Twisted's Defensive Battleformation (minimal casualties)..

[twisted]

I've expiremented on the battlefield and came to the conclusion that the following deployment give youre army minimal casualties on an open field battle. For sieging i've got a similiar tactic. On the battle of paris i used this tactic to fight off about 1400 French forces, i only had arround 100 casualties. It's VERY effective against Calvary when properly used.

Spoiler for overview: 

The arrows represent the direction off looking.
In black you've got youre line infantry.
In red youve got youre calvary.
In Green is youre general. (2 optional places, i prefer it in the middle, most safest as a lot off enemies try to attack youre general with their calvary).
In Blue you've got youre Artillery(needs to be placed on high grounds so it cannot directly hit the upper yellow square)..

The upper yellow square is youre "attack" force. Group all infantry-men to 1 single group. THen group youre calvary and general to a second group(if you decide to put him inside). The yellow square below is youre back up.

When starting the battle let youre artillery fire at will. If any enemies decide to go inside buildings, blast them out manually. The key in this tactic is to do nothing then wait and disiplined fire of infantry. Youre enemy will probally try to attack you with calvary in the flanks or rear. Just let them run towards you and when they are close enough let youre infantry fire at will. If properly done the calvary will be instantly destroyed for about 75%. By now youre opponents first wave off infantry is about to move, while under heavy fire due to youre Cannons. Select the entire infantry group and make sure you toggle off fire at will. When the enemy-infantry are close enough again, unleash hell by letting youre men fire at will . Let the battle go on for a while. Let youre inner calvary go out off the inner placement through youre flanks and let them flank youre enemy. Youre enemies first wave should now be retreating. replace youre 3 infantry units on the front by the back-up infantry which is at the cannons. By the time youre enemy will unleash it's second wave you've been fully reinforced. And are able to fire at max capability.

Key elements:
- The upper yellow square should remain intact at all times. If you decide to take out 1 infatry units you will create a weak spot.
- Concentrated fire, let youre men only fire when the enemy is close enough, this will make sure that every shot counts.
- Heavily guarded general, but close enough to finnish off routing enemies to gain extra traits.
- All flanks coverd.
- Multiple Units will fire upon enemies due to the line-of-fire floods over into each others line-of-fire.

Let me know how it worked for you, or improvements .

[civildude892]

An enemy with enough artillery of their own would cause huge casualties into your top formation with everyone being stacked together like that. Say if i were to take two mortar units, using explosive shot, and just have them target the ground in the middle of your formation. There would be very few shells that do not kill atleast someone.

[twisted]

Yeah a few, but can't win a fight without taking some casualties. That's not a realistic goal. With any formation you will get casualties through artillery.

This way i've been able to minimize casualties. Especialy when the enemy doenst have any or weak artillery. Alternativly u can always raid their artillery with calvery.

[Shik]

The biggest problem as I see it is artillery.

The second problem is that a determined enemy will get local superiority vs a section of your troops.

[Pantsmansoy]

Thanks for this strategy. Mysore was giving me a lot of trouble, and no matter what I did I couldn't beat their army (it's early in the game and their hindu melee troops were decimating me).

I tried out this formation, turned off fire at will, and trounced them soundly.

Cheers!

[Malkuth]

How do you move that formation in an attack? I know there is a shortcut key to keep formation... Just don't know what one.

Also does your army keep the formation when it moves? Seems the guys facing backwards will fall behind a little when they have to turn around to follow the front guys.. ANd the sides would give in.

I have found that a lot of the time, the AI waits until you move your units and they start to get scrambled a little in the march to attack. The natives do this a whole lot when your the attacker.

[twisted]

The biggest problem as I see it is artillery.

The second problem is that a determined enemy will get local superiority vs a section of your troops.

The artillery is a problem on any formation. It's ranged. So it's supposed to do damage. There is a way of flanking the Artillery with just a single unit though. Especially when it's close to the woods. Dragoons might aswell be the key. For the supriority. The line of fire overleaps an other. That's how you get a lot off crossfire. Therefore the enemy is foreced to concentrate itself on multiple sections. 90% off the time they try to flank me. All though all my flanks are 100% closed. And if done exactly the same, you will have youre reinforcements for the first line . This does seem to work very well in the early games of the years. Besides, in that time they had numberous of similiar tactics that i use. It's all about balance. And Artillery has always been a pain in the ass, no mather what Era.

