Ultima Soldier's Battle Strategy Guide, by Ultima Soldier. v0.1

Copyright 1999 Manny Rodriguez. No part of this
may be redestributed in any way, but the file may be uploaded 
*AS IS* for direct download from your website. Lords of the Realm 2
is a product of Sierra Studios.

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Unit stats
Ok. So first we will start off by learning what units are good for, and what they are not good for.

:::Peasants:::
Meele: Very Poor
Meele Defense: Very Poor
Ranged Defense: Very Poor
Ranged Attack: N/A
Speed: fair
Strength: Good in large groups for flanking archres and xbows; their cheap so they come in extreamly usefull in digging motes; bonus attack against pikemen.
Weakness: Everything else.

:::Macemen:::
Meele: fair
Meele Defense: fair
Ranged Defense: fair
Ranged Attack: N/A
Speed: Very Good
Strength: They are ok fighters, but knights are better for that position. Use them for chasing down archers and xbows; fairly cheap.
Weakness: Useless if the enemy has no ranged units and alot of heavy troops like knights and swordsmen.

:::Pikemen:::
Meele: Poor
Meele Defense: Excelent
Ranged Defense: Very Good
Ranged Attack: N/A
Speed: Very Poor
Strength: Use in one big front line; defend the flag in a siege with them; Their long pikes are good for keeping the expensive heavy troops at bay for picking by archers; can beat all meele units in a 1 on 1; Extreamly cheap for their usefullness.
Weakness: Their cubersome weapons make them slow, so they can be easy pickings for ranged units on the move.

:::Archers:::
Meele: Very Poor
Meele Defense: Very Poor
Ranged Defense: Poor
Ranged Attack: Poor
Range: Excelent
Speed: fair
Strength: If you can protect them, they will cut down enemy forces considerably; Not cheap, but not expensive; Put them in a castle and watch them thrive.
Weakness: If they are targeted by flankers, there is no hope.

:::Swordsmen:::
Meele: Very Good
Meele Defense: Good
Ranged Defense: Very Good
Ranged Attack: N/A
Speed: fair
Strength: Use them as your main body, and send them charging in. They will easily waste almost anything that they meet.
Weakness: Can't get through a line of pikemen very well; Boiling oil has a bonus against them.

:::Crossbowmen:::
Meele: Poor
Meele Defense: Poor
Ranged Defense: fair
Ranged Attack: excelent
Range: Poor
Speed: fair
Strength: They are about the only unit that can take down pikemen. Target siege weapons and heavy troops with them. Good for defending castles.
Weakness: Like archers, hopeless in a meele; Range is not very far; Really expensive.

:::Knights:::
Meele: Excelent
Meele Defense: Very Good
Ranged Defense: Very Good
Ranged Attack: N/A
Speed: Excelent
Strength: Peasants, swordsmen, and macemen are like punching bags to them; Ranged units? like a hot knife through butter....
Weakness: Pikemen render them useless; If you can't take down crossbowmen, their numbers will drop like a brick; Way too expensive.



Battle Sequnece
Ok,  so now we know all about the units and what to do with them. Now we will learn how to form your troops into their lines. Pikemen are the best for the middle, since they can stand all kinds of punishment. The key here is not to get your troops split down the middle. Put your swordsmen and peasants at the sides, maybe make 2 lines with them if you can because they are not as strong. Put crossbows right behind them, and your archers behind them. Them your knights and macemen behind that to discourage flanks.That is a pretty good fortress of troops.

Now you know how you should line your troops up. In battle, the best way to conquer is offensively. You will need to slowly advance this fortress of Troops Together, and in formation so you remain strong. I suggest Practising this against the computer. Take this troop about a screen and a half away from your opponent. Once you have mastered this, move to the next step.

