Man as a historian this video makes me angry beyond believe. Like I don’t wanna be rude, but nothing in this video you said about the Triplex Axis is accurate. It’s inaccurate beyond being acceptable. This is misinformation hell for me. Lemme start at the first few seconds. The TLA was known to be stupid inflexible even tho some historians attribute some level of flexibility to the triplex axis, it’s probably not true, cause we have a lot of „generals“ that just didn’t use it in harsh terrain. The Titel it self is inaccurate as fuck cause Caesar, how fought with legions after the Marian reforms, didn’t even use this tactics, cause there wasn’t the unit types described in the video. After the Marian Reform, only Velites and Equites stayed in existence. After the reform every soldier was the same called legionaries. Units from the back didn’t close the gaps this pisses me off beyond believe cause it would ruin the reason for this tactic. There are only two options of how they „plugged“ the gaps one being they absolutely didn’t plug the gaps and the velites and principes would pick them of with javlins and the mighty pilum. Other possible option is that the line stretched out to plug the gaps (which I believe to be true). After the hastati where exhausted they would do a fighting retreat and the principes would take over. How exactly they did this, is not 100% certain. And we will probably never know. The romans in their entire history never fought in „testudo“ formation this was just for pitched battles and approaching battlements.
I'm going to pin this comment - I'm definitely not a historian and most of the info used were from other UA-cam history channels. I don't have time to research these topics in depth so I appreciate you taking the time to set the record straight!
As a Roman empire nerd, this is what I know so far. The checker board formation with maniples with Hastatis, principes, triarii were used during the republic era. (Used by Scipio Africanus) After the Marian reform, they used the cohort system.(Used by Julius Caesar) The testudo were used before contact, when the enemy skirmishers were throwing stuff at them. Then they would revert to line formation & engage the enemy after throwing their heavy pilla. Julius Caesar once told their men to loosen up as they were too squeezed and couldn't use their gladius effectively. The tactic used in the video was a maniple system.(120 men each) made up of 2 centuries(60 men each) Roman start was to grind out the enemy and tire them out. The problem with Bannerlord is, there is no exhaustion system. The side that use every troop to attack wins. So roman strat of exchanging front troops does not work. Their strat was to tire out the enemy by constantly replacing troops with the second line. I tried this in Rome 2 and it worked with very less causality, as the enemy tires and route, the cav and velites would chase & cut them down.
The idea of the manipular legion was that each centurion is a mini-commander, they control the maniple. No need for you to micro manage .. yeah, ok, the game doesn't allow that. The Consul only needed to order battle lines to attack / withdraw etc. BL would need a mod to allow Triplex Acies to work properly.
Yeah that's a great point - it would be really hard to move this many men by issuing individual move commands IRL too. But just a general "move up with the rest of the line" would have been easy enough to understand.
@@Raviollius giving them control means they do f1-f3 - there's no such thing as tactics lmao, i only do it in sieges. field battles it's a death sentence.
the most modern theorie,/ that makes the most sence, is the face of roman battle, basikly combat only lasts for short times, as exaustion and mental drain is to heavy. what ever side looses the engagement breaks contact and withdraws, thus getting pushed back. This meant that all a roman comander had to do was to reenforce success, or prevent a breakthu.
If only TaleWorlds got their heads out of their asses and introduced proper multiplayer to the game (i.e. multiple heroes commanding different troops assigned by the host)
Yeah I really wish the battle cap mods were working :( There used to be one that unlocked it up to 2k instead of 1k - that would be amazing for these types of videos
@@Strat-Guides dont know if you will see this but there is a mod called "battlesize" in nexus which allows you to place approximately 2k troops in battle (mounts also count as troops though).
Sometimes the roman leaders made the triarii sit in the ground during battle to avoid them charging into battle, so eager they were to fight those veterans. There was a figure speech, something close "when things come to the triarii" meaning things were in a dire state
@@samueldisturbing761 I agree it's funny that some people get all their historical knowledge from gaming. It's been a while since I played Rome 2 though, I couldn't say.
@@samueldisturbing761 From my experience it's a pretty common anecdote about the Triarii. A cursory google search reveals no primary source for the saying. With that being said, gaming can be a great conduit for learning about history. I often listen to historical podcasts while playing Total War and roleplay historical scenarios.
@@CitizenSnips314 It's possible I just fell victim to the whole "You stole John Wick from Fortnite" thing I read this description recently in Rome 2 so it's very well possible they just took it from somewhere else.
the worst part is that you don't have anyone to help you command the army. in real life, you would be commanding a section of the army while sergeants who respond to you would take care of the rest, and messengers would go back and forth with reports and orders between you and them. unfortunately, we don't have an AI which is smart enough to do that. the closest thing we have to that is F6 (assign command to sergeants), but they don't listen to you as the actual commander of the army, they do their own thing independently
Foot troops couldn’t chase because if the enemy rallied and ended the retreat the infantry could get cut off from the main army whereas cavalry could avoid being surrounded
When good old Iulius came around, he was already using legionares, the 3 types of heavy troops was already went away at that point. However, he still used multiple lines of battle. Romans were interesting, because most armies at the time were used to commit everybody and win the fight that way. Romans held 1/3rd of their army in reserve, which was unheard of at the time. Also, sources say Hastatii and Principes were fought alternately, which could mean they were in an alternating pattern or in turns. As far as I know it is still up for debate what did they actually do. Also-also, Triarii were so rarely used in the manipule era, sources say they sometimes begged to get a piece of the action. Btw. Caesar's tactic was mainly play with the enemy's mind so much, they just commit to a fight they cannot win. He was pretty good at giving dilemmas to the enemy instead of problems. Anyway, great video as usual :)
At around 5:30 you made a good point about how it was difficult to manage the army. This is why each unit had a centurian who sat in on the tactics meeting and relayed that information to the troops. In reality, each unit was independently commanded and you just sat back on a hill and watched the fight. Caesar sometimes fought with his men (e.g. battle of Pharsalus, battle of Alesia) but it was usually because he was at a significant disadvantage and wanted to provide his troops with moral.
Great video! One minor point to consider though: I think you should list all the relevant mods you use in the video (either in the video itself or in the description), for clarity purposes. For example, RBM battles are quite different to vanilla so people new to Bannerlord might get some wrong impressions about how battles work (especially things like AI quality and combat duration)
That is why there were junior officers and centurions, so the legate would not get overwhelmed. There is already much difficulty micromanaging such a small force "in person", imagine commanding a couple legions.
4:40 for good reason. There were a number of battles when the fleeing force turned around and clobbered the chasing force or the chasing force broke into the fleeing forces camp got caught by a rallied force and slaughtered or just getting disorganized, caught and encircled.
Great job explaining a couple extra tidbits the veterans were in back to mop up yes but also just strategic use of wearing down enemy troops giving them no chance once veterans hit while also letting less experienced troops claim some valor and battle experience on the front. Also cavalry back for Julius was actually in much shorter supply as far as actual Roman cavalry so they were almost always flank shock troops or draw troops. Love that you said maniple and no phalanx and specified the difference which was more usable joints
Coincidentally, I use a very similar strategy in the Rome Total War games. It's a lot simpler to control when you can freeze your whole army's formation and just drag them around like that.
how this all worked so well back in the day was due to the sergeants. you could give general orders and have the units follow them, flexing to fit the situation and ensure that the whole operation came together without a huge amount of micromanagement. BL lacks this ability which is why it is so difficult, and even in total war when they got formations down pretty good you still had to micro the units to get them to do what they should be doing.
