Chapter 7. Beginning of the battle - First moves

Now its time to start the proper fight. “Finally!”, you would say. But you have to hold your horses now. Meanwhile we will explain how to properly start the battle.Use text chat to wish everyone “Have fun!”, then hit Start. Deploy your troops by applying optimal formation we listed earlier.Often, just after start, you need to move entire army. While doing it, keep in mind these principles:Move your army to reach your allied armies. A team has always to act as oneMove your army as one, except for light cav or missile cavalry scouting/harassing enemy forces if neededSteady walk, always when it’s possible. Running for long time makes troops tired. Tired soldiers wont last long in fight and will rout rather quickly. But if enemy is going to reach you and try to double team your army, don’t hesitate to run and get protection close to your mates and runMove your army to get an advantage position, if there’s any nearby (e.g. hill). So in other words, try to win strategically even before fighting.General conceptIn online games all players usually start with the same amount of florins so none has an advantage, apart from personal skill and experience and location on map at start (if map its not flat).What is an advantage position? It is a combat situation that allows your team to fight starting with an advantage. Just like you could have bought more men with your limited budget.Example: 40 archers deployed on a hill can kill 60 archers shooting up to them suffering only few casualties.There are two major types of advantage position:a) Location advantage (hill, edge, river)b) Manoeuvre advantage (2 v 1, 3 v 2, etc.)If you can win the strategical part of the battle, tactical one will be easy to understand.a) Location AdvantageThis type of advantage is very easy to understand.Taking the top of a hill, deploying on edge of a slope will give your army advantage.This kind of situation positively boost either attacking from or defending point placed on high terrain.Range of foot missiles is obviously increased, their AP ability will be improved a little bit too. So, if it is possible, entire team should move together to immediately take a location advantage position, preventing enemy’s attempt to do so as well.Usually, if map is not flat, you have no big chances fighting uphill. The only smart thing you can do is sit and wait for enemy BUT if you hosted, you MUST attack. You chose this map with relief, so go and fight uphill. Or choose most fair Grassy Plain where nobody has hill advantage, as awe advised earlier.…………………………………………………...HOW TO counter location disadvantage:- you need superior skill and good micro;- move quickly and smoothly to reduce missiles exposition time ;- concentrate your strength on enemy weak side;- put pressure on weak points of enemy defenses, such as flanks or rear;- result: either success – chain rout or defeat – your army collapses.…………………………………………………...b) Manoeuvre AdvantageThat kind of advantage is little bit harder to learn and use, but lets break it down.Manoeuvre advantage means that your team manoeuvres to concentrate more friendly combat factor on less enemy combat factor for a certain period of time. During that period this method will cause more casualties in numbers to enemy than enemy can cause to your team.………………………………………………….An example:1. If you attack 1 enemy unit (40) with your own unit (40), then fight will be pretty even. But what if you send 2 units (80) against his one? Yes! His unit will get destroyed pretty quickly while your troops will lose only few men.ORYou can also use 1 steady unit to block 2-3 hostile units. It will allow you to move free unit unstopped and charge enemy’s unprotected either rear or flanks………………………………………………….This rule obviously applies to both missile, cav and melee warfare.So successful exploit of this advantage is based on doubling (2 armies v 1 army) or tripling (3 armies v 1 army, 3 armies v 2 armies).If during the start of the battle you can see that the enemy armies are isolated from each other and distance between them is relatively big , you can run and catch one – as isolated they wont last long against 2 armies of your team.Thats basically how to use this kind of advantage.…………………………………………………...HOW TO counter maneuverer disadvantage:- if you fall as team, it means that teamwork failed;- if not everything is lost yet, run to reach your ally which is about to get surrounded- regroup and strike as one- learn how to play in team…………………………………………………...When enemy is double or triple teaming you, attempt to:- retreat and regroup nearby your allied armies;- if its not possible, resist as much as you can to enemies attack trying to cause as much damage as you can;- allied missiles and cavalry should arrive as quickly as they can;- if your army is routing and enemy barely lost any forces, battle is usually lost;- if you managed to hold the line and your allies helped you in time, in most cases you won battle; however try to improve teamwork in next matches.