Micromanagement refers to commands given to specific units to make them more effective at what they do. Let's use an imaginary example of one player using archers against an enemy advancing with pikemen. If the player with the archers doesn't do anything each of his archers can fire three arrows before the pikemen reach the archers and begin cutting them to ribbons. However, the player commanding the archers can move them backwards away from the pikemen between each volley of arrows. This allows them to fire more arrows before the pikemen reach them, potentially four or five volleys instead of three. If the archers are able to move faster than the pikemen, this will actually allow them to kill all of the pikemen without taking a single hit in return. An example of a game that has an extremely strong emphasis on micromanagement is Warcraft 3.
An Orc player fighting against a Human player in Warcraft 3.
In Warcraft 3 players control a rather small number of units compared with many other RTS games. Players are limited to a maximum of 100 total population and most units take up at least 2 population. This means that even the largest battles will only have twenty or so units on each side. In comparison, a large battle in Age of Empires II could easily have one hundred or more soldiers on each side. Warcraft 3 focuses the player's attention on a few important units rather than on building a ton of units.
The hero system, where players build an extremely powerful unit that gains experience to grow even more powerful as enemy troops are killed near them, further increases the micromanagement talent needed to succeed in Warcraft 3. For example, in the image above you see that the Orc player's shadow hunter hero is casting healing wave, which heals friendly units. At its first level the spell bounces to three units, healing all of them for a small amount of health. As the shadow hunter gains experience from killing enemy soldiers, his spell can be upgraded to bounce to more targets and heal more damage, making his spell an extremely potent healing ability. Each player may have up to three heroes at one time and they are extremely important to keep alive because they are the most powerful portion of any army and their abilities, health, and damage all improve as they level up.
Additionally, most regular units in Warcraft 3 have special abilities that can make them more effective in combat. In the above image, the Orc player's shamans, a spellcaster in the game, are casting bloodlust and purge. Bloodlust makes friendly units attack and move faster. Purge removes beneficial spell effects from enemy units and also slows their movement speed down. Both spells can turn the tide of a battle if used properly.
In essence, Warcraft 3 is a game that forces players to focus on using their units to their maximum potential rather than just building more of them. Thus, micromanaging each unit to keep them alive and attacking the most appropriate targets is an extremely important part of the game.
So, with that definition out of the way, let's move on to how micromanagement is used in Medieval: Total War 2.
Micromanagement in Total War
The only area where true micromanagement occurs in Total War is in the RTS component of the game, where armies clash on the battlefield. It begins with the deployment of soldiers on the battlefield, which both sides are usually allowed to do before the true battle begins.
The deployment screen. Players are allowed to move their troops wherever they wish in their area of the battle map and then hit start battle to begin.
Choosing the right location to deploy an army on the battle map is extremely important, as picking the right terrain to fight in can win or lose a battle. The geography of the battle map is based off of the campaign map. If there is a big forest on the turn-based map it will show up if there is a battle in that location. Many areas have hills, bridges, and other important features that a deploying commander should take advantage of. In the above screenshot, the hill in the foreground was where I chose to deploy my army, as it provides a great base of fire for archers and also tires the enemy force out as it moves up.
Choosing the right way to deploy the components of an army is also important for achieving victory. Ranged units like archers, ballistas, and catapults can all take a heavy toll on an advancing foe but they are extremely vulnerable to cavalry charges. This makes it a good idea to place them in a location where they can easily be defended by friendly spears, pikes, or heavy cavalry. In the example below an English army with dismounted heavy infantry and archers is facing a large Scottish force. The English player chose to place his archers slightly in front of his heavy infantry line. This allows them to fire on the Scottish army as it approaches and inflict as many casualties as possible, but also keeps them in a position where they can retreat and regroup quickly behind the protection of the infantry line.
It also helps that the Scots apparently didn't know how to make plate and mail armor, giving the English force a tremendous advantage in quality of troops.
Some other examples of deployment decisions a commander might want to make include grouping heavy cavalry units together to make a powerful opening charge, setting up long ranged weapons like cannons on hills to give them a better field of view, and choosing which special formations certain army units should employ. For instance, some cavalry units can be set into a wedge formation which gives them greater penetrating power in a charge.
So now the battle deployment is completed properly, is there anything else a commander can do to influence the victor? Of course. However, it's important to note that not every unit has the same potential for improvement with appropriate micromanagement. Some types of units can accomplish a lot more with careful control than others. So I will go through the main types of units in Total War and describe how to manage them appropriately.