Yeah that's true - it would be cool to reproduce this in an MP game then - each person can control a group of 50 or 100 and the general can issue commands to them. That would be glorious!
@@Strat-Guides yeah when i saw captain mode that is what i thought of, but it has never turned out that way for me, though i have seen some guilds do some similar stuff, but the flag thing tends to get in the way.
@@Strat-Guides For a little, there actually was a game very similar to that! Total War Arena was very fun! You had control 3 columns (or an equivalent, depending on the unit type), which you would pick before each battle, and could customize a few details as well as select a faction-specific general (historical figures) who would change some things or grant special abilities. That way you could at least maintain a certain level of army cohesion in a multiplayer game where everyone could be running around with their heads cut off. They had plenty of neat units to pick from, too. Scorpion and even trebuchet artillery, various types of sling, archer and javelin troops, chariots, scout cav, heavy chargers, dogs, elephants... and you could set up traps and barricades, even, to modify the terrain a little.
Even on bannerlord difficulty, unless you're using a lot of mods that change battle, you really only need 2 formations. Strat's Sturgia-only army tactics guide for offense, and Strat's Schilltron formation for defense. Take whatever infantry you want, get Battanian Fian Champ archers, and as long as you use the terrain and formation depending on if you're attacking or defending, you really only need these two strategies. You can tell if you're on offense or defense based on how combat initiates - if you demand the enemy surrender or die and they try to talk their way out of it, you're on offense. If they demand you surrender and you have the option to "fight til your last drop of blood" you're on defense. The enemy AI really can't handle the schiltron, and if you build a mixed army (I prefer Sturgia/Battania combo) you can beat anything. Heavy Axes & Spears make a SOLID front line that I have yet to have something take apart besides me not noticing a cav flank on them, but that's what my cav and archers are for.
I would like to see a mod come out with programmable troop formations. I want to be able to press one button and have everyone go in the right spot which I would have designated beforehand, then when I point them to move to a certain spot I want them staying in their respective formations. Like this you could execute complex manoeuvres realistically, similarly as they would in a real army. I'm sure this is easier said than done, though I still would like to see it happen.
I've been doing everything here but the "reserves" part since Warband, but I usually had my commander and his posse strengthen where our line was weakest instead. Didn't realize I was using part of a Julius Caesar tactic, it just made sense to me. Neat!
They say Caesar himself went to the front himself way ahead of his frontline in order to * checks notes * "waste the Gauls ammunition". General LegendOfTotalWar used this "Checkerboard" formation with great success in his chronicles that have been archived on UA-cam.
the warband 108 heroes mod had some really good ideas of being able to preset the battle formations before hand, as well as giving group buffs depending on who you placed in charge of each group.
Other's have already talked about the history and tactical side of this topic, so I'll go with some fun facts. The troops in the Maniple system were arranged by a combination of age and wealth, with wealth being the biggest factor. They had to buy their own equipment and it was considered a sign of failure in an individual if it took them too long to rise to the next rank (being in the Velites into your 20s, for example). The Velites (pronounced 'Well | ē |Tay), were the youngest and poorest troops, and their entire job was throwing those javelins. Once they were done with that, they could stick around to help with other things, such as reinforcing the front lines, bringing water to the troops, etc., and they often did just that, but they were free to return to camp. The next age and wealth group up from them were the Hastati, who were often only equipped with a brass helmet and a relatively small piece of brass to cover their chest, alongside the standard sword and shield. They weren't expected to break the enemy, as much as wear them down before the real next ranks had to engage. They would usually end up falling back to the spaces between the Principes and Triarii to rest a while before joining the front lines again alongside the Principes. The next age and wealth group up from them were the Principes (Prēnk | îp | êh), who were armed with roughly the same things that the Hastati were, but with far better armor, often having a maille shirt and a better helmet. They were the real meat and potatoes of the army at the time, and most battles were won or lost with them. If they failed, then the Triarii would step up to the front lines, reinforced by the remaining Hastati and Principes. The Triarii are almost a meme in and of themselves. They were the oldest and wealthiest troops, having served as each of the previous ranks of infantry. They were also so zealous that they would often join the battle without being given the order to do so. This became such a problem that at least one commander made them sit down facing away from the battle. If things came down to them it was considered a bad sign and an indicator that you were in deep shit. Not mentioned was the fifth group, the Equites (êh | Kwē | Tay), who, as the name probably suggests, were cavalry. They were the richest of the standard troops, often coming from wealthy or noble families, and did not generally serve in the previous ranks mentioned. They were a key component in this formula, but they were also very arrogant and usually saw scouting duty as beneath them, which lead many Roman armies at the time into ambushes that could have been avoided, such as those that Hannibal used against them on multiple occasions.
That's unexpected. I spent some significant time in Warband in the, but abandoned it at some point. Youtude recommended this video to me because i was watching Total War games videos and i was shocked when i saw HOW advanced looks battle field from Bannerlord comparing to Warband. Now it looks like real RTS game, not like action game, like in was Warband. Thanks for video!
The big disadvantage I see versus single line is that keeping all those Triarii in the back means that your initial line will have to be shorter or thinner by quite a a bit, which can be a problem if the enemy has the same number of troops. That being said, keeping around a third of your troops in reserve is a pretty common doctrinal approach in modern warfare, where any given force is often split into three elements, with one in reserve.
As far as my knowledge goes, the principes arent supposed to form first battle line with hastati - they are here to form a second defensive line in case hastati have to retreat - Machiavelli puts it as something along the lines of "essentially having three chances of winning a battle". Of course, game can not give us a full representation of what an actual warfare is, so tactics used by real commanders need to be HEAVILY tweaked for in-game use. Although its quite entertaining to emulate such tactics, i would've said that its kind of detrimental in case of bannerlord - a game that does not account for economical and social aspects of warfare, fatigue and where force concentration and numeral superiority gives the most advantage. You dont really get any of the advantages of using this tactic, but certainly get all tge disadvantages that come with it As a way to improve the formation itself and make it more historically accurate it would've been really good to have at least a single small group of light or medium horses for skirmishing, running down broken enemy and other utility purposes. Sorry for my English )
Very cool battle. Caeser was a genius. Ever think of doing battle videos against other players? Would be cool to see your commanding skills in that setting.
