Shit defense. It could be perfect if player could know how to use archers on high ground to cut enemy arrows aiming and cut their damage in the same time increase his archers damage.
A few improvement ideas: - split archers into 2 groups, and place one on the left side of the bridge and the other one on the right side with the infantry shield wall blocking off the bridge. - the archers would have had a better vantage point on that little hill on the left side of the bridge, the one you were standing on at 4:30 - if you can't use the cavalry as cavalry (to charge) and the opponents have a lot of archers, you can keep them safer by ordering a dismount (F5) and then putting them in shield wall. You could use them to back up the infantry group. Also, while the enemy did have almost 3x more troops, most of them were trash. see the balance of power bar that you are shown before the battle, it's an almost even split (60/40 at most ). If they had troops of the same tier as you, it would be leaning in their favor a lot, like 75/25
Good ideas but here are my counter arguments: - with only archers on my left flank, enemy INF advances with shield in left hand, so they can shoot at a mostly defenceless INF (shield is on the opposite side) and as they reach my INF since its on the right of the bridge, enemy now presents completely defenceless to my archers. - yes probably but would increase range in the early engagement making them less accurate, however good point as it might not have had that much of an effect. It would however mean a longer wait time for their charge at the end, that brings this formation to its culmination, INF is the anvil, archers are the hammer, impossible to do in a diamond formation. - Dismount is a good idea but then CAV would not be able to chase them after to finish them off because horses just run away. It would cripple my post engagement. Enemy Army composition is varied but never only top tier, neither is my army but it is stronger 1to1 I agree, however, this was to demonstrate that you can defeat armies 3x your own with the range of possible troop compositions the enemy could present, and I think it demonstrates that. My losses indicates the enemy could have a better army and still lose. The location, formation and quality of the troops all mattered, not just one or the other. I don't pretend at any moment this is a miracle that only I could do, we all understand the balance of power bar, and I did my best to explain that this is to show you can to it, even in max difficulty settings, so next time someone is being chased by a bigger army, there is another option to just running away. I'm starting a new story today on twitch around 1pm, I welcome you and any others to come over and discuss it some more :)
@@TheOnlySillySocks From what I've seen so far, the horses of dismounted cavalry will not run away (at all). The horses of dead cavalry do run away pretty quick, but that is another thing altogether. If you are afraid of the archers firing too soon, you can have them hold fire / fire at will with a simple F4.
I get that but with a lot of arrow coming from the enemy side its still a risk they run off when they get hit. On the archers I have them closer to reduce distance and maximize damage as the enemy approaches. I get your point I do, its just my way of balancing damage, distance, safety etc. this is actually something I'm having issues with Vlandia right now. Inf seems useless, more of a speed bump than anything else, and crossbowman are not as effective as archers imo.
I wouldn't even split the archers. Just them being high on the flank (where he moves at the end for a second before charging roughly) wouldve wiped far more out on the approach and skirmish portion. Flanking fire, flanking charges and hammer and anvil are the keys to battle. The game allows a variety of win scenarios so not many get to the real tactical play in this game. But man is it satisfying when you pull off good tactical play and not just seat of your pants manoeuvring.
I like making what I call the ‘beartrap’ on bridge battles. I find that when the enemy outnumbers you they tend to beeline for you, so I set up a V with two infantry formations in shield wall to wedge the enemy inwards - they get shredded since as enemies get near the tip of the V they will become increasingly outnumbered, then enemies push each other like a ‘conveyor belt’ of death, end up with pretty decent ratios. The bridge maps often have decent high ground with side angles on the bridge too, so spread archers wherever gives the best LOS. Cav can kill stragglers or plug any holes if it comes to it
Awesome defense! Only thing I was hoping you would do: when you had your shield wall a bit to the side, and their INF rushed, I thought swinging your cav in front of your arrows then charge the INF sides. Either way, unreal. Smart use of switching the sides to allow your archers to pick up arrows!
Thanks :) yeah I was using the archers as the hammer for the infs anvil but yeah that's a good idea. I will join the cav with the archers for the hammer :)
Awesome Work! I tend to use a front and fallback position, mixed with a little Cav and Horse Archers for interference. This Looks like so; The front position is comprised of Infantry in a Shield Wall with Archers to the rear (very similar to how you have them set up here). This is where I try to lead the enemy Cav or their main force, then I wait until their archers are in range of the Infantry before I send them back to the fallback position. The fallback position is comprised of 3 shield walls covering my main Archer force on a hill (or advantaged position) with the remainder of my Cav to the rear. I will usually have companions and my better units in these formations and will slowly make a "Killbox" with the 3 shield walls as the main enemy force approaches. Throughout battle I will be aiming for enemy commanders, Cav and Archers as they are the biggest threat, but anything else will be obliterated in the killbox (no matter the numbers)
Very nice hold! i hate getting city ambushed like that, with bridge battles a few tips I've picked up when I'm extremely outnumbered, is i usually hold fire on the archers till the enemy gets close and are clumped up. And i would also dismount my cav as backup infantry in case the front line infantry starts to get their edge swarmed! You can remount your cav if the battle goes well and chase to show who's boss! lol Edit: nvm lol, others have mentioned what i said
beautiful gameplay that was freaking epic, I felt you like a real commander by your positionning and your decisions, I felt like I don't know how to play lmao
just had a fight on the same map two days ago. my army of 1000 (almost all) sturgians vs. 2000 vlandians, of which there were 1000 shock cavalry. open field battle I'd have been obliterated, but with that one bridge only access? I utterly crushed them. I completely blocked off the bridge with my shield wall. archers left and right flank of the bridge, no own cavalry. for every member of my army they killed or wounded, my men wounded or killed at least 4 of them. had to pull a retreat to map twice though due to the annoying reinforcement mechanic. since I was barely losing troops, by the time my reinforcements even spawned, my infantry was overrun, as my enemies kept getting reinforced multiple times in that timeframe. in the end, I defeteated every last vlandian and still had somewhere between 700 and 800 left alive in my army. love your way of only partially blocking the bridge though, especially as with your numbers, completely blocking off would have been not really possible. nicely done with the numbers available!
