How to effectively use Night Attack?

[∆ηεẘbïş]

I've never done one, because it seemed like the only result would be my archers becoming useless.

[Iron Ben]

Night attacks prevent reinforcements...


IE: you attack an enemy army that has another stack reinforcing it. By attacking at night, you'll only slug it out vs. the one stack you attacked instead of facing them both on the battlefield.



***Almost certain it also applies a morale debuff on the receiving end of the aforementioned night assault.***

[BastardSword]

It doesn't affect archers AFAIK. As long as it isn't raining they can still use fire arrows too.

Iron Ben explained it pretty well. If the AI are moving two or more armies toward you and they're all right next to one another, you can use night attack and fight them one at a time instead of all together. Very very very useful.

[∆ηεẘbïş]

ty both

[Iron Ben]

Originally posted by ∆ηεẘbïş:

ty both

[Mile pro Libertate]

Originally posted by Iron Ben:

Night attacks prevent reinforcements...


IE: you attack an enemy army that has another stack reinforcing it. By attacking at night, you'll only slug it out vs. the one stack you attacked instead of facing them both on the battlefield.



***Almost certain it also applies a morale debuff on the receiving end of the aforementioned night assault.***





:cozyhitman2:

Originally posted by BastardSword:

It doesn't affect archers AFAIK. As long as it isn't raining they can still use fire arrows too.

Iron Ben explained it pretty well. If the AI are moving two or more armies toward you and they're all right next to one another, you can use night attack and fight them one at a time instead of all together. Very very very useful.

Attacking one stack at a time only happens if the reinforcing stacks are not lead by generals who have night fighting capability.

So say you are facing two enemy stacks, A and B, and they are within reinforcement range/ZOC radius of each other, and say the commander of A does not have night fighting trait, but the commander of B does: if you do a night attack against A, B *will be able to join the battle as reinforcement for A*, because the leader of B has the night fighting trait; if you attack B, however, A will not come in as reinforcements, because leader of A does not have the night fighting trait.

So attacking at night is not a guarantee of fighting only one stack in isolation. It all depends on if the commanders of the various stacks have night fighting capability or not, so make sure to gather intel on the different stacks and plan accordingly.

Likewise, your own stacks will also be unable to reinforce each other in night attacks if they don't have night fighting capability. So theoretically, you could actually be at a disadvantage by attacking at night. For example, you have a 12 stack with a commander that has night attack capability, and a reinforcing 15 stack lead by a guy who does not, and then you attack an enemy 10 stack that has no night attack capability, while a reinforcing enemy 15 stack does have the capability: in this situation, you aren't attacking at an advantage by attacking at night; you just committed your 12 stack to an attack against a combined 25 enemy units, and without the ability of your extra 15 units to assist you. Woops :D

As for morale debuffs, that also depends on the traits of the leaders involved. There are some traits that will cause subject units to suffer lowered combat capability when fighting at night.

However, there are also traits that improve units' quality when fighting at night.

So again, get intel on the stacks you're facing, and make sure you are aware of your own stacks' traits as well, before deciding to execute night operations.

Pertaining to archers and other missiles, keep in mind that night does reduce visual range, so effective shooting opportunities are lessened, and accuracy suffers.

This is more of a factor if you're playing with the Realistic Battles option ticked and/or at Legendary difficulty, because spotting distance is both reduced, and tied to that of your units' LOS (line of sight) and visual range, not "God camera."

So, while archers and gunners will not become useless at night, they can be less effective at night, all other things equal.

In short, night attacks can be very useful, but that depends on context and situation. Given the traits of your leaders and those of the enemy, you may very well be placing yourself at a significant disadvantage attacking at night. Night attacks do not always ensure that the enemy will be without reinforcements, and In some situations, all it will do is ensure that you lose reinforcement ability while the enemy retains theirs. Additionally, you may well deny the enemy reinforcements, but given traits, nonetheless incur combat debuffs for your guys and/or give combat buffs to your enemy.

