New, trying to get into game-but i am failing

[tkobo]

Okay, how about giving me an example of an army you would field and the orders the units are under in it ?

Also is there anyway to actaully control the units during the battle ?It all seems to happen automactically during a kinda "turn resolution" process.

[licker]

Originally posted by tkobo:
Okay, how about giving me an example of an army you would field and the orders the units are under in it ?

Also is there anyway to actaully control the units during the battle ?It all seems to happen automactically during a kinda "turn resolution" process.

There is no control of units once TC has started. You can script them for certain actions though, and that is what you'll need to do to maximize their efficiency.

Without knowing what exactly you are using as a nation I'd recomend that you take your archers and locate them behind some infantry. Give the archers the fire at closest, or fire at enemy archers, give the infantry the hold and attack command. Depending on how well you figure your commanders will survive you can stick them waaaay in teh back so they won't get attacked, or stick them with the infantry and let them deal some death to the enemy.

If you have mages then you can use their specific spells by scripting it. I won't go into that as I don't have enough experience with Dom2 (or 1 for that matter) to really give good advice.

[Daynarr]

Originally posted by tkobo:
Okay, how about giving me an example of an army you would field and the orders the units are under in it ?

Ok here are some general advices.

1) Place heavy infantry to the center right of the field (closest to enemy) and give them attack closest order. They are your front line and they have to engage and hold enemy units.

2) Place cavalry at either top or bottom (or both) right side of battlefield (they will be at the flanks of your heavy infantry) and order them to attack rearmost units. They will try to outflank the enemy and strike at their archers or commanders.

3) Place archers behind those front troops and order the to fire NONE. That will allow hem to choose their target for themselves. This is important if your opponent is fielding units with high protection. If you order them to fire at closest enemy, that enemy can be heavy cavalry and their arrows will be completely ineffective against them. They will often choose targets they can damage and sometimes they even target commanders.

This is just basic design and there are, as you will surely discover, more effective ways for dealing with various opponents. A big fun in the game is discovering new tactics and seeing their effects on battlefield.

Hope this helps.

[tkobo]

Arrgghhhh, im getting slaughtered by armies 1/2 my size !

Thats when im lucky enough to not be outnumbered.

How do i place units in specific formation locations on the field,this must be my problem.

The AI is on easy also,so there must be something i am doing horribly wrong.

[Gandalf Parker]

Also, be sure to notice if you have units that put out auras of heat, cold, or poison. Put them off to the sides.

Flyers can be positioned way to the rear since they will reach their targets in one round anyway. If you have a flyer leader have it fire/cast a round or two then attack rear, have the other flyers guard commander. That way the melee troops around the enemy commander will already have run forward and selected targets before you fly in.

Dont leave your leaders standing together unless you leave a bunch of cheap troops back there with "guard commander" orders.

If a leader dies his troops will rout so melee leaders should be sure to stay out of combat with order of "stay behind troops". Or you can have them fire/cast a couple of rounds, then attack. That Last is one I like for merc commanders.

Some units like elephants can rout easily. Set them off to the side so that if they charge back in rout they wont trample your troops.

There are many units which are weak, cheap, maybe rout easily, but are fast (lots of AP). These can be used to create crowds off to the sides with orders to attack rear. Them rushing enemy archers and mages can save you alot of grief even if they just keep them busy long enough for the real troops to get there. They can also take out routing enemy which will increase your chance of picking up magic items from the battle.

Mixing weapon types can keep you from losing a large squad to the wrong enemy. Instead of clicking on one type of troop a bunch of times I like to click across grabbing one of each of many type. I mix units such as sword, spear, axe, hammer, mace. But it can be bad to mix different morals since low ones routing can take your heavy troops with them.

Crossbows should be set JUST behind your forward squad with orders to shoot at closest enemy. They do great damage to armored troops.

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by tkobo:
How do i place units in specific formation locations on the field,this must be my problem.

Click on Army Setup. The green box for each unit has a white square showing where they start on the field. Click on that then move the white square. The "enemy" is to right for placement purposes.

To spread out a large batch select a bunch and click on that commander again. This will create two units. You can create up to 5 for each commander which will let you place them in a line. This has other advantages also since a volley of arrows causing one group to route wont cause you to lose your whole front line. If you give them their instructions, then spit them up they will all have the same orders.

[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by Daynarr:

quote:

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Originally posted by tkobo:
Okay, how about giving me an example of an army you would field and the orders the units are under in it ?

Ok here are some general advices.

1) Place heavy infantry to the center right of the field (closest to enemy) and give them attack closest order. They are your front line and they have to engage and hold enemy units.

2) Place cavalry at either top or bottom (or both) right side of battlefield (they will be at the flanks of your heavy infantry) and order them to attack rearmost units. They will try to outflank the enemy and strike at their archers or commanders.

3) Place archers behind those front troops and order the to fire NONE. That will allow hem to choose their target for themselves. This is important if your opponent is fielding units with high protection. If you order them to fire at closest enemy, that enemy can be heavy cavalry and their arrows will be completely ineffective against them. They will often choose targets they can damage and sometimes they even target commanders.

This is just basic design and there are, as you will surely discover, more effective ways for dealing with various opponents. A big fun in the game is discovering new tactics and seeing their effects on battlefield.

Hope this helps.

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Just a few additions:

1. The most important point: there is no best army composition or script. It depends A LOT on what you are facing.

2. Sometimes it's better to have heavy infantry hold and attack, and/or start further back. Their role is often to stop the enemy advance and pin them in place so the archers can shoot them.

3. Going along with this point - archers work best with heavy infantry. Light infantry will take too much friendly fire casualties, and cavalry will engage the enemy too far away where it's harder for the archers to fire effectively.

4. Fire NONE is usually a pointless order for archers: it's what they will almost always do anyway (if given no orders). Also it can be dangerous to allow them to choose their own target: sometimes they will choose to shoot at enemies that are in melee with your troops, which can cause as much damage to you as to the enemy.

IMO, if you're going to use archers, you should either use an archer-heavy infantry setup so your archers can shoot the enemy as they close in, use an all-archer army and try to rout them before they reach you (risky but can win without casualties if you have enough archers), or set your archers on "fire archers" and hope they don't do too much friendly fire damage because they are firing at the rear. (Annoyingly, "fire rear" is not allowed, even though it would reduce friendly fire more often than any other target choice.)

5. In my opinion, one special ability deserves special notice: trample. Trampling units can run through any units smaller than they are, pushing those units aside and damaging them. Size 3 tramplers (minotaurs, fey boars, shambler thralls) can trample infantry, size 4 tramplers (chariots, war lobsters) can trample cavalry, and size 6 tramplers (elephants, mammoths, Great Mother and Dagon) can trample almost anything. In order to counter trample effectively, you should try hard to get some units that are big enough to resist being trampled. Against minotaurs, cavalry are fine, but against chariots or elephants you may have to rely on summons or constructs to stop the tramplers. Most trampling units have poor combat abilities aside from trample, and are expensive, so if you can make them pick on someone their own size (literally), they aren't much of a threat. (Trampling Gods are an exception - even if you counter the trampling, they're still Gods and usually pretty dangerous.)