Fifth Invasion

[mikm]

You can get caught by enemy patrols while standing  in an enemy reagion. Gues that's one way out of the blight.
 Just hapened now.

[Tan dSerrai]

Fighting Horrors:
We are having considerable trouble avoiding the initial daimon cav charge...its devastating. Once our infantry line can engage we have a good chance. Thus I would be VERY interested in suggestions on how to arrange our army with the aim to close with the daimons while avoiding the initial charge.

Sacrificial units one row in front of the main line? If yes, inf or cav? Sending cav in front of the infantry line to hit the Horrors one round in advance of the main line (allowing the main line to move up?

Our army consists of 7 parts infantry/SF/MI,  2 parts archers, 1 part cav.

[Chenier]

Fighting Horrors:
We are having considerable trouble avoiding the initial daimon cav charge...its devastating. Once our infantry line can engage we have a good chance. Thus I would be VERY interested in suggestions on how to arrange our army with the aim to close with the daimons while avoiding the initial charge.

Sacrificial units one row in front of the main line? If yes, inf or cav? Sending cav in front of the infantry line to hit the Horrors one round in advance of the main line (allowing the main line to move up?

Our army consists of 7 parts infantry/SF/MI,  2 parts archers, 1 part cav.

Sacrificial units don't work against large armies, but probably do against the daimons considering that their forces are all bunched up into one unit...

I've been deploying my infantry in the front in box formations, with the archers right behind. Not necessarily the best formation, though, but although we lost our first battle against the chargers in Sandlakes, we ended the battle with considerably more strength remaining than they had, and whooped them in the second battle. We have no MI, cavalry, or SF. At least then.

I guess you could try figuring out where the daimons start from, how far they move, and try to make it fit so that they don't meet on the first round, but end up by each other. I'm not quite sure how this works, but I know that cavalry can lose their charge bonus if the attack wasn't the result of their move (even if they moved since their last attack). Devising a strategy around this seems abusive to me, though, as I always thought that this combat behavior ought to be changed.

[Arrakis]

Sacrificial units don't work against large armies, but probably do against the daimons considering that their forces are all bunched up into one unit...

No sacrificial unit can survive against the Daimons and remain on the field in that same round. Their charge is devastating enough to break down anything and route them in one round. so after that the Daimons just charge their next target. You need half your infantry if you want to stop them in their tracks, but that is not a sacrificial unit then.

I guess you could try figuring out where the daimons start from, how far they move, and try to make it fit so that they don't meet on the first round, but end up by each other.

Yes, this has been Riombara's main tactic against them during my tenure.  I am sure this works as I've seen tons of battle reports to back it up, however, we never really managed to use this against them. When we faced Overlord we figured it out that he begins in front row, however, we failed there are as we were unable to make middle row our first line - someone always ended up in front and then the entire row was charged at. And we failed that 3 battles in a row. Very annoying.

The second time we faced the Daimons which were also chargers they didn't really behave like they should. These ones started from the middle, and we figured that out, so we attacked them with infantry charge. Under these conditions they ought not to charge. But they did, and my best bet of what actually happened is that they used a magic scroll before the battle to make sure they always charge - Magic Steeds or something. Anyway, when that happened I figured there was nothing reliable enough here that i can build my strategy on. Their unpredictability in and out of battle is what will eventually score them a win. This is probably the point where I gave up and just let myself be taken by the flow and endure a slow but certain death of Riombara and Beluaterra. Especially since not to much after that they showed up with 35K from the blight south of grehk (although they never attacked from there during the entire invasion - which wreaks of artificiality for me) and sacked our capital while we were coming back home from the last battle - that was very very devastating and demoralizing. So I think I will just run the rest of my time of this month as a general leisurely, as i really have no idea what to do, and then let someone else use his wits and time for the grand finale and death of BT.

[Tom]

as i really have no idea what to do, and then let someone else use his wits and time for the grand finale and death of BT.

I see the "crushing their spirits" strategy works well.

[Arrakis]

Yeah, it most certainly does.

[Iltaran]

I for one am swinging wildly between utter despair and screaming "YOU SHALL NOT PASS"

[Tom]

Ever since the invasion started, I have had an eye on all the statistics I can find. The most interesting find so far is that player evaluation fluctuates much greater than the actual numbers. When you feel utterly beaten and destroyed, the actual loss in military or economic strength is still a fraction of the total. I am actually surprised by how few lives have been lost among the peasants, at less than 20% of the total island population. It certainly feels more.

[Indirik]

That's because they keep reproducing like rabbits when you're not looking.

