tactics at the beginning of a battle.

[Joxer]

I dont care which tactic is used as long as people stick together. This is all about team play. I dont have anything against ninjas. I was one before the clan came and ruined the fun.

[Turkhammer]

Tell me more about flags.  I've never seen them used and I don't know how to use them, or anything about them.  Is there a faq or any info about them?

I always look for people to cooperate with during a siege or battle.  It makes things a lot more enjoyable.  Those are great suggestions from Phazey about making contact at spawn.
That's one drawback to Stategus for me.  I'm not in a clan, nor am I a super warrior, so I stand little chance for getting accepted for a strat battle.  That's why it's fun to find cooperation on the pubs.

It's too bad that voip wasn't implemented in M&B, although it might get annoying, given the amount of voice command spamming I hear on the servers.

How do you make melee groups?

[Turkhammer]

I dont care which tactic is used as long as people stick together. This is all about team play. I dont have anything against ninjas. I was one before the clan came and ruined the fun.

Plus 1 on the sticking together.  I play a 1h xbow, and it's a great combo to have a pike man and inf watch my back as I concentrate on knocking down the cav.

[PhantomZero]

i couldn't stop laughing  at this, i wish i could see only one of them doing this
cav players are the most immature players in this mod, and they are thinking only about them selves, and their hunger for easy kills

Cav aren't immature, cav are the fighter jocks of CRPG. High Speed Low Drag is the motto of most cav, while archers might have mantras of "Always take the shot." Cav say "Woah, I'm way too drunk to be playing this game right now."

On most maps where you can easily see/fight the enemy, the cav will usually clash first and fight first, whoever wins the cav battle will then be allowed to harass the opposing team's infantry from behind. Having cav is a very tremendous advantage over not having cav, you would be really dumb to not want any cav on your team. Sometimes you might encounter a Cav Hero, who can basically kill all of the enemy cav by himself, and then the rest of the enemy team by himself. While it may look like he is doing everything solo and it is so easy, he wouldn't be able to do it unless his teammates keep distracting the enemy team by being a target. People walking around on the ground are basically cannon fodder to protect the horses.

When lancing from horseback, I imagine myself as some kind of Spitfire or Mustang, strafing chocolate chip cookie infantry during some long forgotten battle of WW2. The roles are pretty much the same too, the light cav plays the role of the fighter, keeping the other light cav engaged and away from the bomber heavy cav. Horse Archers/Crossbowmen are basically dicks that nobody likes and have a minimal impact on the battle, the best way they can do anything is by assassinating high-value targets, taking out enemy horses, they are basically interceptors, really good at shooting down fighters but not having the firepower to hurt bombers.

Having more than 1 wingman as cav is stupid, and a waste of time. But cav should definitely work in pairs, and then as pairs as a huge blob on the appropriate map.

Trust me, you wouldn't want VOIP.

Anything more complicated of "Everybody follow me." is going to get fucked up when the plan goes to shit (It always does), it only works if there is someone you can listen to (Not read) and have the battleplan adapt as the situations change. It is true it is vulnerable to ranged, the blob is basically there as extra hitpoints for the heavy-hitters and killers of crpg. Everyone can have fun in a blob, especially if they like getting murdered and holding up their shield until such time as they are murdered.

[Teeth]

Yeah, tell that to Risen. It was day before yesterday and it was a city map? Are you sure there weren't more than 7?

Not at all, there might have been 10 of us. Now that you mention it I do remember seeing a lot of byzantium banners in our little shieldwall steamroll.

[RandomDude]

All I would say to the average joe players is stick with the group and if someone suggests something in chat, go with it.

If someone tries to change the plan after you already started the plan then 90% of times **** them and continue what you were doing.

I know there's some saying about you shouldnt rigidly stick to plans because of all the things that can happen, but in crpg this does not count because you can guarantee 50% of the team will continue with the original thing.

Also if you say "Charge" and use the voice command, charge. Dont stand there admiring your weapon.

Passivity kills a team more often than not and a good chunk of aggression can make a massive difference.

