Samantha's School of K-nighthood/Chapter 6: Combat

Combat and Tactics

You're a k-night and a troop leader for whatever realm you serve. That means, you gotta fight sometimes. As a k-night, you'll mostly be following orders from above. Here are some helpful tips about how to directly lead your troops in battle.

• Combat will take place at sunrise and sunset. Battles always take place at the turn of the clock.

Unit Settings

Your men are instructed to act:

Murderous: Your men are foaming at the mouth ravenous for combat, hacking and slashing their way through everyone who steps in front of them....INCLUDING possible allies to your realm. This is a very very bad setting and shouldn't be used unless specifically ordered to. This causes your unit to charge forward into the face of the enemy as fast as possible, possibly even into a vastly outnumbered and heavily defended area...heck...they'll throw themselves into a wall of pikes and spears if they have to.

Aggressive: Your men are itching to get into battle and will move forward as soon as the battle starts. Your men will engage any troops that are part of realms that are not currently federated, allied or at peace with your realm. This includes troops from NEUTRAL realms as well. Your unit will move forward at a normal pace in combat, aggressive, but not overly so.

Normal/Defensive: Your men will only engage troops that you are actively at war with or have a hatred for. When on the battlefield, they will stand firm. and are unlikely to move forwards as much or as quickly as others. This is also the standard formation style for when your unit is part of a defensive force that is behind walls or fortifications.

Evasive: Your men will try and avoid all combat. If they are unable to avoid combat, they are more likely to retreat from the enemy once they start taking casualties.

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Combat Tactics

These are the actual orders you give to your men to show them how to set themselves up on the battlefield. Each of the formations below have there benfits and their downsides. I've tried to list them as best as possible.

Line: Your men are spread out in a line, 2-3 deep. This gives you no particular benefits or downsides as it is the standard default settings. However, this formation can be broken by cavalry charges, but not suffering undue casualties from it.

Box: Your men are grouped tightly together, fighting and standing side by side. This allows them to take fewer casualties from close combat and from cavalry charges. Fighting side by side allows them a much better defensive situation. However, this makes them take much higher casualties from archer fire. Also, this formation isn't as effective if you are the attacker. Since you are gouped together in a much smaller area, you don't have as many people on the front line of your formation. Fewer people means fewer swords to cut down those treasonous dogs of the enemy...(grin).

Wedge: The wdge sets your men in a big arrowhead style formation. This allows your unit to slice through enemy lines much more easily than other formations. Makes for a great charge. However, this formation is also easier to break apart and will most likely take more casualties than the others.

Skirmish: Your men are all spread out, keeping lots of distance between themselves. This allows them to take far, far less casualties from archer fire. Unfortunately, they tend to get massacred in close combat since they are spread out so much that they can't support each other.