Terrain and effective use of troop types can really even the number advantage out. Once i beat an army 3 times my forces size by doing something similar with a river ford. I'd park my archers across the ford, have them fire off a few volleys as the heavy infantry lumbered across, and then retreat out of battle. After 10-15 times of this the enemy had been worn down my archers could finish them off melee.
Despite the tiers of the troops engaged in the conflict. I have used this tactic along with very similar tactics and they do work great no matter the strength of the enemy. When it comes to the defence of your kingdom and it’s fiefs this tactic is great for wearing down larger forces so they are less likely to capture your castles and towns. Thanks for a cool battle clip bro!
I have seen some of the comments shitting on you here. I had a similar situation where It was an even number match. But he had WAY more better quality troops. Out of a 389 man army, almost 100 were Battanian Volunteers. We held that bridge, Barely. The Fian Archers and I held the line. Biggest pain with bridge defense is that SOME Calvary will just slip thru for whatever reason. Ignore them, let the archers deal with them.
I love watching these sort of battles and I wish I could do them, I'm running around with 350 in my party but no one attacks unless they have 1500 of more on their side which sucks
I've done around 5-6 playthroughs and my recent one I've started my own kingdom. I've got around 20 towns already but the biggest kingdom I struggle to fight is those damn khuzaits. No matter what I always lose more troops than I would if I were to fight any other faction
I have done this before 500ish vs 250 Played with empire troops maxed out Took advantage of terrain! Massive mountain so I sat my shield wall below while my archers are way up further seeing over the wall By the time the enemy is close they lost a few but lost even more due to the slower movement going up the hill Hit my shield wall but they stood no chance against my legions! Just kept holding the shield wall while my archers dealt with the flanks! Morale broke and then ordered to charge! Ezy 🙌🏼
So your 150 high tier troops in an almost impregnable bridge defensive position managed to defeat about 350 recruits and tier 2 troops. Wow, amazing...... What was all the panic about mate?
@@TheOnlySillySocks dreadfully sorry that I wasn't amazed by what was a very simple defense but hey, if you are expecting people to fall all over themselves with your unbelievable tactical genius then perhaps post something that actually shows some form of tactical genius? Just a thought...... 🥱
Actually no I'm not. I was hoping that folks that didn't know they could use bridges to do fights like these will look for that now, or that archers could pick up arrows from the ground actually do. that kind of stuff. Forgive the rest of us that don't seek approval from strangers or only upload ridiculously scripted videos and are just trying to be of some help. Or maybe just see this was recorded live in a Roleplay playthrough and found it cool. Just not expecting that someone feels they need to come brag and criticize because "very simple defense"... "mate"
@@TheOnlySillySocks Are you actually serious? Where in the video did you try to make any commentary to educate players that using the obvious choke point of the bridge was a tactic they could use in case they didn't know? At no time was this ever an educational video rather than just a "look at me and how good my epic defense was" video. If you want to post this kind of stuff for the likes, praise etc then thats fine, fill ya boots. But don't be surprised and offended when someone is not impressed by something, which at least to me, was nothing special at all and hardly worthy of the "wow that was epic" or whatever your last statement was. You thrashed a bunch of recruits and barely armoured newbies in the simplest of choke point moves. Barely outnumbered 2 to 1 and actually in terms of army strenght, very even to start with. Wow, perhaps you should write a follow up to the art of war....... If you can't take criticism, that wasn't even offensive, just asking "what was all the panic about" then perhaps you shouldn't post stuff to public forums in search of validation.
done something like this but i blocked a small amout of the bridge with infantry as a shield wall to contain them and won a 150v500 and about 50 of my troops were lvl 2 (bannerlord difficulty)
Would have been awesome if the battle would take place near the city walls and their garrison trying to shoot from the walls, not being able to come closer only if they leave town
That was great to watch! I might be wrong but i think if you tell your infantry to engage rather than charge they will keep the shield wall formation better
I love this game for ambush type battles and surprises. Having to try what you can with what you've got knowing it's taken ages to build your army and you could lose all that work in 5 minutes. You were lucky with the terrain and units in this one. Nothing worse than this sort of outnumbered ambush with better troops and on flat wooded maps. That's a kiss goodnight lol.
The veterancy of your troops also helped, I'm not sure if those are yari spears troops with phalanx formation, and also, the bows are really good, they really did well, that's why the ratio is kinda balanced. I've been to Warband, and I can say that this is winnable, especially if the enemy only has tons of recruits/militias. *So, nothing to worry about next time.....*
Mixed Sturgian Inf from heavy Spearmen to Varyags, Shield wall Formation, mostly Sturgian archers with some others picked up along the way, if it was not a Bridge battle odds are I would have lost, numbers count for a lot these days and it differs from Warband, played it a lot as well. The Bridge funnelling them was key. if it was open battle my bows would have a lot less efficiency, Inf would have been overwhelmed quickly and Cav would barely have mattered. IMO. You have the composition of forces from the video, test it out if you want and let me know.
nice strat never thought of moving my archers over spent arrows on ground at 11:10 the top number is number of troops bottom number is how far they are from you
Try baiting them. If they have many shields, take the cav in the flanks with your own, then box them inf front and cav rear. The worst are the sturgians. When they do it it's very tricky to get to them.
in old Mount & Blade games i could just solo the army on my horse. picking them off one by one. a force of 350 would take a few hours. in bannerlord im playing realistic difficulty. i been trying to run around them so they use up their projectiles. and i can pick them off but i been missing my swings and get destroyed in one hit. I need to get a pole axe instead of the starter sword.
