Things I wish I had known when I started playing

[EightDeer]

I've seen threads of this type on game forums occasionally. I thought it would be good to create this for any future new players of King Arthur.
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1: Knights with the Cleave skill work best if you attach them to units that can use the Wedge formation. Wedge always puts the knight at the front of the unit.

2: The AI has a nasty habit of hiding a unit of spearmen in forests near their archers. I lost a lot of horsemen the first couple of times I encountered that trick.

3: Warlord-class knights are much rarer than Champions or Sages. I've only seen 3 in my games - Kay, Lucan and Bedivere.

4: The way to upgrade non-class skills is by double-clicking their icon in the knight's skill box. In my first playthrough, I didn't learn how to do this until after I'd started marching north to kill the Gray Lord.

5: The game will not end if you conquer every province and seize all locations in Bedegraine Forest. During my first game, I was worried about ending my game prematurely.

6: The Masterful Tactics skill does not look like much at first - at level 1 it only gives an extra 20% armour and damage within 40 metres for 1 minute. However, if you're willing to spend 12 skill points on both it and its upgrades Wall of Steel/Wedge of Steel, it gives a massive 140% extra armour/damage to all units within 100 metres for 2 1/2 min. That's a huge boost - it makes light infantry a match for the Sidhe Warriors and Sangreal Knights. If you can find the artifact Beasthorn, the range and duration increases to 140m and 3 1/2 min, respectively. The only downside is that 12 skill points is a major investment.


Anyone who wants to add to this list, please do!

 

[Polar Mongoose]

One think I would like to know (still don't know it), is which knights are available, where, and what their alignments are.

 

[rk47]

Unit Types and how they actually perform

-Archers
Deadly if ignored, the archers are your primary damage dealer until you can actually pick up better unit types. They are extremely vulnerable when trampled, and when engaged in melee, they're pretty much dead meat, tell them to retreat immediately, if they are affected by Curse of Shadows, expect casualties. Keep them protected in the woods if possible by spears or at the very least, light infantry. Level 10 Sidhe archers can gain access to teleport. A nightmare in battlefield.

Spells that could improve their damage are plenty:
Masterful tactics : More dmg & armor
Cloud of arrows : Triple their damage output
Invisible shield : Repels arrows - enable them to exchange fire with other archers without fear.
Anti-Magic: Saves them from Curse of Shadows

-Light infantry
They're very, very weak. They may be cheap, but it's better to wait for Sidhe Autumnborns or Christian Sentinels if you want more beefy hit points. They fight poorly in the open and unable to resist cavalry charges, even when employing the correct formation. I usually have trouble fitting light infantry in my army, because their role is very few.

They move quicker than heavies but lack staying power and still slower than light cavalry. They do get bonus when engaging in the woods, but that's it. The Sidhe units do have advantage of teleporting bonus, and I tend to utilize it all the time to flank archers. But for Christians, there's not much point in keeping light infantry in the army since you can replace them with spears.

-Spears
They are more resistant to cavalry charges and possess armor piercing property. It's a good combination to beat back both heavy and horses attacks. But their cost is pretty prohibitive, and you wonder if they're worth the price when you get out-maneuvered by the faster cavalry ALL the time. Employ the circle formation to maintain high charge resistance, and switch back to horde as needed to maintain good speed and avoid archer massacres. Christian Royal Guards can perform well, although their hitpoints is quite low, they come in set of 48s.

-Heavy infantry
Slow, highly armored, will suffer rain of arrows more than any other units out there. I personally disliked them. They lack speed and that makes them lose the initiative. The Sidhe can overcome this limitation in their Spring/Winterborns by employing teleport. Otherwise, a mass heavy infantry is just dead weight in battle, doomed to supporting roles.

-Light cavalry
I like the Saxon cavalry / Tyrant Marauders for more HP and attack, otherwise they're really nothing special. Light, fast, capable of trampling. They have no staying power, so use them for VP captures and flanking archers. If you're facing light infantry, Light cavalry can employ repeated tramples. Once you see heavy and spears, forget about it, ride away!

