Won my first MP match last night

Redpossum · Post by **Redpossum** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 2:41 am

It was fun, I have to say.

Random opponent, we both played Gauls, and we chose the middle button for both XP and Denarii.

He went with cavalry, and 2 archers in support.

I chose a more numerous force, something like this (going strictly from memory here)

1x Peasant
1x Militia (L2, Swordsman)
2x Warriors (L2, Swordsman)
3x Skirmishers (L2, Marksman)
1x Veterans (L4, Swordsman, Endurance, Feint)
1x Scouts (L4, Swordsman, Endurance, Trample)

The first battle was close, got down to his last cavalry unit against my Veterans, and I won.

The second battle was a slaughter.

I sent my cavalry and Peasants wide, and got them into melee with his Archers while his cavalry just sat there and watched. Sure, they took a few volleys getting in, and sure they routed away eventually, but his Archers were effectively neutralised. They never again undertook any effective fire that I saw.

My other units just charged his cavalry once his Archers were engaged, met them in mid-field, and held them in melee while my Skirmishers shot them to bits.

I think the lessons of this are threefold -

First, Combined Arms!

Second, Combined Arms!

Thirdly, and last, Combined Arms!

In the second battle as my Peasants and Lt Cav were closing on his Archers, and getting shot up on their way in we had this conversation

(Him) Look at the archers go
(Him) Archers pwn
**brief pause, Lt Cav slams into archers, golden horseshows float up**
(Me) Archers got pwned

sum1won · Post by **sum1won** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 2:54 am

Combined arms do make for much cooler battles. However, some people can nearly pull off not using them. I played lava last night, and he used the maniple (or whatever) tactic (checkerboards) with a load of hastiti and principe, and annihalated most of my legionaires. I only managed to surive due to a sacrificed unit of heavy cavalry holding up one counter charge, and auxila sucking another unit into rough terrain.

Still, he didnt fare to well in the more foresty maps-warriors are scary in rivers, and the fights look cool too!

xaziv · Post by **xaziv** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 5:05 am

that wasnt a random person that was me and my army didnt have enough people

It wasnt a calvary army because there were only 2 nobles 2 scouts and 2 archers
and high lvl archers are more for high denarii games and not small ones... it wasnt that my archers werent pwning you (they were doin pretty good) its just that i didnt have enough units to defend them (4 calvary units vs like 2379863 units)
I just didnt have a big enough army

sum1won · Post by **sum1won** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 2:02 pm

Xasiv is a pretty good guy, but one thing he does do is make experimental armies- one had 20 units in a 2K denarii game, and another was chock full of fanatics. However, he does have a competitive list which Im sure he would be glad to show you if you play him again.

Redpossum · Post by **Redpossum** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 5:38 pm

Well, cool.

Now he has an incentive to kick my butt good next time

*Lava* · Post by ***Lava*** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 7:48 pm

sum1won wrote:I played lava last night, and he used the maniple (or whatever) tactic (checkerboards) with a load of hastiti and principe, and annihalated most of my legionaires.

Yep..

And you kicked my butt real good.

You are a darn good general, and I, was the apprentice.

Well done.

Ray (alias Lava)

ehre · Post by **ehre** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:48 pm

when do you guys get on??? I never find yall

sum1won · Post by **sum1won** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 12:06 am

Around nowish for another 2 hours, and Im often on about for another hour starting about 3 hours before this. Then I do some homework/eat dinner, and log back on.

A good guide is that if Im on here, Im on Legion Arena.

miki · Post by **miki** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 2:14 am

I have played my first online game against Possum.

I had a lot of fun with a very good opponent.

Damn, this game is superb, and playing online is GREAT.

My army was made of few but strong units. My fault was to buy archers instead of two or three javelinmen. Those men would be better supporting my Warriors, and didn't need to be protected (archers act like a magnet for cavalry).

Have I said that I find online games great?

sum1won · Post by **sum1won** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 2:16 am

Hey, miki, Im ready n waiting in the lobby.

EDIT: PLEASE DELETE THIS POST

Redpossum · Post by **Redpossum** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 2:33 am

Yes, grats to miki on a fine victory.

We went best of three, and it took all three games to decide the match.

Let's see, I think he had -

3x L4 Warriors
2x L5 Veterans
1x L2 Archers

And I had -

4x L3 Militia
4x L2 Skirmishers
1x L5 Principes
1x L5 Lt Cav
1x L5 Hvy Cav

First match, he handed me my head. It was a total walkover.

Second match, I barely pulled out a win.

Third match, miki won by a slightly greater margin, even though I nailed his general early in the game.

I think part of what made the difference was that in Round 2, I nailed his archers right out of the gate. Hvy Cav charged straight home, spanked their butts, and sent them crying home to mommy. That left me with both cavalry units available to charge his battle line from the rear, and I used them quite enthusiastically

In Round 3, miki was expecting that tactic, and stopped my cavalry very successfully, routing both units.