Polearms are the best on horse back, great fun and very effective. Just be carefull cause there are some very slow ones out there xD Takes forever to swing a light pole around to hit someone xD
My only critique would be of your use of Cavalry. I would have taken my Cavalry, once they were heading toward my infantry, to that bridge on the left. Once across, just have the Cavalry charge the Archers. Also, I would have deployed the Infantry a bit more forward on the bridge, in order to more solidly block passage over the bridge. I loved your moving your Archers to get them to snatch up ammunition. Overall, a quality victory.
I dont like having the cav too isolated. flaking would have been a possibility but i didnt want to risk it in case they were too much for my inf. Numers are very important. the inf is slightly to the right of the bridge to expose their right side. inf carries shield on left hand, so this gives my archers a clean shot at the enemy inf when they clash with my inf. blocking it off entirely would nulify the archers or reduce their efectiveness once they got into the melee with my inf. :)
it did happens to me today before watching your video i kinda did the same shield wall and archery behind but idid flank with 22 horses i let them to follow me my army were 50 they other armies had 150+ and im still surprised how i won that
Forces were almost balanced, which can be seen on the bar in top of the screen - probably due to very low enemy unit quality. With balance like this you would probably win in any terrain (although with much bigger casualties). And why no captains? Even if you dont have companions you can make captain out of yourself
You can see the detail of every force in the video (first 30 seconds of the video). I don't use the captain system cause imo its broken so no advantage for me. Also sorry you missed that this video isn't about meta gaming, I am not heading a meta force. It's about the advantage of a Bridge as a battle location when outnumbered and of the defence (description of the video). This was also live, so no planned armies or scenarios, it just happened and turned into a cool moment imo with useful info to share (also description of the video). Next time watch the video and read the description, it's there for a reason. Have a nice day.
@@TheOnlySillySocks What do you mean by "meta gaming"? I'm not familiar with this term. Captain system indeed was broken, but was fixed ling time ago. There are some videos comparing battles with and without captains and difference is vast
I’m in ps4 and I can’t even start the game because of installation errror? Like it says ‘disabled during installation for starting. Only can do a custom battle.
That's very strange, I play pc so I'm clueless. Try some forums and support for help. if anyone knows how to help leave your solution please. Hope you get to sort it out.
I thought u would go with your cavalry and make the hammer while your infantry and archers would be anvil. Still, it was awesome and for that I love bannerlord!
It's all amazing and going like clock work until that khuzits army of calvary bowmen shows up and disrupts every thing and you hang 9n for dear life kkkkk
I have 200 men bur the game will on let so many on board like 80 and enemy has 3 times men but if i go to a raid i have all the men .can anyone explain that lol?
I think you said you have 200 men with you but only about 80 in battle while the enemy has 3 times that. Usually it's because the enemy force is bigger. So if you fight a 400 strong army with your 200, the amount of soldiers spawned will emulate that 2 to 1 advantage the enemy has within the battle limit set. So if limit is 250, you get around 80-90 and enemy has around 150-160. Or I might have misunderstood.
Video shows the foes have approx. 2.38x the size of your forces, the caption later on says 2.5x and the title say 3x? Haha, good video though. And congratulations on your success.
Honestly i did not bother to count everyone, but based on the results it could have been larger and with better troops that my boys would still win, with more casualties of course but still a W. Have a 3,7x better day XD
Well it also depends on the composition of the armies. They had mostly low tier units. If they had army composition like you did it wouldn’t be that easy. But still nicely done.
That does not represent numbers... I suggest you look at the numbers xD or watch the video and see the numbers at the end, or see the moment I display every force I'm facing, or se the total number of troops in the field... Or not and leave a comment xD
I see the captain system as too broken and too op so I never use it. I have specific rules I add when I play bannerlord. Check the streams I did here to check those out and you will understand :)
Could be achieved but if they overran my line I would not have then to help push back. Also alone they would not have much impact and I could control them from far. Don't use RTS camera.
Imperial sergeant crossbowmen, Vlandian banner knights, Sturgian spearmen and aseri two handed axe infantry all maxed by the way vs. an army of 900 try winning that I've done it and won with only 35 men left and my health below 20%
Let's see, use fians and khan's, use all the broken ways and meta troops and no formation is needed. Use every exploit and just press F1 and F3 and win... You are the best player ever mate. What is your wish oh wise and strong one? XD "if not 60 renown minimum I don't care" "too easy". Then sorry you missed the point of the video. Maybe watch again, maybe read description, maybe learn that if nothing positive to say you have, then silence you should choose. Maybe not, leave a comment and have a nice day xD
@@TheOnlySillySocks I read the tietel and it implies (3 to 1) that you are showing something fancy. If I have nothing positive to say, then I say nothing positive. Your tietel could almost be defined as click bait. Pressing F1 and F3 next to each other is not an exploit but the most fundamental and stupid tactic in this game. You rather exploited the stupid AI by letting the enemy army run to their death one by one. You should rather if you can not take any criticism no longer post videos.
