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Understanding fights in KaM

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sado1

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Joined: 21 May 2012, 19:13

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Post 25 Nov 2016, 11:08

Understanding fights in KaM

Hello. I saw two recent topics by Lord Dan, and I thought that I need to explain how the fights are actually working in the Remake, because it seems like he focused on stuff that is actually not very important in the game (random fights - rock-paper-scissors-like system used in KaM), at least in my opinion. This might accidentally become a tutorial for fighting in KaM, too :D

The fights in KaM look like this. You have two (or more) players with seemingly equal armies (as much as the game is balanced. Usually, each player has four main army types/styles: infantry, shooters, horsemen, and a helper army. The time after PT, when it comes to fighting, goes in a "camp-fight cycle": in camp phase, players find themselves positions against the enemy, start using shooters to harass each other, and think about attacking possibilities.

The fighting phase can be initiated either by "planned attack" - spotting a place which is vulnerable, and moving some/most of the armies to that spot before the enemies can help each other (creating a 2v1 situation, for example), or by leveraging a mistake made by the enemy (for example, in a pre-fight shootout). What starts the fight phase is "the catch" - when one player believes that engaging into a fight with one of enemy armies will give him a better chance to win. How does the fighting phase look like? Let's take a look at 4 army flavours everyone usually has:

Infantry - be it swords, axes, pikemen - generally, the ones the player has the most, and wants to use on the front. Sometimes horses are used too.
Shooters - before the main fight, you will use them to harass the enemy and reduce his number of shooters ("shoot and go back" strategy for bowmen) or iron troops (which crossbowmen are more useful for). In the fight, you just stand and shoot with all your shooters.
Horses - used for attacking bowmen when the space is open enough; otherwise just attack with Infantry, then hit the enemy from the side with horsemen.
Helper army - less important armies. Usage includes: militia (too weak to be fighting in the main fight under the bowmen fire, but good for invading cities, or attacking when you're sure the enemy has no bows in an area) lancemen/pikemen/militia/axemen for defending against the horses that try to attack your shooters; etc.

How does a fight look like?
1. The catch. Two players engage into a fight between their armies. Usually, infantry gets caught first. Infantry needs to be in a wide formation for the maximum effect.
2. Players ensure that their shooters are in position.
3. Players try to engage with all of their troops in the first fight. Usually, you will try to catch the "main fight" with all the remaining infantry groups, aiming from the sides for maximum damage. You will also use horses to kill enemy bowmen now.
4. Players on the other fronts choose between running to help, or catching the enemy to prevent him from running himself.
5. After a while of looking at the fight (you can't disengage the troops), adjusting shooters positions, and catching with spare troops/reinforcements, you will see which fronts your team has won. Proceed with killing as many shooters as you can while they try to flee.
6. If there is no big difference in remaining armies, we go back to positioning the troops, until we're at point 1 again - someone get caught again. If there's a big difference between the teams, one might try to attack one of the bases to potentially finish the game.

Now, why isn't it important which units you will use? Because all you need to know is, how to flank and which army types cannot win against which ones, (don't attack xbows with horses from the front; avoid fighting any other type of infantry against swordfighters, etc.) Of course, you also need wide formation (attacking in a "snake" won't let you win).


TLDR; After peacetime period consists of "camp", and "fight" repeating cycles. Players use: main army (infantry), shooters, horsemen and helper army. The fights might be randomized, but the most important thing in this game is not how the random number generator, or what the unit stats will tell, but how you attack the enemy and how effectively you flank him.
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vovets1

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Joined: 20 May 2012, 08:59

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Post 26 Nov 2016, 20:59

Re: Understanding fights in KaM

Is it a type of a guide or an explonation why fights in KaM really depends on players' skills?
Anyway, that's nice post.
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sado1

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Posts: 1430

Joined: 21 May 2012, 19:13

KaM Skill Level: Skilled

Post 26 Nov 2016, 21:10

Re: Understanding fights in KaM

Is it a type of a guide or an explonation why fights in KaM really depends on players' skills?
Anyway, that's nice post.
I wrote it after seeing that it's not clear to everyone what exactly is most important in the fights. I'm not sure I wanted to write a tutorial, maybe it is a tutorial now though :P

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