I've been on teams of 50 players where we lost  one guy on a charge and we destroyed the enemy team. One guy out of 50.

Dont be scared to "die" but dont throw your virtual life away.

Also dont be a lemming and throw your life away. If you see teammate fighting and outnumbered, go and help - they will be wanting to do a fighting retreat most likely.

If they die before you get there, just pull back.

Also its not always a great idea to follow me because i like to do crazy stuff and get into the cav fights even tho i have no horse. The advice above is when I'm really playing to survive as long as possible.

[Tristan]

Cav aren't immature, cav are the fighter jocks of CRPG. High Speed Low Drag is the motto of most cav, while archers might have mantras of "Always take the shot." Cav say "Woah, I'm way too drunk to be playing this game right now."

On most maps where you can easily see/fight the enemy, the cav will usually clash first and fight first, whoever wins the cav battle will then be allowed to harass the opposing team's infantry from behind. Having cav is a very tremendous advantage over not having cav, you would be really dumb to not want any cav on your team. Sometimes you might encounter a Cav Hero, who can basically kill all of the enemy cav by himself, and then the rest of the enemy team by himself. While it may look like he is doing everything solo and it is so easy, he wouldn't be able to do it unless his teammates keep distracting the enemy team by being a target. People walking around on the ground are basically cannon fodder to protect the horses.

When lancing from horseback, I imagine myself as some kind of Spitfire or Mustang, strafing chocolate chip cookie infantry during some long forgotten battle of WW2. The roles are pretty much the same too, the light cav plays the role of the fighter, keeping the other light cav engaged and away from the bomber heavy cav. Horse Archers/Crossbowmen are basically dicks that nobody likes and have a minimal impact on the battle, the best way they can do anything is by assassinating high-value targets, taking out enemy horses, they are basically interceptors, really good at shooting down fighters but not having the firepower to hurt bombers.

Having more than 1 wingman as cav is stupid, and a waste of time. But cav should definitely work in pairs, and then as pairs as a huge blob on the appropriate map.

Trust me, you wouldn't want VOIP.

Anything more complicated of "Everybody follow me." is going to get fucked up when the plan goes to shit (It always does), it only works if there is someone you can listen to (Not read) and have the battleplan adapt as the situations change. It is true it is vulnerable to ranged, the blob is basically there as extra hitpoints for the heavy-hitters and killers of crpg. Everyone can have fun in a blob, especially if they like getting murdered and holding up their shield until such time as they are murdered.

I am going to get lynched for saying this, but I am sometimes surprised that you often speak reason yet is a leader of goons. Who'd have thought.

Any way, while I am not a cav player myself, I find what you write to be very true.

[Snoozer]

Cav aren't immature, cav are the fighter jocks of CRPG. High Speed Low Drag is the motto of most cav, while archers might have mantras of "Always take the shot." Cav say "Woah, I'm way too drunk to be playing this game right now."

well yes but thats not just cav

Cav aren't immature, cav are the fighter jocks of CRPG. High Speed Low Drag is the motto of most cav, while archers might have mantras of "Always take the shot." Cav say "Woah, I'm way too drunk to be playing this game right now."

On most maps where you can easily see/fight the enemy, the cav will usually clash first and fight first, whoever wins the cav battle will then be allowed to harass the opposing team's infantry from behind. Having cav is a very tremendous advantage over not having cav, you would be really dumb to not want any cav on your team. Sometimes you might encounter a Cav Hero, who can basically kill all of the enemy cav by himself, and then the rest of the enemy team by himself. While it may look like he is doing everything solo and it is so easy, he wouldn't be able to do it unless his teammates keep distracting the enemy team by being a target. People walking around on the ground are basically cannon fodder to protect the horses.

cavalry is kinda like the modern sky,who who controls the sky controls the battle field

Anything more complicated of "Everybody follow me." is going to get fucked up when the plan goes to shit (It always does), it only works if there is someone you can listen to (Not read) and have the battleplan adapt as the situations change. It is true it is vulnerable to ranged, the blob is basically there as extra hitpoints for the heavy-hitters and killers of crpg. Everyone can have fun in a blob, especially if they like getting murdered and holding up their shield until such time as they are murdered.

no always its one of those sim0le plans that works like i said u need instant gratification and punishment,if they see your plan worked when they rolled with you they will do it again,if they see your plan worked because they died and did not follow you there gonna role with you

All I would say to the average joe players is stick with the group and if someone suggests something in chat, go with it.

