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Distance is the Best Defense achievement in History - Great Battles Medieval

Distance is the Best Defense

Win a battle with only ranged units

Distance is the Best Defense0
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How to unlock the Distance is the Best Defense achievement

  • S P 4 C E YS P 4 C E Y
    06 Jun 2011 06 Jun 2011 10 Jul 2015
    Similar to other methods mentioned for the other secret achievements- this is most easily done after the 1st mission of the English campaign.

    After the first mission simply rinse and repeat the 'raid the border villages'. Once you have 400 gold, disband your peasants. Recruit as many archers as you can then play the side mission again. You should get the 'Distance is the Best Defence Achievement' easily.

    If you complete the mission without losing a unit (which is pretty easy with 5 or 6 archers) then you will also receive the 'Invincible achievement'.

    Rise and repeat, disband units and recruit knights, then dismount them for both knights achievement. Then disband all knights and recruit peasants and you should complete all achievement requiring wins with only one type of unit

    *Note. I dismounted my General but the achievement didn't pop up so i played it again with him mounted and it worked.

    Guide not helping? View 1 more guide for this achievement.

    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    LAFTA+1 from me. I had to do it with a mounted General too.
    Posted by LAFTA On 07 Aug 11 at 22:23
    KungFuStu72You don't need to disband the other units. When you deploy troops at the start of battle you can select a unit (hit A) then "undeploy squad" with the Y button. You'll then start the fight with just the units that you want but keep the rest of you army for future fights.
    Posted by KungFuStu72 On 05 Nov 11 at 09:45
    S P 4 C E YFair enough. Just because it's the first mission nothing has much experience at that point. But good point all the same.
    Posted by S P 4 C E Y On 05 Nov 11 at 10:18
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  • GlorixJimGlorixJim
    14 Feb 2011 15 Feb 2011 16 Feb 2011
    This secret achievement is called "Distance is the Best Defense". You get it by winning a battle with only Archers (and your General).

    There are two ways of doing this;

    First one, I had a save game later on in the English Campaign (after battle 15) where I had a full and diverse army, and more than 3000 gold. For this achievement I disbanded all units other than my Archers and my General. Disbanding units will give you a decent return on yourt previous investments.
    Then I recruited 'Peasant Archers. I gave them new Armour so they became 'Archers', and a Falchion Sword. In the scenario I played, there was only room for 4+4+4 (-1 General) = 11 archer units so max out your archers to 11 units (if you play the same scenario...)
    These archers hardly used their swords because the ranged attack killed 90% of the enemies before they reached my Archers.

    I started the battle with 3 Longbow Archer units (levels 12 to 15) and 2 Handgun Archer units (levels 13 and 14) and about 7 or 8 fresh Archers (level 1). My general was NOT mounted.

    I played the side mission where you have to loot two French carts. The enemy will run up to your army from the north and will all be shot down with arrows. I happened to have "Prevailing Winds" and "Starvation" in my Battle Cards, they really help here as well. Move up to the north to get the first cart. Hurry, because sometime the cart will start driving off and I think you do not actually WIN the scenario if you get the carts too late.

    While one unit gets the cart, the others line up IN THE NORTH to move west.
    I hugged the edges of the map to move all the way above the enemies lines in the west.
    The English Longbow archers have a longer range than the French Crossbows, so use the Longbows to get the enemies in the West moving towards you (they'll start moving north now). Watch out for the cannon halfway the French lines, don't get in front of it. Move to the cart before it start leaving the battlefield and your achievement is here (in the next totals screen)

    --=[ So your army starts southeast, moves north (all the way up), moves west and moves south. This way the French army has terrible position in the West (they expect you to come from the East, not the North) and your Archers will have a great time shooting down the units that move up North towards your army :) ]=--

    I won this achievement this way the second time I tried. The first time, my General was MOUNTED. Maybe, just maybe I did not pay close enough attention and missed some other unit.. anyway, a dismounted general and only archers works for sure.

    The other, easy way of winning with just archers is to restart the english campaign, win the first battle and the replay the side mission till you get enough money for archers, buy them, replay mission, buy archers etc.
    Archers are gold, they level up really quickly because they get lots of kills in this scenario. There's no need to upgrade them, they'll shoot anyway.
    Once you have 8 archer units, save your game and then lose the two infrantry units you got from the beginning.

    Take out the advanced french crossbow unit and then retreat and let the french advance. Put your archers in defensive positions (blue shield) and just sit back and wait. If the french cavalry reaches your lines, switch a couple of archers to the red shield and flank them as well. Easy as pie this one.

    Good luck!
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