@@TheOnlySillySocks I did rewatch it over and over again and I couldn't find the enemy troop size. If you don't believe me, try put a time stamp on enemy size for me? Anyway, don't get offended by my message. I just want to test your temper. I'm new to the game and I learned a few things from you. I also want to give you an advice. Send your cavalry to intercept enemy Cav. Your impressive cavalry units was on standby the whole time. I feel like this game is all about commanding army and you're the commander. Once you ran off to chase after 1 enemy unit, you're open to enemy ambush. I know this is a game, but have you ever thought about that? Your archers could killed enemy units across the map. What this mean is that you don't have to do anything. Chasing after 1 enemy unit ruined the video because commanding your troops should be your priority. Cheerios
Responding in order. From 29 seconds in to 35 seconds in I show all the enemy armies and the pop up window shows composition and numbers. Temper Successfully Tested xD Im glad I could help, thanks for the suggestion, I was preparing the hammer, archers, and the anvil, infantry. Cav was there for gap plugging and do agree on repositioning behind archers and join archers as the anvil but not to act solo in a bridge fight like this, too risky imo. Yes you are supposed to command and therefore read the moment of the fight. Usually if you read the moment right you can go off and kill stragglers and return to the same moment. Ruining the video because I chased after an enemy behind my guys to prevent him from a) being a waste of arrows, b) a distraction to my Inf that should all be facing forward and c) could kill a few units in a charge from the back? Sure... Temper Successfully Tested again... Also this was recorded live. Not a Scripted Video. (read description) "Insert cereal name here to signify send off"
it's based on the battle casualties rates. The enemy could have been even closer to 4x and the result would have been the same. It's an obvious one since this video is to demonstrate the utility of this formation on the right terrain against a superior number enemy, not a "I defeated an enemy 3x my number" but a "you can do it with these things in play"... Same thing if the enemy had better quality troops. The enemies advantage in negated, their shield protection negated, their cavalry negated, and their archers negated, while the defending side has their strengths maximized, archers can shoot past enemies shield protection, infantry only takes engagement in a frontal assault, flanks protected, cavalry is spared and used to run down the enemies routing. But I guess you skipped the small explanation in the description about location and formation, and the beginning of the video that explain the formation and what will happen in the fight... but yeah, mEtH...
Tell me how you missed the point of the video entirely without actually telling me xD. It's to show you can use a bridge as a force multiplier and with some luck on the battle terrain system not bugging out, bring bigger armies to bridges and defeat them... This was unscripted, live, and was an ambush but as a demonstrator the point still stands. Maybe read the description next time and save some time xD
Yes true, demonstrating something and how to use it should only be on videos battling minimum 10:1 odds. Otherwise what's the point in demonstrating something to people that might not know they can do it right? XD
@@TheOnlySillySocks why would people think they cant do it when you can clearly see the balance meter is equal. Dont exaggerate by saying 10:1 XD If your gonna pretend its a challenge at least let the enemy have double the power.
Dude, just look at the comments, there are new players that learned archers pick up arrows from this video. Just because you know how to use formation, terrain, what every unit does and does not, it doesn't mean all know. And just coming in and saying "the battle was too fair if if nearly 3x the number" just makes you look bad. The video is not for you, leave a dislike and move on. But thanks for the comments complaining, it gives the video more interactions and it get shown to more people so yeah :) thanks
yeah i agree, not a single person cares. they just watch the video and move on. you however, cared way too much to actually boost my youtube interactions. thanks :)
Yes, an unscripted video that demonstrates terrain usage and formation is meant for the players that already know that... Genius. 🤣 I always say, especially in tips videos or demonstrations, that only people that already know this should watch them. Those that don't know should just go play the game. 🤣 Thanks for the laugh bro. 🤣
Man moments like these is why mount and blade is amazing. Good defense
Shit defense. It could be perfect if player could know how to use archers on high ground to cut enemy arrows aiming and cut their damage in the same time increase his archers damage.
A few improvement ideas:
- split archers into 2 groups, and place one on the left side of the bridge and the other one on the right side with the infantry shield wall blocking off the bridge.
- the archers would have had a better vantage point on that little hill on the left side of the bridge, the one you were standing on at 4:30
- if you can't use the cavalry as cavalry (to charge) and the opponents have a lot of archers, you can keep them safer by ordering a dismount (F5) and then putting them in shield wall. You could use them to back up the infantry group.
Also, while the enemy did have almost 3x more troops, most of them were trash. see the balance of power bar that you are shown before the battle, it's an almost even split (60/40 at most ). If they had troops of the same tier as you, it would be leaning in their favor a lot, like 75/25
Good ideas but here are my counter arguments:
- with only archers on my left flank, enemy INF advances with shield in left hand, so they can shoot at a mostly defenceless INF (shield is on the opposite side) and as they reach my INF since its on the right of the bridge, enemy now presents completely defenceless to my archers.
- yes probably but would increase range in the early engagement making them less accurate, however good point as it might not have had that much of an effect. It would however mean a longer wait time for their charge at the end, that brings this formation to its culmination, INF is the anvil, archers are the hammer, impossible to do in a diamond formation.
- Dismount is a good idea but then CAV would not be able to chase them after to finish them off because horses just run away. It would cripple my post engagement.
Enemy Army composition is varied but never only top tier, neither is my army but it is stronger 1to1 I agree, however, this was to demonstrate that you can defeat armies 3x your own with the range of possible troop compositions the enemy could present, and I think it demonstrates that. My losses indicates the enemy could have a better army and still lose. The location, formation and quality of the troops all mattered, not just one or the other.
I don't pretend at any moment this is a miracle that only I could do, we all understand the balance of power bar, and I did my best to explain that this is to show you can to it, even in max difficulty settings, so next time someone is being chased by a bigger army, there is another option to just running away.
I'm starting a new story today on twitch around 1pm, I welcome you and any others to come over and discuss it some more :)
@@TheOnlySillySocks From what I've seen so far, the horses of dismounted cavalry will not run away (at all). The horses of dead cavalry do run away pretty quick, but that is another thing altogether.
