

p.s. I rarely say a guide is excellent. This one is, imho. And it can be developed:)

Re: (Very) Basic Battle Tactics
 

No limit.

For posts that aren't the first in a thread, there are no editing limits. Without it, guides, mod threads and similar would be pretty much impossible.

Non-first posts close after a certain time, about 20 minutes I think.