Total War Tips?

Kosmiche

Kosmiche

Kosmiche

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I would like to get into total war games and specifically into the mod scene, but I am quite clueless about how to play these games.

What should I be doing at the beginning of a 3D battle? I am clueless how to position my men and usually simply select all and move forward. In the historical battles I feel completely lost and unable to adequately manuever my troops to counter attack.

Any tips for a total war series novice? Thanks ;)
 
I love defensive play, so will have a few units of well-armoured heavy infantry holding the line in the centre while my best archers rain death upon the advancing enemy from the rear and flanks. After that it is a simple mop-up job for my cavalry.

I like to use a lot of ranged troops. If you like charging in you'll need to employ different strategies.

Which TW game are you playing?
 
I am playing Medieval 2 since I prefer that time period, I tried playing a scenario battle but I feel lost with all these men to control and how to move and in what manner to attack the enemy.

I'm just after some strategies and tactics and tips that will help me with controlling the 3d battles and winning them. The campaign map stuff I don't need help with.
 
I've only played Rome I but these tips should probably be broadly valid:

In the middle-front of your army you should usually have normal infrantry - shield/sword unit types. Your flanks should have pikes to counter cavalry charges on the sides/rear. Your ranged units should be protected by the rest of the infantry (keep them in the inner-middle).

Your cavalry normally has one purpose and that is to charge the vulnerable positions of the enemy, such as ranged units or non pike infantry.

The main aim is to mantain an army group as decribed above, have your cavalry run around, harassing and doing charges constantly and keep shooting with your ranged units.

Once you engage, make sure the front is held in a continous line and, at the same time, try to break the enemy line to allow flanking. Whenever you attack a group on the flank, while it's enganged with another group of yours, you get huge bonuses and you can wipe them out easily.

I think you'd get a better idea if you watched some youtube videos, there's a tone of them and some are very useful.
 
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Ahh, my fave game. Yeah, I feel lost in the historical scenarios too, and often don't fare well. :)

You should play some small custom battles, a few units on each team. Just to get used to everything.

  1. Hitting the enemy in the flanks and rear will usually make them run and it's far better to destroy their morale than wipe them out as when one unit flees it can have a domino effect on the rest of them. The best units for this are the heavy shock cavalry.
  2. Keep your light, ranged troops out of combat.
  3. Let the enemy come to you, that will give your ranged troops time to hit them, and they will tire if they run. Find a nice hill.
 
Never really got into Medieval, despite liking Rome a lot.

A lot of the principles are the same though, form a defensive line with archers to the rear. If possible, get your archers firing into flanks, or even better (if possible) rears of enemy units.

I usually vary my defensive line troops, alternating between sword and spear type units, spears being good against cavalry and as 'holding' troops while swordsmen are better against infantry and are 'movement' units.

Use cavalry to charge the rear of an enemy unit, often I hit the far side of 1 of the lines, which causes panic, and hopefully a rout. If you're lucky, this routs the whole of their line one after the other! :D

If you're facing enemy archers, try and distract them with a juicy infantry target, then hit them unexpectedly with cavalry.
 
Eames, who are you playing as? I always played as Britons in Medieval, and I found that the best tactics really include your archers. Archers everywhere! The longbow men can deploy pikes in front of them, so put these down in the deployment phase. Once you start the battle, move your longbows back, and put spears & swords just behind the pikes. You will be safe from head on cavalry charges this way, just keep an eye out on your flanks.

Longbows are truely vicious in the game, so keep them safe and you will do well. I never bothered with siege weapons until Rome 2, and find that they are quite effective so you can give that a try but it may not be so great in Medieval.

Also, light horses, light horses are great when used correctly, but focus on an infantry based army that will be a bit easier to get the hang of first, then when you are a bit quicker and more comfortable, start employing cavalry into your armies, and focus on flanking, flank flank and flank. Hammer and Anvil old boy, get the enemy pressed against your infantry, flank round the sides with cavalry and charge into them from the rear!
 
The classic formation is heavy infantry as your front line with cavalry on flanks, archers at rear. I haven't play Medieval 2 for a long time but one of favorite tactcs was to group my best cavalry and manoeuvre them around the rear of the opposing army wait until they start to engage my front line and then charge them into the rear. This shock tactic will cause the weaker units to flea first, once one or two unts run awaythis often has a cascading effect on the rest of the army.

You want to avoid charging your cavalry head on to disaplined heavy infantry as they won't fair well especially any spear based units. Also take the note of the above if units don't flea disengaged your cavalry after 8 seconds or so otherwise if stay engage they will start die.

If i found myself outnumbered I put my army into square (think battle of Waterloo) and hope for the best and maybe keep a unit hidden for a counter attack.
 
Edrof said:
  1. Let the enemy come to you, that will give your ranged troops time to hit them, and they will tire if they run. Find a nice hill.
Click to expand...

Absolutely this. I won a battle recently playing as Sparta in Rome 2. 3 full enemy armies Vs my one. Positioned myself at the start of the game at the far side of the map from the enemy on top of a steep hill. By the time they had all ran to me up the hill they were knackered. While they were coming I did a bit of cavalry and ranged unit harassment. Managed to rout them all and win in the end :)
 
One tactic for stubborn enemies that won't rout is to try and move your ranged units behind the enemy line and let fire at point blank range at the backs of your foes. In the stock game this tactic isn't really needed but modded games tend to up the morale to make battles last longer and this works a treat.
 
Deploy on a wider front than your enemy with shock troops in the middle so they don't run; envelop.

Press pause all the time while you reorganise.

Do proper cavalry charges. They need to be formed up and at full speed before they hit the enemy. Prefferably charging through them. Don't make heavy cavalry run all the time.

Play to your nation's strengths. They all have a few speciality units; you want to get these ASAP.
 
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