If you are afraid of the archers firing too soon, you can have them hold fire / fire at will with a simple F4.
I get that but with a lot of arrow coming from the enemy side its still a risk they run off when they get hit. On the archers I have them closer to reduce distance and maximize damage as the enemy approaches. I get your point I do, its just my way of balancing damage, distance, safety etc. this is actually something I'm having issues with Vlandia right now. Inf seems useless, more of a speed bump than anything else, and crossbowman are not as effective as archers imo.
@TheSillySocks just have the cav at the very back, dismount them then move them up. You did a fine job btw.
I wouldn't even split the archers. Just them being high on the flank (where he moves at the end for a second before charging roughly) wouldve wiped far more out on the approach and skirmish portion.
Flanking fire, flanking charges and hammer and anvil are the keys to battle. The game allows a variety of win scenarios so not many get to the real tactical play in this game. But man is it satisfying when you pull off good tactical play and not just seat of your pants manoeuvring.
I didn’t know archers would pick up arrows like that. I just started playing this game, and so much in this video was eye opening to me.
they have average 20 arrows in store. the rest they pick up on ground.
You can see this feature at the trailers lmao
I like making what I call the ‘beartrap’ on bridge battles. I find that when the enemy outnumbers you they tend to beeline for you, so I set up a V with two infantry formations in shield wall to wedge the enemy inwards - they get shredded since as enemies get near the tip of the V they will become increasingly outnumbered, then enemies push each other like a ‘conveyor belt’ of death, end up with pretty decent ratios. The bridge maps often have decent high ground with side angles on the bridge too, so spread archers wherever gives the best LOS. Cav can kill stragglers or plug any holes if it comes to it
Awesome defense! Only thing I was hoping you would do: when you had your shield wall a bit to the side, and their INF rushed, I thought swinging your cav in front of your arrows then charge the INF sides. Either way, unreal. Smart use of switching the sides to allow your archers to pick up arrows!
Thanks :) yeah I was using the archers as the hammer for the infs anvil but yeah that's a good idea. I will join the cav with the archers for the hammer :)
Seriously though, I never thought of having archers pick up arrows
Awesome Work!
I tend to use a front and fallback position, mixed with a little Cav and Horse Archers for interference. This Looks like so;
The front position is comprised of Infantry in a Shield Wall with Archers to the rear (very similar to how you have them set up here). This is where I try to lead the enemy Cav or their main force, then I wait until their archers are in range of the Infantry before I send them back to the fallback position.
The fallback position is comprised of 3 shield walls covering my main Archer force on a hill (or advantaged position) with the remainder of my Cav to the rear. I will usually have companions and my better units in these formations and will slowly make a "Killbox" with the 3 shield walls as the main enemy force approaches.
Throughout battle I will be aiming for enemy commanders, Cav and Archers as they are the biggest threat, but anything else will be obliterated in the killbox (no matter the numbers)
Very nice hold! i hate getting city ambushed like that, with bridge battles a few tips I've picked up when I'm extremely outnumbered, is i usually hold fire on the archers till the enemy gets close and are clumped up. And i would also dismount my cav as backup infantry in case the front line infantry starts to get their edge swarmed! You can remount your cav if the battle goes well and chase to show who's boss! lol
Edit: nvm lol, others have mentioned what i said
beautiful gameplay that was freaking epic, I felt you like a real commander by your positionning and your decisions, I felt like I don't know how to play lmao
just had a fight on the same map two days ago. my army of 1000 (almost all) sturgians vs. 2000 vlandians, of which there were 1000 shock cavalry. open field battle I'd have been obliterated, but with that one bridge only access? I utterly crushed them. I completely blocked off the bridge with my shield wall. archers left and right flank of the bridge, no own cavalry. for every member of my army they killed or wounded, my men wounded or killed at least 4 of them. had to pull a retreat to map twice though due to the annoying reinforcement mechanic. since I was barely losing troops, by the time my reinforcements even spawned, my infantry was overrun, as my enemies kept getting reinforced multiple times in that timeframe. in the end, I defeteated every last vlandian and still had somewhere between 700 and 800 left alive in my army.
love your way of only partially blocking the bridge though, especially as with your numbers, completely blocking off would have been not really possible. nicely done with the numbers available!
Terrain and effective use of troop types can really even the number advantage out. Once i beat an army 3 times my forces size by doing something similar with a river ford. I'd park my archers across the ford, have them fire off a few volleys as the heavy infantry lumbered across, and then retreat out of battle. After 10-15 times of this the enemy had been worn down my archers could finish them off melee.
Nice of you to give them their arrows back.
I didnt know archers picked up arrows off the ground. That's pretty cool
Despite the tiers of the troops engaged in the conflict. I have used this tactic along with very similar tactics and they do work great no matter the strength of the enemy. When it comes to the defence of your kingdom and it’s fiefs this tactic is great for wearing down larger forces so they are less likely to capture your castles and towns. Thanks for a cool battle clip bro!
I love that battlefield. I do the same thing every time I'm on that map. Had my first 300 vs 100 here.
Quality of troops helps. Notice how the bar almost balanced even at 1:3 disadvantage.
Yes, high tier troops will beat low tier troops, we all know this.
Thanks for the comment. And you are right, the location, tactics and troop movement had nothing to do with it, even on max difficulty. 👍
I have seen some of the comments shitting on you here. I had a similar situation where It was an even number match. But he had WAY more better quality troops. Out of a 389 man army, almost 100 were Battanian Volunteers. We held that bridge, Barely. The Fian Archers and I held the line. Biggest pain with bridge defense is that SOME Calvary will just slip thru for whatever reason. Ignore them, let the archers deal with them.
