Newbie questions

[marc420]

Hi, I'm a newbie too, so here's a contribution and a question. Take the contribution for what its worth.

c) The one advantage pikes or spears seem to get is ther length. That would seem to be something that could negate a favorable attack from cavalry.

q) I've been trying to figure out the small squad vs large squad idea. I've been trying the idea that by splitting my infantry into small squads, I'd minimize the routing of all the squads at once. But reading this I'm learning the part about a large squads might be harder to route. So what's the conventional wisdom about which is better. Splitting your troops out into the five or more squads that a leader or leaders can handle, or bunching the troops up into one big squad that's harder to rout?

[Foom]

Hey marc420, welcome to the addiction.

The thing with the spears makes a lot of sense, and they do have a "repel" attack in Dom2. But sadly, this doesn't work well against heavy cavalry.

My favorite tactic against these buggers is: Large block of heavy infantry with orders to "hold and attack", backed up by a group of mages casting damage spells. Having crappy troops like Mictlan slaves or Maenads absorb the initial lance charge helps too.

I don't think there's a definite answer to small squad vs. large squad. That's the beauty of Dom2: You have to adapt to your enemy and the situation.

[deccan]

Another advantage of having multiple squads instead of one big block is that if you spread the multiple blocks across the battlefield it makes it less likely that enemy non-flying flankers will be able to get to your rear where the vulnerable mages are likely to be.

[Ironhawk]

Coming in late on this thread...

If I recall correctly pikes are the only normal weapon long enough to gain a repel attempt on a lance. But since the repel attempt is against the morale of the attacker and HC usually have good morale, you are probably going to fail.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Ironhawk said:
If I recall correctly pikes are the only normal weapon long enough to gain a repel attempt on a lance.

Long spears (Man has some) are length 5, longer than mounted lances.

And there are also forgeable items (whips, Dancing Trident, Stone Bird). And the female Titan's owl pet. Maybe others, including special attacks on summonable critters - eg, Wailing Ladies if I remember well. True, all of these aren't very common on your regular troops.

[Boron]

marc420 said:
q) I've been trying to figure out the small squad vs large squad idea. I've been trying the idea that by splitting my infantry into small squads, I'd minimize the routing of all the squads at once. But reading this I'm learning the part about a large squads might be harder to route. So what's the conventional wisdom about which is better. Splitting your troops out into the five or more squads that a leader or leaders can handle, or bunching the troops up into one big squad that's harder to rout?

If you have morale 50 troops afaik they never rout . Morale 30 troops almost never rout as well .

So undeads , devils , mechanical men , vine ogres and the likes can be used in very small squads and still fight normally until extinction .
The common troops with morale of 8-12 should better be used in large squads otherwise they might run from the first volley of missiles .

As Gandalf has said you can mix in your low morale troops a few vinemen or undead or similiar to increase the squad morale a lot .

With many nations it is important to quickly replace your national troops by summoned ones . Mictlan is a good example for this unless you run a good blessing .
Most national troops become rather obsolete in midgame .
Vans , Jotunheims Gigants and a few other national troops are exeptions .
In general the bigger part of your upkeep is better spent for mages though .

[Skolem]

Boron said:
As Gandalf has said you can mix in your low morale troops a few vinemen or undead or similiar to increase the squad morale a lot .

AFAIK mindles and undaed, don' "mix" there morale with normal troop, IIRC beserking troops doesn't help to once they are berserking, what Gandalf means, if i interpret him correctly was normal troop of high moral, like wingless for caelum, most elite troop of any nations, etc.

[Taqwus]

There are also certain spells whose area of effect is defined in terms of squads, IIRC.

Incidentally, dispossessed spirits might make decent chaff against heavy cavalry; they're cheap and mass-summonable, and since they're ethereal, 75% of non-magical lance attacks that would otherwise hit should miss.

[CJN]

Thank you for all the answers! They were helpful in figuring out what went wrong.
BTW, does anyone use firedrake a lot? I tried to add a pair to my army but they didn't seem to create a difference. Summer lions on the other hand was a great summon. (Abysia, default)

[Boron]

CJN said:
BTW, does anyone use firedrake a lot? I tried to add a pair to my army but they didn't seem to create a difference. Summer lions on the other hand was a great summon. (Abysia, default)

The fire summons are not so good .
As Abysia rather use devils .

The summer lion is etheral , thats good but he doesn't fly while a demonbred / devil / storm demon / FoD / SC flies .
0 protection hurts the summer lion .
So overall he has probably a lower performance then a devil but he costs 6 fire gems vs. a maximum of 7 blood , much cheaper when using soul contracts .

I would rather use my fireincome for fetishes , cash + flames from the sky / fires from afar .


Abysia is imo a good beginner race because it is powerful but more straightforward then e.g. caelum .
Probably the best way to learn the game is just participate a few MP games and see what the other ppl use on you . If you are lucky some will even explain to you why they played the way the played and give you hints .

Using tactics learned in SP in MP is dangerous because most of the stuff that works in SP doesn't work in MP