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So you want to play a long tribal game. Or you want to make a large tribal retinue and keep it for generations. The point is, that you want to have a centuries long game with a substantial tribal retinue.
Hunting Party retinue is extremely strong, and since you are using just one type, there is no need for a careful min mix. But if you are going to keep static retinue armies for generations, than perhaps custom designing it makes sense.
The considerations I put are these;
1. Mix prestige and piety based retinue, so that you don't have to be just sitting on top of filing up piety while your army is hungry for prestige. For that, mix some ducat based cultural retinue of yours as well.
2. Should be somewhat autonomous. Should be able to survive without a commander. Should be able to fend off attacking enemies.
3. Siege efficient. But also can storm under-defended holdings.
4. Utilize hammer and anvil strategy.
With that, I designed two basic army types. Both types can be improved any cultural retinue type you have. For roll playing purpose, I will not mix different cultural retinues. Changing your religion is fine. But changing your capital more than once in a life time is exploity.
The goal is creating 4 Each of Defenders and Adventurers Explained Below
During peacetime, keep four Siege Leaders to lead each Defender and four Organizers to lead each Adventurers
You may scale down and start with either fewer armies or smaller armies.
If an army is facing a major battles, you can put two defensive and one offensive commanders temporarily.
If your retinue cap is larger (mostly for NK mode), I would just add more of the 7600 men armies and run them without commanders. This size seems optimal due to average enemy stacks and supply attrition. Each 7600 army can easily defeat 10k feudal enemy unattended with just an organizer or siege leader, and even 15k enemy with 3 good commanders and defending.
Total Retinue Cap: 94260.
This can be achieved with about 130 tribal holdings with level 1 earth hill fort, and Organization Tech level 4.
It's not really much. With empire level, some wars and religious revocation can do it tyranny free. Vassal opinion will suffer temporarily until you have created your retinue and distributed the counties.
Total Creation Cost: 14400 Prestige + 13800 Piety.
This is a light cost that can be achieved with normal play if you held off upgrading your tribal holdings. You get more prestige normally, but prestige has more usage such as upgrading holdings.
Choose Bloody Thirsty Gods doctrine and eventually create that horrible bloodline. You will have way more than enough of both.
Army Type: Defenders
Basics: Focus on Feint Tactic. 8200 Men. Piety Based.
Usage: Guard strategic points near your borders while doing unattended raiding on border counties.
During major wars, chase down enemy stack.
Peacetime Commander: Siege Leader on Right Flank
Pro: More efficient on siege (because cheaper)
Total Retinue Cap Usage: 10765.
Creation Cost: 2300 Piety, 550 Prestige
Left & Center: Defensive. Ardent Guardians (HI 50 + AR 50) x 8 = 800 Men Each. Total 1600 Men
90% Shieldwall with a Martial 16 Commander. 50% without
Right: Hammer Flank. Tribal Warriors (LI 150) x 22, Sworn Defenders (LI 75 + AR 75) x 22 = 6600 Men.
63% Feint with a Martial 16 Commander. 25% without
Army Type: Adventurers
Basics: Focus on Harass Tactic. 7600 Men. Prestige Based.
Usage: Venture into enemy territory on foot and on ship to siege enemy capitals. Attack force for small holy wars on tribal and nomad.
During major wars, storm enemy holdings.
Peacetime Commander: Organizer on Right Flank
Pro: More efficient on storming holdings. Better at close battles (Melee)
Total Retinue Cap Usage: 12800.
Creation Cost: 1200 Piety, 3000 Prestige
Left & Center: Defensive. Ardent Guardians (HI 50 + AR 50) x 8 = 800 Men Each. Total 1600 Men
90% Shieldwall with a Martial 16 Commander. 50% without
Right: Hammer Flank. Hunting Parties (LI 100 + LH 50) x 40 = 6000 Men.
85% Harass with a Martial 16 Commander. 40% without
Applying Cultural Retinue
Heavy Infantry or Pike: Change defensive flanks with
Ardent Guardians (HI 50 + AR 50) x 1 + 600~750 HI and/or PI = 700~850 Men Each. AR 50 is needed for Shieldwall
LC or Camel Only: Replace some of Hunting Party with it. Keep your LC+Camel ratio under 45% (no commander) or 75% (with commander martial 12) to avoid Disorganized Harass (still good, but not as good as Harass)
LI Only: Replace all Tribal Warriors.
Improvise for other units
Note on "Right" Hammer Flank
Why use the right flank instead of middle? With middle hammer flank, if either of your left and right flank goes down, its facing enemy will attack your hammer flank. You don't get flanking bonus and your LI starts to loose moral.
With right hammer, even if your left flank goes down, its enemy will gang upon your middle flank and not the hammer. Usually your left flank will go down before your middle because the middle flank get some defensive bonus (20%). All the more reason to use the right flank as your hammer.
Why not use left then? Often small enemies, especially nomad, has only left and middle flank. So that your right hammer can start flanking from the beginning.