You have to lure your enemy toward you. Archers do well for this. take one pikeman and move him out of the way, then take a few archers and put them in range of enemy infantry. They will shoot at them automaticly.your opponent will do one of 2 things. 1 Your opponent will hit them with macemen and/or knights. So retreat your archers, the fast guys will follow on thier own, only to find they are under heavy arrow fire, and they will fall back. end 1 Bring up your 4 or 5 archers again, and fire some more arrows. 2 Your enemy will bring up his archers and start firing at you. Use this secret: Test the waters, find out how far your archers will shoot. Take your archers one line behind the firing range. move them up one, give them time to fire once, and then pull them back.  you will hit his archers but he wont hit yours. Do this again. end 2 keep doing this as long as you can. After doing this a few times, the enemy usually gets impatient, restless, and pissed off. He will send his whole army at you in one, big unorginized clump, and hit you head on. Your orginization will give you an edge, and it also helps that your enemy will be outnumbered now. The battle swiftly ends, with no reason why it shouldnt end in your favor or close to it. 

*Oh, and by the way the prior section assumes you are playing human to human in a battle using all kinds of soldiers and equal numbers.


Attacking sovereinless counties

Ok, this is easy. There are two ways this can be played out. The ideal army here is 200 - 250 pikemen, 150 archers, and maybe 100 shock troops for taunt.

1. If you outnumber the comp bring your army up to the enemy horrizontaly. It will sit there with its peasants and pikes ina mass at the front, and archers behind them. Move a pikeman up as close to the enemy as you can without being in archer range. then, bring the rest of your army up and form a big line. You may want to put some guys at the back to prevent flanks. When your ready, bring your archers up to your pikemen and fire at the mass. It will split, run, and the archers will come up. kill them with your archers as they are protected by the pikemen, or rush them with your troops. The mass will return. Bring your archers up again, fire at the mass and it will rush you. The pikemen usualy come first, then peasants, and after a while macemen. the battle is soon over. 

2. If the comp outnumbers you If you are outnumbered, the computer will usually attack you, not afraid of your puny looking force. Pull your ranged units to a corner, and surround them with infantry, that is about the only thing you can really do here. The battle can go either way depending on the size of your army.


Attacking Castles

This section will deal with explenations and tutorials to conquering the differnt castles, as well as the army type you should have. Keep in mind, not all of these are the best ways, but they work for me. Oh, and DUH don't try to conquer a castle without archers. If you do i suggest going back to playing the magic school bus for a while. This game is obviously way to over your head....

:::Wooden Palisade:::

Ideal Army: 125 Archers, 25 Crossbows, 50 pikemen, 50 macemen. 

Siege Wepons: 1 Battering Ram, 2 Siege lifts

How to conquer: This castle is almost a joke. Real easy to take. First, send your battering ram up to the door, and your siege lifts to the outer sides of the archer towers. Do the Archer trick (As described in "battle sequence", above), to knock off a few of their guys. Try to take down the boiling oil. It will not be protected very well, so send a maceman after it and click on it. it will spill, then pull the maceman out. Keep doing the archer trick untill they retreat to guard the flag. Send in your pikes, followed by maces, then archers, then your swords. The castle is yours.

Secrets: This castle is really to cheezy to do anything with. But if you find an open path, rush in a maceman or knight and take the flag to avoid casualties.

:::Mott and Bailey:::

Ideal Army: 150 Archers, 25 crossbows, 100 pikemen, 75 macemen.

Siege Weapons: Battering Ram, 2 seige towers, and/or 2 catapults.

How to conquer: First, pull all your guys back out of defending archers' range. Break down the door with your battering ram, and send fourth your siege lifts or catapuls to punch holes in the wall. The enemy will desert the front because it is hard to defend long term. NOTE: The enemy may block the door with 1 guy to disable your battering ram, if this is the case, kill him with archers Bring in yur archers. burn all the homes to clear your path. Aim for the boiling oil. Find a defendible spot, preferably in the walled section at the right, and stuff your macemen there because arrows can't get through it. Bring pikemen and crossbows to the door. If you can't get to the boiling oil, use the archer trick. But this castle has alot of places the defenders can use to their advantage, make sure your hitting them! They will get mad and send some infantry or their oil out. if they send out oil rush it with a maceman. If they send out infantry, pull back your archers and engage with your pikes and xbows. they will either retreat or pull their archers out If they bring their archers get the flag with your macemen, if they retreat, repeat this again until victory. 

