What is the best way to fight skeletons?

[BobFigus79]

Its day 70, I have only 12 men, half of which are lvl 1 or 2. Am I bad.

[Kazaaakplethkilik]

You may be in a bit of trouble. I used to find myself in similar situations but I started to force myself to build a bench, rotating guys in and out for a greater skill set diversity and higher average levels across the board. That way when you take some battle casualties you aren't trying to take on skeletons with a bunch of scrubs and high level archers because you don't have a choice.

[gnorf73]

I like having at least a couple axe bros and hammers in the middle of my formation, with at least one greatsword on each flank. The greataxe with weapon mastery will break one of their shields with 1 hit, and the hammers work really well after that. The greatswords can flank their backline and use their ability to hit 2 of the unshielded pike wielders in a row. Using nets on the shielded ones can help, since it can force the pikes to go in front of them but you gotta kill them before they get rotated out. Having a couple high melee defense spear/shield bros can help, if you send them one space ahead of the rest of your line and spearwall. That way if you do it right you can break up their line and trickle them in instead of having to fight them all at once and your shields tank the first hits from the pikes instead of your 2h bros.

I'm not sure how helpful this will be though with your currest save, I think you're in a bit of trouble there. Not unrecoverable though if you take good fights. I'd suggest either brigand or young orc hunting and take as few jobs as possible while you catch up since that will raise your renown and make it scale harder on you.

[laveley]

2 handers.

[Horoai]

Actually, if your condition wasn't so messed up the the correct answer would be flail duelists.

Everything about this setups makes them a hard counter to ancient undead:
- Weak undead head armor vs 100% headshot chance
- All armor but no HP on ancient vs decent armor damage
- Shield wall formation vs flails ignore shields
- Ancient don't use ranged weapons => You safe perks and fatigue for shield swapping

A decent flail duelist can even kill honor guards in one turn.

[千仞万渊]

Im afraid axe and hammer is not a good solution.

If you are only lv1-2. I have an suggestion for you, the undead scenerio is the best place to test your tactic.

[Wight Trash]

How to win against skeletons.

Are skeletons supposed to be beatable? I have never been able to even come close.

[bouchard_670]

Yes they totally are. There's many ways to deal with the Ancient Dead. Here are a few.

Flails and Axes:

Early game, flails are very efficient and easy to use. Since the Ancient Dead love to hide behind their shield walls, to ability of the flail to ignore it comes handy. Also, once you pass that defense they are quite vulnerable and only a few it are necessary to dispatch them. Furthermore, the flail has the ability to aim for the head, they are very vulnerable to this. Alternatively if flails are not available to you, use axes to break their shields.

Defensive Play:

If weapons do not come a plenty and you find yourself short on coins, let them come to you and save some fatigue. Unlike other enemies, the Ancient Dead do not fatigue so managing yours is critical.

Avoid Ranged Weapons, Swords and Spears:

Arrows, Bolts and Swords do very little damage to Ancient Deads, its good to switch those brothers up before engaging them. If you don't have spare brothers, I suggest equipping pikes or long-axes on your backrow. The long-axe allows to dispatch shields from 2 tiles away. Also, even though the spears add chances to hit, the damage they deal against skeletons is too little to even bother using them. You will tire your men quickly on pointless attacks and spearwalls.

Surround Tactics:

If you didn't already know this, the surround tactic is very useful early game when your brothers don't have enough melee skills to land hits consistantly. The more brothers around a single target, the better your chances to hit.

Scatter Tactics:

If you are in possesion of Nets or War Dogs, both these tools can be used to break the Ancient Dead's tight formation (Which is their main strenght). You can immobilize them with nets and move in the surround or distract them from moving or targeting valuable brothers by unleashing war dogs upon them.

Two-Handers:

Though I would not recommend this early game, the two-handed weapons are devastating against Ancient Dead. Have it be a Greatsword or Maul... Both will crush them in an instant. But make sure your brother is wearing sufficient armor to take some hits or is adept at melee skills.

Hope that helps.

[Wight Trash]

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

[JamFalcon]

All my 2h have quick hands and carry a polearm like billhook or long axe in addition to their greatsword or hammer. This lets them ignore the shield wall and pick off the back line of spearmen that do the real damage. plus the long axes can destroy most of their shields in one hit.