So you want to play a long tribal game. Or you want to make a large tribal retinue and keep it for generations. The point is, that you want to have a centuries long game with a substantial tribal retinue.
Hunting Party retinue is extremely strong, and since you are using just one type, there is no need for a careful min mix. But if you are going to keep static retinue armies for generations, than perhaps custom designing it makes sense.
The considerations I put are these;
1. Mix prestige and piety based retinue, so that you don't have to be just sitting on top of filing up piety while your army is hungry for prestige. For that, mix some ducat based cultural retinue of yours as well.
2. Should be somewhat autonomous. Should be able to survive without a commander. Should be able to fend off attacking enemies.
3. Siege efficient. But also can storm under-defended holdings.
4. Utilize hammer and anvil strategy.
With that, I designed two basic army types. Both types can be improved any cultural retinue type you have. For roll playing purpose, I will not mix different cultural retinues. Changing your religion is fine. But changing your capital more than once in a life time is exploity.
The goal is creating 4 Each of Defenders and Adventurers Explained Below
During peacetime, keep four Siege Leaders to lead each Defender and four Organizers to lead each Adventurers
You may scale down and start with either fewer armies or smaller armies.
If an army is facing a major battles, you can put two defensive and one offensive commanders temporarily.
If your retinue cap is larger (mostly for NK mode), I would just add more of the 7600 men armies and run them without commanders. This size seems optimal due to average enemy stacks and supply attrition. Each 7600 army can easily defeat 10k feudal enemy unattended with just an organizer or siege leader, and even 15k enemy with 3 good commanders and defending.
Total Retinue Cap: 94260.
This can be achieved with about 130 tribal holdings with level 1 earth hill fort, and Organization Tech level 4.
It's not really much. With empire level, some wars and religious revocation can do it tyranny free. Vassal opinion will suffer temporarily until you have created your retinue and distributed the counties.
Total Creation Cost: 14400 Prestige + 13800 Piety.
This is a light cost that can be achieved with normal play if you held off upgrading your tribal holdings. You get more prestige normally, but prestige has more usage such as upgrading holdings.
Choose Bloody Thirsty Gods doctrine and eventually create that horrible bloodline. You will have way more than enough of both.
Army Type: Defenders
Basics: Focus on Feint Tactic. 8200 Men. Piety Based.
Usage: Guard strategic points near your borders while doing unattended raiding on border counties.
During major wars, chase down enemy stack.
Peacetime Commander: Siege Leader on Right Flank
Pro: More efficient on siege (because cheaper)
Total Retinue Cap Usage: 10765.
Creation Cost: 2300 Piety, 550 Prestige
Left & Center: Defensive. Ardent Guardians (HI 50 + AR 50) x 8 = 800 Men Each. Total 1600 Men
90% Shieldwall with a Martial 16 Commander. 50% without
Right: Hammer Flank. Tribal Warriors (LI 150) x 22, Sworn Defenders (LI 75 + AR 75) x 22 = 6600 Men.
63% Feint with a Martial 16 Commander. 25% without
Army Type: Adventurers
Basics: Focus on Harass Tactic. 7600 Men. Prestige Based.
Usage: Venture into enemy territory on foot and on ship to siege enemy capitals. Attack force for small holy wars on tribal and nomad.
During major wars, storm enemy holdings.
Peacetime Commander: Organizer on Right Flank
Pro: More efficient on storming holdings. Better at close battles (Melee)
Total Retinue Cap Usage: 12800.
Creation Cost: 1200 Piety, 3000 Prestige
Left & Center: Defensive. Ardent Guardians (HI 50 + AR 50) x 8 = 800 Men Each. Total 1600 Men
90% Shieldwall with a Martial 16 Commander. 50% without
Right: Hammer Flank. Hunting Parties (LI 100 + LH 50) x 40 = 6000 Men.
85% Harass with a Martial 16 Commander. 40% without
Applying Cultural Retinue
Heavy Infantry or Pike: Change defensive flanks with
Ardent Guardians (HI 50 + AR 50) x 1 + 600~750 HI and/or PI = 700~850 Men Each. AR 50 is needed for Shieldwall
LC or Camel Only: Replace some of Hunting Party with it. Keep your LC+Camel ratio under 45% (no commander) or 75% (with commander martial 12) to avoid Disorganized Harass (still good, but not as good as Harass)
LI Only: Replace all Tribal Warriors.
Improvise for other units
Note on "Right" Hammer Flank
Why use the right flank instead of middle? With middle hammer flank, if either of your left and right flank goes down, its facing enemy will attack your hammer flank. You don't get flanking bonus and your LI starts to loose moral.
With right hammer, even if your left flank goes down, its enemy will gang upon your middle flank and not the hammer. Usually your left flank will go down before your middle because the middle flank get some defensive bonus (20%). All the more reason to use the right flank as your hammer.
Why not use left then? Often small enemies, especially nomad, has only left and middle flank. So that your right hammer can start flanking from the beginning.
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