I remember Brytenwalda. (M&B 1 mod) and I will always play as the Welsh and try to push the anglo Saxons off. Long bows were amazing
I love watching these sort of battles and I wish I could do them, I'm running around with 350 in my party but no one attacks unless they have 1500 of more on their side which sucks
Put men your garrison then
I've done around 5-6 playthroughs and my recent one I've started my own kingdom. I've got around 20 towns already but the biggest kingdom I struggle to fight is those damn khuzaits. No matter what I always lose more troops than I would if I were to fight any other faction
Watch this ua-cam.com/video/mpav5JgVadw/v-deo.html try it out and let me know how it goes :)
I have done this before 500ish vs 250
Played with empire troops maxed out
Took advantage of terrain!
Massive mountain so I sat my shield wall below while my archers are way up further seeing over the wall
By the time the enemy is close they lost a few but lost even more due to the slower movement going up the hill
Hit my shield wall but they stood no chance against my legions!
Just kept holding the shield wall while my archers dealt with the flanks!
Morale broke and then ordered to charge!
Ezy 🙌🏼
So your 150 high tier troops in an almost impregnable bridge defensive position managed to defeat about 350 recruits and tier 2 troops. Wow, amazing...... What was all the panic about mate?
How original of a comment xD "mate" xD
@@TheOnlySillySocks dreadfully sorry that I wasn't amazed by what was a very simple defense but hey, if you are expecting people to fall all over themselves with your unbelievable tactical genius then perhaps post something that actually shows some form of tactical genius? Just a thought...... 🥱
Actually no I'm not. I was hoping that folks that didn't know they could use bridges to do fights like these will look for that now, or that archers could pick up arrows from the ground actually do. that kind of stuff. Forgive the rest of us that don't seek approval from strangers or only upload ridiculously scripted videos and are just trying to be of some help. Or maybe just see this was recorded live in a Roleplay playthrough and found it cool. Just not expecting that someone feels they need to come brag and criticize because "very simple defense"... "mate"
@@TheOnlySillySocks Are you actually serious? Where in the video did you try to make any commentary to educate players that using the obvious choke point of the bridge was a tactic they could use in case they didn't know? At no time was this ever an educational video rather than just a "look at me and how good my epic defense was" video. If you want to post this kind of stuff for the likes, praise etc then thats fine, fill ya boots. But don't be surprised and offended when someone is not impressed by something, which at least to me, was nothing special at all and hardly worthy of the "wow that was epic" or whatever your last statement was. You thrashed a bunch of recruits and barely armoured newbies in the simplest of choke point moves. Barely outnumbered 2 to 1 and actually in terms of army strenght, very even to start with. Wow, perhaps you should write a follow up to the art of war.......
If you can't take criticism, that wasn't even offensive, just asking "what was all the panic about" then perhaps you shouldn't post stuff to public forums in search of validation.
@@lunny2230 where is your vid? Dude did a good job. Show you are better or just shut it 😂😂😂
done something like this but i blocked a small amout of the bridge with infantry as a shield wall to contain them and won a 150v500 and about 50 of my troops were lvl 2 (bannerlord difficulty)
excellent use of the terrain! well played
When I try to do a bridge battle it magicly turns to a flat plain.😞
Well played, and loved the commentary
Would have been awesome if the battle would take place near the city walls and their garrison trying to shoot from the walls, not being able to come closer only if they leave town
That was great to watch! I might be wrong but i think if you tell your infantry to engage rather than charge they will keep the shield wall formation better
Very true. It happened live and unscripted but I'll definitely keep that in mind for next time ;)
Strat gaming has stats on engage. Basically never do it. It buys you time but loses in every situation
I love this game for ambush type battles and surprises. Having to try what you can with what you've got knowing it's taken ages to build your army and you could lose all that work in 5 minutes.
You were lucky with the terrain and units in this one. Nothing worse than this sort of outnumbered ambush with better troops and on flat wooded maps. That's a kiss goodnight lol.
The veterancy of your troops also helped, I'm not sure if those are yari spears troops with phalanx formation, and also, the bows are really good, they really did well, that's why the ratio is kinda balanced. I've been to Warband, and I can say that this is winnable, especially if the enemy only has tons of recruits/militias.
*So, nothing to worry about next time.....*
Mixed Sturgian Inf from heavy Spearmen to Varyags, Shield wall Formation, mostly Sturgian archers with some others picked up along the way, if it was not a Bridge battle odds are I would have lost, numbers count for a lot these days and it differs from Warband, played it a lot as well. The Bridge funnelling them was key. if it was open battle my bows would have a lot less efficiency, Inf would have been overwhelmed quickly and Cav would barely have mattered. IMO. You have the composition of forces from the video, test it out if you want and let me know.
nice strat never thought of moving my archers over spent arrows on ground
at 11:10 the top number is number of troops bottom number is how far they are from you
I hate when they outnumber me yet they hold their position with high tier troops
Try baiting them. If they have many shields, take the cav in the flanks with your own, then box them inf front and cav rear. The worst are the sturgians. When they do it it's very tricky to get to them.
in old Mount & Blade games i could just solo the army on my horse. picking them off one by one. a force of 350 would take a few hours.
in bannerlord im playing realistic difficulty. i been trying to run around them so they use up their projectiles. and i can pick them off but i been missing my swings and get destroyed in one hit.
I need to get a pole axe instead of the starter sword.
Polearms are the best on horse back, great fun and very effective. Just be carefull cause there are some very slow ones out there xD Takes forever to swing a light pole around to hit someone xD
My only critique would be of your use of Cavalry. I would have taken my Cavalry, once they were heading toward my infantry, to that bridge on the left. Once across, just have the Cavalry charge the Archers. Also, I would have deployed the Infantry a bit more forward on the bridge, in order to more solidly block passage over the bridge.
