What are your hot tips on battlefield tactics?

[Sputnik]

Doesn't seem to be a guide on this subject yet.

This is what I've got so far:

• Balance your forces in the field between attack and defence
  
• Maybe have a home-guard, but stand them down to save on cash
  
• Time your attacks with the arrival your allies
  
• Swap out commanders for the command traits you need for the task at hand
  
• When siege-ing be prepared to split off a force to chase down lesser enemy armies.

[Sputnik]

Originally posted by Triangle:

When making a guide you should really focus on the basics because everything after that should come with a big asterisk saying *It depends on the war.

Roger that (in a good way I mean)

Originally posted by Triangle:

sieging him before his alliance could consolidate

Blitzkrieg tactic, cool

Originally posted by Triangle:

A healthy balance of sieging and battles

And of course the right balance is not necessarily 50/50, which I'd need to clarify. Probably a sturdy homeguard is more critical for island / coastal nations.

Originally posted by Triangle:

Focused purely on battles in order to keep the alliance separated and small

I guess you'd call that a Mobile Warfare tactic

Originally posted by Triangle:

And of course you should always ask if the war was really necessary in the first place. I could've waited for the guy to die and his alliance chain to end

Sound strategic advice this one, but it's the battlefield decisions I really want to focus on.

Many thanks Triangle

[Uhrenkerl]

I usually have a pure MaA and knight shock troop chasing down armies, while my levies siege. Against the AI thats more than enough, even against players you just need to watch out that they dont eat your levies from the back and that you dont get baited into overextending

[Sputnik]

Originally posted by Uhrenkerl:

I usually have a pure MaA and knight shock troop chasing down armies, while my levies siege. Against the AI thats more than enough, even against players you just need to watch out that they dont eat your levies from the back and that you dont get baited into overextending

Yeah, same here. Often when I split off from a siegeing army it leaves behind just a bunch of nervous levies and the catapults - while go off I chasing down a retreating army. Then, if they get themselves attacked, the siege force runs all the way home again dragging all my catapults behind them.

All that Python-esque running away makes for a very protracted campaign.

[SailaNamai]

I don't know if they are hot tips. But anyway.

The army sieging a fort will, when a battle occurs, be treated as the attacker. So, attacking while the enemy is in a siege will have you actually defending and can be key to defeating stronger armies or simply conserving your manpower.

While moving about the AI usually does not group the stacks it has split to avoid attrition. That leaves it with different movement speeds and renders it vulnerable to "sniping" the stragglers. Its other stacks will join the battle shortly but by that time it can already be decided in your favour.

Your raised armies will be commanded by an "allrounder". A commander that has a high amount of traits and a good rating. It does however not in any way take into account if those commander traits are helpful currently. You can switch commanders on the fly and should do so if its a close war.

Don't chase. If you win a battle or the AI flees, either withdraw to friendly territory and reinforce your armies and supply or go siege. If you win a battle and go on some adventure that does not increase warscore you have wasted your advantage.

Don't OCD on the AI recapturing forts you have previosly taken control of. Finish your own siege first, then recapture. The depleted garrison makes it quick to take, whereas you will be abandoning a siege on a full garrison. Likewise if the AI goes to some remote part of your realm, then just let it sit there. Take the wargoal(s), force it to come to you.

It is almost never worth to split your siege weapons and leave them vulnerable. The AI is pretty decent at going for those weak stacks. If it wipes your siege weapons, then the war will extend for an additional year or two (if your economy can even sustain it).

Don't raise your levies if you can get away with it. Their main purpose is to project numbers to your enemies and vassals. They are deterrent but have little use otherwise. They are also pretty expensive considering what you are getting.

I see a lot of comments about mercs. My advice is don't. Unless your game ends otherwise. Hiring mercs has way to high opportunity costs. If you can get a building instead then you should. Everything you conquer is a buffer to increase the security of your core holdings. If you are faced with expanding or building your power base, then the latter is the better choice most of the time.

[Sputnik]

They're all great tips. Thanks

[Supply Slut]

My general tips:

-Pick Men at Arms that play to your strengths. Have a ton of buildings boosting heavy infantry stats? Use extra heavy infantry. If not then a having a little balance to have well rounded counters is good, but going all in on one type of unit and then mass building up boosts for them is OP.

