To stack or not to stack...

[Anaximander]

Hello all, I have a general stratagy question that has been nagging me for the last few days. What is the best stratagy of laying out your troops? Is it best to put them all in one large SOD, or spread them out? Generally, I spread my troops out. Especially when its fast moving units. I might have three or four groups of horseman/knights/calvary/etc., with 6+ units each faning out accros an enemies territory. Although this may look cool, I am starting to wonder if it is a really effective strategy. Any suggestions?

[realpolitic]

Since no one is jumping into discussing this, I guess the answer is it depends. If the enemy has railroads and you have cavalry, then getting around to various targets will be easy, concentrating your attacks won't slow you down much, so there isn't a big downside. Early in the game, you might not have many troops, so you won't want to take many risks, so again concentrate. Many other times I split my troops in half, so I can hit targets in half the time, without overexpending myself.

[UnOrthOdOx]

STACK!

Make stacks. Only multiple stacks if you have enough for multiple targets. IE, say you think it will take 5 knights to take X city and 6 to take Y city. Send 10 to attack X and 10 to attack Y.

Other than that, stack them high. The only time to spread out is to starve a city to under size 6.

[Arrian]

I go with large stacks. If I have enough troops that I feel I can put together multiple stacks which will each be able to overwhelm their objectives, then great.

If you fan out as you describe, you increase the chance that one or more of your groups will lose. A couple of bad random number rolls, and your guys could be in deep trouble. Particularly if you are not covering your horsemen/knights/cavalry with defenders (spear/pike/musket/rifle/inf). Though sending 4 groups of 6 horsies each *may* result in the swift destruction of the enemy, it also may result in heavy losses for you, thus prolonging the war.

Even if I do divide my forces, it's usually into 2 large groups, with maybe 1 smaller group sent after an outlier city (a city you know has like 1-2 AI units in it).

I'm cautious with my attack troops. My attacks move a bit slower (though I still like to use lots of mobile units like horsemen) because of that, but my losses are lower. I used to use a pure horseman attack force in the ancient age. Pure horsemen. Nothing else (this meant 25-30 horsies). Results? Swift destruction of my foes, but I always lost a fair number of horsies to counterattack, or I was forced to rushbuy or poprush regular spearmen in captured towns to prevent it.

Now I bring vet spears along, include some swordsmen, and *presto* my casualties are way down. I still poprush or rushbuy some defensive troops in captured towns, but I generally don't have to rely on them.

Anyway, long story short = big stacks are the way to go, most of the time.

-Arrian

[badams52]

What UnO said.

I generally only split stacks when I know I have an overwhelming number of troops and want to take cities twice as fast as I could otherwise. Generally my rule of thumb is for each stack to have enough troops to take 1 city.

Often that means a stack of 6-8 swordsmen with enough spearmen to leave behind in the city once it's taken. I might go as low as 4 or 5 swordsmen in a stack, but if I do so it's going at a lone city and will be used to exclusively take that one city.

For knights/cavalry, I know the defense get's better and I rarely split my SOD unless I have overwhelming forces. Depending upon the AIs forces, I sometimes move my knights/cavalry with the slower pikemen/musketmen/riflemen so that they don't get injured in transit to the target location.

Of course if I have a knight or cavalry army, then using defensive units becomes moot as the AI avoids attacking the army and I can quickly blast city after city.

[Arrian]

Of course if I have a knight or cavalry army, then using defensive units becomes moot as the AI avoids attacking the army and I can quickly blast city after city.

Yeah, that works well. So does mountain-hopping with knights and cav (6 defense up on those mnts). If the AI does attack you, you have the advantage (unless they hit with Cav, in which case it's merely even).

-Arrian

[Anaximander]

Thanks guys, top notch stuff . I really appreciate the advice. I will make sure to implement them into my current game!

[Arrian]

Go get 'em!

-Arrian

[Theseus]

If you have any zero defense units involved, stack EVERYTHING!

[Panzer32]

Originally posted by Arrian


Yeah, that works well. So does mountain-hopping with knights and cav (6 defense up on those mnts). If the AI does attack you, you have the advantage (unless they hit with Cav, in which case it's merely even).

-Arrian

This strategy works amazingly well with Riders

[Kaos XIII]

There is one positive note on not stacking in one group.
And that is that the AI avoids coming at you with a SOD.

In my experience, the AI will counter your small groups, with small groups of their own. This can be good at Emperor/ Diety.

But, once Artilleries appear, an enemy SOD no longer poses any challenge. This is when I go Island Hopping and so should you.

[bongo]

Stacks are good I use them all the time. But it is important to know when to split them and how. One single SOD right into your enemys core is devastating but very often I employ small groups to secure my rear and flanks. Those small 'guard-stacks' can be most effective when the AI has gone into 'panic'-mode and lacks the units to effectively counterattack. You still need the large stacks to take his cities though, the small ones are just for scouting, guarding and disrupting trade.

[Arrian]

Originally posted by Panzer32


This strategy works amazingly well with Riders

Yeah, yeah, go ahead and rub that in, why don't you. So we shoulda blocked Toledo 2. So be it. It ain't over yet!

-Arrian

[Yahweh Sabaoth]

I've found that on wimpy Regent mode, 1 huge stack per front is very effective. Of course, it depends on the nature of the front. Obviously, a narrow front makes life easy, but what about a front that quickly widens out? This makes life aggravating in general. Here, continuing with the 1 stack to the capital city can greatly cripple the enemy - if that's your goal - but it leaves your newly captured cities up for recapture by enemy units sent from the cities to the "side" that you've bypassed.

In this case, there's no alternative (it seems) to simply having a truly giant stack that can split into several (still huge) stacks afterwards. I'd rather have 3 groups of 10 riders taking 3 cities with an acceptable level of casualties, than 30 riders taking one city, but having numerous flank attacks. Then again, I send few defensive units with me, generally, just cause they don't keep up as well, and I want to end most wars quickly (yes, wars of attrition are good for elites, but generally, wide-front wars are waged against a well developed, cultured enemy that can afford to fight back).

Once your huge stack splits up, it can always rejoin for the offensive on the captial, or other well-defended and important cities. ONCE AGAIN, this tactic is intended for wars where the goal is to conquer the enemy empire whole. Wars of pure disruption - typically wars against a distant enemy you want to cripple, but whose land could be largely "worthless" otherwise - can be waged with 1 solid stack the whole way through. After all, in these wars, you might as well destroy cities as you go...

[Arrian]

As usual, it's important to note that level of play matters.

On Regent or lower, splitting your troops tends to be more effective than it is on the upper levels.

On Monarch, the AI will have 2 defensive + 1 offensive units in most border towns, and more in the interior.

On Emperor, they will have more. Dividing your forces, unless you have a big advantage, is not usually a smart idea.

I don't even wanna think about what you would find on Deity.

Anyway, the point is that a lot of this comes with experience. You will get used to what force levels you will need to take cities from the AI on the various levels of play.

-Arrian