Tactics: Principles, Tips, Tricks, and Traps

[Uh-Nu-Buh]

I've seen a lot of good information on strategies and overall planning, but little on winning a battle. Here are some general principles, tips, tricks, and pitfalls. Feel free to comment or add your own to the thread.

1. Huge groups. Spread huge groups into smaller groups, and spread them out a bit in starting location. Having a larger frontal area means more of them can attack at once.
2. Small groups. If a group is too small, it's morale can easily shatter. Make your groups large enough to matter, but not so large that they interfere with eachother when positioning. This varies according to the power and morale of the unit, but anywhere from 8--30 should be about right.
2. Place your strongest defense/armor/resistance units in the middle. This is where the majority of arrows and spells hit.
3. Radiators. Niefl Jarls radiate cold, other units radiate heat or poison. Place all units like this away from units without resistances!! E.g. if you have 5 poison units that fly, put them way off on the flank and tell them to attack rear enemy.
4. Missileers. You can put these forward on the flanks and tell them to fire 3 times then retreat. Or you can have them in the rear and tell them to keep fireing, while you tell your core units to hold position. Regardless, use them wisely.
5. Commanders. Place commanders near troops that will benefit from them. E.g. Put lightly armored troops near a mage that can cast Barkskin or Iron Warriors; put sacred troops near a Priest who can bless them.
6. Mages. In general put these in the middle of packs instead of to the rear. They can augment nearby troops, send out lightning bolts and fire darts, and not get as targetted. You might also consider giving them small bodyguards of 3-4 warriors each in case they are targetted somehow (they will end up in the rear so they might get hit that way, plus bodyguards help in assassination attempts....)
7. Cheap extra Commander. A cheap extra commander with no troops is a good idea. If one of your true commanders bites it in the battle, you can still field the leftover troops insetad of leaving them in that province to rot--or in the case of magical beings, to disappear for good!
8. Mages. Giving field mages personal gems can make them far more powerful. I do this selectively with already powerful battlemages, or to all battlemages if a big battle is shaping up. Some battle spells are extremely powerful, and you are unable to use them unless you have gems.
9. Mages. Script their spells appropos to the situation. If you have an enemy that uses longbowmen, have all your mages invoke air shields first thing. If you have an enemy that is resistant to fire, make sure your first spells are not fire based. If one of your heroes has the sword that brings a torrential downpour (tempest?) to the battlefield making archers and fire spell useless, make sure your mages don't bother with air shields or fire spells.
10. Cavalry. Any unit that is fast and relatively powerful, put on the flanks and have them attack rear. If your core is heavy cavalry, put them in the center and have them charge nearest enemy. If you have fast light units, be careful that they don't attract archers. Have them on the flanks and wait twice then charge rearmost enemy.
11. Fliers. It is easy to misuse fliers. Most fliers are lightly armored and easily killed. I use fliers for one thing: attack rearmost enemy. This shields them from archers, and baffles the enemy's commanders.
12. Flak. Cheap crud units can be of use to draw out archers while your big guys flank, or if they are fast enough you can use them to flank while the heavily defended guys attract the arrows.
13. Elephants. Elephants and other big units that are powerful, but lightly armored should be protected appropriately. Medium sized groups for max effectiveness and minimum morale drain from losses. Shield them from archers. Keep them charging. I like to put them on the flanks and attacking rearmost enemy, as they will just trample anything that gets in their way so they effectively attack everything heading for the enemy commanders.