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Lexander's
Tactics: Teamwork, A Combat Analysis |
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INTRODUCTION |
Now that I am all feeling sick and am at home this morning trying to
both work and not much feeling like it, I can continue my long posts
over various things. Those who have played with and against me are no
doubt wondering how I can even begin to profess to claim knowledge when
my teams are constantly feeling the smack down. All I can say is, you
learn a lot when you lose.
The one completely obvious fact from the various disasters that I
have observed is that teamwork is the key to victory in any and all 4v4
games. It's all fine a dandy to have great tactics, great ideas, and
great skill, but you can never have more than 20 companies while your
enemies can have as many as 80. All the finesse in the world won't stop
80 companies, even if your companies are the best 20 you could create
(now, some really great player will no doubt prove this statement wrong,
but your chances aren't very good).
In my previous post on non-combat teamwork, I delved into the theory
that teams could, in some respects, treat everything they have as a
group commodity, and even exchange large amounts of it amongst
themselves. As has been pointed out by my friends, this is not
completely practical. In reality, it isn't (for various reasons that
might be worthy of another post), but you can move closer to that
maximum each game.
However, teamwork in combat is considerably easier for everybody
involved, if simply because the concept of getting together and beating
up on somebody else stirs the hearts of bullies, toughs, and all round
nice guys everywhere. There are few pleasures greater in Kohan than
defeating that big ugly enemy city and all of us want to pitch in for
the big win. Sometimes, however, we have a little trouble getting to
that point.
In my experience, team combat has the following basic themes:
1. Forming large armies
2. Flanking/encircling enemy units
3. Raiding weak points
4. Defending threatened areas
5. Breaking a defense
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FORMING LARGE ARMIES |
Kohan is won by taking the cities of the enemy. There are many steps
required to get to that point, but the loss of cities is the final road
to defeat. However, the defender in Kohan has a number of advantages
that must be overcome (city militia, outposts, closer to supply, and
often a better position). This generally means you must attack with
superior numbers or must attack where the enemy is unable to defend. The
latter will be discussed later, but the former involves bringing
superior numbers and/or firepower to the point of contact. This is where
teamwork really starts to show it's importance. The reality is that
unless one side or the other has gotten a strong economic head start
(another aspect of teamwork), both sides should be able to field roughly
the same firepower. Even if one side is ahead, I have seen many
situations where good defense takes advantage of the militia, any
outposts, and the superior sight radius of cities and neutralizes the
superior numbers of the enemy, and it can be tough to retreat out units
caught in flanks and far from home. Attack all but requires a heavy
concentration of firepower at the point of attack (chosen by the
attacker if at all possible) and that means you need to get several
players together and form the attack as a whole. The enemy will be
trying to do the same thing against you, and the faster and smoother you
can coordinate, the more likely this goal will be met. Mass your
firepower at the point of attack, and crush the enemy.
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FLANKING / ENCIRCLING ENEMY UNITS |
One real advantage of team play is that it essentially brings several
brains to the table instead of one. This is extremely helpful when
trying to setup complex flanking movements. Flanking is perhaps one of
the most basic moves in the game, and works even against clumping
because the goal is not just to hit the support units but to cut off the
options of the flanked force. In Kohan, units that make it home alive
are fine in a few minutes. Units that are destroyed are expensive to
replace and often not available where needed fast enough. What I am
talking about here is the ability of teams to execute large
encirclements that are often difficult to execute alone. The better
players can do it, but some of us need a bit of help, and a team of
players can often do some beautiful things in this respect.
Remember, the problem facing the attacker is that he is usually some
distance from home and losing units can be a real problem. Most support
units are vulnerable to flanking, and players will sometimes panic if
they are flanked at the right time. Hit him from the flank, or just
plain cut off his retreat. Sometimes this only takes a single unit that
suddenly appears in the battle at the last moment of defense but which
plays a key part in destroying routers.
