Guide: (Very) Basic Battle Tactics

[OmikronWarrior]

I've considered writing a 3,000 word article (meaning big, the exact number is unimportant) just on how to fight battles before mages are factored in. But I tend not to have the time and ultimately I doubt people would get a lot out of it as mages and SC's are so ubiquitous.

I might as well give out some of the pointers.

When choosing which troops to recruit:

1) Margins matter. The difference of +2 defense might not matter for a thug, but it can make a noticeable difference when the guys upfront are exchanging blows. Now, if there exists an across the board advantage (attack, strength, hp, etc.), then you are cooking with gas.

2) Zero Protection units die way to easily to be useful, no matter what the hp and defense stats. A protection of at least 10 is highly recommended unless the unit has correspondingly better HP. E.G. 20 HP for a protection of 7 and rising exponentially from there.

3) Attack values less than 10 are trouble, as a successful defense check completely nullifies damage. Be sure to actually click the attack skill as the figure shown does not take into account weapon modifiers or dual weilding penalties.

4) Units with two attacks are twice as nice, provided the attacks do not violate point 3.

5) Strategic movement of 2 is very important, except on some custom maps with a lot of forests and mountains where the extra movement is lost anyways.

6) Paying extra for the better unit is usually worth the investment as Dom3 combat tends to favor quality over quantity. The obvious exception is if the unit is expected to die quickly to enemy evocations. Then, by all means place some cheap decoys.

7) Size, for meelee smaller is better. When up against AoE spells or other types of attacks, bigger is better.

Other Advice:

1) The engine has trouble handling archer/melee combo units such as LA Man's troops or javelin throwers. Set the unit to attack, and none will use their range weapon even if they are not in a position to meelee attack. Hold and Attack is similar, only they might use range weapons while holding if the enemy is in range. If you want a squad to do both, you really need to give it no orders. Alternatively, set them to just shoot closest. When a squad moves close enough, those on the front will move forward to engage in meelee.

2) Typical archers are near useless against high parry and high protection troops.

PS, these aren't corrections Raiel, just my own observations piggy backing on your thread.

[ano]

Lingchih
The question was not how to fight with elephants. It was how to fight against them using regular troops.

[ano]

It's easier but much more costly. Tactics mentioned above are not for those who just want to win at any cost, they're mostly for those who want to win with minimal causalities.

[vfb]

It's not much more costly if you are using freespawn or very cheap units, if doing so eats (for example) a shadow blast that would otherwise have caused significant casualties to a group of expensive units.

[ano]

No doubt that it is worth the cost in case of deflecting shadow blasts or other area spells. But, in my opinion, counting chaff as "easily expendable" is a mistake. No troop is expendable unless it eats a lot of upkeep.
For example, maenads are decent troops that cost no upkeep and thus are (and that is not obvious!) more valuable than, say, satyrs or regular infantry. If you plan to have losses, upkeep cost is a serious factor to take into account when thinking what to use as a arrow\spell decoy.
Also, later in the game with many buffs in serious battles initial quality of troops means much less than in the beginning, and if you managed to keep enough "worthless free chaff" alive, it will help you much.

[Raiel]

@ano: You're most welcome! Giving new ideas to any regulars was not something I had counted on... hoped for, but not counted on. As for HaA-C rather than GC orders on Archer decoys: You're absolutely correct, but it's my habit to use a commander with a shield and by the time arrows would be raining down around him, the archers are usually on my side of the field and sorrounded by my forces. I assumed that everyone would use shielded commanders...

@Panpiper: That's my . Thought I got all the abbreviations. Thanks for pointing that out and I'll fix the omission.

@OmikronWarrior: Exceptionally salient points; I'd just copy and paste your post into the original post if I didn't hate needless duplication of data. I'll definitely refer readers to your post, though.

@Taqwus: The point of lance absorbing is well taken (a great use for Markata). I'll throw in a final thought about taking on heavy calvary that includes this. Thanks!

Which brings me to why I'm posting this before I make any changes... How many times can I edit the Original Post?

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by Raiel

Which brings me to why I'm posting this before I make any changes... How many times can I edit the Original Post?

No limit.

For posts that aren't the first in a thread, there are no editing limits. Without it, guides, mod threads and similar would be pretty much impossible.

Non-first posts close after a certain time, about 20 minutes I think.

[ano]

How many times can I edit the Original Post?

You're not limited in it.

I assumed that everyone would use shielded commanders...

The problem here is that early on you don't want to recruit commanders in your capital because you need mages, priests and whoever else. Later, when you can recruit indy shielded commanders, you should of course use them. Frankly speaking I always knew about GC trick but rarely used it because two decoys with HaA-C orders worked quite fine. Probably, I'll start using it more because it may be efficient indeed.

p.s. I rarely say a guide is excellent. This one is, imho. And it can be developed