That would be so much fun! It would have to be on one of the massive MP servers though because if I recall, captain mode only gives you 20 troops to command or so and there's not much you can do tactically with 20 troops :(
Yeah sorry I spent almost a whole month working on the Solo clan WC video on the new channel! ua-cam.com/video/zAOQZO9rxsU/v-deo.html&ab_channel=StratGaming
1:03 when fighting in the field and in general, hand to hand combat was never fought in testudo, it was simply to difficult to maintain a cohesive block of the formtion and still fight. Testudo was only used as you mention for protection against projectiles, but only while advancing or defending. But otherwise a fantastic vid
That's a good point, sorry I should have clarified for that! I meant to use it on the enemy's approach as they would have tossed all their projectiles. Sadly, Bannerlord with RBM makes the AI perform much better in shield wall formation too, so it's hard to get away from that. Thanks for watching!
ok whats important is that the romans fought in open order, not in a testudo or shield wall, this made them more manuverible and allowed to fall back or replace troops
The whole point of keeping reserves and having miltiple lines in real battle is that, units get tired and need to get swapped out. In bannerlord its useless and might even lose you the fight since units fight like mindless drones with infinite stamina. Its real nice to see the maniples in action though.
I don't want to be petty and say that Triplex Acies weren't used by Caesar, his time was after the Marian reforms and used cohorts and legions instead. So instead of saying that I'll say in Caesar's time they were dual wielding gladius (gladii (??)) and jumping in the middle of the enemy formation as seen in the documentry series of Spartacus
Interesting, I was researching the battle of Alesia for this video and the material I read stated he used the Triplex Acies in that battle. With that said, the internet is NEVER wrong, right? ;) Sorry if I got the details mixed up, I try my best on the research side but I'm definitely not a historian and research can be tough for me
@@Strat-Guides During Caesars time they still often used three lines of infantry so it can still be referred to as triplex acies like in the source you read. So it's not technically wrong but it was different from the earlier manipular legion in that they formed solid lines of cohorts instead of leaving gaps between the maniples. Hope that cleared up the confusion about your battle of Alesia source
Sorry for my crap english, the triplex "born" after the roman phalanx period for using better tattics in the zone near rome using velites, hastati, pincipes, triarii and equites (cavalry were usually italy allies). When the manipular system and the legionary arrive the triplex is just referring to use multiple lines of infantry not really matter what kind of infantry are in the army. So yes Cesar use the triplex like every general before and after him. What i hate/love about bannerlord is that is a game about battle and you dont have a really good system to make some efficent tattics....in battle...in a battle game.
This is correct - beside the Auxillarii, mostly fresh recruited and/or mercenarys from the "barbarian" regions (that means all lands outside rome and hellas) on cavallary and foot. There are lists to the total numbers of troop we can cpnvert into %es in-game. There were nearly 40% Aux and also nearly, nearly no legion was in full strength on any given time. In the Republik (first half of Ceasar they werent a dikatotship) were 18 legions to be considered 6000 (with Aux) . Mostly the generals were "happy" if that number matched half. But do not forget: Even 20k Man in total in that Time is a impressive army. Especially when Hightech-Rome comes to people who doesnt know much about industrialized war and mechanical machines. Love your content my friend
Edit: Maybe Messalia and the other former phoenician colonies arent barbaarian, but that is only a guess, since its known for rome to assimilte - not destroy people.
And then there are game's engine limits, 530 vs 530 and 200 of them is cavalry, 100 are archers. Still, the harder the better and good use of formations is crucial with RBM lol
amazing amazing video my man! i absolutely love seeing good formations explained. i just want to make one historical correction. Caesar used legionaries, reformed by his uncle marius a few years prior. Velites, hastaii, principes and triarii were in place since the second punic war up until the cimbrian wars, when marius did his reforms.
Oh woops! I was reading an article that stated he had used the Triplex Acies at the battle of Alesia, but I didn't think to look at what the nomenclature for the units were at the time! I appreciate the correction.
@@Strat-Guides triplex acies is just a way to set about your units, could be layered with hastatii or príncipes or legionaries. I would love to know when did they stop using that formation and just form a single battle line. In later times the armies were smaller so I guess it was due to being such massive armies
Ever thought of doing a campaign similar to Julius Caesar's life? Like rising the tiers and becoming a master at field batlle, all until you get btrayed somehow. Would be fun. Especially since then you could take over as a game version of Augustus and then try to restore an empire. - Ignore that, new idea just dropped - A Bannerlord version of "The Restorer", Aurelian. The mod even has his "fictional" helm/mask with the stars.
Did you consider making a guide for captain, party leader and governor build? There are quite a lot of useful perks, obtained through combat skills and etc. Its especially annoying to pick 40+ perks for you brother, most of witch you don't need, in the beginning of every campaign.
Good video! It might be closer to what's described (a good description is in the Novel Hannibal by Ross Leckie, it's short and a great read, also describes some Awesome tactics used by Hannibal Barca, though that's more supposition based, it would make for a cool video) and more of a challenge if you had a block of Skirmishers and Cavalry on the enemy side. As the Velites where primarily tasked with engaging enemy scouts and their own skirmish line whilst being at the risk of cavalry charges, not just baiting the main battleline (though ofc they did). Having enemy cavalry would also mean you would need to actively command your cavalry as in antiquity Cavalry would mostly be tasked with countering other Cavalry and shielding the flanks (which you do but there's no enemy cavalry here to challenge them). One thing that i don't think Bannerlord is equipped to deal with is that 'Heavy Horse' Impact Cavalry didn't really exist and most cavalry used javelins (or something similar), especially Roman cavalry, no stirrups and very poor horsemanship skill/breeding/treatment i believe where major factors, and were more harassing units/counter cavalry. So you wouldn't have brutal and decisive cavalry charges into infantry. It's why the Byzantines where so powerful as they essentially had Knights to finally defeat the Persian(Parthian?) Horse Archers who had been unbeatable for Western Rome, though the Arabs eventually surpassed them with their own supremely strong impact cavalry.
It probably helps to post videos more than once every other month haha I'll put another one out today that should carry the channel over the line :) Thanks for the support!
As a history teacher and an artist, I appreciate your faithful execution of these battle tactics- its so cool seeing them visualized in one of my favorite games. Appreciate the mods too! Good work!
They didn't fight like that. They marched forward with the gaps, but closed prior to engaging and after the skirmishers had retreated through. Fighting with gaps like that would be suicidal. Caesar also did not fight with the hastati/principes/triarii. Those were phased out by the Marian reforms.
Actualliy it is highly debated whether they would fill the holes before battle. As they would rotate out the front line with the fresh troops as well. Some people believe the Triplex was just used how you say and some don't. How exactly they rotated the melee troops on the frontline is unclear though.
Empire can go many different ways, but one of my favorite is infantry heavy - 50 - 60% infantry and the rest can be foot archers or Bucellari. For the foot troops, get like 25% legionary and the rest menavliaton and watch the enemy melt away like hot butter :)
@@Strat-Guides Thank you for the quick respond! I'd love to implement Menavliatons but dont you need melee cav? What would be the strategy against enemy cav/horse archers?
@@ardianmusa9368 you can ignore cavalry as they underperform compared to archers and shock troops. They can be fun to use, but aren't necessary. Infantry obliterate cavalry, just make sure you're tightly picked when the cav hit and you'll destroy them with few losses. Shock troops will run through literally everything else. Against house archers, your own archers and shock troops should be able to take them out. I've run tests and equal numbers of shock troops can destroy Khan guard, just spread them out wide before you give the charge command
Unfortunately, none of that segmented armor the legion are wearing was around at the time when hastati, etc., were used. Not that you have control over what is in that mod. Thanks for a good video.
