Help me about Dominions 2

PhilD · #1 January 26th, 2004, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PDF:
Well, first, sending the archers as 1st wave isn't a very good idea They should sit on a flank (NOT directly behind the shock troops !! ) and be ordered to fire.

OK, this isn't the first time I've read that archers should not be placed directly behind the shock troops, but I still don't see why.

Is it because stray shots tend to be either too short or too long, not to deviate to the sides? So that it's better to have your own troops not between the archers and their targets, but more to the side? (I haven't noticed such a trend...)

Gandalf Parker · #2 January 26th, 2004, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PhilD:

quote:
Originally posted by PDF:
Well, first, sending the archers as 1st wave isn't a very good idea They should sit on a flank (NOT directly behind the shock troops !! ) and be ordered to fire.

OK, this isn't the first time I've read that archers should not be placed directly behind the shock troops, but I still don't see why.

Is it because stray shots tend to be either too short or too long, not to deviate to the sides? So that it's better to have your own troops not between the archers and their targets, but more to the side? (I haven't noticed such a trend...)

Pretty much yes. Especially with something fast that tends to run into the area that the arrows are going to come down. It seems best to either have the shooters (slngers, crossbow, bow, javelin) in the middle and fast troops on the sides, or the other way around.

[ January 26, 2004, 17:07: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]

Yhan Yhan · #3 January 26th, 2004, 09:00 PM

To help u guys out. I was elm, against the ??? They had no commander leading their army, just some light infantry in garrsison. I had 2 commanders and 1 priest. My priest onlt skill was in fire, level 3. I will make a simple map of what happened.

a=my archers: h=heavy calvary: c=commander
p=priest l=lgt. infantry. I start on right side. The ??? start on the left side.

(note, not to scale)

-Beginning of the battle (archers fire)
caa hhhhhh lll
paa hhhhhh lll
caa hhhhhh lll
-roughly 3 moves later (archers still fire)
caa hhhhhhl
paa hhhhl
caa hhhhhhl
-What makes no sense (everyone runs)
caa hhhhhh l
paa hhhh l
caa hhhhhh l
Then, it said my armies were routed. Strange. Its kinda funny when 80 against 13 lose, then retreat. Almost like US pulling out of Iraq from a small force of 500 people with bebe guns. (I may have exagerated that just a small bit) (cough, cough)

Yhan Yhan · #4 January 26th, 2004, 09:05 PM

Spelling errors from below statement.
Elm was supose to be Ulm.
??? is supose to be Arcoscephale

I am a higher schooler with the gramemr of a 2 year old. Sorry.

PvK · #5 January 26th, 2004, 10:24 PM

Arco must've had a leader somewhere. How many of your cavalry were killed? Sounds like you wiped out 2/3 of them, but your men just had a rather unlikely moment of panic and retreated before the victory. Probably due to your own men shooting them in the back.

So the 30 light didn't defeat your army of 80 - your army of 80 was wiping them out when they got disorganized and retreated, probably due to friendly fire or some other unlikely setback during the charge. I imagine your own losses were quite light, while the enemy lost 2/3 killed - a setback rather than a real defeat.

PvK

Targa · #6 January 27th, 2004, 12:01 AM

If I had to guess I'd say that your archers were hitting your heavy cavalry and though they didn't get hit often enough to kill them, it demoralized them enough to make them rout. I also agree with Phil that heavy cavalry tends to rout fairly easily. In general, I find that any units with less than 12 morale are almost useless after the first few rounds of a battle. But I'm still a newb myself....

PDF · #7 January 28th, 2004, 10:25 AM

Undoublty the Ulmish crossbowmen shot their own cav in the back (they love to do that, they just killed their Raterik hero this way in my current pbem

!), but Ulm Knights have a pretty good morale, never saw them routing against what seems to be a Cardaces defense militia !!

Indeed your troop organization was correct in terms of commanders/Groups, I can't find how such the army routed in this situation... Maybe a very unlikely failed "morale check" by the cav that propagated to the crossbowmen ...