How would you beat my missle troops?

[En Forcer]

Okay, I admit I am a whore for missle troops. So far I haven't even desired to play the countries who don't have 'em.

For the moment I'm using 4-5 leaders each with several squads.

But I have my main guy, (A Grand Inquisitor who is also my Prophet) loaded with 95 crossbowmen. This body of missle troops is flanked by pikemen and Halberdiers.

Out front I have Flagelates (sp?) to soak up enemy missles and melee unit charges.

Now in my solo game this has performed very well so far.

My question to this forum and the more experienced players is, how would you oppose my force?

[licker]

Like a red headed stepchild...


But seriously...
Lots of ways I suppose... staff of storms, the spell storm, fliers set to attack archers...

Sure the indies don't do this (well sometimes if they are lucky they might), but a real player (even the AIs sometimes) will do it. Also army targeting overland spells will work, or just another batch of archers...

Hopefully you're using flaming arrows too, that really makes those xbows mow down the enemy

[ February 13, 2004, 16:02: Message edited by: licker ]

[En Forcer]

Well it is pretty early in the game (turn 40ish) so I still have some spells to obtain but I'll be on the lookout for those fire arrows. Also, what do you think of that Air spell that improves Aim? Worth it?

I'm alchemy-ing like mad to get 50 air gems so I can empower my guy with Air Magic so he can use that spell...

Any other good spells for a squad of archers?

Some other thoughts I had was smaller Groups of missle troops (rather than all in one big batch) so they might focus on different targets and not be so vulnerable to area affect spells.

[licker]

Flame arrows is enchantment 3 or 4, costs 1 fire gem and requires a F3 mage to cast. Its a turn 10 spell if you go for it from the start. Staves of Storms are easilly turn 15 items for nations that rush to them...

I've not tinkered much with aim or eagle eyes on archers, I'm sure it helps, but with that many archers it may be less effective as you are counting on saturation fire anyway. There are other air spells (wind guide for one) that help all your units precision stats, though if you don't have air mages I'd not worry about those too much.

[IKerensky]

Well I will probably confront you with my Man army of 150 longbow

XBow are better against armored target but a bit too slow on the fire.

Flyers could help, and any spell like rain and storm will hit you, especially as your mages are also fire dependant.

I guess my own flagellant with an Air 6 blessing would be helping too.

But massive archer tactics are good on my book.

Also battlefield spells with an army of mages with cloack of missile could do the trick.

[ywl]

Originally posted by En Forcer:
Okay, I admit I am a whore for missle troops. So far I haven't even desired to play the countries who don't have 'em.

For the moment I'm using 4-5 leaders each with several squads.

But I have my main guy, (A Grand Inquisitor who is also my Prophet) loaded with 95 crossbowmen. This body of missle troops is flanked by pikemen and Halberdiers.

Out front I have Flagelates (sp?) to soak up enemy missles and melee unit charges.

Now in my solo game this has performed very well so far.

My question to this forum and the more experienced players is, how would you oppose my force?

You've found one killing strategy in the game .

I can have "Arrow Fend", "Storm" (just decrease precision by 6 in Dom 2). But the best way is to have more missle troops than you . I can decimate your crossbow with cheap indie archers by setting them aim for enemy archers.

[En Forcer]

hmmm....okay so you could have cheaper longbowmen or slingers (?) target my archers specifically and quickly decimate them....

So I therefor need some kind of shielding spells to improve my defense against arrows? Or I guess counter with rain or storm to reduce YOUR accurancy....

I think I would check my intel and if I see your mass of archers I would change my archers to target archers (as opposed to attack closest which they are at most of the time).

You guys are giving me good ideas and advice here...I'm digging it!

[Arryn]

Originally posted by En Forcer:
Or I guess counter with rain or storm to reduce YOUR accurancy....

That would affect you just as badly.

[LordArioch]

Cavalry flanking work well as a counter, so it's good your flanks are guarded. Also single units standing in front of an army can draw fire.
Archers and xbows work well because they build fast and can rout weaker forces, but just consider what would happen if you were attacked by 95+ good quality infantry with shields. I'd probably favor the infantry if they had units in front to draw fire, as they could probably go through your flagellants pretty quick.

It sounds like you have a pretty well thought out setup though, so flying units, storms, or archers safest. But keep in mind you probably aren't fighting similarly sized armies of good infantry.

This is what makes scouting so important in MP. If I saw that beforehand and had time to counter I probably could come up with something, but if I didn't scout I'd be hopeless trying to come up with a fast response. This is probably the most famous marignon tatic though, so people will be expecting it if you play a multiplayer game.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Arryn:

quote:

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Originally posted by En Forcer:
Or I guess counter with rain or storm to reduce YOUR accurancy....

That would affect you just as badly.

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That won'y only affect him just as badly if he had missile troops as well. If he's a melee-only army, he wouldn't be affected at all. Alternatively, if he's R'lyeh, his squiddlies will be able to bLast with perfect accuracy, rain, snow, sleet, or shine.