Bannerlord Tactics: Expert Tactics, Volume II: Using Ancient History to Dominate: The Oblique Order

Welcome back future Emperors, Khans, Jarls and Sultans, in this episode we follow the campaign I'm fighting in a little and then have a rousing, huge battle in which we'll demonstrate some unique tactics from historical battles and try to take on a huge force. I have a friend who's a college assistant to a history professor and he has been suggesting an Oblique order battle, a tactic made famous by the Ancient Greeks, but also used to perfect by Frederick the Great.
This series, part 2 of 8 of our new 'Expert Tactics' series will help players refine their tactics to the point where they will fluidly move troops depending on situations, and win battles like a Legend.
Please comment, like and subscribe if you're interested in more of my ultra-late-game campaign, that may end up ending in utter despair, but that's the challenge of it. Any challenge where success is assured is no challenge at all.
My campaign is an extremely late-game campaign where I am resolved to give no peace to these scum Kingdoms attacking me - seven of the eight have been at war for years, with only Sturgia at a neutral stance. My family of warriors is now large though and with what remaining strength and valor we can must, we stand against the map of Calradia.
Join me on this adventure if you like huge battles, the use of advanced tactical maneuvers and intense Bannerlord gameplay, and subscribe to my channel if you want to follow along. This campaign is very lightly modded:
I use four mods:
Lord Retinue Uptier(Makes the enemy forces stronger, much less peasants and lower ranked troops)
www.nexusmods....
Improved AI Troops(Also makes enemy lords and their armies tougher by giving them a higher daily xp rate. This means you'll routinely face armies with HUGE numbers of the highest tier units, sometimes four or five times the normal amount in vanilla Bannerlord): www.nexusmods....
Death for all: This mod allows you to set the rate at which nobles die more often. I want both a harder challenging late-game but also a more realistic game. If you're cut down with a massive aserai two-handed axe, you shouldn't just be injured 99.9% of the time. It's a very customizable mod so you can just a little more death or set the death rate so high you get several deaths every battle. The number I often like is '10', some deaths but not a massacre of nobles...
www.nexusmods....
I also use the Dismemberment Plus Mod: It's highly customizable and works seamlessly with the new beta(and versions back to 1.28). I thoroughly recommend it if you enjoy carnage!:
steamcommunity...
I've also used Realistic Battle Mod in the past and highly recommend it for Ai and battle realism BUT I find the pace too slow for my taste and the AI is actually rather predictable after a half dozen battles. Still I wanted to put a plug in for it here, it's a GREAT mod and highly configurable. www.nexusmods....
Much of the music and inspiration for this and other videos in the channel are inspired by Epic History TV - probably THE best channel on youtube(and the internet for that matter) covering the Napoleonic wars. With amazing work Epic History TV takes you through the dramatic and incredibly story of Napoleon covering all of his most famous battles. I HIGHLY recommend it.
Epic History TV:
/ @epichistorytv
#bannerlord #war #medieval #bannerlordgameplay #bannerlordmod

[@DamianMeech-b4r]

I always learn a lot about Bannerlord from your videos. I have use your tactics with success. Cheers I will keep watching.

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Thank you brother, that means a lot to mean(and means I'm doing my job).

[@Norakai]

holy shit, that was epic... when i fight these kind of big battles i get to see usually about 15 minutes until i die and skip to the end... incredible

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Thanks! This is quite an old video at this state, but huge, long, tactical slugfests are a specialty of this youtube channel, and the battles are fairly routinely this epic. Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Warhead-haggis]

I personally prefer it when your character gets to fight. It isn't a pressing battle until the commander starts collecting heads. Another great battle.

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Good, good! Me too! I have made a dozen episodes where I just roam about and lead only but it's painful to not be engaged! Thank you for the feedback, brother.

[@Garaitxu]

Thx for your content, very entertaining and ilustrating. This game came out this month for Playstation plus users and it's been a blast to recall those Total War series in this 3rd person view. Caotic at least with a controller but getting the hang. I personally love standard character damage income, it makes me really tactic about my engage in the battle and it's fun to compose your personal guard. Thx again, ill be watching all your Bannerlord tips. 😊😊

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

You're very welcome brother, it's my pleasure to share this kind of stuff, and this IS a great game, despite it's obvious flaws. Hopefully more and more discover it and I also hope you guys eventually get upgrades or mods too. Cheers!

[@petterjy5047]

Great video, looking forward to next video! Recently got into bannerlord myself, and enjoying it greatly.

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Glad you enjoy it! Take note that our channel has some 80 videos on Bannerlord with advanced tactics, instructional series and other videos that you may enjoy! I'm not sure people realize just how much content we have on the channel! Thanks for the comments...

[@BDouglas-o9b]

Holy crap. This was the most epic battle I have ever seen in bannerlord. The tactics you executed really made the difference here. This was a glorious experience.

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Glad you found this! I pretty firmly believe a lot of the older videos on the channel will get more views and love once they are 're-discovered'. More are coming, mate, stay tuned!

[@vhorizon_z]

about to press play but i already know this video is gonna be great upload from the goat

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

I bow deeply in humility and thanks, friend.

[@tyejohnson2192]

thats crazy dude

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Runs in my family! My insanity is just functional enough for me to barely hold down a steady job. :D

[@Arson_Welles]

Excellent. I think that a good-fitting round shield is essential, especially in a siege-type situation where you really need that complete cover at a roughly 45 degree angle above the head.

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

I think the shields are one of the coolest parts of the game because you CAN still get hit beyond the shield and having the right shield is pretty important! Some are better for shield wall, for being by yourself, or for mounted on horse, it's fascinating in itself!

