Army Setup Questions

[Sombre]

I don't like to use 2 or 3 guys as archer decoys vs the AI because it's unfair - they never learn to target random or target archers/cavalry instead. It's also very silly to see in battle replays.

Instead I go for semi realistic troop deployment - I just find it more enjoyable.

[thejeff]

I tend to put tramplers in the middle, with archers and support troops on the flanks. Make sure any mages or commanders are on the flanks as well.

I've found that if I start tramplers on the flanks, they're usually in the middle by the time they rout, thus trampling anyone I'd put in the middle. If everyone else is on the flanks, they tend to be safe.

[davegg]

Has anyone ever thought of this:

its it better to put all your troops into three blocks so you have one big group in the center, absorbing missle hits, and one on each flank.

or four groups, so you have two in the center, which may mean they will divide missle hits?

[Endoperez]

I'm not sure about that.

But I have seen people but several squads of 1 or 2 militia, or limping, blind infantry, in front of their army. That draws the first few turns of missile fire.

[Humakty]

What seems sure to me is that it is hard to combine chaff and regular units, because of the % of lose before a general rout check for all the army.
I generally use them separatelly. (I only field chaff in supplement of 3 or 4 battle mages, late game)
The main use I see for chaff early is to occupy your frontier forts or accelerate a siege. With 1 or 2 luck, you usually have enougth chaff for free, so you don't have to build any.
This advice is based on my experience and style of gameplay, I do mostly play factions with heavy inf, and I dunnot know what to do with bandar and other factions like them.
As for the deployment, I put shields in the middle, with damage dealers on the flanks, sufficently backward so that my shields make contact first (and draw fire)

[Agema]

Yeah, low-morale chaff in large numbers can cause your army to break before its time, have to be a little careful of them.

If they get in the way of your effective units as well, you can watch in dismay as your elites are stuck twiddling their thumbs and taking missile/spell fire as a combat-useless majority start dragging you towards the mandatory rout point for little or no damage in return.

[Edratman]

I'll qualify my response by saying I do not consider myself an expert, and the game agrees with that opinion.

I've been playing Bandar Log lately and they have a good mix of troops. With them I have been moving my troop placement forward and back depending upon the opponents troops based on scout reports.

If the foe is heavy in tramplers and/or low in archers I put everyone in the back of the deployment square, archers to both flanks on "fire closest" and hand to hand combat in the middle with hold and atack orders. I have routed 150 man barbarian armies prior to hand to hand engagement with this disposition of troops. With tramplers I will put one or two small squads staggered in front to slow them down a tad to allow an extra archer volley or two. (This only works with long bow archers, can be disastrious with short bow archers.) Also good for most cavalry, although not real efficient if they are heavily protected.

For other engagements I generally move everyone closer to the front, but always put archers on the flanks and always putting a small but decent squad in front of archers. In this case archers are always fire archers or fire rear (another hard lesson, learned multiple times). My general dispostion is the pretty much identical to that everyone else mentions above. I also usually use a 3/4 man archer screen when opposed by archers (even though I think it is an exploit).

Mages are always scattered about the rear and away from archers if possible and with 2 to 5 bodyguards if they are expensive. I have found that leaving mages near archers subjects them to a lot of arrow fire, the AI seems to be always on "fire archers" script.

Chaff is only used situationally, and almost always in defensive positions. I hate lugging around chaff in offensive armies because they use up supplies, waste gold in support payments and I think I've lost battles when the chaff broke and for no other apparent reason my main body retreated shortly thereafter. (I know that I've had SC's retreat for no other reaon when equipped with the wraith helmet after the skeltons have been routed.)

If I have tramplers, I always put them up front with attack orders, mixing the troop to 50% with the fastest possible, highest morale, highest protection troops I have.

I will not script ordinary commanders with attack orders. I like to use as many bows as possible on commanders, but other than that, commanders are placed away from archers and have a stay behind troops script.