[Dageroths]

And Firbalt is blighted 

Roleplaying Event   (9 hours ago)
Message sent to everyone in the vicinity of Firbalt (20 recipients)
As the Daimon control over the city solidifies, the horrors hasten their slaughtering of the population. Soon, fear and suffering hangs in the air, thick as clouds. And then it actually forms clouds. Dark, black clouds that block out the sun completely. Within a few hours, the familiar, frightening sight of the Blight is forming over and inside the city, pushing the thinner clouds further outside, into the surrounding regions.

And then, as far as anyone can see from the outside, Firbalt vanishes into the Blight.

Overlord

[Geronus]

Ever since the invasion started, I have had an eye on all the statistics I can find. The most interesting find so far is that player evaluation fluctuates much greater than the actual numbers. When you feel utterly beaten and destroyed, the actual loss in military or economic strength is still a fraction of the total. I am actually surprised by how few lives have been lost among the peasants, at less than 20% of the total island population. It certainly feels more.

Our material losses might not be as bad as our loss of morale, but the balance of forces has certainly been swinging in the daimons' favor, which always makes it hard to keep one's spirits up.

For my part I've been arguing that we should just leave the rest of the South to its fate and turn the islands into a massively militarized fortress. It's downright stupid to go off chasing Midnight of the South when he can pop into the blight from anywhere and pop back out a day later in Ardmore or Ajitmon. Meanwhile our army could be off in the middle of Enweil and completely powerless to get back in time.

[Eithad]

Fighting Horrors:
We are having considerable trouble avoiding the initial daimon cav charge...its devastating. Once our infantry line can engage we have a good chance. Thus I would be VERY interested in suggestions on how to arrange our army with the aim to close with the daimons while avoiding the initial charge.

Sacrificial units one row in front of the main line? If yes, inf or cav? Sending cav in front of the infantry line to hit the Horrors one round in advance of the main line (allowing the main line to move up?

Our army consists of 7 parts infantry/SF/MI,  2 parts archers, 1 part cav.

Heavy Infantry, big blocks of them on top of high walls is always a good way to break a charge. Sprinkle in some Cavalry to charge ranged daimons and tie them up long enough for your infantry to engage and you are set.

[Marlboro]

Heavy Infantry, big blocks of them on top of high walls is always a good way to break a charge. Sprinkle in some Cavalry to charge ranged daimons and tie them up long enough for your infantry to engage and you are set.

Walls are undependable. I have learned to hate walls. They don't save you from getting one-shot by the far mob, and the near mob gets a free bonus charge every time you knock them down (which is honestly the only scary thing they do in melee). Also, get rid of all your archers; the daimons have better ones, so your goal is to engage them in melee ASAP rather than trying to fight them on their strengths.

[Eithad]

Have a look at the battle report from Unger, you will disagree.

Total hits suffered: Attackers: 19739 (16759 from close combat and 2980 from ranged), Defenders: 5917 (5403 from close combat and 514 from ranged)
Total casualties: 109 attackers, 148 defenders

Total hits suffered: Attackers: 15474 (11214 from close combat and 4260 from ranged), Defenders: 6139 (5585 from close combat and 554 from ranged)
Total casualties: 100 attackers, 159 defenders

Then our cavalry left the walls and charged them

Total hits suffered: Attackers: 3520 (1641 from close combat and 1879 from ranged), Defenders: 2840 (2539 from close combat and 301 from ranged)
Total casualties: 27 attackers, 69 defenders

Total hits suffered: Attackers: 2353 (184 from close combat and 2169 from ranged), Defenders: 1020 (752 from close combat and 268 from ranged)
Total casualties: 19 attackers, 25 defenders

Then our calvary died and they charged the walls again

Total hits suffered: Attackers: 9444 (5978 from close combat and 3466 from ranged), Defenders: 2977 (2456 from close combat and 521 from ranged)
Total casualties: 52 attackers, 77 defenders

You will see that archers are effective, as long as you provide adequate infantry cover. Also even with superior CS the daimon charge really isnt as fearsome as you make it out to be considering we were scoring twice as many hits in close combat with our infantry.

[Eithad]

Also consider this

Total:
3 attackers (900 other)
38 defenders (760 Inf, 848 Arch, 165 Cav, 354 SF)
Total combat strengths: 31752 vs. 24956

Daimons had 33CS/daimon while we averaged 12.5 CS per man behind lvl 5 walls. Our losses to kills ratio in terms of CS was actually very good. 400 of those daimons were ranged, firing at 5 rows on lvl 5 walls, they were scoring less just over 1 hit per daimon. Meanwhile our archers averaged 3 hits per man. Walls are your friends.

The battle only went badly after the 3 remain melee daimons managed to break our melee lines, then the archers got torn to shreds.