Secrets: The walled area at the right is defendable when inside but sometimes archers can shoot there from the back, disabling its defensabilityCold siege is easy here. It works like this: Make your own Baily as fast as possible, and then take the 150 archers you have, and siege the other guy's baily. Build one siege tower, and use the Archer Withdrawl trick to slowly take them down. Eventually they will get pissed and do something dumb. theres your voctory chance. As soon as they are battered, and unorinized, pour into the castle and wreak havok!

:::Norman Keep:::

Ideal Army: 150 Archers, 50 crossbows, 150 Pikemen, 100 Macemen.

Siege Weapons: 1 battering ram, 2 siege lifts

How to conquer: In terms of design, this castle is fairly easy to plan your own strategy around. Right off the bat, break down the door with your battering ram, and send your siege lifts to the walls. Make sure they are both on the SAME SIDE of the door. Use the Archer Trick to make them move to the keep at the back. Take the front as yours. Now you have to get rid of that anoying boiling oil. Attack it with your archers. If his archer protect it, use the archer trick. If infantry do, hit them till they fall back, then send your macemen in to tip the oil over. You will be under heavy fire, so withdrawl your macemen. You will now have to use your infantry to get them. send in pikemen, then macemen, then archers and crossbows. Crossbows are important here because you have to kill off defending infantry fast, and theyt are just the thing to do it. Concentrate all arrow fire on one Troop untill its dead, then move to the next. Do whatever possible to kill his archers and xbows. If you see an opening, run for the flag to avoid more casualties.

Secrets: You cannot shoot arrows through doors, even if they are broken. Instead, find an alternative rout.

:::Stone Castle:::

Ideal Army: 300 Pikemen, 200 Archers, 100 Crossbows, 350 Peasants, 50 Macemen.

Siege Weapons: 3 catapults

How to conquer: This castle is hard to take. The only good thing here is the fact that there is no keep. The front has some pretty heavy stone works, and is easy to defend, so I don't recommend getting through here. Instead, go around to the right side, and find an area where the moat is very thin. Dig here (There is a spot, if you cant find one try the left side). Once you find this area, bring 12 peasant Troops and start digging it out. Bring up catapults, and put archers hehing them, let em fire at the walls. Pull back your peons when they pour oil over the walls, and then send them back. When you run low, send more peons in until the moat is completely filled. Keep catapults out of enemy archer range and continue to make a large breach at the walls. When there is a breach 3 - 4 plates wide, rush in your men (If there is oil in the castle still, spill it. Dont send your men in until after). Send in full force, and wham The castle is yours. No keep, just a flag at the back left corner.

Secrets: No known secrets at this time

:::Royal Castle:::

Ideal Army: 400 Pikemen, 500 Peasants, 300 Archers, 150 macemen.

Siege Weapons: 1 battering ram, 3 catapults

How to conquer: This is the Ultimate Castle. It is REALLY easy to take though, if you can do it right. Bring everyone to the right side. As usual, send your peons to the moat, and archers supporting them. Let your catapults make a hole 4 tiles wide at the wall. Keep digging untill the moat is gone beside the breach. Spill the oil, and then send a battering ram inside via the hole. Bring it to the keep front the side, and knock down the door. Let the defenders kill it. When you are ready, send in your pikes and remaining peons, plus your macemen, and lastly archers. Charge into the keep, and battle your way through. If you have enough pikemen, you should be able to kill all your enemies.

Secrets: Battering Rams cannot get through the front door, because of the thin hallway. If you don't want to waste alot of men by hacking into the keep, make a breach at the side with your catapults and send the battering Ram through it. Make sure the breach if 4 tiles wide.

Future Versions

Thank you for downloading and reading my file. I hope it has in some way 
assisted you, and made you better at fighting your battles. In the next major
version (1.0), I will be adding more things to the text. The content will
possibly be, but is not necisarily limited to:

 - Defending Castles
 - Things you should never do
 - If the other player is too aggresive
 - More troop formations

If you have any suggestions, contributions, or find any mistakes/errors you
believe I should be aware of, please email me at: mandango@usa.net 

I will put your name in the credits. If you want to download the next 
version, look for it at: http://www.angelfire.com/ab/lords2

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Copyright 1999 Manny Rodriguez. No part of this
may be redestributed in any way, but the file may be uploaded 
*AS IS* for direct download from your website. Lords of the Realm 2
is a product of Sierra Studios.
