Joseph87

Cavalry beats archers. Massive best taken care of with another massive. So massive cavalry against massive archers. Maybe can do with less more effectively with champion cavalry. Or if you can, let them come to you in your garrisoned buildings and offshore ships. Fight within the cover of your own towers.

If you play the Iberian faction, their horse javelin unit with flaming javelin enabled work wonders against siege units and buildings. 20 of those in a group can take care of 3 to 4 battering rams in seconds. I also do away with siege units completely when playing this faction and just use them for razing buildings. They are much faster and more flexible than battering rams, and can defend themselves effectively and not requiring escorts. Best of all if they are in real danger you can always stick them in the safely of a temple. Have two rotating groups of flaming javelinist doing their work and with the temple itself covered by arrows from garrisoned civic centres and fortress (20 units max each) pretty much sums up my late-game gameplay. You can fill the civic centre and fortress with cheap skirmisher units and it will shoot the same arrow as more expensive ones, they can be put to work when the complex is not under attack, save the metals just for the fire javelinist and replace lost units here and there. I strike here and there with the horse units, taking down a couple of buildings and retreat, drawing in the enemy units to be whittled down by my base defense, then switch to my other group to strike out again while the first group heals. If the enemy comes with siege units take those out first while they are still on their way then withdraw back to the temple. Set the horse units on defensive mode so they only attack what you tell them to and don't stick around absorbing unnecessary damage and losses. Good and effective game play boils down to a plan consisting of a simple number of steps that you just repeat over and over again. Building up and surviving until you can put the plan to work is the key. Preferably getting everything in place before their escorted siege units arrive. (If you are playing another faction champion sword cavalry units in groups of at least 20 is still your best counter against siege units. Try to save and reuse champion units as they are too valuable and expensive to be used up in one battle. Infantry champion units are too slow and will be overwhelmed while they try to destroy siege units. Lump your units with ctrl+number keys to better control them in the mess of men during battle and set attack mode to defensive so they don't act out on their own. Bolt crossbows will work against battering rams and catapults but they are a pain to pack/unpack and hard to defend against other enemy units.)

This is basically why I always play with the Iberian faction, because of their flaming horse javelinist. A team of 20 takes out fortresses (very costly to capture especially when fully garrisoned), battle rams and catapults like a charm. Basically everything else can be handled by garrisoning troops in strategically placed civic centres and fortresses. Two teams of 20 horse javelinist (flaming tip enabled) taking turn one whittling down enemy units and structures while the other heals in a temple. The temple itself cross-fired by a civic centre and fortress allowing a full garrison of 40 other units providing cover fire. The flame javelinists can come out to take down battering rams and catapults should they threaten the buildings. Those three fully garrisoned buildings are hard to siege and takes a long time to destroy without siege weaponery.