Best Defensive Formation

[powerr98]

Im sure everybody has different ideas but what would the best defensive formation be for a Level 7 Fort in Mountains (boxed of course)? Im refering to both garrison and field army assuming a player has about 120K Elite troops of even propotions?

[Nebthe]

There isn't such thing as best defensive formation and that's because any formation can be beaten. The attacker will send the needed formation to beat whatever you keep in your province.

Some say that archers and cavalry is a good combination to keep inside the fortress, like 30% archers, 70% cavalry, others think that few archers are enough, 500-1000 for a level 7 fortress, others will do anything to convince you that the best army for a defense is no army at all and your army should be always on move....
What fits you better is for you to discover by using the calculator and by experience.... 

[k_mihai]

army should always be on the move

IMO, if u`re interested mostly on defense, try to keep the points low, have 5 provinces only (2nd mountain, or mountain wf), the best fort in town, garrison and u will be safer

[Radooo]

Or keep your points under 50. You are much safer then

[k_mihai]

or capitulate at 0 points

[powerr98]

Of course im well aware of army saves and the fact that there will always be an opponent who'll be able to take you down but refer to my earlier question which refers to best defensive formation with about 120K elite troops of mixed proportions. Again im not saying 'perfect' formation and i do realise that different players have different views. But this is a discussion to hear what each of you think is the best possible formation for yourselves.

[stud]

well, i would fill the fort with 10k archers cause in it they're most efficient and the room left (should be 'round 6-7k) i would fill with cavalry, 'cause if the walls fall, during the siege ur archers will kill a lot of enemy phalanx so ur cavalry will have a great advantage and it might be able to inflict enough damage to the attacking army (whose moral by now is pretty low) for it to flee

[Leila]

No such thing as best formation if there were then everybody would have been using it.

Check this topic - http://www4.imperiaonline.org/forums/int/index.php?topic=2724.0

[powerr98]

No such thing as best formation if there were then everybody would have been using it.

Check this topic - http://www4.imperiaonline.org/forums/int/index.php?topic=2724.0

Please refer reply given by Stud. Its those kind of replies im looking for. Again i say that im not refering to a perfect formation everybody can use but rather a formation which you currently use or will use in future if you had to defend your Fortress (with only 120K elite troops). I know this depends on many other factors and im well aware of all these (ive been playing for more than a year). So i would appreciate more replies like Stud. Im just out for other views.

[stud]

yeah, be more like me 

@power: 

[k_mihai]

well, nebthe made the complete point here...

[powerr98]

well, nebthe made the complete point here...

Which i replied to

Of course im well aware of army saves and the fact that there will always be an opponent who'll be able to take you down but refer to my earlier question which refers to best defensive formation with about 120K elite troops of mixed proportions. Again im not saying 'perfect' formation and i do realise that different players have different views. But this is a discussion to hear what each of you think is the best possible formation for yourselves.

Cheers!

[k_mihai]

well, same answer. detailed, if u want, u can have 10 k or smth archers in fort or 7000 k archers, 3 k pals or 9 k pals, 1 k archers, for a boxed fort 7 on a mountain.

always do army saves, if u leave a 120 k elite army home, it will be wiped out sooner or later, u can not defend it, in most of the cases.

u wan t to know how to equilibrate also a 120 k army?

[Leila]

My advice:

- do not keep anything inside fort except of 2-3k elite archers. Keeping any kind of spearmen inside fort is almost suicide  ; keeping portion of your cavalry inside fort dramatically (unless you have zillions of paladins) reduces the total damage of your field army and in many cases is the mistake which leads to loss for defender; keeping swordsmen inside fort is pointless since the attacker will have survived cavalry and easily kill them; keeping proportional portion of your field army in garrison will just weaken the main army, besides any spears inside fort will lead to easy win for the attacker.

anyway that's my real advice - do an army save trip ;o it's not necessary to be boring army save...just attack province with army and a lot of gold - you'll get gold, military points, honor and your army back then use the gold to rebuild losses, steal more from neighbours, kill some if possible and when you want to go offline just repeat the operation. Of course there is a possibility that someone will try to catch your army save but think from the other side - if your army was at home it would be even easier for him to kill it, not to mention that he won't be able to have spy information about your army size and unit distribution if it's not at home and you can ambush him with adding fresh reinforcements. And catching army save with less than 5 seconds delay is not so easy even for experienced players...and usually 5 seconds are more than enough to remove your army if you have reliable connection.

[Kirania]

Nice advice  I like to pack my fort with archers from early on.  This era on r8 I have done better in defense than ever before. Basically combo of building up forts quickly, boxed mountain (well this was my 5th prov. after all plains and I boxed with 7th prov), build up fort 7  before reaching 15K points bec. its really very hard to hide 3mill stone and 1mill wood when carts start emptying  , packed full with x4 archers at all times. x4 is crucial for advantage.  So always try to keep a combo of x4 when you stack up archers. and HIGH BORDERS! I have had guys attack me blind and loose all their cats. Lots of fun.
I actually did not even build any other army until I got heavies and then I just built cav.  I still don't have spears and don't plan to build any until I have elites which will hopefully be soon. r8 is 8mos realm so all research is super expensive and slow.  Thus far no one has the trebs to take out my fort but I am planning for complete re-outfitting with packed fort 8 of elite archers  to greet those trebs when they arrive.  Actually opening up of fort 8 has had big effect on the game but no1 talks about it.  Any1 ever had fort 8 who can tell us about it defense potential??? I'd love to know more before I build mine.