I am working on a tactic to overwhelm my apponent by sheer weight of numbers. Not a new concept in strategy games.

But I was looking at ways to produce maximum troops as fast as possible.

I have found it extremely hard to get advanced troops at decent numbers, but a combined 2xspearman/1xbalista combo was working ok.

I tried a few odds and ends in the training game here are some screen shots of my new tactic. (I had 7 units of 10 spearmen off-screen helping to take more mines)

Tell me what you think and see if you have any suggestions.

Turn 22:
www.online-behemoth.com/production.jpg

Turn 34:
www.online-behemoth.com/production2.jpg

Had I not been fiddling with the advanced troops I think I could have just about doubled the number of spearmen and balista you see there.

Also how well do spearmen with maxed armour and weapons upgrade and a command bonus stack against advanced troops?

Last Edited : Thursday, 23 August 2007 - 03:03

in most camps battles start very quickly and there is little time to really build up a large force to assault and enemy. it is however a good tactic even without the stagering number you suggested, though there is no daught in my mind that advanced and upward are far more powerful and can match spears twice or three times their number. it ultimately comes down the fact that they are more power for less area and in camp it is easy to confine a battle to a place were maby 5 to 7 melee units are clashing and sometimes it can go as low as 2 in which case the spears would just get in the way and the ballista would be the only chance of defeating a wall of squires or pikes none the less more advanced units.

It would probably be wiser to have the spears as fodder or cover for stronger units and of greater veriety because as is this army would be extremely suseptable to a mainly squire force which could rip through the spears and receive considerablely less damage from the ballista.

Last Edited : Thursday, 23 August 2007 - 04:00

Yeah this tactic wouldn''t work on a closed map at all.
It relies on being able to get max units in against your apponent and hitting the one target multiple times a turn.
Then you would want the retal to wipe out a unit so a new one could step in.

I was trying to do a starting swarm of spears, then switch to squires and then later on pump out loads of marksmen.

But Marksmen are only +0.7 per turn max.
So I think Balista are slightly better. Although the ranged bonus for marksmen is good if I have mounds of spearmen in the way forcing me to max range all the time. lol.

I''d go with a Scout/Balli combo instead. Scouts are only slightly slower to produce, move faster, and are more durable. They are more expensive, tho. Build a mass of 1-pop scouts to absorb the retal, then hit multiple times with 10-pops. Even so, this will not work in a duel against steady pressure by more advanced troops (pikes or squires) unless you can really work the terrain. I tried it against Crimsondawn and got spanked pretty good

Well tried the tactic with scouts.

Turn 22 I managed to get whats in this screenshot.

www.online-behemoth.com/scout_production.jpg

I had 1 barracks making Heavy Cav and 2 making scouts with maxed training tech.

a terrible idea wtf you thinking you crazy *******

Last Edited : Sunday, 26 August 2007 - 22:42

lol. crimson.

Heres a turn 40 screenshot of the same tactic.

www.online-behemoth.com/cav_production.jpg

I dont think I''d switch to heavy cav and falchs so fast though.
Probably go for a mix of scouts and ballista for the medium term then switch to heavy cav and falchs later on.

seems a good tactic though your lack of proper range support and vulnerablity to rock types would be a set back, you might consider getting the third barracks to produce ballista about turn 10-15 and continueing with the scouts from there. also this leaves alot to be desired form a seige perspective. an enemy will probably have decent defences by turn 30 or so and the scouts could be pick off slowly but surely by ranged units inside, and with walls it would take you at least 6 turns to break through, thats asuming they don''t send reinforcements by then or don''t have a good garrison on hand. the scouts are good for storming in and securing a fairly ungaurded castle till a commandeer can get there but against a well fortified castle they go pretty quickly.

Yes I must agree.
I think instead of going right for the heavy cav I should switch to ballista and rush forward with scouts, use them to seize mines etc and then follow up with a pile of ballistas.

Once i have 4/5 barracks going switch to falchs, heavy cav and ballista to bolster the remaining scouts.

but even on turn 20, 20/30 stacks of 10 pop scouts, get the movement and scouting upgrades. Rush forwards and steal mines where I can or gang bash any troops out side of the castle, force them to retreat behind the walls. Take the resources from them which means when the ballista rock up later on I can easily grind them down.

its a strategy i would like very much to see used in a camp. keep me updated on how it goes it would be cool to see if it works as well in theory as it does in game. the one thing to really keep in mind though is that you are playing other "real" people, so conditions change and things can hardly ever go as expected. being flexible is key to wining =P

Yes, please bring your scout hoarde to my door on turn 20 or 30, I will introduce you to my buddy the Maceman. He has a tendancy of making a horse and soldier milkshake out of them.

Any proper Scout, Mace combo with my own balista backing will, over time, defeat your scout only army.

Jmac D~S

Hence why it wasn''t scout only.. lol.
Its just maxed out scouts at the start.

Did you look at the screen shots dude?

Knowing how to pump out wads of troops is a great skill. So is using them effectively.

Been learning about ZoC today in chat.
Excellent lesson from Bio.

Screenshot of doodles we did:

www.online-behemoth.com/tempthingypn7.png

Imagine a good tactician with my maximised troop production strat and a good blend of troops.
Thats why I''m working on this.

yes very excellent thank you bio. i was working with the outadated system we didn''t use any more no wonder i was having trouble holding people back. any new players i would definately recoment you checking this out. black dots are moutains trees ect. the blue are your units, red enemy units. and the red spaces are what represent areas under zone control.

Do we have the original that Bio did without my "additions"?

lol.

img292.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tempthingypn7.png

*_* Biodus *_*

Thanks bio.

See now if you use the Zoc well on a more open field map, combine a mix of scouts, spears and archers with early maxed troop production.
Improve to Ballista and Pikes later on.
Would be nasty nasty.

Must test strategy.

get your level to 200 (which is fairly easy) and test it with the big boys, then you will really see what works

its nice to see you being new and having so many ideas to try out


☺ Titonator ☺

Already on track for my 200 so long as things keep going well in my current games.

I''m currently ranked 1 and 2 in my two camps.


I''ll test my strats on new players for a bit though, that way if it doesn't work I know that it wont work on the big guys. lol.

Last Edited : Wednesday, 29 August 2007 - 20:10