Pinstar asks how to properly raid. Well, most everyone knows that I'm no mad-micro-skillz-expert-raider, but I do follow a couple of guidelines:

The ideal number of horse archers to build before sending the group into do raiding.

2-3 is a good minimum. Reason is that you want to send ONE to MULTIPLE places simultaneously. Also, it's a good idea to support that with 1-2 HC to kill off any defenders. When I raid poorly, I make 2 HA and 1 HC. When I do better I make 3:2 plus light cav for my own defense.

Why just ONE? More than one HA at a time heavily reduces their effectiveness because of focus fire reductions.

Why MULTIPLE locations? Any decent player (except me most likely) is going to have some raid defenses, whether they are light cav (best) or archers (okay) or a tower. Chances are, if you hit at multiple locations simultaneously, they will see and micro one spot, but not see the other. So you can sometimes wipe out an entire villager production area before he realizes you attacked in more than one spot.

The best way to target villies...despite their raid stance my HA more often than not start attacking the buildings (lumber camps etc) rather than the villies. How do I tell them NOT to attack ANY buildings and JUST the villagers?

SHIFT+R. Don't give them any attack commands because you are likely to click on a building or something. also, remember that they will fire at the first enemy they see which could possibly be a farm or a lumber mill. Ensure the villagers are in range. Double check you aren't using RAZE stance, which prioritizes buildings.

should I do a move? attack-move? waypoints? patrol? whats the best way to loop my HA through an enemy city and back so I don't have to micromange them?

I use way points. Hold SHIFT plus click. The HA will run through the area firing at villagers. A single HA will normally kill villagers in 2 shots. So you'll get quite a few just running by.

When I am on my game, I try to send ONE to his farms and I loop that around his towns, then send the OTHERS to separate chopping/mining locations. He's sure to see and respond the one is his view and chase that one. But maybe he doesn't see them ALL. If you get chased by a light cav, run in the opposite direction of the other raiders so that he'll have farther to go to get back on defense. In fact, occasionally, you'll see light cav defenders get forgotten off to the side of the map.

When I am not on my game, I'll set the rally point for my stable at his woodcamp and send one HA there. He likely dies pretty quick. Problem with this technique is that later in the (bad) game, I'll queue up a bunch of heavy cav, then wonder where they all went to.

Another tip is to use your own light cav or heavy cav (counters light) to kill off his light cav. Micro your HA around your HC. Send wounded units back for healing. Use HC to hit areas covered by towers or archers. Early raiding battles tend to be using LC, HC, and HA to attain dominance over the raiding game. Winner of the raiding game usually goes on to win. (But not always.)
posted by Tim at 11:42 AM