How To Be cost effective in Total War Games

Hello Total War gamers,
In the is how to I’ll be teaching you how to become more cost effective in total war multiplayer by going step by step on how you can use low cost units to beat high cost units.
This theory is how a low cost unit beat a high costing unit, it’s not just a basic attack him when you can it’s getting in the right position to attack and destroy him. The best place in in the flank or rear of the unit.

In TW games (total war games) there are a lot of different units you can take command of like swordsmen, spearmen, range, axemen and cavalry and it’s a basic one type can easily kill another type in a 1 on 1. But on top of this basic concept each unit will have their very own stats showing melee damage weapon damage, armour, melee defence, charge bonces, and so on. Each of these will show you what a certain unit is better against and how long he could hold for in a fight before losing troops, or how long before he flees. Also on each unit there is a price to pay for them so in multiplayer the higher a unit cost the better he is, but in most battles there is a set amount of gold allowed to build your army. Would it be better if you have 2 or 3 lower cost troops instead of 1 high cost unit?

Yes it would, because you can surround the enemy and do more damage to the unit and do moral damage as well. But having lower cost men could be bad as well if you don’t use them wisely because they may have less armour, no shields or worst weapons. But they are cheap units that may have great weapons for charging or they could have precursors (throwable weapons before using their main weapon) which can deal damage while not being attacked.

This is the most important step because this can be bad if you don’t get a good army build for using cheaper units. You’ll need to select a faction first, most factions will have certain units only available to them or play stiles only for them, (e.g. Celtic factions can deploy anywhere on a battle map).
The unit composition I manly made up of 4-6 Spears or Pikemen, 6-swords or axemen, 1-4 cavalry, 3-5 range units. This is a good build to counter most things that’ll come my way. In this build you can easily use 2 very cheap units of infantry which can be used as flanking troops.
If you know what your units are capable of it’ll be easier to make an army to be good all-round and to know which units are better at dealing with certain units of the battlefield.


In this picture you can choose your faction located under your name, on the left you can see unit types and their cost. In the middle you can see the units you are going to use in battle, on the left you can see the stats of the unit you have highlighted.

This part of the battle is also important; because certain parts of the map could help you out in battle like deploying on a hill will give an advantage in battle. But the main part of this is deploying for your strengths and protecting your weakness also you’ll need to put the cheaper unit in the back lines behind your reserve units like behind swords which will be behind spears.

I have my spear and pike line up front with my archers just behind them. Then I have my reserve swords and then my cheap units of swords behind them. Then I have my cavalry in the last line behind my army.

The only problem with cheap units is that they are always weak to missiles and cavalry charges, the easiest way to keep them alive is to engaged the first line with the enemy’s first line, use your cavalry to attack enemy cavalry and range units. Also if you use your 2nd line of infantry to fill and protect the archers so they will be able to use all there ammo before dying. By deploying your cheapest infantry at the back of your lines means that they won’t be in any danger, then you’ll be able to move them to a flank of the enemy which is the weakest.


In this part I engaged my lines with the enemy’s line, while I have done that I move my cavalry protecting my cheap units around to one side of the enemy where he can’t defend.

Flanking the enemy lines with the cheaper units is a great thing to do and depending on your unit will make you use them slightly different. If they are units with precursors you’ll make them throw them into the enemy’s non-protected backs, or I they have a huge charge bones you’ll charge them into their backs witch will do a lot of damage, units on the battlefield hates when they have enemies on both side and they will properly rout and run away.


At this part I am getting around my enemy and can strake his archers, general and his cavalry.
He cheap units are starting to get into position to charge the enemy.

Some units of the enemy may be very difficult to kill because they’ll have high armour and high stats and these units will destroy your cheaper units in no time, so the best way to use them is to make them run away from the enemy and recharge them back into them to deal more damage and less men loses, meaning that’ll your men wont rout as quickly and can be reused. Once you get around the enemy lines it’ll be hard for the other player to actually win, also once you’re behind the enemy you can start working from one side to the other side until you kill or break all of his men.

In this part the enemy is only partly held by my army but I took slightly took too long to attack the rear and he got a small charge on me, but with this I got troops on the winning and troops now at the rear.
At this point of the battle you can start to bring your units to clean up and become victories.
In this is the aftermath of the battle and will show what’s left of your army as well as your foes army. On each unit on top of them shows you their health with there on and under them you see how many kills they get.
Both my cheap units (Gothic Flaxmen costing 400) got over 200 kills each, they paid off.
In this battle the unit sizes was huge (160 men in infantry blob, 80 men in cavalry)

So please try this in your own battles and most of the time it’ll work but you get to build your army correctly, deploy correctly and always watch the enemy’s movement and his deployment. This was made on Total War: Attila but you can do this on any Total War games because it’s the same thing across all these games.

Have fun and good luck.