Guide: (Very) Basic Battle Tactics

[Raiel]

Basic Battle Tactics

This post is intended to be a compilation of strategies and ideas that new players will find helpful when setting up armies. The focus is on matching up mundane forces against independents, as is common in the first few turns (or more) of most games.

Very few, if any, of these ideas are "original". Most have been gleaned from posts by the very generous and insightful veterans of this forum. I am NOT taking credit for these ideas, merely trying to string them all together and put them in one place for new players to reference. To the vets that have contributed the strategies: Thank you and please accept my apologies for not naming each of you!


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Abbreviations:

HaA-C = Hold and Attack Closest
HaA-R = Hold and Attack Rear
HaA-A = Hold and Attack Archers
A-C = Attack Closest
A-R = Attack Rear
A-A = Attack Archers
F-C = Fire Closest
GC = Gaurd Commander

SBT = Stay Behind Troops


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Setting up a basic Army consists of four major decisions:

* Group Composition
"What type of unit will fill this group?"
Consider carefully the points made by OmikronWarrior in post #7 of this thread when choosing which units to recruit.

* Group Size
Not just "How many units are in a group?", but also "How many squares, or portions of a single square, does this group fill?"

* Group Placement
"Where will this group start in relation to the rest of my army?"

* Group Orders
"What do I want this group to do?"


Different combinations will yield groups designed for different roles:

Line Holders are generally large groups (five squares or more) of good protection and/or good defense units. The higher the hit points and morale of the units in this group, the longer they will hold against the enemy. They will normally be placed "Front and Center" or behind Decoys. HaA-C, F-C, and A-C may all be legitimate orders for Line Holders. (But note that any Fire order will risk group cohesion; each unit will choose its own unit target in the target group.)

Attack Squads are small groups (five squares or less) of melee-damage dealers. Attack squads should be placed in a line that will allow them to envelope the main force of the enemy with orders to: HaA-C, F-C, or A-C. Because of their small size, these groups will not "bunch up" against the enemy if they are properly deployed.

Flankers are either small or medium groups of units placed off-center of the main forces with orders to A-R, A-A, HaA-R or HaA-A.

Decoys are small groups meant to hold the attention of enemy groups in an effort to minimize damage received or maximize damage dealt to the enemy by controlling their movement on the battlefield. Place these groups so they will be closer to all of the enemy forces than the rest of your army. Orders should be HaA-C for stationary Decoys. Non-stationary Decoy groups should be given orders of GC and be capable of moving at least as fast as the enemies chasing them.

Archer Decoys should have shields, if possible, and have 5 or more units in the group. If they do not have shields, consider using a single (size 2) unit and moving your whole force further back; at long range it's square will be missed by most archers and the few accurate shots will still have a 66% chance of missing (since only 2 out of 6 'spaces' in the square are occupied). Give this group orders to HaA-C or GC if the commander has adequate defense against incoming arrows (armor/shield or Air Shield). Place them so they will be closer to all of the enemy forces than the rest of your army. Archer decoys should be given a wide berth by the rest of your forces, both in initial placement and on the path to Guard their Commander, so stray shots don't inflict damage to other groups. Finally, morale may be more important than a shield, as an Archer Decoy that routes becomes a major liability.

Pin Cushions are groups of cheap, easily replaced units with the sole purpose of taking damage that would otherwise be dealt to (much) more valuable units. Size and placement may vary greatly in response to the anticipated enemy forces.

Archers shoot. Really. Just throwin' that out there.


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Battle Plans:

Archer Pull

Place your commander in the middle and very back of the field with orders: Holdx5-SBT. Place an Archer Decoy with GC orders in the middle of the field, just a little forward of center. Place Line Holders or Attack Squads on one side and to the rear of the Archer Decoy. Place Flankers far to the other side and to the rear of the Archer Decoy; give one flank orders to A-C or HaA-C while giving the other flank orders to A-A or HaA-A.

Bait-And-Switch (Against Light Infantry)

Mimic the Archer Pull in every way but one: Rather than Flankers, use javelin-equipped Attack Squads or Line Holders, and set every group but the decoy to F-C. Enemy javelins will never be thrown, but yours will...

Left (Or Right) Draw

Pick a side you want to draw the enemy toward. Place your commander on the chosen "draw" side at the very back with orders: Holdx5-SBT. Place a (fast) Decoy toward the front-middle with GC orders. Place a Line Holder in the center with HaA-C or in the middle back area with F-C. Place Flankers or Attack Squads opposite of the chosen "draw" side, about half-way forward from the middle. Note that this plan usually breaks up the enemy's formation and spreads them out in a bit of a line, leaving them less vulnerable to missile fire. Thus, orders of F-C to any non-archer units are often less than optimal.