[@Heavilyworded]

This was a grueling battle, but a great demonstration of tactics and how they change the late game. A basic charge against numbers like that is a clear defeat. Being able to overcome an attack like that. It is a shame that night battles look so bad, it might have been interesting to see. I'm curious why you don't put your infantry skirmishers with the archers? Is it due to the range differences? I find that putting the skirmishers alongside crossbowmen yields a good result and increases the viability of the unit as a whole, allowing it to function at range as well as infantry. Your army composition has got a bunch of different cultures. I see Battan Raiders, Sturgian Axemen, and Imperial Legionaries all on the same line. It's more of a personal preference I guess, but do you specifically pick or simply just stack up on whoever you can find in your cities/villages?

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

I actually had a great night battle, with the light amplified wonderfully by the sky and moonlight - so I've recorded it and will process it soon. As for the skirmishers/archers, often I do keep them together but yes, you're right, if it's a range issue, they will be moved in closer than the archers. Also many of my skirmishers aren't traditional weak/historically accurate skirmishers, which were lightly armored, most of my skirmishes mangle people in hand to hand as well as range - family members and companions, battanian wildlings, etc. At this stage of the campaign, many of my elite troops are prisoners who we recruited later, but also we've had territory in sturgia, battania and of course the empire, so we have a nice mix of all three. That said, I usually have very few Aserai, Khuzait and Vlandian forces. In the end, I just want high end troops, probably half of my army is tier 5 and tier 6 in battles, with only a sprinkling of lower level troops for upgrading(there's a video where I cover this if you're interested).

[@ededandeddy2115]

I thought he was good but no he isn’t just good he has a mid that upgrades the enemies tier and ai? That’s crazy but awesome

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Thank you for the kind words - often lords run around with waaaay too many low tier troops and it's just not a fight if you have 50+% elite troops and they have peasants...

[@guyeinhat3819]

Max athletics + Rogery + all Vigor skills = unkillable. Rogery helps you get lordly/legendary armor the rest is for hp and armor. I can take several full on couched lances. You should try it out

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

I agree! I still get killed(in fact this characters father was killed in an episode on our channel), but I prefer athletics to any of the other skills. Not sure I can take several couch lances though!!

[@tomahawkred1]

love the videos, tactics and humor. only critical part is audio, music and master volume for the game is set way too high.

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

One problem I am facing is that I recorded and edited many of these episodes now some two months ago, so while my newer videos are better audio, more balanced and probably more aesthetically pleasing, some of the content I still have to be released was in my tinkering stage where I was still working things out. Thanks for the kind words and feedback though.

[@diojiabunai]

Wasn't it Alexander of Macedon at Cannae that we get the use of the Offset/Oblique maneuver from? I thought he used his cav. to push the right flank and bypass Cyrus' defense? Or am I a victim of Mandela here?

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

It's probable that Alexander used this tactic with knowledge of Epaminondas. Epaminondas used this famously at the battle of Leuctra some twenty years before Alexander was born. Now we're ALL just getting our information passed down from two-thousand years of heresy, so who really knows, but that's what my sources says. Some dude named Uggg probably used it in the battle of dirty creek 60,000 B.C. in which he put an extra 12 cavemen on the right flank and they overwhelmed the enemy left. To this day he hasn't gotten any credit for this brilliant move, especially for a Cro-Magnon. .

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Also the original meaning of a stag party, the Oblique order.@@laymanlinguist

[@giuliocasesi3847]

sorry but Alexander of MAcedon didn't fought at Cannae right?

[@DamianMeech-b4r]

Cannae was a huge defeat for the Ancient Romans in 215bc against Hannibal of Carthage. This was a classic envelopment of the Roman Army of circa 80,000 men. So some say. Alexander used the oblique order at Gaugamela or Arbela against the Achaemenid Persians commanded by Darius. Cyrus was long dead before this. Alexander no doubt was told of Epaminondas famous defeat of the Spartans by his father King Phillip Second of Macedon, who was a hostage in Thebes with Epaminondas for a number of years. I can't see oblique attack being used, as Epaminondas used it, in Bannerlord. Ancient battles though must have been equally chaotic as you see in Bannerlord battles. I enjoy watching the videos, I leanrn a hell of a lot from them.

[@martinsrsen6531]

Have you ever tried turning on friendly fire for all troops?

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Would be terrified to see how this went, but didn't know this was a feature. Is this in a setting or a mod?

[@martinsrsen6531]

@@HeadlessHorsemanProductions I don't if it's a setting but I saw it as a mod. But now that I think about it I wonder how this would affect sending troops and not actually fighting.

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

I suspect it would be like playing basketball on Mars. It might take me weeks or even months to get used to how it played out...@@martinsrsen6531

[@Sir_Hammock]

why kill the flag bearers they make the battle more cinematic

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

Mostly because it gives the enemy combat bonuses(or morale boosts), but you're right, it's a more amazing scene if you leave them alone.

[@Sir_Hammock]

@@HeadlessHorsemanProductions Just came back after crushing the 6 battanian armies (total: 2100+ Units) then after all that after imprisoning half of all their lords the strugs, the lucon fanbase and the butter-boys use their power of friendship and siege manurath THE THING I WAS WANTING TO SEIGE MYSELF. In the end i made peace with the forest squatters and were barely able to hold manurath (they die when i want them to die).

[@HeadlessHorsemanProductions]

@@Sir_Hammock lol way to assert that dominance. Love to hear from those out there battling.