How to battle?

[SnusHead]

Attila is legit the only total war game where i end up with worse results if i don't auto resolve.
I use standard tactics like hammer and anvil but they just don't seem to work in this game.
My cavalry dies extremely fast i feel like even when i get really good charges at the enemy and the enemy archers seem to be so much more accurate than mine...
Also the battlefield seems so much more cramped and without enough space to navigate your units properly.

What is so different in this game's battles than in other total war titles?

[HANNIBAL!!]

hi what difficulty are you playing on ?
i found if you snipe out the enemy general even if you play on legendary and do the same tactics hammer and anvil you should win.
You can just spam spear units get a couple of stacks of full armys and auto-resolving your way tho and this works on legendary as well.

[tribunodelaplebe]

Who are you fighting as? Who is your enemy? What difficulty?

Pay attention to your unit stats, charge bonus, weight type, armor.

[SnusHead]

I'm playing on normal battle diff as the jutes and against the franks (and basically everyone else south of me but franks are my main enemy rn)

[SnusHead]

Originally posted by ET PHONE HOME:

hi what difficulty are you playing on ?
i found if you snipe out the enemy general even if you play on legendary and do the same tactics hammer and anvil you should win.
You can just spam spear units get a couple of stacks of full armys and auto-resolving your way tho and this works on legendary as well.

ye, i love sniping generals aswell but in the beginning you don't have any armor-penetrating ranged units

[totalwar360]

first of all nice profilname a man of culture secondly always play very hard campaign and normal battle diffclt for best expiriernce , horse archery is nice in this game if you play infantry heavy take more cavalry , try to blob and attach all enemy units and than with lets say 2 cav unit chase enemy range units and with lets say 4 cav units rek the enemy from behind

[Asterius]

If you are so worried about the range units, build enough cavalry units. Then during the battle, each cavalry unit can chase one range unit. As long as you rout the range units, go back to back charge the foot.

[SnusHead]

Originally posted by dynamic_dynamite:

If you are so worried about the range units, build enough cavalry units. Then during the battle, each cavalry unit can chase one range unit. As long as you rout the range units, go back to back charge the foot.

What if the enemy has better cavalry or protects their ranged units with 2 units of spears?
that's what happens most of the time.
jutes don't have good cavalry unfortunately

[Dimitris]

in this game cavarly is essential for everything (also for some reason cavarly doesnt take charge damage from cavarly so keep that in mind)
so best option would be to play deffensively and use cavarly to attack after the ai engaged your infantry.
cant say much about playing northern kingdoms as i mostly play eastern rome and romans over all though
skirmishers are always fun!

[Pow Pow]

I think you have overlooked your chosen factions skill set.
I most recently fought a battle against western roman Separists x3 armies 2500men vs one army, second rank 1400men. I won. roughtly 1000 to 600. (heavy Spearman and slingers. ran out of rocks before the main assault.)

Considering this is playing as the franks.
I personally saw no point of squabbling around with my kinfolk over swamps and marshes.
I took to the south in exploration meeting a new world yet holding onto the motherland and reinvesting to create some sort of backbone to my economy.
Most of that invest was from raided seaport and easy targets.

i find horsemen are to expensive and quite limiting. (I purchased 10x at a cost of 300 upkeep for each.)
Personally how do horsemen travel and fight on boat. I needed a versatile fighting force. and when i really needed a unit or two, the mercenaries usually have one or two medium ranked units.

Given all that above. I settled in the mountainous region of northern spain and southern france. I intend to make that my new home (nice and warm)

[Asterius]

Originally posted by Nibbaslayer:

Originally posted by dynamic_dynamite:

If you are so worried about the range units, build enough cavalry units. Then during the battle, each cavalry unit can chase one range unit. As long as you rout the range units, go back to back charge the foot.

What if the enemy has better cavalry or protects their ranged units with 2 units of spears?
that's what happens most of the time.
jutes don't have good cavalry unfortunately

I suggest upgrading your cavalry. Or hire mercs. I agree with the post above that using your cavalry after the enemy's cavalry is in melee with your foot.

[Power and Wealth]

This is my army comp as the franks (sry):
6 archers
3 cav
1 leader
4 spears
6 sword/axe.
Sword/axe inf in front with spears on the flanks, archers in front of melee line with cav in the rear to counter any flank attempt by enemy cav.
I've found this works decently well early on but not against hun doomstacks.

Edit:
In terms of tactics, you advace til melee contact and let the enemy charge you so your inf can let off a volly of javelins. Archers fall behind your melee line and start countering enemy archers or focus down other specfic units like axes, or pikes.
Depending on the situation, use your spears to counter enemy cav and tie them down, then counter-charge with your own cav, don't take a cav charge head on with your own cav.

Edit2:
Once all the enemy inf is engaged you can counter their archers with your own cav or rear charge their inf, depending on the situation. Just don't let your cav get caught in the LoS of jav-skirmishers, they absolutely whreck cav with a few volly's from my own experience.

[SnusHead]

Originally posted by Archaos the Mad Bro:

This is my army comp as the franks (sry):
6 archers
3 cav
1 leader
4 spears
6 sword/axe.
Sword/axe inf in front with spears on the flanks, archers in front of melee line with cav in the rear to counter any flank attempt by enemy cav.
I've found this works decently well early on but not against hun doomstacks.

Edit:
In terms of tactics, you advace til melee contact and let the enemy charge you so your inf can let off a volly of javelins. Archers fall behind your melee line and start countering enemy archers or focus down other specfic units like axes, or pikes.
Depending on the situation, use your spears to counter enemy cav and tie them down, then counter-charge with your own cav, don't take a cav charge head on with your own cav.

Edit2:
Once all the enemy inf is engaged you can counter their archers with your own cav or rear charge their inf, depending on the situation. Just don't let your cav get caught in the LoS of jav-skirmishers, they absolutely whreck cav with a few volly's from my own experience.

best answer so far thanks for the advice, i'll try to change my standard army composition a little bit and see how that goes

[SnusHead]

ok i tried your composition and it didn't go well.
my cavalry got obliterated by enemy cavalry when i counterflanked them.
even with that advantage my cavalry still died to their better cav.

tried to focus down the enemy skirmishers with my archers then but they just changed to loose formation and it took my archers an eternity to kill anything.
they basically killed nothing of value.
all of my infantry was in combat and got flanked by enemy cav to death then.

i really don't get how to play a faction with trash cavalry, good cav is so important in any total war game but most most important in this game it seems

on the other hand ranged units seem to be of way less effectiveness than in other total war titles; they just take an eternity to kill anything it feels like to me

maybe just go full infantry and overrun the enemy?

[SnusHead]

also wtf is up with moral in this game?
i got an archer unit down to 3/160 units and they still weren't even wavering

[Dimitris]

yeah archer moral is very annoying some times, like you kill all their units and their general but they still dont feel ♥♥♥♥

but i think i can help
firstly dont target enemy archers especially if you have heavy infantry they will do little especially if you engage the enemy they will even do more casualties to their own
focus enemy cav to get the flanks and they clean their archers, infantry rarely defeats other infantry quickly so you can hold and destroy their support

theoretically if you have both your archers and cav fighting only their cav you should win unless its some super heavy cav like tagmata cav

furthermore i would say dont fear using your general whose cavarly is usually superior to regular cavarly against isolated targets

that much, i havent played franks or saxons much and i tend to play defensively even on offensive battles so maybe theres a better way

(ps if you have balista they will break enemy cav withing 3-4 shots if they land correctly)