-Heavy cavalry / Knights
They're very expensive, Knights are destroyers in battles. This is my favorite unit if I'm playing Christian, basically work your way towards Saxon alliance and start recruiting Saxon Knights.

High armor, defense, and moderate attack bolstered with tramples will make the price worth it. Best of all, they can perform defensive roles equally well since they are immune to cavalry tramples and can move quickly into position to block attacks. Just don't let them die too much since they're very expensive to replace and maintain!

 

[Roghain]

I had to restart a few times afore I understood a few thing I really would have like to know before engaging.

1) This is not a Total War clone, regardless of looks. Forget tactics that had you winning any TW game: this is different.

2) Magic rules the battlefield. Regardless of your army composition - if you do not employ magic properly, you will loose in the long run. Attach enough (2-3) heroes to your 'attacking' or main armies and make sure they have acces to anough offensive magic to take out the other army's archers. Order of things in battles, especially from book 2 onwards is to decimate opponents archers with magic, then decimate his melee troops with yoour archers, then send in the heavy hitters (giants, knights, un/seelie warriors) to mop up if anything remains. Until a more balancing patch or mod arrives, learn to use magic and you will not lose a single trooper anymore.

3) Don't fret the victory locations. In the beginning I paid too much attention to them as I failed to understand their influence. It isn't too bad. Make sure you got equal or one less VL than you opponent and you should be safe from losing morale. Keep one light cavalry from fights to rush open unguarded VLs, but don't try and force-conquer a majority of VLs. There is no need: the AI will unvariably divide his army to capture. Use the VLs as bait.

4) The Vision quest regardless of the description has a time limit. Don't be lulled in a false sense of calm: get cracking on that quest or you will be facing the samhaim way earlier than you care to.

5) There are a ridiculous amount of artifacts to be gained. Don't be too stingy and trade them for interesting spouses if the opportunity shows itself. You will not be able to use all artifacts even with twelve knights.

6) Don't abuse the XP generator places. After I got defeated a few times, I fell for the lure of high level troops and heroes and as such entered book 2 with four heroes L60+ and three armies of L10 units. Especially the heroes are stupendoesly overpowered once they pass L20 and the game becomes a tedious affair as any battle becomes a boring matter of spamming magic. In order to keep things interesting, I really suggest limiting yourself. On the other hand: it is your game... play the way you enjoy yourself

 

[Cat Lord]

3: Warlord-class knights are much rarer than Champions or Sages. I've only seen 3 in my games - Kay, Lucan and Bedivere.

There is a 4th one that appear with a random quest.

Who is and where do you get Lucan ?

Cat

 

[Imrryran]

I think Lucan comes with a DLC, as in my game it spontaneously appeared when I created Camelot, along with a Champion hero.

 

[Mithelemir]

~~~Polar Mongoose wrote:
~~~"One think I would like to know (still don't know it), is which knights are available, where, and what their alignments are."

This thread has a downloadable text file which should answer your questions regarding knight acquisition and alignment.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?523627-Artifacts-Knights-Ladies-Skills-and-Traits-Guide

One knight missing from that file (as of today, April 15, 2011) is Sir Gal. However, the complete information on him you can find in the same thread, in my post from 14-4-2011. The short of the story is, however, that he is available from a random Diplomacy quest called "Champion" (circa turn 70 it seems), which will offer you the option to include him at the round table. His alignment is Rightful 8, Christianity 4.

Note, just in case you did not know, that any quest performed by your knight that alters the religion or morality of your kingdom also alters the same virtues in the knight who performed the quest. Effectively you could take a tyrant, such as Sir Bedivere, for example, and turn him into a righteous knight, provided you sent him on the right quests and made the right decisions...Additionally, certain structures built in your strongholds will shift alignments as well.