I loved your moving your Archers to get them to snatch up ammunition.
Overall, a quality victory.
I dont like having the cav too isolated. flaking would have been a possibility but i didnt want to risk it in case they were too much for my inf. Numers are very important. the inf is slightly to the right of the bridge to expose their right side. inf carries shield on left hand, so this gives my archers a clean shot at the enemy inf when they clash with my inf. blocking it off entirely would nulify the archers or reduce their efectiveness once they got into the melee with my inf. :)
@@TheOnlySillySocks I'm just a crazy Hussar at heart. LOL
I mever knew archers can pick up arrows from the ground! wow
it did happens to me today before watching your video i kinda did the same shield wall and archery behind but idid flank with 22 horses i let them to follow me my army were 50 they other armies had 150+ and im still surprised how i won that
Same thing happened to me 4 parties of enemy jumped out from epicrotea i had 200 troops vs 500 and i used the same tactic. That was a bloodbath
Wow what a great strat! GGs
Forces were almost balanced, which can be seen on the bar in top of the screen - probably due to very low enemy unit quality. With balance like this you would probably win in any terrain (although with much bigger casualties).
And why no captains? Even if you dont have companions you can make captain out of yourself
You can see the detail of every force in the video (first 30 seconds of the video). I don't use the captain system cause imo its broken so no advantage for me. Also sorry you missed that this video isn't about meta gaming, I am not heading a meta force. It's about the advantage of a Bridge as a battle location when outnumbered and of the defence (description of the video). This was also live, so no planned armies or scenarios, it just happened and turned into a cool moment imo with useful info to share (also description of the video). Next time watch the video and read the description, it's there for a reason. Have a nice day.
@@TheOnlySillySocks What do you mean by "meta gaming"? I'm not familiar with this term.
Captain system indeed was broken, but was fixed ling time ago. There are some videos comparing battles with and without captains and difference is vast
I’m in ps4 and I can’t even start the game because of installation errror? Like it says ‘disabled during installation for starting. Only can do a custom battle.
That's very strange, I play pc so I'm clueless. Try some forums and support for help. if anyone knows how to help leave your solution please. Hope you get to sort it out.
Im playing on max diff but i got tired of tactics after like 2 hours, so now im just @everyone CHARGE
Good for you.
I thought u would go with your cavalry and make the hammer while your infantry and archers would be anvil. Still, it was awesome and for that I love bannerlord!
It's all amazing and going like clock work until that khuzits army of calvary bowmen shows up and disrupts every thing and you hang 9n for dear life kkkkk
ua-cam.com/video/mpav5JgVadw/v-deo.html you're welcome ;)
Your first mistake was not being with the Empire 😅
Hire this man for WW3 lol
I have 200 men bur the game will on let so many on board like 80 and enemy has 3 times men but if i go to a raid i have all the men .can anyone explain that lol?
I think you said you have 200 men with you but only about 80 in battle while the enemy has 3 times that. Usually it's because the enemy force is bigger. So if you fight a 400 strong army with your 200, the amount of soldiers spawned will emulate that 2 to 1 advantage the enemy has within the battle limit set. So if limit is 250, you get around 80-90 and enemy has around 150-160. Or I might have misunderstood.
Video shows the foes have approx. 2.38x the size of your forces, the caption later on says 2.5x and the title say 3x? Haha, good video though. And congratulations on your success.
Honestly i did not bother to count everyone, but based on the results it could have been larger and with better troops that my boys would still win, with more casualties of course but still a W. Have a 3,7x better day XD
Been playing this amazing game abt 5 month now and yet still i don't know how to do plan format with different soldiers 🤣 😭....Meow
Well it also depends on the composition of the armies. They had mostly low tier units. If they had army composition like you did it wouldn’t be that easy. But still nicely done.
The balance bar says otherwise
That does not represent numbers... I suggest you look at the numbers xD or watch the video and see the numbers at the end, or see the moment I display every force I'm facing, or se the total number of troops in the field... Or not and leave a comment xD
@TheOnlySillySocks come on bro it was peasants and militia
They were peasants and militia
OMG quick he is onto something. Hide all the evidence NOW!! Lol
I like bridge battles. Too few losses.
How come you don't assign companions to command your troops?
I see the captain system as too broken and too op so I never use it. I have specific rules I add when I play bannerlord. Check the streams I did here to check those out and you will understand :)
Any consideration to bringing your cavalry around back?
Could be achieved but if they overran my line I would not have then to help push back. Also alone they would not have much impact and I could control them from far. Don't use RTS camera.
11:34 someone thinks he is David.
xD
Is there any reason he doesnt asign commanders onto the troop battalions?
Imo it's too op so I don't do it.
@@TheOnlySillySocks why? What does Happen If you dont ? Sorry im a noob haha
not related but whats the song at the start, i need it
It's from the stream beats rock list. It's what was playing in the background.
whats the song playing in the background?
StreamBeats - Rock I think.
Bro going to conquer rome
If Romans accept fighting one legion at a time, in a bridge and them always attacking I'll take it. XD
god job
Imperial sergeant crossbowmen, Vlandian banner knights, Sturgian spearmen and aseri two handed axe infantry all maxed by the way vs. an army of 900 try winning that I've done it and won with only 35 men left and my health below 20%
Hahahahaha. Yes sir mister enormous dick sir. I'll get right on it. XD what's with the dick measuring FFS xD
Is this with the RTS mod?
No sir. I prefer the more immersion value of the vanilla battle.
Nice one!
