So, let’s break away a little bit from the complaining. In hopes the siege meta finally breaks, I have some exciting stuff I’d like to talk about.
So, this is a war game. We gotta act and react strategically to what our opponent is doing, and during the matches we don’t have exactly enough time to go through every possible move we can do before deciding. One of the things we have to think about is our army composition. I’d like us to theorize, in this post, about some combinations, but there is a catch.
The devs told us that they want this game to be a game of mixed armies, and I think this is beautiful. I saw a clear example of the strengths of mixed armies during the Rus FC horse archers meta, where in some pro match Knights + Mangudai crushed the opponents horse archers. The knights forced the HA to run, while the Mangudai kept shooting. If the HA stopped to kill the Mangudai, the Knights would wreck them.
At that point I realized the strenght of Mangudai and some things about Unique Units: UUs are the curveballs, the odd ones that will shine in a way that no other unit will. For Mangudai, their strength is on a mobile fight, not only in hit-and-run tactics, but more clearly when the entire battlefield is moving! Even longbows are more than simply “better archers”, as they can heal by themselves, with campfire, can more easily pierce through armor, due to higher attack, and although they can’t fight horsemen and knights head on, they can make themselves harder to cleanup or to be flanked, due to palings.
Most recently, I started to play around with army comps, and got some interesting results. For example, HRE can use a spear + Landsknecht comp to beat MAA + Xbows. It’s a nice transition if you were previously using MAA or Knights. The reason it is good is because spears, although having not a lot of damage output, are the perfect cannon fodder, due to being cheap, while the Landsknechte can wreck everything in the battlefield. It might look like a silly decision, but bear in mind that, although you are using one expensive unit, your opponent is also using two expensive units (100f for MAA is no joke), specially for early to mid castle age. It’s a relatively cheap transition, and if you have the production buildings, it’s easy to outmass the opponent and get some terrain from that move.
Another composition I’ve been trying with Abbassids, specially against a Knight heavy comp, is Camel Archers + spears + lancers. Use the Camels in the same control group that your spears. Spears + CA is the final anti-knight combo, needless to say, but is also good against enemy spears, specially if you have Camel Support tech, due to CA ridiculous bonus damage agains light melee infantry. The lancers are good against pretty much every ranged unit, so if the opponent tries mass archers, the chance of success is not exactly high. Also, if needed, as Abbs you can use your spears to build siege accordingly, and without needing to wait for them to move from your base into the battlefield.
Well, I’d like to hear from you, guys, the comps you have been trying. Tell us why you started using it, in which situations it is good, if it’s a power play, a good transition or just a cheesy move. Let’s share experiences and help the meta develop into something we all will like to play: where we will have to scout our opponent and counter his army, instead of just defaulting into the same strategy over and over.
And please, try to add to this topic ONLY to comment on this subject. Try to not complain about the state of civs, about the “game is still in beta” or any kind of stuff that doesn’t add to this dicussion. The forums are already filled with that kind of toxic stuff, and I humbly ask you to keep it out of this post. Thank you.
We all know this game have a lot of potential. The devs are doing their best. Let us do our best too.