-cultivate your knights. Knights are a nice power boost by default, adding some quality to your forces, but with a little effort they can become the main damage dealing force of your military: a few points in the right side of the chivalry tree nets you: +75% knight effectiveness then +4 knights. Add with a few other bonuses (dynastic legacy, culture or religion prowess boosts, and the military academy duchy building) and you’ve got an insanely powerful group of champions.

-sieging is more important for war score most of the time, but battles are where you decide the war. Don’t let the enemy consolidate their military before attacking them, kill as many troops as possible so you can siege uninterrupted (and split your forces safely).

-If an enemy army is similarly matched with you and headed towards engaging your army, move to the best defensive position nearby (that you can reach before they intercept you). For example I’m sieging on plains, but a large army is on its way, I’ll move to the hills next to me so when we get attacked I have a defensive boost.

-rotate commanders as needed. Some commanders are best at sieging, but others are better for battles. Look at the strengths and weaknesses of your commanders and change who is leading your army for different circumstances. Often battle traits are more important than raw martial ability (to an extent).

[teron]

Attacking realms that have other issues going on. For example they are already in a war and have their forces somewhere else. Especially if they are busy far away overseas, since catching a disembarking low supply army = easy massacre.
If you are rolling in gold, you could also for example find rebelling faction leaders in the realm that you want to attack and gift them a ton of gold. Just avoid ones that would be warring in the area you want to take over.

What you take from your enemy can also matter a lot. For example if the game has Exclave Independence, De Jure Requirement, Empire Obscurity rules active.

Exclave Independence: depending on the level can make isolated unconnected parts of their realm become independent on ruler succession.

De Jure Requirements: basically if it is on, then not having any land in the title = title auto destroying after time. You can use this to sometimes shatter realms if for example you cause a ruler to loose their only kingdom title and have a bunch of vassals break free.

Empire Obscurity: basically a special rule option for empires, where the title destroys after a time if they have less then 20% of their De Jure.

Since having these rules on, and knowing how to use them can make things easier. An example of this is one game where I took Byz's costal land in Africa which made their inland vassals break free next succession due to Exclave Independence. Which make my mother of all run easier since I had to do a couple less wars with Byz over individual counties.

[Kimlin]

I know it’s nice to think you need to be tactical or strategic playing a strategy game but in all honesty warfare in CK3 is quite easy to master.

1. Recruit great knights.
2. Max out good MAA(bowman, heavy infantry, or anything that’s not weak.
3. Make sure you have at least one regimen of siege MAA.
4. Create a Holy Order
5. At the start of the war raise MAA(if you have max MAA and good knights this should be enough.)
6. If against another religion raise your free Holy Order
7. At the start of a war immediately destroy the opposing army.
8. Siege war goal
9. Siege Capital
10. Continue to siege additional baronies until you win.

This snowballs with realm size and technology but should work even early in the 867 start date.

[KingKickAss]

I'm not an expert on this game so I could be wrong, but if you raise your armies and it gives you multiple, don't merge them because then the combined force is too big to supply itself in the counties its in and will starve, etc. But I think this also means your force is generally weaker because they wouldn't be united under your strongest commander. Unless they automatically do that when they join the same fight.

Again, I'm not an expert on the game's mechanics, its just what I've observed.

[Sputnik]

OK then, thanks for all your wise words. I've stuffed them all into this guide here, Please let me know if I've butchered your words and I'll make the amendment.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2803499164&searchtext=battle+tactics

[thundershield3]

I will say a home-guard really isn't necessary in the majority of cases. As long as you have a reasonably high fort level on your capital you can usually get back and chase off anyone whos there pretty easily. Worst comes to worst, mercs can be used in dire situations. If the enemy is sieging a non-capital province, it's usually not that big of a deal if they capture it, as it either want add a significant amount of warscore before you can chase them back, or your big enough that losing one province here and there does little.

[Sputnik]

Originally posted by thundershield3:

I will say a home-guard really isn't necessary in the majority of cases. As long as you have a reasonably high fort level on your capital you can usually get back and chase off anyone whos there pretty easily. Worst comes to worst, mercs can be used in dire situations. If the enemy is sieging a non-capital province, it's usually not that big of a deal if they capture it, as it either want add a significant amount of warscore before you can chase them back, or your big enough that losing one province here and there does little.

Roger that. added

[Atomsk]

The best tactic is to go archer heavy with some skrimishers. The buildings synergize with both unit types.