Guide: (Very) Basic Battle Tactics

[ano]

No doubt that it is worth the cost in case of deflecting shadow blasts or other area spells. But, in my opinion, counting chaff as "easily expendable" is a mistake. No troop is expendable unless it eats a lot of upkeep.
For example, maenads are decent troops that cost no upkeep and thus are (and that is not obvious!) more valuable than, say, satyrs or regular infantry. If you plan to have losses, upkeep cost is a serious factor to take into account when thinking what to use as a arrow\spell decoy.
Also, later in the game with many buffs in serious battles initial quality of troops means much less than in the beginning, and if you managed to keep enough "worthless free chaff" alive, it will help you much.

[Raiel]

@ano: You're most welcome! Giving new ideas to any regulars was not something I had counted on... hoped for, but not counted on. As for HaA-C rather than GC orders on Archer decoys: You're absolutely correct, but it's my habit to use a commander with a shield and by the time arrows would be raining down around him, the archers are usually on my side of the field and sorrounded by my forces. I assumed that everyone would use shielded commanders...

@Panpiper: That's my . Thought I got all the abbreviations. Thanks for pointing that out and I'll fix the omission.

@OmikronWarrior: Exceptionally salient points; I'd just copy and paste your post into the original post if I didn't hate needless duplication of data. I'll definitely refer readers to your post, though.

@Taqwus: The point of lance absorbing is well taken (a great use for Markata). I'll throw in a final thought about taking on heavy calvary that includes this. Thanks!

Which brings me to why I'm posting this before I make any changes... How many times can I edit the Original Post?

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by Raiel

Which brings me to why I'm posting this before I make any changes... How many times can I edit the Original Post?

No limit.

For posts that aren't the first in a thread, there are no editing limits. Without it, guides, mod threads and similar would be pretty much impossible.

Non-first posts close after a certain time, about 20 minutes I think.