If someone tries to change the plan after you already started the plan then 90% of times **** them and continue what you were doing.

^these dudes need to get smacked who derail shit its worse then not having a plan at all whenever someone like "NO GO LEFT NOT RIGHT" im like "UABITCHGTFO"

P.S wtf zero i poked u wit a Qstaff n u cut me head off then?trololol

[Thomek]

hmm..

I see no reason why an unknown player could not lead battles. It's more a matter of getting to be known, by trying to lead for an extended period and being active in chat.

From my experience the most annoying thing is someone suggesting the opposite of what we are doing right after spawning..

I've made the team agree to go left, and some sucker suggest, "RIGHT!"..  I'm sure it's lol though.

What is even more annoying is when people do not understand what a charge IS. Crawling out in the field many seconds late. The successful charges works when everyone runs together AT THE SAME TIME. Communication is important of course.. And a charge should not be started too far away from the enemy. If the enemy charges, always countercharge.

They may have run further across the field and be more disorganized.

Generally I would welcome more fieldbattle maps, they are a bit too rare.

[Tristan]

I see no reason why an unknown player could not lead battles. It's more a matter of getting to be known, by trying to lead for an extended period and being active in chat.

Try again Thomek...

[Snoozer]

i covered that as well in one of my posts lol perhaps i said it incorrectly

[Turkhammer]

Try again Thomek...

Maybe he means not a known player like Balbaroth etc.

[Cyber]

These kind of threads about basic tactics keep popping up from time, I'm sure players who somewhat care about it arleady know this stuff. The problem however like im sure someone has already mentioned  is to get a team in public to follow your orders. There are always players who can't understand you, won't pay attention, won't agree with your tactics or simply don't care about it. If you are gonna use anything somewhat complex it usually ends up in your team splitting up and some of them getting killed off which leaves you at disadvantage. The best you can really do in public (with your entire team) is to try to keep the group together and direct them to left/right or tell them to camp or charge, so those who don't give a shit about tactics probably follow the group with sheep mentality as well.

[Ylca]

Tactics really are difficult because most people will follow simple instructions at the beginning of the round, then get bored and run off to die. If you say "Stay on hills they have significantly more cav, we'll move down once cav are thinned a bit" people will follow up the hill, wait 15 seconds, then run downhill to get slaughtered by the cav.

Replace this with almost any disavantageous situation (other team has a height advantage, other team has more archers, whatever) and many teams would still rather run straight forward, lose every round, then complain about their teammates or "broken classes" rather than take a few seconds to use a simple strategy that would land them a win.

e: Even worse is when you do get a group of people working together, but it ends up only being half of the team so the other half gets mowed down by the entirety of the enemy force, then they turn their attention to the teamworkers for an easy 2 to 1 ratio stomping.

[Phazey]

Although Cyber is right, ofcourse, there is something i'd like to add:
One of the best tricks a commander can use to ensure the group stays together is a very simple one: use the same plan the majority of the mob was going to use anyway.

Sounds silly, but it's key to good commanding on public servers. See (or guess) which way most of the players want to go and enforce that with some caps in teamchat and maybe a few voice commands.

Another random thought that just popped into my head: please do not spam the voice commands. Not only is it annoying but you are also giving away the plan to the enemy. Minor, i know, but keep it in mind anyway. Don't spam voice commands unless you really need to.

About being a 'known' commander versus being unknown: don't worry. People will listen if you are reasonable, persistent and patient. Or they won't. Being known helps, i agree, but everyone must start somewhere. I was unknown too, ages ago. I just started doing it and stuck with it. If you play often, people will start to recognize you.

Pick an outfit people can recognize and stick with that.