Battle of Lodi

Hi guys , I'm new to these forums.

I have recently downloaded NTW and I am having problems with Napoleon's first battle at Lodi.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated as I am getting my ass kicked every time.

Thanks !

:):):)

You have to move fast. Get your line inf up to fire position on the road in front of you. the austrians are retreating to the city. You can kill all of them that are coming from the left toward the city if you move quickly.

Then position a few units in town to push the AI toward the 1st bridge.

The important part is to take the 2nd bridge as soon as possible. If you don't the AUstrian general will escape and you will lose the battle. Take that 2nd bridge. (it has 2 arty and I think 2 line inf guarding it)

I sent 1 unit of light 2 cav units and 2 line units to take the 2nd bridge. Hold back the 2 cav units as long as possible to take the general. For the first bridge use the rest of your army to push the austrians across the bridge off from your side. Once the 2nd bridge is capped, send you 2 units of line inf over to kill the arty and to flank the 1st bridge defenders. If the Austrian gerneral retreats send the 2 units of cav to intercept him. He walks so you have a little time to get to him.

Mop up.. Game over.

Is the AI in "napoleon's battles" scripted?

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Originally Posted by mikeCK

Is the AI in "napoleon's battles" scripted?

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I think they are yes to an extent. It has to be. In this preticular battle the AI genral Retreats once you gain a certain foot hold.. And he retreats right down the back road in a slow walk.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikeCK

Is the AI in "napoleon's battles" scripted?

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This battle is a good use for scripted AI. I can just imagine the confusion if it did not exist here. Different enemy units would wander about in all directions, and the general you are supposed to get might well charge you. I've only played a bit of this battle to see what the AI would do if I did absolutely nothing, and it appears to solidify its position and is sending a lot of artillery shells my way. Now I need to redo it and actually attack. I'm curious to see how it reacts to different moves on my part. I have to admit I used a lot of the sit there time to scroll around and admire the eye candy.

I don't know if it is scripted in the other battles yet, but if its trying to follow historical objectives it might be.

I played it recently and had a very easy time beating it.

Unlimber the artillery right away, so it can hit the town. You start with some nice cavalry units and you can use them to cut off one of the armies that are moving down the hill and retreating through the town. While the enemy units are slowing down because they have to engage your cav, quickly move your line infantry to cut them off and destroy them. While this is happening, your arty will be pounding the town.

Once you are finished with the retreating units, take the town. You can hit the building in the center with your arty, or you can try to take it. I took it with 3 line units, and they did a great job of hitting the other Austrian units inside the town. While this was happening, I moved my arty to the hill oposite the river and hit their cannons, putting them out of action.

Once the town is secured, try to take the riverbank as quickly as possible. You should be master of the battlefield at this point, and you'll get a vid that the enemy general is retreating. If you don't catch him, you lose. Throw everything you can after him. Hopefull you still have some cav left at this point and you shouldn't have a problem.

That sounds pretty easy to win. I paused my game where I was doing nothing. Is the general's fleeing triggered by your units hitting a certain area? If so, I could probably go home and still win that game. I was curious to see if I could take out his artilery that could reach me, then just use my artillery to slowly grind down the forces in town until everyone else just moved in for a mop up. Basically, I wanted to test the AI and see if it would react to slowly being ground down or not.

I messed up bad. Tried to take the bridge by sending 4 infantry units up the river, they got caught by enemy Infantry, which wouldn't have been a problem if they also didn't have artillery completely annihilating my boys on the other side of the river. Problem was, I didn't realize it until two of the units broke.

Thanks for the advice. I finally won, on EASY.

On to the next battle . . .

Quite an easy battle. "Very hard" tactics:

Rifled horsemen rushed to the unprotected far river cross. Due to some scripting issues they are able to take out general and 2 cannon units without any resistance.

Spread my cannon units across city entrances, so they can cover all city streets with grapeshot rounds, one unit damaged building on left side of town, to kick enemy troops out of there.

Light infatry took care of incoming units from the west, with some cavalry help, 4 units were wiped before even reaching town. Later on located them around town entrances, to make sure no one will rush out.

1 rev. infantry took over damaged building. At this point enemy was completely locked inside town, taking constant artillery and light infantry fire. BTW no one stayed on the other side of the river after loss of general and artillery.

Eventually they tried to rush on me, but this turned out into a bloody mess for them. Battle won.

Actually, I never even attacked the bridge until after I had killed the enemy general.

I moved all but 2 units towards the open field and cut off the retreating Austrians. Then I concentrated my artillery on the enemy battery across the river. There are 3 enemy units there. I drew them into the open with my infantry and then used my cavalry to cross the river and chased down the enemy general.

After that the Austrian's folded up fairly easily.

I played the Battle of Lodi last night and had an interesting finish. I panicked a bit about how fast I had to stop the main Austrian army from fleeing and overused my cavalry. I regrouped, pushed forward with my infantry and used the artillery to fire down the straightest streets and shell buildings. But then the Austrian general started to flee. I had almost wiped out the Austrian units, but didn't have any functioning cavalry to chase him down with. That's when I sent Napoleon himself on a charge. They met, general to general, and the Austrian went down about 2 seconds into the fight, followed by his entire army routing. Who knew the Little Corsican was capable of such horsemanship and swordplay?

i didnt now firdst i had to kill the general when they said it i rushed to the brige and killed him with a lukky line fire

well, what I did was I researched on how Napoleon did the battle...I tried to mimic him a bit wherein I immediately deployed my artillery...rushed my cavalry on the other side..tried to make light infantry provide covering fire on the advancing Austrians then rushed all of the others Melee mode headlong into the bridge...I had casualties but I had Napoleon himself kill the Austrian general and then I was able to position line infantries on a slope...the Austrians were completely cut off...so I positioned my Artillery at their rear which was a perfect hill, and I nearly wiped them out...My mistakes: Artillery had no support so they were eventually routed...I didn't move my infantry...by the time I managed to surround the town, time's up! Hell, there was a time limit! I was so pissed mind!!!

My advice to this battle: Speed, Speed, Speed.

Most of the stragglers of the Autrian Column are Lanwher and Grenzers, so a quick thrust of infantry supported with cavalry charges will rout half their force in no time. Also you need to get to the townhall building as fast as possible and try and keep the Austrians on the East bank of the river, cover the bridge with cannon so you can strafe the river bank road with roundshot, and keep pushing with infantry supported by napoleon for morale. The Austrians will get hemmed into the streets and then it's easy killing. Casualties are to be expected.

And I found that in historical battles the AI's remaining units will often rout immediately (even at full strength) after you destroyed most of their army.
I often move my starting artillery a bit forward to allow them to bombard the whole town (in order to get rid of a Grenzer unit garrisoning in a house). I also use my starting cavalry to destroy two Landwehrs + 1 German Grenadier units moving down from the huge hill at the start. They won't turn and fire at you (they just keep moving) and you can easily strike their flanks. Light infantry is your strength and converge your army to strike from all sides in the town.
The first bridge crossing is very hard to break and I always send my cav +a few light inf to cross the second crossing furthur upstream.