Flying units -- what is their use?

[tinkthank]

When I get flying units, they drop like... flies. Even when I put them on "hold and attack", which I always do (tried experimenting with either rearmost, archers, or none), at the very latest, 2 turns later they are in the enemy's face. Getting creamed. Which is, I guess, how it should be -- I picture flying troops as harrassments for the enemy's back ranks once the rest of their army is engaged with the ground troops. Or to annoy spellcasters. Or for hit and runs (or hit and fly).
But how can I do that? Flying commanders can be given detailed commands, but not so the grunts (harpies, valkyries, etc.). Either "hold and attack" -- or guard commmander. But then they are just a wasted investment.
So how do you use your flying troops successfully?

[Arralen]

Put them on "hold and attack xy". (You already did that, ok.)

xy is:
- archers .. most archers are less than well-protected, so even light troops could do some real damage here. Furthermore, if only one unit of the squad is engaged in melee, the whole squad will switch from firing to melee. And if there's a second squad of archers nearby, they might switch targets and fire into the fray, hurting their comrades as much as the flyers. But this occures rather seldom.
- rearmost .. can get you the commanders and their bodyguards, the archers, or -unfortunately- the back of the enemy front line ~30% of the times.

Put them near/around one or more mages in your rear area. They'll stay put for 2 turns and attack on the third, so the mages can cast spells on them for 3 turns: Protection, Luck, Body Ethereal, Mist Form, Regeneration etc.

Added advantage: This will shield you mages from enemy flyers as well.
Added .. complications: You'll have to set them back sufficiently, or your mages will be in danger of being hit be enemy archers set to "fire on flyers". Or simply put a single flyer somewhere else, but nearer to the enemy, on the map, he'll draw the fire ... . If you know your enenmy to target your flyers, you may lure his archers forward, so they get caught in melee .. goodbye to them !

[ February 10, 2004, 09:08: Message edited by: Arralen ]

[Osium]

Blessed Valks are one of the scariest units i've faced yet. Give them fire 9 blessing and for those of you who played MoM its like first strike ability from hell. They will DECIMATE the first unit they attack. Due to glamour and decent defence they are also a bugger to kill off with melee.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Arralen:
- archers .. most archers are less than well-protected, so even light troops could do some real damage here. Furthermore, if only one unit of the squad is engaged in melee, the whole squad will switch from firing to melee.

This isn't true. The units that are far enough away will still fire.

[aldin]

Also, don't neglect the strategic flexibility of fliers. The ability to threaten two to three times as many areas as a typical ground force can be a real asset.

~Aldin

[PvK]

If you have a flying fighter/commander, you can give more detailed orders to their flying troops by giving those troops guard commander. So you then can give the commander something like Hold Hold Hold, Attack Rear, Retreat, and the whole group, or five holds and then attack, or whatever you want, and the whole group will follow the commander. There are still limits though, and Retreat, while it gets the fliers out of there - it also randomly scatters them over the available adjacent friendly provinces, which would generally be obnoxious (though if you have cheapo mop-up gathering commanders, it can be ok). Of course, if your fliers are strong enough, they can be the decisive strike, rather than a harrassing force.

The point about strategic movement is also very important. They can fly over enemy provinces and armies, and can attack provinces they aren't adjacent to.

PvK