There has been a lot of comment lately about the "new" Mongols. Let's be honest, they're tough. In part because of a temporary situation in which the horse archers are super-buffed. But also because the new AI has the Mongols using smarter tactics -- they don't sit in little stacks seiging counties and waiting for the player to gank them. Now they build stacks of 100k attrition-free horse archers and gank you.
I beat the Golden Horde's initial invasion as Russia under this new patch. I had a very big empire behind me, and it was very difficult. But they are beatable. I picked up some tips that I think might help folks having a hard time in their games.
1. If you want to beat Mongol stacks, you absolutely have to outnumber them. Generally 2 to 1 is a pretty safe bet. If you have the right troop composition, 1.5 to 1 can work. If you fight them with even odds or worse, you will be destroyed. They will take almost no damage and you will get crushed. If you have 2 to 1 odds, you will take losses but win. Then you can chase that stack down until you destroy it.
2. How do you outnumber a 100k stack that doesn't take attrition in an area of the map with terrible supply limits? You absolutely have to micromanage movement. You have to split your main army into stacks of 20k. You have to make trash armies of about 10k. You spread the trash armies around the map to seige back counties. And as decoys. They need to draw off stacks of Mongols, which will chase them down and destroy them. But this will stop him from building a super-stack.
Then you have to carefully time every movement of your main army until you can isolate a Mongol stack at 2-1 odds. That means timing every movement. Knowing when they will arrive. Aborting movements. Carefully planning to make sure you can isolate a Mongol stack, and that he can't reinforce it. I highly recommend speed 1.
When you win a battle, you absolutely have to chase that stack down until it's completely eliminated. This is your chance to cut down his force. He will never get those horse archers back. Don't let him get away and build them into his other stacks. Make sure they are gone forever.
3. Keep re-raising levies to build more 10k trash stacks. He will destroy those little stacks. Who cares. You just raise more the next day. You are getting more units again and again. He's not. When you kill a Mongol, he stays dead. This changes if you let him take land, but even then not for the attrition-free stacks.
4. Try not to use levies in your main army. They're junk light infantry. Mongols wreck them. Use your retinue. Which unlike levies, will constantly reinforce after every battle. Just don't let him ever chase down and eliminate it because it takes too long to rebuilt it back.
5. In my experience, you want to attack him with heavy infantry. Especially in Russia, because they're Russian cultural units with good bonuses. But this is ONLY true with very high skill generals. You want heavy infantry because they can pick shield wall during the skirmish phase. Shield wall will dramatically cut down your losses during the skirmish phase. High skill generals will do this every time, but generals with less then 20 martial are less consistent. If your generals pick shield wall, heavy infantry will survive skirmish with acceptable losses and cut down horse archers during melee. If they pick anything else, you die.
6. Use very high skill generals. See above. Skill trumps traits here. Your survival depends on shield wall. If you have several 20+ candidates to choose from, then look for generals with bonuses to defense. The key is to survive skirmish. The reason Mongols destroy large armies without losses is because of their power during skirmish. They can kill your entire army before you even reach melee. If you can survive skirmish, the odds are even and your units will cut them apart. Which is why defensive traits are more important than offensive ones.
You can win against the Mongols. They're not unbeatable. But only if you are very careful and very smart. If you just toss a massive stack of light infantry against them like you do for normal battles they will rip you apart and you will lose. But if you're strategic, you can consistently win.
I beat the Golden Horde's initial invasion as Russia under this new patch. I had a very big empire behind me, and it was very difficult. But they are beatable. I picked up some tips that I think might help folks having a hard time in their games.
1. If you want to beat Mongol stacks, you absolutely have to outnumber them. Generally 2 to 1 is a pretty safe bet. If you have the right troop composition, 1.5 to 1 can work. If you fight them with even odds or worse, you will be destroyed. They will take almost no damage and you will get crushed. If you have 2 to 1 odds, you will take losses but win. Then you can chase that stack down until you destroy it.
2. How do you outnumber a 100k stack that doesn't take attrition in an area of the map with terrible supply limits? You absolutely have to micromanage movement. You have to split your main army into stacks of 20k. You have to make trash armies of about 10k. You spread the trash armies around the map to seige back counties. And as decoys. They need to draw off stacks of Mongols, which will chase them down and destroy them. But this will stop him from building a super-stack.
Then you have to carefully time every movement of your main army until you can isolate a Mongol stack at 2-1 odds. That means timing every movement. Knowing when they will arrive. Aborting movements. Carefully planning to make sure you can isolate a Mongol stack, and that he can't reinforce it. I highly recommend speed 1.
When you win a battle, you absolutely have to chase that stack down until it's completely eliminated. This is your chance to cut down his force. He will never get those horse archers back. Don't let him get away and build them into his other stacks. Make sure they are gone forever.
3. Keep re-raising levies to build more 10k trash stacks. He will destroy those little stacks. Who cares. You just raise more the next day. You are getting more units again and again. He's not. When you kill a Mongol, he stays dead. This changes if you let him take land, but even then not for the attrition-free stacks.
4. Try not to use levies in your main army. They're junk light infantry. Mongols wreck them. Use your retinue. Which unlike levies, will constantly reinforce after every battle. Just don't let him ever chase down and eliminate it because it takes too long to rebuilt it back.
5. In my experience, you want to attack him with heavy infantry. Especially in Russia, because they're Russian cultural units with good bonuses. But this is ONLY true with very high skill generals. You want heavy infantry because they can pick shield wall during the skirmish phase. Shield wall will dramatically cut down your losses during the skirmish phase. High skill generals will do this every time, but generals with less then 20 martial are less consistent. If your generals pick shield wall, heavy infantry will survive skirmish with acceptable losses and cut down horse archers during melee. If they pick anything else, you die.
6. Use very high skill generals. See above. Skill trumps traits here. Your survival depends on shield wall. If you have several 20+ candidates to choose from, then look for generals with bonuses to defense. The key is to survive skirmish. The reason Mongols destroy large armies without losses is because of their power during skirmish. They can kill your entire army before you even reach melee. If you can survive skirmish, the odds are even and your units will cut them apart. Which is why defensive traits are more important than offensive ones.
You can win against the Mongols. They're not unbeatable. But only if you are very careful and very smart. If you just toss a massive stack of light infantry against them like you do for normal battles they will rip you apart and you will lose. But if you're strategic, you can consistently win.