Thanks for this strategy. Mysore was giving me a lot of trouble, and no matter what I did I couldn't beat their army (it's early in the game and their hindu melee troops were decimating me).

I tried out this formation, turned off fire at will, and trounced them soundly.

Cheers!

No Problem . Glad it worked for you.

How do you move that formation in an attack? I know there is a shortcut key to keep formation... Just don't know what one.

Also does your army keep the formation when it moves? Seems the guys facing backwards will fall behind a little when they have to turn around to follow the front guys.. ANd the sides would give in.

I have found that a lot of the time, the AI waits until you move your units and they start to get scrambled a little in the march to attack. The natives do this a whole lot when your the attacker.

P{erhap i didn't put it clear enough. Select all infantry units in the upper Yellow Square in the battle deployment. Then press CTRL+ 1-9. This will make sure that you combine to a number 1 till 9. Pressing that number enables the entire group and they will automaticly keep the same formation(if the terrain allows it). Before moving out, pause the game. Then click and hold right mousebutton. And you can place your forces any way you want.

[Enyalius]

this tactic should work great against the AI, I allways used similar tactics in rome or medieval 2 if I didnt want much of a clash allthough there the front consisted of pila throwing legio's or strong hoplites or knights and then artillery and archers somewhat behind, again this works great against the AI not so sure about a human player though. and if the AI is stupid and leaves its artillery unguarded so you can cavalry rape it I see no problem with this tactic for open ground fighting!
Youre just holding your stand right? and when the enemy are scared and half their force is gone or more then you start moving forward right? only to hold the defencive stance again right?
for the other games though like rtw and m2tw this tactic becomes a little dull, more fun to see and hear the enemy clash into a well placed and strong phalanx (roma surrectum) I find that type of fighting much more personal and fun

[twisted]

Yeah indeed. The basic thing is to draw your enemy near. When close enough 3 Units will fire upon the incoming Army. When the entire opposistion is either regrouping or routing it's smart to move forward but then still again defensivly. The AI will react ussually when you move forward. But it's like you say, against the AI it works good. Must admit that for an expierenced player it would be just a moment off time when a weak spot occurs.

It's especially usefull when you let everybody use trenches. Then place 2 artillery batteries on the left and right off you(a bit backwards so the flanks of the upper square will flank if the enemy decides to attack the artillery position), with about 3-4 infantry units to guard it in a similiar formation.

Next time i'll make a screenshot off that position/lay-out. It's still the same principel.

[caesar_37th]

thistactic clearly is horrible if your opponent has any artillery since they cant miss. they will use all ammuntion and then destroy your few remaining soldiers. it does work against ai but not online.

[coman]

I use a mix of the "grand battery" technique of central cannons and pickets to either side. Depending on terrain.

The worst part of setting yourself up in a situation like that, is your dependence on it. I have cordoned off a defensive position while vastly outnumbered and held, but I wouldn't make a habit of giving the enemy the initiative, especially another player.

[tarloch]

hmm seems way too static for me and you are wasting alot of troops by trying to cover all sides

i prefer to face the enemy with a few arty pieces mixed in front line for canister barrages, rest behind for safetys sake, squares defending flanks , cav behind arty and a few units behind my main line ready to respond to were fighting is thickest. u can form double line and move units infront if main line weakening..kinda like

=-^--^-=
[] ^ -- ^ []
C * C

[Quixote07]

I have to say, I really don't like this formation. It just screams "Pick me apart, PLEASE!"

All you have to do to beat it is only concentrate on one side. You'll have their whole army versus your three units. Don't think you're gonna win that one, mate.

There are better ways to prevent someone from flanking your line, or punishing them for trying.

Personally, I've yet to encounter a single battlemap that didn't have a single scrap of terrain, be it trees, cover, or buildings. Any formation that doesn't adapt to those changes isn't as strong as it could be.