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RAIDING WEAK POINTS |
Life is tough in Kohan. You need to attack, and in attacking you
leave yourself vulnerable. Often the only real defense you have is your
ability to attack yourself. All good defenses, IMHO, are based upon the
principle of counterattack. Additionally, you might not have a lot of
troops, they might be way away from the battle, but you need to
contribute. Often a raid is in order. I am starting to believe it is in
the best interests of any team to have one player who has quite a few
mobile units just to take advantage of raiding (and to stop the raiding
himself). Raiding is all about taking advantage of the fact that the
defender can't protect every point in most games. A small number of
units can do enormous damage and more importantly tie down a lot of
units by attacking the enemy in the rear, or hitting him from the side.
Raiding, however, is PART of a team strategy. What you are doing is
working with your teammates to create a weak spot in the opponent. Your
teammates attack (or defend if it gets to that point) and force the
enemy to commit more and more troops to the critical spot. Then you
raid. In point of fact, if they know you have raiding forces you might
not even succeed, but they will have to devote forces to stopping it.
This tactic, used heavily in real war, tends to force an opponent to
consider his supply lines and slows down an attack. You are turning a
small force into something far bigger than it is, and in doing so making
life easier for your teammates.
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DEFENDING THREATENED AREAS |
Losing cities in Kohan is the beginning of the end. You can usually
recover, but the more you lose, the more problems you have. Defense in
Kohan is all about coordination. You can't defend everything, at most
you can funnel the battle into the point you can defend (outposts are
great for this). What I am talking about here is not throwing your
forces into the big battle. That is covered above and below. What I am
talking about is coordinating to assist the ally who is being attacked
from the side, or being raided. It is critical for a team to help a
player in trouble. This must be done as quickly as possible. For
example, at the beginning of the game it is probably best for the
players at the front to receive immediate assistance from those in the
back. Throw him a footmen company, some shadelings, some engineers (and
build him some outposts), but get troops up to him as fast as you can.
That will go a long way to stopping those rushes and will allow him the
freedom to expand (and the players at the front need to move forward as
hard and as fast as they can, defense is all about keeping him away from
your cities and moving forward is the best way). Later in the game, keep
some dragoons in reserve and send them wherever somebody is threatened.
On this topic, it is best if all teams have some mobility. Sometimes you
can actually stop the big enemy attack at first, but if you can slow it
down at all you might be able to stop it before the bleeding gets too
serious. Mobility is important for quickly blunting raids/attacks while
the slower stuff gets to the point of contact. You can use Grenadiers
for local defense and for attack, but you can't expect them to help out
an ally in trouble. Stabilize the front, buy yourself time while the big
attack breaks the enemy. As a side note, armies have to travel to the
front, gold doesn't. Give money to the player in trouble.
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BREAKING A DEFENSE |
The final point of teamwork is to break the enemy. In truth, the best
possible defense is to be surrounding your enemy taking his cities. That
kind of defense works like a charm. In every game of Kohan I have
played, the winning side advanced and defeated the capacity of the other
side to defend themselves. This is where teamwork pays off. There are
many ways to attack an enemy (diversion, flank, encircle, raid) but all
of them are designed to break the ability of the enemy to defend. A
very, very important thing to understand is often the margin of victory
is one or two companies. Yes, you are building, yes, your army will be
available in just a minute BUT SO WILL THE ENEMY'S. Your companies are
needed now, and they are often the margin of victory. Don't hesitate,
don't start thinking of yourself, think about the team and think about
how badly your forces are needed in that big battle. Those extra
companies you are building will be great for defense and may just be
needed to help blunt a counterattack when things go wrong. But the right
two companies at the right moment can decide the winner of the game.
Once again, there is nothing new here. The point of this is that any
player who joins a team game should see himself as contributing in some
way to the five things above. If you are going econ, some of your money
needs to be going to your allies so they achieve these goals. If you
can, armies are really good too, particularly when they are short on
companies. Trade cities, give gold, build troops, but think about how
you are achieving the things above. Don't think of just yourself,
because if you do when they get to you your 20 companies won't be
enough.
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