Again, my sincere congratulations to miki on a splendid victory. And let me add that he was a very gracious and gentlemanly winner, too

sum1won · Post by **sum1won** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 3:15 am

I played Miki as well, and I have to say he was excellent to play against. We went best of three, and I won the first two.

Army selections:
Me: 2 lvl 4 Veterans, 3 lvl 3 Warriors, 1 lvl 6 archer, 1 lvl 2 light cavalry, 3 lvl 2 peasents.

Him: 2 veterans lvl 4/5, 4(?) warriors, 1 lvl 2 javelinmen, and probably weapons on both the veteran units.

First match, I did win by outmaneveur, but I couldnt have pulled it off without my light cavalry- essentially, they tied up most of his army (and stopped them from advancing

) while his stronger veterans walked right into me. He managed to separate a unit of warriors and the other veterans and sent them at me, but the peasents managed to block the lvl 4 veterans until his stronger veterans were on the run. (3 units of peasents will even block praetorians for a short while!). As a result, my army was able to take apart his piecemeal, and I eveauntually won (even if my general did die young). We took nearly equal losses.

The second one, we lined up, and my light cavalry circled around the back as he advanced. I forgot about them for a bit. The lines met, and the archers/peasents saved my butt, and I remembered my light cavalry (halfway across the map

), and they hit his javelinmen before they could do too much damage. He was having me for lunch all along, but the archers managed to rout his lvl 5s before they demolished more than one of my veteran units, and my leader managed to help out my warriors in the center enough for them to live (one unit fell back, the other attacked his main horde in the side). He swallowed my warriors whole, but at the same time I attacked his leader w/ my light cavalry. His troops turned around in an attempt to salvage his leader, and the archers managed to rout some warriors. The warriors that had fallen back hit his remaining 2 regiments (warriors and veterans), along with the leader, and the archers helped the rout along to the point that I actually won. I took about 200 casualties, he took 140 in this one.

Post by **IainMcNeil** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:26 am

Sounds great guys - i Hope you are all reporting your results to the ladder!

miki · Post by **miki** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:53 am

Hi again,

From my very little exp playing online, I have learned many lessons:

1-One unit of Cavalry is a must. It can pin all of your army, if you are so stupid as I was in my first battle with Sum1won, and poorly deployed the army in one corner of the map. Also, both Possum and Sum1won superbly took my missile armed troops from the flank/rear, negating all support from those units to the frontline. Even worse, sometimes I had to redeploy one "blade" unit to protect the archer/skirmish unit, weakening all the battle line then. As an added bonus, if you don't have that Cavalry unit, you can't treathen his missile armed troops, and they can kill your troops out of danger. Oh, and when they those riders take your Leader unexpectedly...

2-In battles with 2000 denarii and 5000 exp, you need at least a couple of "strong" units (Veterans, Principes, Hastatis, etc). I have the feel that the army Possum deployed against me was very numerous but lacked punch, with only one unit of Principes. Perhaps two units of Hastatis, even Auxilia infantry, would have made a difference, a strong difference. Nevertheless, he managed to outmaneouver me in our second battle. What saved the day for me, was that my units were far more stronger (warriors and veterans) than his units (mainly militia).

3-On the other hand, my battles vs Sum1won learned a very hard lesson: you need some expendables. A couple of peasants make wonders pinning your stronger units while his stronger units outflank them. Even worse, it's a complete waste of resources when your limited "dose" of javelins kill peasants instead of weakening the enemy's big-show units. Damn expendables.

Thank you sirs for the battles. I had much fun and have learned a lot from you.

See you in the battle field

ehre · Post by **ehre** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:58 pm

Whenever i play the 2000/5000 matches, i never use any calvary. Just veterans and fanatics w/ some light infantry, usually i can just outmustle the other's line

ehre · Post by **ehre** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:24 pm

I really gotta play one of you guys.... I keep getting stuck with the guys who dont really know any strategy or think about the terrain theyre on, massacres arent fun to watch

sum1won · Post by **sum1won** » Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:15 pm

Ive played a few of those. Two guys (who are not counted in my wins) totally forgot to even level up their regiments- one of them hadnt done the tutorial.

Anyways, some cavalry is a must. Muscle wont get you anywhere if half your army is sitting there like a really freaking big lump on the most outsized log in the universe.

ehre · Post by **ehre** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 1:53 am

in the bigger games, ya. But on the 2000 5000 games, noone ive played has put too much into their ranged, so im facing skirmishers that arent lvled up

ste · Post by **ste** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 2:32 am

Sum1Won will give you a good game... he destoryed me 3-0 earlier

ehre · Post by **ehre** » Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:43 pm

lost my first mp game lsat night, oppusum beat me in the second game we played(I won first:P), he had a lineup of about 6-7 light infantry all lvl 3 and 2 fanatics that were either lvl 5 or 7 and 2 archers not sure of lvl.

This one hurt me that i didnt have any calvary, i used the same setup i had used the match before and he matched it up pretty decently

Won my first MP match last night

Won my first MP match last night

My thanks for a great game!