Yeah I was looking into some of the big battles from Al-Walid's history and there are some good tactics being used! I'll definitely try to cover them soon
I would have swung the right wing around from the beginning of initial contact, then brought them back to behind the the left to use as and when. But to be honest a couple of cavalry units sent far left and far right to come to charge at the rear on contact and to run the enemy down when routed would be the way to go. Banner lord unfortunately has some big flaws in its combat controls, great game but I found the total war series has more of a complete control system.
Can you do a video about how to level up your wife? Or just any companion, like the fastest way etc. And increase their skills. You can let your time with it, just make it one day please :D there's not a single video about it on the whole internet
@@Strat-Guides thank you so much buddy. I choose my wifes not by her skills but by her look so I want to make them stronger in every campaign. Hope your strategy still works well. Thanks again m8!
Hey i got a question if you still look at these, do you have a video link or an answer to what to do against an army with cav superiority in numbers, as i tend to field a lot of infantry heavy armies and i get shredded by cav charges in RBM
Have you tried the schiltron formation? I made a video on that using RBM and it works really well. It does okay in vanilla as well but especially well in RBM. Just make sure you keep your units density packed to stop the charge and thick enough that they don't break through easily.
I've noticed when I get troops into good positions, the enemy refuses to engage, or forms up on mountain sides halfway across the map. I end up having to completely redo my formations closer as a result. Anyone have tips for how to goad the AI into engaging? I've tried with fewer units and it still seems pretty hit or miss.
That means you have more balance of power than the enemy and you probably attacked them, so they play defensively. If that happens a lot, take more archers in your army and pelt them off the mountain, easy win with minimal losses :) Archers are amazing on offense because you have lots of time to loose arrows
Hilariously, the first graphics show most of why it was so effective...because Romans tended to fight when they out numbered their opponents. It doesnt matter the Tactics, 9 groups vs 5 groups will almost always win.
A little late to this video but out of all of the tactics that you have used in this game, which one do you like the most? What is the best one overall for ease on the commander/ k/d ratio?
Yeah I've actually been looking at TW WH3 and I already own a few of the older ones! I'll probably wait until after Starfield comes out, but will definitely get into them
I was just looking at how difficult it was to do large scale battles, and I wondered what you thought of maybe doing a tactics video on a totalwar game, you could have a lot more units. But there are A lot more mechanics that bannerlord doesn’t have like morale. I remember in one of your tactics videos you did say that having no morale might have been a downside to bannerlord right then. You might also be too attached to bannerlord to do it though.
You can also have thousands of units at a time. But maybe that’s not the spirit of what you want, cause at the end of your video you said it wouldn’t be easy for new players. And you meant new players of bannerlord, not some other game like totalwar.
I've been looking closely at TW WH3 very closely since it's a popular game and the combat looks fun. You might see something from me in the near future, but we'll see :D
Here's a list of the mods I used for this: ua-cam.com/video/QvmxSuU8gsE/v-deo.html&ab_channel=StratGamingGuides Don't use Banner Kings as it's not necessary and causes crashing, but everything else is good to go.
Yeah I forgot to swap that out lol it was clipping through the horses neck :( I decided to not include cavalry in the test since the game only allows 1000 units in total (500 on each side) and I didn't want cav taking up the units, which means I didn't look over my loadout before going in. Good catch btw, nice attention to detail!
Man as a historian this video makes me angry beyond believe. Like I don’t wanna be rude, but nothing in this video you said about the Triplex Axis is accurate. It’s inaccurate beyond being acceptable. This is misinformation hell for me.
Lemme start at the first few seconds. The TLA was known to be stupid inflexible even tho some historians attribute some level of flexibility to the triplex axis, it’s probably not true, cause we have a lot of „generals“ that just didn’t use it in harsh terrain.
The Titel it self is inaccurate as fuck cause Caesar, how fought with legions after the Marian reforms, didn’t even use this tactics, cause there wasn’t the unit types described in the video. After the Marian Reform, only Velites and Equites stayed in existence. After the reform every soldier was the same called legionaries.
Units from the back didn’t close the gaps this pisses me off beyond believe cause it would ruin the reason for this tactic. There are only two options of how they „plugged“ the gaps one being they absolutely didn’t plug the gaps and the velites and principes would pick them of with javlins and the mighty pilum. Other possible option is that the line stretched out to plug the gaps (which I believe to be true).
After the hastati where exhausted they would do a fighting retreat and the principes would take over. How exactly they did this, is not 100% certain. And we will probably never know.
The romans in their entire history never fought in „testudo“ formation this was just for pitched battles and approaching battlements.
I'm going to pin this comment - I'm definitely not a historian and most of the info used were from other UA-cam history channels. I don't have time to research these topics in depth so I appreciate you taking the time to set the record straight!
angriest historian ever
why are u so mad bro calm ur tits
@@wojtekly9352 With grammar that rivals a 6th grade drop out. Maybe an irate Italian or something.
As a Roman empire nerd, this is what I know so far.
The checker board formation with maniples with Hastatis, principes, triarii were used during the republic era. (Used by Scipio Africanus)
After the Marian reform, they used the cohort system.(Used by Julius Caesar)
The testudo were used before contact, when the enemy skirmishers were throwing stuff at them.
Then they would revert to line formation & engage the enemy after throwing their heavy pilla.
Julius Caesar once told their men to loosen up as they were too squeezed and couldn't use their gladius effectively.
The tactic used in the video was a maniple system.(120 men each) made up of 2 centuries(60 men each)
Roman start was to grind out the enemy and tire them out.
The problem with Bannerlord is, there is no exhaustion system. The side that use every troop to attack wins.
So roman strat of exchanging front troops does not work.
Their strat was to tire out the enemy by constantly replacing troops with the second line.
I tried this in Rome 2 and it worked with very less causality, as the enemy tires and route, the cav and velites would chase & cut them down.
It's been really cool to see real tactics applied to Bannerlord. Especially with RBM
Yeah RBM takes it to a whole different level!
mod completely changes the feel of the game I love how armor feels like armor and pike infantry actually work like pike infantry
These tactics are more clean and clear than my whole educational writings
Lol that's the beauty of editing - I can mess up for 10 hours straight and somehow end up with 9 decent minutes of video :)
@@Strat-Guidescan you try this on warband i wonder is that possible or not
@@isimsizanimator1291 As a warband player i dont think so
The idea of the manipular legion was that each centurion is a mini-commander, they control the maniple. No need for you to micro manage .. yeah, ok, the game doesn't allow that. The Consul only needed to order battle lines to attack / withdraw etc. BL would need a mod to allow Triplex Acies to work properly.
Yeah that's a great point - it would be really hard to move this many men by issuing individual move commands IRL too. But just a general "move up with the rest of the line" would have been easy enough to understand.
You can give AI control to individual groups if you have companions leading them. They don't know such tactics though.
@@Raviollius giving them control means they do f1-f3 - there's no such thing as tactics lmao, i only do it in sieges. field battles it's a death sentence.
the most modern theorie,/ that makes the most sence, is the face of roman battle, basikly combat only lasts for short times, as exaustion and mental drain is to heavy. what ever side looses the engagement breaks contact and withdraws, thus getting pushed back. This meant that all a roman comander had to do was to reenforce success, or prevent a breakthu.