[markeason]

Originally posted by Mile pro Libertate:

So attacking at night is not a guarantee of fighting only one stack in isolation. It all depends on if the commanders of the various stacks have night fighting capability or not, . . .

Is this correct ?

I am sure in a recent Hattori campaign I set up a situation to exploit this and am sure that my reinforcing army (commanded by a Hattori general) was also excluded from the night battle.

I am working from recollection here and an assumption that all Hattori generals have the night-fighter ability.

[Edit: In fact I just tried it in the initial battle - see screen shot below]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2422157955

[markeason]

Text in game Encyclopedia regarding Night Battles

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2422169642

Harder to see
Range reduction
Morale penalty if not commanded by general with night-fighter capability
No reinforcements (irrespective of general having night fighter capability)

Is how I read that.

[Mile pro Libertate]

Originally posted by markeason:

Originally posted by Mile pro Libertate:

So attacking at night is not a guarantee of fighting only one stack in isolation. It all depends on if the commanders of the various stacks have night fighting capability or not, . . .

Is this correct ?

I am sure in a recent Hattori campaign I set up a situation to exploit this and am sure that my reinforcing army (commanded by a Hattori general) was also excluded from the night battle.

I am working from recollection here and an assumption that all Hattori generals have the night-fighter ability.

[Edit: In fact I just tried it in the initial battle - see screen shot below]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2422157955

Yes, I was mistaken regarding joining as reinforcement with night capability. Thanks for correcting me on that big flubb, Markeason.

I was hanging out on Medieval 2 forums just before and was thinking about the way Med handled night fighter traits.

Brain fart.

Lol...but yeah, definitely something to have straight.

Originally posted by markeason:

Text in game Encyclopedia regarding Night Battles

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2422169642

Harder to see
Range reduction
Morale penalty if not commanded by general with night-fighter capability
No reinforcements (irrespective of general having night fighter capability)

Is how I read that.

Yes, that's basically my take too, as per first post: range/accuracy reductions; spotting reduced (Battle Realism/Legendary); morale buff/debuff depending on night fighter traits.

Thanks again.

[markeason]

Originally posted by Mile pro Libertate:

Originally posted by markeason:

Is this correct ?

I am sure in a recent Hattori campaign I set up a situation to exploit this and am sure that my reinforcing army (commanded by a Hattori general) was also excluded from the night battle.

I am working from recollection here and an assumption that all Hattori generals have the night-fighter ability.

[Edit: In fact I just tried it in the initial battle - see screen shot below]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2422157955

Yes, I was mistaken regarding joining as reinforcement with night capability. Thanks for correcting me on that big flubb, Markeason.

I was hanging out on Medieval 2 forums just before and was thinking about the way Med handled night fighter traits.

Brain fart.

Lol...but yeah, definitely something to have straight.

Originally posted by markeason:

Text in game Encyclopedia regarding Night Battles

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2422169642

Harder to see
Range reduction
Morale penalty if not commanded by general with night-fighter capability
No reinforcements (irrespective of general having night fighter capability)

Is how I read that.

Yes, that's basically my take too, as per first post: range/accuracy reductions; spotting reduced (Battle Realism/Legendary); morale buff/debuff depending on night fighter traits.

Thanks again.

No problem.

I was certain that the reinforcing general could come if he had night fighter skill/trait (sure I have read it on the net or heard it on youtube vid. I was surprised to find it didn't work the way I expected, so tried again and eventually took man's last resort and read the manual.

That didn't help med in my current campaign, playing Mori and converting to Christianity. Teching as fast as I could to get those Portuguese Tercos, havinf assumed they were available to any Christian clan. It pretty much spoiled my day (not to mention my campaign plan) when I realised they were exclusive to the Otomo.

[In my defence the manual does not indicate that they are an Otomo only unit]. :)