Wondering what types of armies you should muster and what kind of strategy to employ on the battlefield? Read on!
Back to list of tips and tricks
Whether you command your own armies or not, probably the most powerful generic unit in the game is the Skeleton. They are difficult and costly to raise, since it costs a powerful mage an action plus gold and regency to summon just one or a few of them, but they don’t require upkeep once they have been raised, so protect them well and they can serve you for a long time at no further cost. The Chalice of the Dead item lets you raise a Skeleton per turn at much lower cost.
As mentioned in the review, missile units are overpowered in battles that you command. If you like to command your own armies in battle, archers will likely be the backbone of your forces – a single archer unit can usually defend your borders against up to 3 enemy troops – though usually not 4, since being outnumbered 4 to 1 means you automatically lose! Also note that the 25% rule counts the actual number of men in a unit rather than just the number of units, and Archer units consist of only 15 men, whereas many stronger units like Elite or Gnoll Infantry have 21 men per unit, so make your calculations accordingly. Still, if you have enough patience and are not too outnumbered, archers are so good they can even handle small forces of Skeletons – just keep them out of range of the slower skeletons and keep firing until they eventually hit.
The near-invulnerability of fast archers is reduced in battles between larger armies, where the battlefield grid tends to get swarmed and there’s less room to maneuver without getting pressed into melee. Still, a line of 5 archers plus replacements to deal with enemy ranged units can win most battles on slow/easy/medium settings simply by shooting melee units to pieces before they can get close enough, and replacing units damaged by enemy missiles by fresh units from your reserves. 15 units, by the way, is the greatest number you can have in any one force, and once you can afford it, groups of 15 units should be the standard battalion size of your campaign forces, except for small cadres of archers meant to defend against less numerous armies or blocking the advance or retreat of larger enemy forces.
Which type of missile unit you can muster depends on the population of your provinces. The human Anuirean Archer is cheap, mobile, effective and can be raised in provinces with relatively small populations (civilization level 2 and above). Elven Archers are even better, though more expensive to raise, but then, so is the the crappy Elven Infantry, and the Elven Cavalry, while more mobile, is the most expensive ordinary (musterable) unit in the game. Dwarven Crossbows cost a good deal in upkeep per turn and move more slowly, but their better defense rating means they tend to do better in a shoot-out. Even Goblin Archers can be used if you can’t get Anuirean archers – don’t worry about losing some of those, as they only cost 1 gold per unit to raise.
At fast and maybe hard settings, you may need to exchange some of the missile tropps in your battalions for a few good melee units so you can pull your archers into the reserves just before they are engaged by charging but hopefully missile-weakened melee units, and throw in your own melee units instead. The one advantage of melee combat is that it’s slower, which means you’ll actually have time to give your orders fast enough to keep up with enemy movement even at the Fast setting. Still, even Knights, Elite Infantry or Dwarven Infantry fighting weakened units tend to take losses and are much more expensive in terms of both mustering and upkeep than human archers. Skeletons are better, if you can get them – and you don’t need more than a few, maybe 2-5 per 15-strong battalion. Even just 1 per battalion can help a lot when deployed at the right time, and having just one also makes it less likely that two damaged units will combine into one at full strength after a battle, which effectively costs you one unit.
A final generic troop type to note is the Levies, which are useless in a fight but cost nothing to raise. Thus you can use a Levy to block every possible retreat for a hostile army for free, allowing your main force to slaughter any remnants of your enemy’s forces that are trying to retreat. Remember to disband Levies at the taxation screen at the beginning of next turn, however, since unlike the original raising cost, the upkeep of a Levy unit each turn is as expensive as the upkeep of an Archer. If you still need Levies, simply muster them again from your provinces.
Arguably the very best army type, at least for commanding your own battles, are non-generic ones: Casters. One priest can usually cast 5 «Turn Undead» spells, which equates to 2-3 skeletons gone since it takes 2 spells to destroy one skeleton (though a skeleton damaged by one spell will be also much easier to defeat with arrows or strong melee units). High-level priests (lvl 11 and up) can often cast more «Turn Undead», plus they can cast «Flame strike» against living units too. Wizards often have powerful battle spells that can work similarly against units living or dead.
Against the Gorgon’s vast Skeleton hordes, nothing but a force of several casters will win the day in battle mode. If you autocalc, you will need several powerful units for each skeleton to carry the day in the end. Massing the necessary armies can be hard to do against the Gorgon’s vast hordes, though you can do it if your economy is strong enough.
Unlike generic troops, however, lieutenants (and especially your regent, of course) cannot be replaced, so deploy them cautiously. Don’t leave them where enemy spells or missile fire can reach them unless you mean to blast those enemies with spells, and take especial care not to leave casters on a battlefield you are about to lose – rememeber that a few quick hits can bring your deployed troops below the 25% strength needed to hold your ground, leaving any still-deployed troops to be wiped out as the enemy claims victory. Unless you are fighting hordes of skeletons, it may be advisable to have only one lieutenant on the field at any one time – that way, you can pull him or her out first if you realize you are about to get swarmed. Don’t autocalc battles with lieutenants in them unless you’re sure to win! Note that in autocalc, the units at the bottom of an army list will be lost first, so if you do want to autocalc an easy battle with lieutenants in it, place them or any other valuable troops like skeletons at the top of your army to avoid accidentally losing them. And always keep regular troops grouped with your lieutenants, as this means the lieutenants are less likey to get assasinated.
Finally, if you prefer to autocalc battles, then quality is more a function of how much an army type costs, so what types of normal armies you raise doesn’t really matter so much as how much money you spend – more expensive units will fight better. Did I mention that Elven Cavalry and human Knights are the most expensive units in the game?
Blessing your troops (see realm magic) is a once-only investment that will also make them a little better for a long long time. Though you can also win by outnumbering your foe, smaller, better armies are cheaper to move into hostile lands. You should probably build at least one road into every one of your own provinces, however. Roadbuilding is a once-only cost, and moving a 15-strong battalion in to defend a province without a road is usually more expensive than building the road in the first place, plus roads let you send armies mustered in a province out of it for free.
Icehair's Stuff 
Leave a comment