If only TaleWorlds got their heads out of their asses and introduced proper multiplayer to the game (i.e. multiple heroes commanding different troops assigned by the host)
The tactics translated well to the game considering the amount of troops you have to control.
Yeah I really wish the battle cap mods were working :( There used to be one that unlocked it up to 2k instead of 1k - that would be amazing for these types of videos
@@Strat-Guides dont know if you will see this but there is a mod called "battlesize" in nexus which allows you to place approximately 2k troops in battle (mounts also count as troops though).
@@Strat-Guides I have Battle Size Updated working on my heavily modded 1.2.9 playthrough. I edited the limit up to 1.6k only to account for horses
Sometimes the roman leaders made the triarii sit in the ground during battle to avoid them charging into battle, so eager they were to fight those veterans. There was a figure speech, something close "when things come to the triarii" meaning things were in a dire state
I can just imagine veterans frothing at the mouth, ready to charge in and sitting on the ground like pre-schoolers haha
@MalakianM2S Isn't that almost direct quoation from Rome II infocards? :D
@@samueldisturbing761 I agree it's funny that some people get all their historical knowledge from gaming. It's been a while since I played Rome 2 though, I couldn't say.
@@samueldisturbing761 From my experience it's a pretty common anecdote about the Triarii. A cursory google search reveals no primary source for the saying. With that being said, gaming can be a great conduit for learning about history. I often listen to historical podcasts while playing Total War and roleplay historical scenarios.
@@CitizenSnips314 It's possible I just fell victim to the whole "You stole John Wick from Fortnite" thing
I read this description recently in Rome 2 so it's very well possible they just took it from somewhere else.
the worst part is that you don't have anyone to help you command the army. in real life, you would be commanding a section of the army while sergeants who respond to you would take care of the rest, and messengers would go back and forth with reports and orders between you and them. unfortunately, we don't have an AI which is smart enough to do that. the closest thing we have to that is F6 (assign command to sergeants), but they don't listen to you as the actual commander of the army, they do their own thing independently
Foot troops couldn’t chase because if the enemy rallied and ended the retreat the infantry could get cut off from the main army whereas cavalry could avoid being surrounded
That's a great point! Feigned retreats were a serious hazard
When good old Iulius came around, he was already using legionares, the 3 types of heavy troops was already went away at that point. However, he still used multiple lines of battle. Romans were interesting, because most armies at the time were used to commit everybody and win the fight that way. Romans held 1/3rd of their army in reserve, which was unheard of at the time.
Also, sources say Hastatii and Principes were fought alternately, which could mean they were in an alternating pattern or in turns. As far as I know it is still up for debate what did they actually do.
Also-also, Triarii were so rarely used in the manipule era, sources say they sometimes begged to get a piece of the action.
Btw. Caesar's tactic was mainly play with the enemy's mind so much, they just commit to a fight they cannot win. He was pretty good at giving dilemmas to the enemy instead of problems.
Anyway, great video as usual :)
Woops, I only looked at the Triplex Acies formation and didn't confirm that he used those types of infantry! Thanks for the correction :D
Lol thank you. I was gonna comment the exact same thing , this formation was used in pre-Marian Rome
yeah yeah. fake history. rome or roman empire never existed.
At around 5:30 you made a good point about how it was difficult to manage the army. This is why each unit had a centurian who sat in on the tactics meeting and relayed that information to the troops. In reality, each unit was independently commanded and you just sat back on a hill and watched the fight. Caesar sometimes fought with his men (e.g. battle of Pharsalus, battle of Alesia) but it was usually because he was at a significant disadvantage and wanted to provide his troops with moral.
Great video! One minor point to consider though: I think you should list all the relevant mods you use in the video (either in the video itself or in the description), for clarity purposes. For example, RBM battles are quite different to vanilla so people new to Bannerlord might get some wrong impressions about how battles work (especially things like AI quality and combat duration)
I'll add it to the description now, good point!
Still waiting on that mod list, especially the one that lets you alter groups mid combat.@@Strat-Guides
Soo about that mod list..... has the promise gone the way of the Roman Empire? 😂
That is why there were junior officers and centurions, so the legate would not get overwhelmed. There is already much difficulty micromanaging such a small force "in person", imagine commanding a couple legions.
4:40 for good reason. There were a number of battles when the fleeing force turned around and clobbered the chasing force or the chasing force broke into the fleeing forces camp got caught by a rallied force and slaughtered or just getting disorganized, caught and encircled.
Great job explaining a couple extra tidbits the veterans were in back to mop up yes but also just strategic use of wearing down enemy troops giving them no chance once veterans hit while also letting less experienced troops claim some valor and battle experience on the front. Also cavalry back for Julius was actually in much shorter supply as far as actual Roman cavalry so they were almost always flank shock troops or draw troops. Love that you said maniple and no phalanx and specified the difference which was more usable joints
Thanks for watching! I'm definitely not a historian and research is not my forte, but I do try my best to get close to accurate :)
Coincidentally, I use a very similar strategy in the Rome Total War games.
It's a lot simpler to control when you can freeze your whole army's formation and just drag them around like that.
Yeah I really wish they had that ability in Bannerlord. It's so tedious to move them one by one
@@rehm402 Especially when they do it in match-step.
@@Strat-Guides There's a RTS camera/commands mod for Bannerlord.
how this all worked so well back in the day was due to the sergeants. you could give general orders and have the units follow them, flexing to fit the situation and ensure that the whole operation came together without a huge amount of micromanagement. BL lacks this ability which is why it is so difficult, and even in total war when they got formations down pretty good you still had to micro the units to get them to do what they should be doing.
Yeah that's true - it would be cool to reproduce this in an MP game then - each person can control a group of 50 or 100 and the general can issue commands to them. That would be glorious!
@@Strat-Guides yeah when i saw captain mode that is what i thought of, but it has never turned out that way for me, though i have seen some guilds do some similar stuff, but the flag thing tends to get in the way.
@@Strat-Guides For a little, there actually was a game very similar to that! Total War Arena was very fun!
You had control 3 columns (or an equivalent, depending on the unit type), which you would pick before each battle, and could customize a few details as well as select a faction-specific general (historical figures) who would change some things or grant special abilities.
That way you could at least maintain a certain level of army cohesion in a multiplayer game where everyone could be running around with their heads cut off.
They had plenty of neat units to pick from, too. Scorpion and even trebuchet artillery, various types of sling, archer and javelin troops, chariots, scout cav, heavy chargers, dogs, elephants... and you could set up traps and barricades, even, to modify the terrain a little.
Nobody can teach historical battle tactics better than you! Your content is GOLDEN.
I love these types of videos. Especially because when I play I only use 4 formations for different troop types.
Even on bannerlord difficulty, unless you're using a lot of mods that change battle, you really only need 2 formations.
Strat's Sturgia-only army tactics guide for offense, and Strat's Schilltron formation for defense. Take whatever infantry you want, get Battanian Fian Champ archers, and as long as you use the terrain and formation depending on if you're attacking or defending, you really only need these two strategies.
