Whenever I'm fed up with campaigning and organizing entire cities, peoples and various armies, I just submerge myself in some simple, classy belligerence with custom battles. This is an individual battle documentary that will explore the subtleties of warfare. This was actually the only thing I did when I didn't have the guts to begin a grand campaign, so I can say I'm fairly experienced in designing and forming different variants of army groups using the many factions and troops that are available in MTWII. Unfortunately, all these battle tactics are rather one-dimensional and may turn a strategically inclined campaigner into a blunted fighter of assorted kinds. However, if you usually tend to complain about the simulator tool in the campaign, and how it functions rather awkwardly, and if you want to prove your true worth on the battle field this is a great way to improve yourself, because when campaigning, even if you do not possess savvy as a governor, keeping your enemies disquieted on the battlefield will make you a mighty, resistant foe. So - improve yourself as a commander! This is what Total War is for.
Venice vs. Milan
I chose Venice since I found myself immersed in formulating strategies for the Italian merchants, and because I always found their particular brands of soldiers to be some of the best in the game. However, I will play as Milan on this game, because I find great pleasure in withstanding against a great brickwalled assault of Venetian heavy infantry, while holding the lines with a patch of troops. Milan is situated as the defenders this game, because having a defensive stance always gives you infinite sight over the entire map, in contrast to the attacking side who can only scroll over to territories that are in the surrounding on the troops. This is a tactic that you should apply to campaign battles as well. Even when you have a vast army looking upon the enemy lines, try to convince you're enemy to strike first so that you'll have the advantage of sight. Additionally, defeating a belligerent and attacking opponent in his/her own game is quite a victory, and quite a heavy defeat for the enemy. Coming back to the game, I have stationed each faction with the following troops:
Venice
General's Battalion - Venetian Heavy Infantry, full silver experience
Venetian Heavy Infantry, 14 Battalions, no experience
Peasant Archers, 2 Battalions, full bronze experience
Pike Militia, 2 Battalions, full bronze experience
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Milan
General's Battalion - Knights Templar, fully experienced
General's Bodyguard, 1 Battalion, fully experienced
Sergeant Spearman, 4 Battalions, full silver experience
Musketeers, 2 Battalions, full silver experience
Genoese Crossbowman, 3 Battalions, full bronze experience
Dismounted Feudal Knights, 2 Battalions, full bronze experience
Catapults, 2 Battalions, fully experienced
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Location: Scottish Glen
As you can well see, the Venetian host is a mighty singular structure of steel and hammers, with a minor boost of pikes to repel any feral cavalry incursion, whereas the Milanese force is a rather patchwork army of different sorts, particularly relying on the ranged troops to deal a sufficiently strong blow before the opposing horde clashes with the thin line of defenders. Catapults help a great deal, especially if they can actually hit their designated targets, however, I'm more reliant on the crossbowman who will undoubtedly pepper the enemy with bevy of arrows, and the musketeers who are well inclined to fire from a great distance - unlike arquebusiers. What I want to do as the defending host is to simply lure the gigantic enemy horde towards my front flank using that single piece of general's bodyguard, does drawing my net around the Venetian armor with the piercing superiority of my crossbows and muskets. Muskets are excellent ranged implements in the short-run, and later on they will also serve as a light fore-layer to hinder accelerating Venetian infantry, because with their penchant for not being able to fire behind allied lines, they're practically useless when the armies engage. Instead, I used them as a sort of meat wall...Before the battle commences, I arrange my troops. The spears from a chunky front line, fairly lengthy and thick, while my two knight battalions, form a thinner second line exactly behind them. You see, even when there's no need to guard your side flanks from brisk flows of heavy and light cavalry, - equally dangerous and bewildering at a position like this - it's obligatory that you extend your line to a certain degree, so that the entire wall of enemy troops don't come pummeling in from only one destination. However, especially when facing against a host that rather lacks diversity, your column of troops shouldn't be too long, for they may possible never get attacked. And don't want to form a homogeneous line with my spears collected at one spot and my knights at another. An adequately allocated, heterogeneous line formation is the quintessential formula to victory. We need to block them, exhaust them. And if the spears aren't backed up by anything the Venetian heavy infantry will rip through them like cutting butter with a hot knife. My crossbowmen, who are fairly apart from my melee column are positioned perfectly so that they can bloody the enemy's troops before they even get there; without doing much unintentional damage to my ranks. The musketeers are, as I said, positioned right in front of my spearmen so that they'll as much damage as possible before melee engagement. My general's unit is behind all these columns of flesh, my catapults are placed alongside my crossbows, and finally, my one bait cavalry unit remains towards my right flank, ready to intercept, and, if possible, lure the enemy.
