I’ve noticed there are many Tactics nerds around here (too many, if you ask me). So, to fix this issue, I’ve decided to make a (nonoptimal) guide for the God fearing, sword and tongue loving, Weapons and Leadership Marshals out there.
For this guide, I played a Wepons MC; if you do the exact same stuff with a Leadership one, you should get eveb better results, so maybe do that.
Game start
The initial choices dont matter much. Just remember to not pick Tactics, leave that one for the damn book readers. Tell the nobles that the king died, you need their loyalty for the sequel. Belos fucks up and dies, but before that happens you should attack the enemy archers and go back home – he dies anyway, but at least you save more knights (not that you are going to need them).
Elya is now queen, and it’s your job to shape her up to be a good one; don’t be afraid to be a little harsh on her, you are going to need to get that leadership stat as high as you can for more soldiers later on. Since we are stupid, we don’t get to have choices when Rade tries his escalade. For the retinue training, go for Enhanced Communications; Regimentation may be “more effective” or whatever, but I like the comms training scene better. When your men start getting sick, pick Darin’s plan (fuck the nobles). Some knights get lost in the snow, and you are going to leave them there (fuck the nobles x2).
Castle Business
You arrive in the baron’s castle, so it’s finaly time to start recruiting your real fighting force. Remember to pick the middle for the max number of “conscription points”, and then choose: 2 units of light horse and 2.5 units of archers. Lesser men may see this arrangement and ask: “W-where is the levy infantry? How can I win without my peasant army!?”. My dear strong and charismatic Marshals, if you meet any of these nerds, please give them a good slap on my behalf.
Even though you only actually need 1.5 light cavalrymen for the strategy to work, and that, in doing so, you get 0.5 extra archers, making your army more powerful, you are also forced to recruit 0.5 levy infantrymen in the process; gentlemen, we here lead an army of professionals, so let us not put more farmers and peasants in our ranks then we actually need to.
River Action
For your preparations, build the mudwalls in your bank and then go with the archer trap; you can try picking one of the trap options, but they are all terrible so don’t (bacon pls buff). Also spreed your retinue evently among the pesants and put your heavies in reserve. When the filthy rebel archers do their cowardly attack, you can save Dismas if you want – only some infantry dies, so nothing of value is actually lost. Remember to punish the traitors at every given opportunity: that means sending out your archers to route theirs, and then ambushing the foraging party later on.
For the battle itself, send your brave light cavalrymen across the second river passing, and then half of your reserve to help them out. If picked leadership at the start, you can hype up your men in the line, otherwise don’t bother. If everything goes smoothly (and it should lol), you can send your cav to pursue the fleeing enemies for those sweet kills.
When Vedran does his thing, just do yours.
Welcome to the Jungle
Choose the path with the most chest hair on your way to Kroid (the shorter one). Once you get there, tell the castle lord the crowds are a stir and that you would have rather be speaking with his predecessor for some extra “conscription points”. Pick whatever armour and weapon you like best, it’s all flavour. Choose Regimentation as your retinue’s second trait.
For the recruitments, pick 3 units of veterans from the war for the extra trait and then 1 unit of rangers. I know it’s hard to resist those cheap light horsemen, but you should try your best to do so. If you can’t, which is completely understandable, then also pick the option that turns one of your peasants into real soldiers, and don’t get the extra rangers. You may want to pick Formation Combat if you do that, and also don’t use your archers to stop the second cavalry charge in the big battle (unless you pussied out and got extra archers with the baron, then you are probably fine). Sacrifice your rangers to sieze the enemy artillery, you avoid a lot of casualties later on this way.
Big Battle
Since we are stupid, we once again have only one choise available. For your battle plans, once again spreed your retinue evenly among the peasants and then put the rangers in the back with the archers. When the enemy cavalry tries to flank from the right, send some volleys to stop them; when they do it again from the left, ask your archers to drive them away. Make your archers fire at the infantry, and then at the enemy archers, and then at the infantry again. Also pull men from the rear to fortify your flanks.
By this point, you should be set for victory. When the oportunity arises, charge with the infantry and then send out your cavalry to kill them all. If everything goes acording to plan, your knights will have done nothing but skirmishing and pursuing routing enemies for the whole battle, effectively making them into armoured light cavalry. With a good victory under your belt, you can go back home and finally crown Elya. Not bad for a day’s work.
With this, the Weapons/Leadership Campaign is now complete.
In conclusion: Please make light cavalrymen cheaper, my Marshal needs as many swift boys as he can get for his crippling mental health.