You can tell if you're on offense or defense based on how combat initiates - if you demand the enemy surrender or die and they try to talk their way out of it, you're on offense. If they demand you surrender and you have the option to "fight til your last drop of blood" you're on defense.
The enemy AI really can't handle the schiltron, and if you build a mixed army (I prefer Sturgia/Battania combo) you can beat anything. Heavy Axes & Spears make a SOLID front line that I have yet to have something take apart besides me not noticing a cav flank on them, but that's what my cav and archers are for.
I would like to see a mod come out with programmable troop formations. I want to be able to press one button and have everyone go in the right spot which I would have designated beforehand, then when I point them to move to a certain spot I want them staying in their respective formations. Like this you could execute complex manoeuvres realistically, similarly as they would in a real army. I'm sure this is easier said than done, though I still would like to see it happen.
I've been doing everything here but the "reserves" part since Warband, but I usually had my commander and his posse strengthen where our line was weakest instead. Didn't realize I was using part of a Julius Caesar tactic, it just made sense to me. Neat!
They say Caesar himself went to the front himself way ahead of his frontline in order to * checks notes * "waste the Gauls ammunition".
General LegendOfTotalWar used this "Checkerboard" formation with great success in his chronicles that have been archived on UA-cam.
the warband 108 heroes mod had some really good ideas of being able to preset the battle formations before hand, as well as giving group buffs depending on who you placed in charge of each group.
Other's have already talked about the history and tactical side of this topic, so I'll go with some fun facts.
The troops in the Maniple system were arranged by a combination of age and wealth, with wealth being the biggest factor. They had to buy their own equipment and it was considered a sign of failure in an individual if it took them too long to rise to the next rank (being in the Velites into your 20s, for example).
The Velites (pronounced 'Well | ē |Tay), were the youngest and poorest troops, and their entire job was throwing those javelins. Once they were done with that, they could stick around to help with other things, such as reinforcing the front lines, bringing water to the troops, etc., and they often did just that, but they were free to return to camp.
The next age and wealth group up from them were the Hastati, who were often only equipped with a brass helmet and a relatively small piece of brass to cover their chest, alongside the standard sword and shield. They weren't expected to break the enemy, as much as wear them down before the real next ranks had to engage. They would usually end up falling back to the spaces between the Principes and Triarii to rest a while before joining the front lines again alongside the Principes.
The next age and wealth group up from them were the Principes (Prēnk | îp | êh), who were armed with roughly the same things that the Hastati were, but with far better armor, often having a maille shirt and a better helmet. They were the real meat and potatoes of the army at the time, and most battles were won or lost with them. If they failed, then the Triarii would step up to the front lines, reinforced by the remaining Hastati and Principes.
The Triarii are almost a meme in and of themselves. They were the oldest and wealthiest troops, having served as each of the previous ranks of infantry. They were also so zealous that they would often join the battle without being given the order to do so. This became such a problem that at least one commander made them sit down facing away from the battle. If things came down to them it was considered a bad sign and an indicator that you were in deep shit.
Not mentioned was the fifth group, the Equites (êh | Kwē | Tay), who, as the name probably suggests, were cavalry. They were the richest of the standard troops, often coming from wealthy or noble families, and did not generally serve in the previous ranks mentioned. They were a key component in this formula, but they were also very arrogant and usually saw scouting duty as beneath them, which lead many Roman armies at the time into ambushes that could have been avoided, such as those that Hannibal used against them on multiple occasions.
That's unexpected. I spent some significant time in Warband in the, but abandoned it at some point. Youtude recommended this video to me because i was watching Total War games videos and i was shocked when i saw HOW advanced looks battle field from Bannerlord comparing to Warband. Now it looks like real RTS game, not like action game, like in was Warband.
Thanks for video!
The big disadvantage I see versus single line is that keeping all those Triarii in the back means that your initial line will have to be shorter or thinner by quite a a bit, which can be a problem if the enemy has the same number of troops.
That being said, keeping around a third of your troops in reserve is a pretty common doctrinal approach in modern warfare, where any given force is often split into three elements, with one in reserve.
As far as my knowledge goes, the principes arent supposed to form first battle line with hastati - they are here to form a second defensive line in case hastati have to retreat - Machiavelli puts it as something along the lines of "essentially having three chances of winning a battle". Of course, game can not give us a full representation of what an actual warfare is, so tactics used by real commanders need to be HEAVILY tweaked for in-game use. Although its quite entertaining to emulate such tactics, i would've said that its kind of detrimental in case of bannerlord - a game that does not account for economical and social aspects of warfare, fatigue and where force concentration and numeral superiority gives the most advantage. You dont really get any of the advantages of using this tactic, but certainly get all tge disadvantages that come with it
As a way to improve the formation itself and make it more historically accurate it would've been really good to have at least a single small group of light or medium horses for skirmishing, running down broken enemy and other utility purposes.
Sorry for my English )
These are all great points! Yeah it would have been tough to represent all 3 lines accurately with only 500 troops :(
HBO's 'Rome' PTSD was kicking in there for a second.
Great video and tactics!
Missed an opportunity to show a short montage and cut to black tho!
Very cool battle. Caeser was a genius. Ever think of doing battle videos against other players? Would be cool to see your commanding skills in that setting.
That would be so much fun! It would have to be on one of the massive MP servers though because if I recall, captain mode only gives you 20 troops to command or so and there's not much you can do tactically with 20 troops :(
Best tactic, destroy a wave without loses for after retreat of the battle and restart the battle, with yours soldiers to max again
It’s great to see you posting more videos :) definitely missed these
Yeah sorry I spent almost a whole month working on the Solo clan WC video on the new channel! ua-cam.com/video/zAOQZO9rxsU/v-deo.html&ab_channel=StratGaming
I would love to play that game I've wanted something like that my whole life. You are a fine commander. Cheers
1:03 when fighting in the field and in general, hand to hand combat was never fought in testudo, it was simply to difficult to maintain a cohesive block of the formtion and still fight. Testudo was only used as you mention for protection against projectiles, but only while advancing or defending. But otherwise a fantastic vid
That's a good point, sorry I should have clarified for that! I meant to use it on the enemy's approach as they would have tossed all their projectiles. Sadly, Bannerlord with RBM makes the AI perform much better in shield wall formation too, so it's hard to get away from that. Thanks for watching!
ok whats important is that the romans fought in open order, not in a testudo or shield wall, this made them more manuverible and allowed to fall back or replace troops
The whole point of keeping reserves and having miltiple lines in real battle is that, units get tired and need to get swapped out. In bannerlord its useless and might even lose you the fight since units fight like mindless drones with infinite stamina.
Its real nice to see the maniples in action though.
I’ve been waiting for a Julius Caesar tactics video for SO long
Welcome back. Hope to see more of the Spartacus campaign
Thanks! The episodes I posted on the Let's Play channel this week are the last of that series, but I've got more videos being edited this weekend :)
I don't want to be petty and say that Triplex Acies weren't used by Caesar, his time was after the Marian reforms and used cohorts and legions instead.
