Using Flank Sizes Properly

[David McMurdo]

Does anyone know the uses of flank sizes in any great detail? Even in the tutorial videos I've seen the subject just gets brushed over, I suspect because those making the videos only have the same vague idea that I do.

Okay, so I get that if you're fighting in plains you'd have more opportunity to make use of wider flanks, and that wider flanks would be a bad idea when fighting in mountains. But what about forests? You can switch which units are on the flanks, but is there ever a scenario in which you'd put anything but cavalry there? Speaking of that, I've noticed that by default, cavalry are set to be in the flanks, even if the army in question has no cavalry. I don't know what that's about.

So this is all a bit vague to me. Then when you add in your army's chosen tactic, it's not entirely clear how it all gels. I seek your collective wisdom on this matter.

[salad fork]

I think the wider the front the more flankers can join the immediate fighting. Without high maneuver skill the flankers wouldn't be able to engage as many targets on the battlefield. I think the default template is just there as a placeholder and shows up regardless of what army comp you have when making new forces.

I'm not exactly sure how many flankers can join in on the immediate fighting given the width so I'm not sure if it would be worth it to put other units on flanks in restricted areas like mountains. Maneuver allows them to engage targets further away from them meaning more of that unit type can take part in the immediate fighting than they would be able to without high maneuver and I think it also increase pursuit damage if the enemy routs so my best guess is cavalry is always the best option.

https://imperator.paradoxwikis.com/Deployment#Preferred_size_of_flank

[spike86]

the rationale is to manage them depending on the army composition.
as Salad fork said, flankers need high manoeuvre in order to engage past their immediate target in front.

if your troops lack manoeuvre maybe it will be better to reduce flank size, in order to not over expose troops that can't join the fight anyway.

in front i usually put archers, their low morale allow them to engage, kill some heavy or light infantry (they have bonuses) and retreat when morale drop without taking too many losses.
behind there are usually heavy troops, HI or HC, on the sides light cavalry (5) or light infantry (2)

[damianvincent]

What I do is break them down based on the number of units I have vs how many that will break down into given the flank size. For instance, and for simplicity, say you have 1,000 cav, and 1 unit of cav on each flank, well that's 1 unit of 500 cav on each flank. That's to much. I try to get about 100 cav per unit on the flanks. So with my 1,000 cav, I'll put em in a flank of 5, roughly 100 in each unit. Although the tighter the front or combat width, the bigger you may consider making your flanks to let them all engage. I really wish their was more of an organizational penalty though to stacking too many units in a flank unit purposely by the player. Maybe a bigger moral penalty, like bigger risk, but bigger reward too?

[Fat Bastard]

when engagements happen all units are sorted in a line formation to fill the available combat width. each unit takes up a tile and only attacks whatever is in front of them. if the unit they're attacking is broken, dead or didn't exist in the first place they'll start attacking diagonally. manuever stat determines how many tiles a unit can attack diagonally. f.e a horse archer has a maneuver of 5 which means it can attack up to 5 diagonal tiles from it's current position.
the game automatically puts units with high maneuver to your flanks. setting a unit to flank only places them at the far edges. f.e if you've both heavy and light cavalry in your composition light cavalry by default gets placed on the edges but if you select heavy cavalry as the flanking unit it'll overide light cavalry's place.
flank size changes how many units will be placed depending on the combat width. mind that the flank size option effects both flanks. f.e a combat with of 16 with only 2 flanks selected will fill 12 slots with primary and secondary cohorts and leaves 4 for flanking cohorts, 2 for each side.
organizing your primary, secondary and flanking cohorts depending on what culture you're up against is the key to winning engagements with ease. f.e italic cultures have bonuses to their heavy/light infantry and light cavalry. bringing horse archers or elephants as your main force with flanking heavy cavalry will make you win engagements against them with ease and minimal loses.

[damianvincent]

Good post!