Cavalry
Cavalry benefit the most from careful player stewardship. They are the fastest units in the game, which allows them to be sent as a quick reaction force to anywhere the battle is going poorly. They move fast enough that they can also be used to strike enemies in the vulnerable portion of their line, for example circling around to hit a pike-wall in their unprotected rear to inflict heavy casualties. Any time an opponent's infantry shows their rear is a great time to slam them with a cavalry charge. Cavalry also are great to micro because they do a lot of damage to enemy troops. Any fast, high damage troop is a great unit to micro as they can run circles around an enemy force while slaughtering anything they touch.
As these rebel archers discovered to their dismay when they tried to pull back to the safety of their village.
Cavalry have one more significant advantage over the other units in the game-they can disengage from melee combat without suffering catastrophic losses. If an infantry unit is in combat with another infantry unit it cannot pull back gracefully, it will take a few moments for the unit to regain cohesiveness and finally move back. This time period is long enough for a unit to lose quite a few of its members while it's trying to assemble.
In this example, the spear militia unit on the left is engaged in battle with the peasants in the middle so they are unable to just keep moving past without fighting with them for a while.
Cavalry differ from infantry in that they can usually be ordered to back out of close quarters combat and quickly move to a different location in the battle. This is a great feature to take advantage of at the start of a battle when the combat is usually between both side's archers and siege weapons. A player can send their heavy cavalry in for a quick charge to slaughter a couple units of archers or crossbowmen and then pull them back when support arrives for the ranged units.
Ranged Infantry
There are many types of ranged infantry available depending on which faction you play. England has access to powerful, extremely long ranged longbowmen and yeoman archers, Spain and Portugal have a number of javelin hurling units that do high damage but do not have as long a range. Most of the Italian factions rely on crossbows instead of longbows. What they all have in common is that they can be fiddled with to great effect in a battle.
Peasant archers, one of the weakest ranged units in the game.
The biggest advantage archers have is that they are more mobile than regular foot infantry. They do not wear thick armor so they move faster and tire less easily. This allows them to kite enemy troops. Kiting is a term that refers to moving back from an enemy while harrying them with ranged attacks-effectively inflicting great damage while taking minimal or none in return. How this plays out in battle is that a player with archers can have his archers split up in all directions and run while turning to pelt an enemy with arrows every so often. It may take a great deal of time but eventually the enemy infantry will die and the archers will take almost no casualties.
In this example, the Scottish infantry finally gave up and ran for it.
There are two considerations that a player using this strategy needs to keep in mind. One is that if an enemy has light or heavy cavalry it will not work very well, as cavalry can certainly outrun archers. The other is that some of the heavy infantry units will not take much damage from ranged attacks, so you may be stuck retreating when your archers run out of arrows or quarrels. Still, ranged infantry have a great potential for improvement with careful management by a player during battle.
Ranged Cavalry
Ranged cavalry are the best of both worlds-they're fast cavalry and they can also shoot at a range! They are also able to fire while moving so they can retreat while inflicting heavy casualties along their entire retreat path. The only major problem these units suffer from is that they carry much less ammunition than ranged infantry, particularly the cavalry units that throw javelins. This means that they may be left without any ranged capabilities a few minutes into the battle. However, this does not leave them useless. They still function as reasonably powerful light cavalry units and they still have a charge bonus. They can be useful for harrying enemy archers and for hitting the vulnerable rear and flanks of enemy positions.
Siege Weapons
Siege weapons do not have much potential for good micromanagement. They fire slowly, are fairly inaccurate, and cannot be moved readily. The best you can do is pick what you want them to try and hit and maybe they'll hit it one shot out of ten. I'm not particularly fond of siege weapons, they're useful for attacking cities and castles and that's about it.
Foot Infantry
As I mentioned previously in the cavalry section, foot infantry are difficult to micro because they are slow and cannot disengage gracefully from combat. What you can do is choose the right location to deploy them and use their special formation abilities, such as pike-walls and schiltroms, to maximum effect. These units tend to make up the main line of your army and serve as the axis on which the other components of your army are based. They provide a safe bastion for your archers and siege weapons, a place for cavalry to retreat to when outmatched, and will likely end up forming the majority of your casualties in every battle.
Conclusion
Although the Total War games certainly do not have the micromanagement focus of Warcraft 3, players can still manage their troops to win seemingly impossible battles through wise use of ranged kiting and cavalry maneuvering. However, it's important to keep in mind that the battle map's terrain can limit how much micromanagement can be done. Bridge battles are particularly brutal in this regard, there's a narrow path to fight on and not much that can be ordered to change the outcome.
During the Battle.
After the Battle.
so be cautious in where you choose to fight and victory will be yours!
The next article will be about macromanagement in Total War-how to appropriately purchase units, improve your economic state, and upgrade units and towns.
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