So instead of saying that I'll say in Caesar's time they were dual wielding gladius (gladii (??)) and jumping in the middle of the enemy formation as seen in the documentry series of Spartacus
Interesting, I was researching the battle of Alesia for this video and the material I read stated he used the Triplex Acies in that battle. With that said, the internet is NEVER wrong, right? ;) Sorry if I got the details mixed up, I try my best on the research side but I'm definitely not a historian and research can be tough for me
@@Strat-Guides During Caesars time they still often used three lines of infantry so it can still be referred to as triplex acies like in the source you read. So it's not technically wrong but it was different from the earlier manipular legion in that they formed solid lines of cohorts instead of leaving gaps between the maniples. Hope that cleared up the confusion about your battle of Alesia source
Sorry for my crap english, the triplex "born" after the roman phalanx period for using better tattics in the zone near rome using velites, hastati, pincipes, triarii and equites (cavalry were usually italy allies). When the manipular system and the legionary arrive the triplex is just referring to use multiple lines of infantry not really matter what kind of infantry are in the army. So yes Cesar use the triplex like every general before and after him. What i hate/love about bannerlord is that is a game about battle and you dont have a really good system to make some efficent tattics....in battle...in a battle game.
This is correct - beside the Auxillarii, mostly fresh recruited and/or mercenarys from the "barbarian" regions (that means all lands outside rome and hellas) on cavallary and foot.
There are lists to the total numbers of troop we can cpnvert into %es in-game.
There were nearly 40% Aux and also nearly, nearly no legion was in full strength on any given time.
In the Republik (first half of Ceasar they werent a dikatotship) were 18 legions to be considered 6000 (with Aux) .
Mostly the generals were "happy" if that number matched half.
But do not forget: Even 20k Man in total in that Time is a impressive army. Especially when Hightech-Rome comes to people who doesnt know much about industrialized war and mechanical machines.
Love your content my friend
Edit:
Maybe Messalia and the other former phoenician colonies arent barbaarian, but that is only a guess, since its known for rome to assimilte - not destroy people.
And then there are game's engine limits, 530 vs 530 and 200 of them is cavalry, 100 are archers. Still, the harder the better and good use of formations is crucial with RBM lol
Wish Taleworlds would let us move our army as a whole in formation. Its just so tedious to move every formations on its own.
Agreed! It's such a pain
Agreed. They should have a “lock formation” like Total War. So you can just select all and move them while they stay in that formation
@@eveei agreed, and lock some formations togethers like frontline infantry
amazing amazing video my man! i absolutely love seeing good formations explained. i just want to make one historical correction. Caesar used legionaries, reformed by his uncle marius a few years prior. Velites, hastaii, principes and triarii were in place since the second punic war up until the cimbrian wars, when marius did his reforms.
Oh woops! I was reading an article that stated he had used the Triplex Acies at the battle of Alesia, but I didn't think to look at what the nomenclature for the units were at the time! I appreciate the correction.
@@Strat-Guides triplex acies is just a way to set about your units, could be layered with hastatii or príncipes or legionaries. I would love to know when did they stop using that formation and just form a single battle line. In later times the armies were smaller so I guess it was due to being such massive armies
They didn't use testudo when holding the enemy line
Bannerlord has such a bright future
am waiting for "I used Khalid ibn walids tactics to dominate the battlefiled"
I was just thinking I should start using formations. Been playing a heavily modded campaign as the Aserai w/ RBM and DRM, it’s been quite fun.
That's a really good mod combo! Personally I prefer True Armies of Calradia over DRM, but both are really good (DRM has much better bandits though).
@@Strat-Guides Main reason I’m using DRM instead of TAoC is cause I can’t remember what units are what because of the crazy unit names. 😆
Ever thought of doing a campaign similar to Julius Caesar's life? Like rising the tiers and becoming a master at field batlle, all until you get btrayed somehow. Would be fun. Especially since then you could take over as a game version of Augustus and then try to restore an empire. - Ignore that, new idea just dropped - A Bannerlord version of "The Restorer", Aurelian. The mod even has his "fictional" helm/mask with the stars.
These are some of my favorite of your videos!
3:02 "That's the straightest my line gets man"
Bro made a gay line 💀
;)
My daily Roman Empire fix has been fulfilled.
Lol so you DO think about the Roman empire...
Beautiful video. I’d love to see more reenactments
Did you consider making a guide for captain, party leader and governor build?
There are quite a lot of useful perks, obtained through combat skills and etc.
Its especially annoying to pick 40+ perks for you brother, most of witch you don't need, in the beginning of every campaign.
I've got a whole series on companions and family members actually, including specific builds :)
Thanks for the new video Strat!
Good video! It might be closer to what's described (a good description is in the Novel Hannibal by Ross Leckie, it's short and a great read, also describes some Awesome tactics used by Hannibal Barca, though that's more supposition based, it would make for a cool video) and more of a challenge if you had a block of Skirmishers and Cavalry on the enemy side. As the Velites where primarily tasked with engaging enemy scouts and their own skirmish line whilst being at the risk of cavalry charges, not just baiting the main battleline (though ofc they did).
Having enemy cavalry would also mean you would need to actively command your cavalry as in antiquity Cavalry would mostly be tasked with countering other Cavalry and shielding the flanks (which you do but there's no enemy cavalry here to challenge them). One thing that i don't think Bannerlord is equipped to deal with is that 'Heavy Horse' Impact Cavalry didn't really exist and most cavalry used javelins (or something similar), especially Roman cavalry, no stirrups and very poor horsemanship skill/breeding/treatment i believe where major factors, and were more harassing units/counter cavalry. So you wouldn't have brutal and decisive cavalry charges into infantry. It's why the Byzantines where so powerful as they essentially had Knights to finally defeat the Persian(Parthian?) Horse Archers who had been unbeatable for Western Rome, though the Arabs eventually surpassed them with their own supremely strong impact cavalry.
Love these videos where you use historical tactics!
the visuals are amazing with this mod
Yeah they really did a good job with this one - it must have taken months or years
@@Strat-Guides are they fully finished with the mod or is it still unreleased?
One of your leader videos down view and got so excited lol I just started playing the game less than a week ago
You're almost there! Right on the cusp of 100k!
It probably helps to post videos more than once every other month haha I'll put another one out today that should carry the channel over the line :) Thanks for the support!
@@Strat-Guides Your videos are of incredibly high quality! You don't have to worry about quantity, just do what suits you best!
Congratulations you’re almost at 100K subs!
Thanks! Another day or two and it should roll over 100k :D
this is the video ive been waiting for!
Finally, more of this please!
Would be cool if the bannerlord had better controls over large formations. Trying to set this up seems hard enough even when you dont have to advance
As a history teacher and an artist, I appreciate your faithful execution of these battle tactics- its so cool seeing them visualized in one of my favorite games. Appreciate the mods too! Good work!
it would be cool if the ai actually used these tactics, imagine a large imperial army doing this.
I'm really hoping someone can make an AI mod for exactly this!
i love this video make more
That’s all fine and dandy until the enemies have archers and cav lol
They didn't fight like that. They marched forward with the gaps, but closed prior to engaging and after the skirmishers had retreated through. Fighting with gaps like that would be suicidal. Caesar also did not fight with the hastati/principes/triarii. Those were phased out by the Marian reforms.