Gauntlet

Place your commander in the middle and very back of the field with orders: Holdx5-SBT. Place a Decoy with GC orders in the middle of the field, very close to (or at) the front. Place Line Holders with HaA-C orders behind and on both sides of the Decoy, leaving enough room for the entire enemy force to (hopefully) pass between them. Archers may be used instead of Line Holders, but if the Decoy breaks or somehow loses the attention of the enemy the results will be... unpleasant.

Wait-For-It

The purpose of this plan is to give your units the first melee attack; it can take much practice to use successfully on different independent enemy types. Estimate how far the defenders will have advanced in 3 turns (a little more than half-way across your side of the field for Heavy Calvary), and place your line holders just out of reach with orders to HaA-C. Place Attack Squads with HaA-C to the left and right of your Line Holders to help envelope the enemy. If the enemy has Archers, place Flankers with orders to HaA-A on the far side(s) of the field.

Sacrifice

A plan based on the concept that a pyrrhic victory is better than no victory at all. Use a Wait-For-It or Draw setup with the addition of a Pin Cushion group in the path of the enemy. Especially useful against any units using a variety of lance, as lances get a one-time bonus to their first attack that can often kill even the most expensive unit. Don't forget to take into account the auto-route (75% HP loss) rule.

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Closing Thoughts:

The plans above, if applied against the correct unit types and deployed carefully, will usually win with minimal casualties against similar numbers and quality of independent units. But something should be mentioned about the DRN (Dominions Random Number)... it is the Great Demon Murphy dice-incarnate. When (not if) your high-morale Archer Decoy routes it will probably leave you in a nasty situation. I warned you.

Archers have their place in any of the above plans. Just be sure to keep them out of the path of your decoys and they make excellent force multipliers (unless your own units lack shields).

These strategies need serious tweaking when used on the defensive; you take the first turn, which may change placement and what units get selected as targets by the enemy forces.

Finally, the lack of plans to use against Elephants is glaring, but I've never found a mundane, available-to-all plan that reliably countered them with less than 20% losses. They make me angry.

Good luck!

[Akela]

Awesome! A great place to start, thank you!

[ano]

Very nice guide and many bright thoughts indeed. Thanks a lot, Raiel.
I knew most of these tricks and some others as well, of course, but, frankly speaking, I spent about two hours today planning and testing a hard turn-2 battle with indies with much inferior force. And it was a few hours before now when I found out (my friend said what I never knew) how to make enemy light infantry never throw javelins. If I didn't find a solution, I would probably think of remaking my turn now, after reading your guide.
Thanks! Nice job indeed!

[ano]

One more thing:
You don't always need scripting your decoy to GC. HaA-C will work perfectly if you want your weak commander alive and just need to draw enemy to one side. Flankers set to A-A or A-R will crush archers and commanders once infantry goes to kill your decoy.
As for elephants, tactics you called "Wait-For-It" is very important here. Independent elephants may be predicted while against good human opponent you usually need something more than good lineup. With elephants (as well as hydras) tactics of killing commander with flankers often works well.

[Lingchih]

I hardly ever have a problem with my elephants (though I do have problems sometimes with others elephants). I put them off to the flank, surrounding my H2 caster. Set them on hold and attack, while the H2 casts sermons of courage on them. Then, they attack rear. A holding force keeps the enemy busy in the center while this is done. Most of the time, the elephants actually get all the way to the rear commanders, or at least the archers, and wreak havoc.

The sermon of courage gets their morale up to 12 (or higher, if they are experienced). That is usually good enough.

[Panpiper]

Sorry if I am missing the extremely obvious here, but you are using the abbreviation for a unit command 'GC' frequently, but you have not defined what it means. Nor do I have a clue (which I should be used to by now).

[Taqwus]

Originally Posted by Panpiper

Sorry if I am missing the extremely obvious here, but you are using the abbreviation for a unit command 'GC' frequently, but you have not defined what it means. Nor do I have a clue (which I should be used to by now).

GC = Guard Commander.

[Taqwus]

I'll also note that ultra-cheap low-prot units like militia or R'lyeh's freespawn cultists can be useful as lance absorbers; the heavy cavalry's initial charge can be quite threatening to even well-protected (and generally more expensive) troops.

Other things to pay attention to --

- If you have in mind particular spells, check their ranges...
- Damaging auras. Friendly fire isn't.
- Flyers essentially teleport, unless there's a storm going on, and some can even fly during storms.

[vfb]

Originally Posted by Taqwus

I'll also note that ultra-cheap low-prot units like militia or R'lyeh's freespawn cultists can be useful as lance absorbers; the heavy cavalry's initial charge can be quite threatening to even well-protected (and generally more expensive) troops.

Other things to pay attention to --

- If you have in mind particular spells, check their ranges...
- Damaging auras. Friendly fire isn't.
- Flyers essentially teleport, unless there's a storm going on, and some can even fly during storms.

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.

[Panpiper]

Originally Posted by Taqwus

GC = Guard Commander.

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