The battle begins, and the Venetians instantly send forth their two peasant archers, their formation dispersing briskly as they plod along. This is a common mistake all NPCs make, to their great dismay. Sending the missile troops right away before the melee forces even intercept is not a genuinely genius move, and I tend to find it rather expedient, hindering the enemy's advance. For some odd reason, NPCs are always disillusioned on this certain subject. They think they can inflict a good deal of damage on us, and while this may be true if they had a large mass of ranged units, their current ranged offensive consists solely of two ragged peasant archer battalions, so they don't stand a fucking chance against my own array of muskets and crossbows. My musketeers fire before anything else, spontaneously festooning the archers' bodies with bullets and gunpowder.
One minor note on the usage of musketeers - never direct them to attack a particular enemy battalion: For some reason they procrastinate their bullet barrage when they are directly ordered to aim, so I just leave them untouched and they automatically start firing. The series of ranged attacks that my muskets can conjure are deadly. Before even contenting themselves with a proper position, about one third of the peasant archers are dead, they're fleshy bodies no match for blazing bullets. Soon enough, the crossbows enter the foray, and arrows begin to sharply pierce through the air. The enemy archer are so perpexed by the sudden bombardment that one battalion starts to route, having lost nearly half of its original numbers. The second battalion is more persistent, and manages to bring down a handful of my own, closely grouped men before eventually forfeiting. At the same time, my catapults are raining blazing boulders upon the gleaming metal masses of Venice, doing chocks of damage.
As my single cavalry division clashes with the Venetians' flank, they manage sever the Venetian heavy infantry greatly, tearing down about a hundred men almost instantaneously. However, my cavalry gradually diminish and finally perish and the clobbering mass of heavy infantry - ultimately becoming successful in luring my opponents. The routing archer battalion eventually gathers its courage and starts taunting me with bevies of flaming arrows - nothing of great concern, but I was occasionally frightened by the prospect of losing my catapults to the flames. That, thankfully, never happened. Instead, my fire-spewing machines tossed away rocks right into the middle of the Venetian army. By the time, the Venetians had left their original position of stance, the ground was littered with charred corpses. Once the Venetians were close enough I had to use one of my musketeers (who was not firing because of a hill that hampered their aim) as bait to ascertain the Venetians' offensive. My plan works. I quickly gather my muskets (which inevitably diminished in numbers following my distraction tactic) to form their original line in front of my spears, and the two armies become so close that collision becomes imminent.
I order my incendiary boulder barrage to cease, because I can't risk burning my own troops in the catapult barrage. The Venetian heavy infantry are hugely prestigious from the start, despite their loss in numbers from the previous arrow and bullet bevies. The massive charge bonus these guys have proves their worth - the tinny column of musketeers are completely smashed, and many heavy even infantry even manage to filter through the first line and onto the spearwall. My spearmen suffer huge losses in the initial phases of the battle, though I had been expecting this. In fact, I'm not too worried with my knights forming an equally impenetrable wall of steel as the Venetian heavy infantry. However, things are starting to look rather grim for me. An immense stack of pikeman and heavy infantry are piled in the middle section of my line, and my spearmen are melting away fast, with my musketeer meat wall reduced to mere scraps. Panic encompasses me, and I'm forced to focus all my crossbow fire to the middle so that they don't breach the line. In vain, my troops struggle to keep their formations thick and solid, but the Venetians are so abundant in number that they're smashing through like an iron maw bludgeoning a stone block. However, the Venetians forfeit quicker than I anticipate. Tired and beaten from the prolonged stalemate, they start to route, and it becomes visible that most of their numbers have been reduced to less than 70 men per battalion, one or two pieces completely eradicated during the foray. Ultimately the rapid, exhausting onset takes its toll for the Venetians and within less than a minute, the entirety of the enemy troops are routing, back to their equally berated general. Some of the fleeing battalions show that they have lost their will to fight entirely, and the majority of them, to my surprise, is able to regroup and form a line of their own. With seamless victory in my reach I order my whole army to charge at the enemy lines, hoping to route them promptly, but not before another shower of arrows and fiery rocks. The Venetian line lasts longer than I expect, but succumb easily nonetheless. The left side of their force instantly routes at the sight of might charging spear/knight combo, and I'm able to divert those unused troops towards the right flank, which proves to be more resistant. However, their faith is sealed. The 200-something force in the right grows weary and eventually submits to defeat like their friends, and a befuddled general is captured during a moment of triumph.
Unfortunately I forgot that battle replays don't reveal stats in the end, so I don't have the exact numbers of deaths at my hand. I will, however, supply you with a proper battle statistics in the next custom battle I play. For now, I'm afraid the only numbers I can provide with utter accuracy are the starting numbers.
Milan - 1641 men - Clear Victory
Venice - 2341 men
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