A 38.1 renown battle... You could just press F1 and F3 and would win these battle easily :)
Let's see, use fians and khan's, use all the broken ways and meta troops and no formation is needed. Use every exploit and just press F1 and F3 and win... You are the best player ever mate. What is your wish oh wise and strong one? XD "if not 60 renown minimum I don't care" "too easy". Then sorry you missed the point of the video. Maybe watch again, maybe read description, maybe learn that if nothing positive to say you have, then silence you should choose. Maybe not, leave a comment and have a nice day xD
@@TheOnlySillySocks I read the tietel and it implies (3 to 1) that you are showing something fancy. If I have nothing positive to say, then I say nothing positive. Your tietel could almost be defined as click bait. Pressing F1 and F3 next to each other is not an exploit but the most fundamental and stupid tactic in this game. You rather exploited the stupid AI by letting the enemy army run to their death one by one.
You should rather if you can not take any criticism no longer post videos.
You didn't show the enemy size..
All the planning just to kill weak enemies with your bigger force xD
You are supposed to watch the video with you eyes open...
@@TheOnlySillySocks I did rewatch it over and over again and I couldn't find the enemy troop size.
If you don't believe me, try put a time stamp on enemy size for me?
Anyway, don't get offended by my message. I just want to test your temper.
I'm new to the game and I learned a few things from you. I also want to give you an advice. Send your cavalry to intercept enemy Cav.
Your impressive cavalry units was on standby the whole time.
I feel like this game is all about commanding army and you're the commander.
Once you ran off to chase after 1 enemy unit, you're open to enemy ambush. I know this is a game, but have you ever thought about that?
Your archers could killed enemy units across the map. What this mean is that you don't have to do anything. Chasing after 1 enemy unit ruined the video because commanding your troops should be your priority.
Cheerios
Responding in order.
From 29 seconds in to 35 seconds in I show all the enemy armies and the pop up window shows composition and numbers.
Temper Successfully Tested xD
Im glad I could help, thanks for the suggestion, I was preparing the hammer, archers, and the anvil, infantry. Cav was there for gap plugging and do agree on repositioning behind archers and join archers as the anvil but not to act solo in a bridge fight like this, too risky imo.
Yes you are supposed to command and therefore read the moment of the fight. Usually if you read the moment right you can go off and kill stragglers and return to the same moment.
Ruining the video because I chased after an enemy behind my guys to prevent him from a) being a waste of arrows, b) a distraction to my Inf that should all be facing forward and c) could kill a few units in a charge from the back? Sure... Temper Successfully Tested again...
Also this was recorded live. Not a Scripted Video. (read description)
"Insert cereal name here to signify send off"
Ur army was already strong, so how do u get a high tier army ?
This was from a campaign I was doing at the time. Raised them since little boys I did. XD
153 x 3 = 365 ...mEtH 👍🏻
it's based on the battle casualties rates. The enemy could have been even closer to 4x and the result would have been the same. It's an obvious one since this video is to demonstrate the utility of this formation on the right terrain against a superior number enemy, not a "I defeated an enemy 3x my number" but a "you can do it with these things in play"... Same thing if the enemy had better quality troops. The enemies advantage in negated, their shield protection negated, their cavalry negated, and their archers negated, while the defending side has their strengths maximized, archers can shoot past enemies shield protection, infantry only takes engagement in a frontal assault, flanks protected, cavalry is spared and used to run down the enemies routing. But I guess you skipped the small explanation in the description about location and formation, and the beginning of the video that explain the formation and what will happen in the fight... but yeah, mEtH...
😂wtf I would of got my ass beat nice one
Nice!!
So how to win against forces 3x your size, is to hope that it's a bridge battle? Comeon, lmao
Tell me how you missed the point of the video entirely without actually telling me xD. It's to show you can use a bridge as a force multiplier and with some luck on the battle terrain system not bugging out, bring bigger armies to bridges and defeat them... This was unscripted, live, and was an ambush but as a demonstrator the point still stands. Maybe read the description next time and save some time xD
@@TheOnlySillySocks I’m screwed lol an army with 1k ambushed my ass and my 271 men help
Balance is pretty much equal so theres nothing amazing about this...
Yes true, demonstrating something and how to use it should only be on videos battling minimum 10:1 odds. Otherwise what's the point in demonstrating something to people that might not know they can do it right? XD
@@TheOnlySillySocks why would people think they cant do it when you can clearly see the balance meter is equal. Dont exaggerate by saying 10:1 XD If your gonna pretend its a challenge at least let the enemy have double the power.
Dude, just look at the comments, there are new players that learned archers pick up arrows from this video. Just because you know how to use formation, terrain, what every unit does and does not, it doesn't mean all know. And just coming in and saying "the battle was too fair if if nearly 3x the number" just makes you look bad. The video is not for you, leave a dislike and move on. But thanks for the comments complaining, it gives the video more interactions and it get shown to more people so yeah :) thanks
@@TheOnlySillySocks defeat any army!!!
Shows video of a fight with equal balance. XD
Misleading
Irrelevant arguments.
yeah i agree, not a single person cares. they just watch the video and move on. you however, cared way too much to actually boost my youtube interactions. thanks :)
It was against looters...
Tell me you didn't watch or missed the point of the video completely without telling me... XD
Anyone who plays the game knows that this battle was not hard lmfao…
Yes, an unscripted video that demonstrates terrain usage and formation is meant for the players that already know that... Genius. 🤣 I always say, especially in tips videos or demonstrations, that only people that already know this should watch them. Those that don't know should just go play the game. 🤣 Thanks for the laugh bro. 🤣
wdym "even on max difficulty" who the fuck doesnt play on max difficulty? even that is super easy
Wow. You could have said it's too easy and needs to be harder... But I guess you really needed a little ego boost. Have a nice day.