Chapter 1: Sir Kay
Sir Kay leads a small force to suppress the rebels in Cornwall.
His forces consists of three footmen and one heavy footmen.
The heavy footmen possess above average armor and decent damage, but they move slower than light infantry. They are also penalized when fighting in rough terrains such as swamps, rivers and forests. They are extremely effective when fighting in Wedge Formation against light infantry in the open.
The footmen moves faster than their heavier counterparts, but cannot be relied upon to fight in the open ground. They are also incapable of forming the Wedge like the heavy footmen do. They're basically cheap, expendable units meant to hold off stronger forces in rough terrain.
Our first task is to engage the rebel army just outside Cornwall.
Before engagements, you are given a preview of the enemy forces compared to yours. You can also view the enemy hero's capabilities in full. You can also retreat if you don't like the odds, just be prepared to lose a whole unit or so.
We march forward as Sir Ector instructed and noticed three archer units across the river. Marching forward without cover or speed will get us killed.
There are better options, but at the moment we're stuck with Sir Kay's default spell, Fog of Avalon which has the effect of reducing ranged accuracy by 50%.
It also cuts down the archer firing range. Any forces advancing upon archers are recommended to stick to loose formation for a slight speed boost and ranged defense while losing melee performance.
There's nothing left to do but march forward. A hurried march consumes stamina more rapidly than a normal march. Under most circumstances I'd move faster than save the stamina. Units falling below 40% stamina will perform poorly in combat.
My standard engagement tactic is to switch formation just before the unit engage in melee. The light infantry can only deploy in closed formation while the heavy footmen can form the Wedge for very high attack bonus.
We sustained heavy casualty but successfully destroyed the 3 rebel archer units.
We marched onward, relieved that there are no archers on sight. However, we were ambushed when we moved closer.
Notice the icons above the enemies head? Forests can hide units and give a short duration ambush effect. Particularly deadly for archers first strikes. Thankfully, these are just light infantry. No match for our heavies.
An alternate counter to this ambush is usually to just switch to loose formation and retreat until their ambush effect wear off, however, circumstances on battlefield are usually more varied. Archers behind ambushes forces you to advance or die. Or cavalry ambushes cannot be outrun by footsoldiers...not to mention they can trample footmen with brutal efficiency!
For now, we let Sir Kay mow down the rebels with ease.
Post combat we are given hero/unit EXP breakdown and casualty report plus a sum of gold and food. Defeated heroes also has a chance to drop artifacts. The tutorial is nice enough to replenish our forces fully and give us additional forces to fight a second battle.
Looks like we have new unit types to cover:
Light cavalry is no fighter. They are the fastest unit in the game and their most common function is to get to strategic places quicker. They won't last long in melee or sustain ranged fire. They can still trample foot soldiers, however. If you can hide in a forest and charge down an archer unit, it will usually force the enemy to move it away or suffer heavy casualty.
This Light Cavalry unit is a special case. It's a level 5 units with an unlocked special ability 'Dodge' which increases ranged defense rating. It won't help much against the next unit, to be honest.
The basic archer name is deceptively simple, but one look at the ranged damage (450!) will immediately turn heads. Keep them alive behind a solid melee shield and they will mow down hundreds of foes with ease. If anyone reached archers at close range, don't hesitate to make them retreat.
Always keep them at loose formation unless you want to setup ambushes in forests. Close formations only lessens damage from cavalry charges and improve melee, but it makes you more vulnerable to ranged attacks. Keeping them in loose formation can make retreats much easier to execute, for example, it can outrun a Heavy Footmen in Wedge formation.
But enough talk, the second rebel army awaits!
I'm not sure what determines battleground choices, sometimes you don't have the option to do so when you are attacked. Each province basically has three alternate maps to fight in. Picking the right battleground depending your force composition CAN make some battles much easier.
A small area denoted by blue posts marks the radius limit of deployable area for your army. This allows you to place faster units near the edges to capture Victory points quicker. What are Victory Points? Well, let's look at the mini map.
White is where I start. Red is the enemy's army. They are visible in the mini-map. Before you cry 'map hack', forests can hide them or bad weather / spell effects may conceal units. They can see us as well!
Notice the shields dotting the map. That's the VP. Each VP has special properties. The map has a Mill on the SW. Stone Circle just slightly north of it. The red shield denotes a Dark Monastery. The two brown shields above it are Villages. Now, recall a classic called Sun Tzu Art of War where some places give stamina recovery and such, this works the same way in King Arthur, they are:
- Mill, gives 20% bonus on food upon victory
- Stone Circle, grants spell Fog of Avalon
- Dark Monastery, Spell cooldown cut down by 50%
- Village, units recover Stamina faster
- and many more!
But that's not all! Look at the Blue & Red bar.
They're not HP or Mana. The Blue bar is your army's Morale while the Red is enemy's. They can be decreased by: having less controlled VP or taking heavy losses. They can only be gained by: special knight skills or controlling more VPs. The lower your bar, the worse the army will perform as a whole. Lose the whole bar completely, and your army routs. No exceptions.
This is why control of VP is crucial if you want to prevent battles to become a fight of attrition. Lost units cost gold and food to replace, better to just control the battlefield and rout the enemy army while keeping 90% of your forces intact!
Get it? OK, now on to the battle.
I send the Light Cavalry to capture the Mill to the Southwest.
The archers will hide in the forest to ambush the enemy. I send one light infantry unit each to secure Dark Monastery, and both villages. Sir Kay will hold in Wedge formation to ambush oncoming infantry.
The enemy moves eastwards after securing the Stone Circle, leaving it unattended. A few of them have hidden themselves by moving through forests.
They emerged on the other side of the forest later...
Our forces are in no danger, they prepare to engage from the forest while the other two light footmen continue towards the villages.
Meanwhile, my Light Cavalry has finished capping the Southwestern Mill and is ordered to rush northwards to capture the Stone Circle.
Our archers opened fire.
Completely catching the rebel forces unaware.
Sir Kay emerges with his heavy unit Wedge to finish the job.
It's our turn to get ambushed. An archer unit and rebel footmen appeared from the forest. I quickly switched to loose formation and advanced towards their footmen. Hopefully, their archers will not attack to prevent friendly fire.
The first clash sent a rebel footman flying.
Our archers were not idle, their volleys wrecked their archer column till they're down to two. At the same time, our Light Cavalry has finished securing the unguarded Stone Circle. The rebel army morale plummets.
Moments later, our light footmen reported that the last village is secured. The Rebel Army surrendered immediately.
Skyway...err...Sir Kay has crushed the Cornwall Rebellion!
With the Cornwall province secured, we can collect tax and food annually once more. Each province can be assigned to a knight as a liege lord.
Each province has different yields, beliefs and culture. Not every Knight will make a good lord. You can check their traits on the character screen. As you can see here, Sir Kay is:
-An Arrogant Briton, penalizing non-Briton culture loyalty by -3
-Ferocious, increases military by 30%, military governs how fast you can recruit army in that province.
-And Stern, 25% more tax income collected.
Each Knight can rule up to 3 provinces. So keep those good provinces under a good ruler to keep the gold coming and don't appoint corrupt officials!
Our army can no longer move this season and we rested, satisfied with our victory.
The next season brings a new challenge and opportunity.
Two choices:
Help King Mark
Effect: We gain +1 Paragon & King Mark will join us.
Effect : +8000 Gold, an Artifact and +1 Renegade
The Codex voting begins now as I brush my teeth and go to bed.
Oh, Happy New Year.