Here's a tip from me to you : I keep about six units of artillery in a full army for me, 3 foot artillery and 3 howitzers. The Howitzers position behind your men, in a protected location, shoot over them, do all that stuff that ranged units used to do in previous TW games. The 3 foot artillery are point defense guns. I put them where I expect the enemy to push en masse, or to guard weak points in my line. They blow huge holes in the enemy force with canister, therefore my army wins a shootout. Take that for what it's worth.

[Daergar]

I'll try this formation when the AI has caught up with my technology and are lobbing mortarshells into that pretty little thing. =)

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
AAAAAA
G

Victory!

[J. Fishman]

This kind of formation is great for tearing up AI rabble, but is mortarfood.

[notger]

This tactic seems good when facing melee-dependent opponents (indians and indian indians ), but it will fail when facing a musket and artillery heavy opponent.

Why?

Because he can gain local superiority, envelope your front line of your main yellow block (3 line inf) with 5 line inf without any of your other infantry being able to shoot. This will force you to open your formation, unless you want to front line to lose the shooting duel. Once the formation is open, you are screwed, like you said (flanks open, tight set-up).

Or the enemy could attack one corner of your main block with 4 line inf each, against your 2 line inf, where the back line inf had to watch.

Then, your cannons lose their ability to use their grapeshot, which I find is the most interesting use for cannons. Or you use them and shoot your own men, in either direction.

And your opponents mortars are having a high time: They can aim at your general and they will kill someone at least, as ceasar said.

For my liking, this is too defensive and static and is not suited for offensive battles. Have you tried this tactics online against a human opponent who plays a european faction?

[sabaku_no_gaara]

It works sometimes, but I prefer a main line with lots of artillery units behind it and some support regiments of line infantry to back the main line up

[Alpedar]

Formation I once used and it seemed good (aginst AI)
~~~~~~~~~----
~~~~~~~~~A~~
-A--\A/------~~~
~~~~~~H~H~~~

~ means nothing (just fill character so it does not get totaly messed up
-,\,/ Line Infantry
A cannons (\A/ is cannons in V formation
H are howitzers/mortars
Cavalry does not have space there, becose its moving (moral providers behind heavy fight, other cavalry flank batle or flank enemy artilery



Idea is to let enemy approach middle line, so forward artilery can masacre them with roundshot along their lines. this forwarded artilery needed 3 Line Inf units as protection (leftmost in some point rotated left, one formed square and last more actively manouvered to get goot firing position), number of other units I don't remember.

Important thing is look at terrain where you are placing units. When I forget to do this, BAD things happen (like full volley wasted to ground, becose enemy is behind little hill, artilery unable to hit area where are idealy placed targets (eg. small hill and small depresiion behind it, cannonballs fly above enemy heads).

[Asehujiko]

There's a pair of large holes at the frontal corners of your attack group. A cavalry charge there means you will have almost no chance to shoot them before they hit, and when you do, it's only a few bullets from the edges of your units. Infantry can't cover 90 degree corners. Even without charging, a pair of skirmishers shooting into your flanks from that blind spot is going to break your formation fairly quickly or atleast force you to change it. And as said before, grouping your units all in a big lump is going to make mortar/howitzers alot more deadly then they were before because generaly, 40% of the shells fall short, 40% overshoot and 20% hit. With your formation, it becomes nearly impossible to miss anything, causing you to take alot more casualties then normal. It works against the ai that doesn't flank but simply misses your frontline while charging, but any halfway competent human is going to tear it apart.

For AI stomping, always let the enemy initiate fighting so you get the trenches/traps. Set your cannon up in the middle with your general behind it and deploy pairs of infantry so their cone of fire matches with the fortifications on your artillery and then in an arch so that their cone of fire starts where the previous one ended to avoid blind spots and set up skirmishers right infront of the guns with the explosive traps. The AI, being retarded, always goes for the artillery+general so you move your skirmishers out of the way(edges of your formation works wonders), shell them a bit and load up a canister when they get close and set everything to hold fire. When the traps go off, allow the infantry to fire and launch the cannons. this way, i completly anhilated 2 units of native cavalry. Not a single horse left standing after the first volley. Clumped europeans take about 200 losses in a few seconds and will call it a day.

[Slaists]

placing direct artillery on high ground does not work well in ETW. to get kills, direct artillery is much better if integrated into your line.