Just post some custom setups for battles that you use now or use to use. Dont reveal your secrets though!

For the 6000 point customs I sometimes like to use alot of mace, 6 - 8 marks and a few spears as fodder. Works well sometimes depends if the enemy has alot of HC, or alot of knights

I find a 6k custom is best with a balance of HC and ranged with some Mace and archers for defense and fodder.

generic much :p

One thing I see people try all the time is 8 HC 8 spears in a 6k. It nearly never works. while the HC are trying to break through the front they are dying like flies from ranged attacks. Only if the troop of the day is HC and the enemy uses few ranged does it have much of a chance.

I think HC are great for, if nothing else, rather expensive decoys. Of course not in battles, but in campaigns.

Think about it. If you SOMEHOW (economical advantage, extra castles, less fighting even), managed to wind up with about fifty HC in front of your opponent, all the ranged would be directed to it. As Mog has said: "It's as if the HC have targets painted on them". This tactic was used effectively against me in a campaign... but luckily he had no ranged and couldn't press the advantage of luring away most of my troops.

Of course this more likely than not would not apply in higher ranked games, when getting almost anything ahead would require being next to an inactive or a pushover, etc.

I think a micture of Marksmen, HC, Mace, and Knights is perfect. You put your Mace on fornt line, have the marks be the offensive push for the the rounds. Your mace will be eliminated sooner or later. You should destroy enough of their power with your marks to get the advantage.

If they have put more power into front rank troops, you simply go on defensive. If they put more troops on range, you use your knights and HC to advance quickly. If they put it out evenly like you did, you attempt to play a game of longevity on defensive, using your marks to eliminate more front ranks then they eliminate of yours.

I'm not that experienced though, so I might be wrong.

Having pure Mace/Marks/Knights/HC would be good, but take some Spears to use as retal soakers.

I don't know if the retal soakers theory is that great. Everyone uses Mace, and until end game, the retal soakers aren't even used. By end game, it's mostly HC and Knights. This leaves the retal soakers with one "soak" before dying, then ussually only 2 hits after that.

Are they really effective?

I have only used these troops, as my mixture in most customs does leave me with some change to get them, to disrupt the enemies formation. Will push them out of sight and then come in behind fast on their archers, they have to reformate and it sometimes throws them off. But with a good player, this always fails and they have no problem dealing with the disturbance.

i like to use retal jinx and use it quite often in my battles as do most of the more experienced players in waronline.

PIMP

if you don't like spears for retal soakers use archers, that way when you aren't using them for fodder they can still shoot at the enemy.

Or use comms...when they are sitting around they give a nice boost to your marksmen...and they die really easy!

I must always use comms ... because all my stacks "die real easy!"

well i havnt been around for a while but when i am i usaly as most ppl who play me know go all ore nearly all melee

its just for the simple fact that if you can have all you units hit in a all melee army you will do more dmg per round then a ranged opponet
how you manage this is up to your inovation and skill but if you can you should win most of the time

Even when I go heavy on the melee I like to have at least a couple of marksmen to clear otherwise hard to bother hitting troops, like a 2 pop mace in my way. Pure melee tends to get bogged down and usually doesn't get used up every turn, just a portion of the troops can hit while the other guy peppers you with all his arrows.

in larg games thats true but in mid to small games you can usaly hit whith all your troops
extra mp affter an attack is a very usfull thing

Using archers or Coms as retal soakers sounds alot more effective then using swordsmen or spears.

I saw a strategy that I found interesting. TONS of spearmen, then TONS of marksmen. It was very effective against my "overall" strategy, as my front line was destroyed from the marks before I even got half-way through his spearmen.

Spearmen-marks is worthless unless the spear/marks guy has 6 or 7 more marksmen than you.

Anyone with a decent amount of marksmen AND regular melee will slaughter you if they're smart. They shoot your marksmen with theirs, kill a stack. You are forced to retaliate likewise or they'll pick off ALL of your stacks that way. It goes back and forth for 3, 4, 5 turns at least.

All that while they're chopping through your spears with their melee, since ANYTHING can kill spears. By the time you've killed all the opponent's marksmen, you're almost out of spears, your marks are weakened, and the melee will...well...eat you.

I had 4 marks, he had about 10, along with 10 -15 spears. Then 2 commandeers, and one knight or something. I just looked at it, this can be done with 3k scenario. 10 marks and 12 spear along with more melee.

What happens. He puts the knight or HC on second rank. You move in and try to kill him. you destroy his first rank. woohoo, 4 spearmen.

The 10 marks are not within range of your marks ... what kind of amatuer play are you talking about???? The marks can reach the front line, and only the front line. His marks destroys your front line, along with that Knight or HC on the second rank, which will only kill something and move back, recreating the front line, then the same thing all over.

By the time you've destroyed all of his spearmen, 4 turns of battle, your troops have no chance to go up against the little troops he has and he just uses ZoC to give himself the melee advantage, and your finished.

I've only played it once, I will have to relook at it, but from what I saw, if it is played CORRECTLY (not putting your range in range of their range???) then it is pretty effective.

Well, like I said, if your opponent has 6 or 7 more marksmen than you...you picked too few marksmen and you're probably screwed.