Its easy to do these tactics against just infantry but not so easy when they have infantry, strong cav of 100 on each side and archers
Sun Tzu: F1 + F3
Strat Gaming:
Sun Tzu cannot lose, F1 F3 is life :D
Pretty sure the only tactic ceaser ever used was "BUILD A WALL"
Lol maybe that's where Trump got his idea from
"What's better than a wall? Two walls!"
-Julius Caesar during the Battle of Alesia, 52 BC
Actualliy it is highly debated whether they would fill the holes before battle. As they would rotate out the front line with the fresh troops as well. Some people believe the Triplex was just used how you say and some don't. How exactly they rotated the melee troops on the frontline is unclear though.
Tactics to defeat mixed composition armies? I keep trying these infantry centric tactics and get annihilated by a mix of archers and cavalty
Damn, I wanna use these tactics in an empire only playthrough so baaad. Any recommendations for a general army comp of only empire?
Empire can go many different ways, but one of my favorite is infantry heavy - 50 - 60% infantry and the rest can be foot archers or Bucellari. For the foot troops, get like 25% legionary and the rest menavliaton and watch the enemy melt away like hot butter :)
@@Strat-Guides Thank you for the quick respond! I'd love to implement Menavliatons but dont you need melee cav? What would be the strategy against enemy cav/horse archers?
@@ardianmusa9368 you can ignore cavalry as they underperform compared to archers and shock troops. They can be fun to use, but aren't necessary. Infantry obliterate cavalry, just make sure you're tightly picked when the cav hit and you'll destroy them with few losses. Shock troops will run through literally everything else. Against house archers, your own archers and shock troops should be able to take them out. I've run tests and equal numbers of shock troops can destroy Khan guard, just spread them out wide before you give the charge command
@@Strat-Guides Thanks alot!
Unfortunately, none of that segmented armor the legion are wearing was around at the time when hastati, etc., were used. Not that you have control over what is in that mod. Thanks for a good video.
We love to see it
Any chance we get Khalid ibn Al-Walid tactics soon? or maybe Baybars' mamlukes.
Yeah I was looking into some of the big battles from Al-Walid's history and there are some good tactics being used! I'll definitely try to cover them soon
I would have swung the right wing around from the beginning of initial contact, then brought them back to behind the the left to use as and when. But to be honest a couple of cavalry units sent far left and far right to come to charge at the rear on contact and to run the enemy down when routed would be the way to go. Banner lord unfortunately has some big flaws in its combat controls, great game but I found the total war series has more of a complete control system.
Probably not gonna do testudo in a pitched battle.
This battle is missing flying arrows and javelins xD
Nice to see. Ceasar couldn't cav worth a darn.
Bannerlord unit cap - he didn't have room for them ;)
Thanks!
I really appreciate that, it's very kind of you!!
Can you do a video about how to level up your wife? Or just any companion, like the fastest way etc. And increase their skills. You can let your time with it, just make it one day please :D there's not a single video about it on the whole internet
I did this one a while back, but most of it should still be the same! ua-cam.com/video/zdqxW1L9p3E/v-deo.html&ab_channel=StratGamingGuides
@@Strat-Guides thank you so much buddy. I choose my wifes not by her skills but by her look so I want to make them stronger in every campaign. Hope your strategy still works well. Thanks again m8!
@@MasterDracer Lol that thirst trap got you eh? Good luck with your campaign!
@@Strat-Guides yes, unfortunately.. 😂
Hey i got a question if you still look at these, do you have a video link or an answer to what to do against an army with cav superiority in numbers, as i tend to field a lot of infantry heavy armies and i get shredded by cav charges in RBM
Have you tried the schiltron formation? I made a video on that using RBM and it works really well. It does okay in vanilla as well but especially well in RBM. Just make sure you keep your units density packed to stop the charge and thick enough that they don't break through easily.
Do you have any idea how to download the RTS Camera mod? Any help is appreciated!
i wonder how did you put your units in square formation when it is shown F2 Line formation
awesome dude
I've noticed when I get troops into good positions, the enemy refuses to engage, or forms up on mountain sides halfway across the map. I end up having to completely redo my formations closer as a result. Anyone have tips for how to goad the AI into engaging? I've tried with fewer units and it still seems pretty hit or miss.
That means you have more balance of power than the enemy and you probably attacked them, so they play defensively. If that happens a lot, take more archers in your army and pelt them off the mountain, easy win with minimal losses :) Archers are amazing on offense because you have lots of time to loose arrows
@@Strat-Guides Ah, thanks for the tip! I'll have to give that a try. 😁
Hilariously, the first graphics show most of why it was so effective...because Romans tended to fight when they out numbered their opponents. It doesnt matter the Tactics, 9 groups vs 5 groups will almost always win.
A little late to this video but out of all of the tactics that you have used in this game, which one do you like the most? What is the best one overall for ease on the commander/ k/d ratio?
You should do a total war video it’s a awesome game and I’d think you’d love it
Yeah I've actually been looking at TW WH3 and I already own a few of the older ones! I'll probably wait until after Starfield comes out, but will definitely get into them
I was just looking at how difficult it was to do large scale battles, and I wondered what you thought of maybe doing a tactics video on a totalwar game, you could have a lot more units. But there are A lot more mechanics that bannerlord doesn’t have like morale. I remember in one of your tactics videos you did say that having no morale might have been a downside to bannerlord right then. You might also be too attached to bannerlord to do it though.
You can also have thousands of units at a time. But maybe that’s not the spirit of what you want, cause at the end of your video you said it wouldn’t be easy for new players. And you meant new players of bannerlord, not some other game like totalwar.
I've been looking closely at TW WH3 very closely since it's a popular game and the combat looks fun. You might see something from me in the near future, but we'll see :D
hey, i love your videos, can u try the Blizkrieg strategie from ww2
Hello! What mods are you using in this video? Could you show a screen shot or text of the mod list please?
Here's a list of the mods I used for this: ua-cam.com/video/QvmxSuU8gsE/v-deo.html&ab_channel=StratGamingGuides Don't use Banner Kings as it's not necessary and causes crashing, but everything else is good to go.
Scutum on horseback, I doubt that would've worked at all.
Yeah I forgot to swap that out lol it was clipping through the horses neck :( I decided to not include cavalry in the test since the game only allows 1000 units in total (500 on each side) and I didn't want cav taking up the units, which means I didn't look over my loadout before going in. Good catch btw, nice attention to detail!
@@Strat-Guides Love your videos by the way! ;)
Playin' this like bannerlord.
How are you able to control your troops from birds eye view? Is it a mod or a part of the game.
How did ancient armies practice these tactics with thousands of men? Did they have large fields dedicated to this?
That's a great question, I'm not sure!
Can you try this tactics for warband i wonder is that possible or not
How did you get the eagle view in the beginning, is it a mod?
What mods are you using?
What's your opinion on Delegate Command?
I use it for melee cavalry sometimes, but generally I don't think the AI does a good job with delegate command :(
@@Strat-Guides thank you.