Bunker Hill - Can it be Beaten?

[Matsky]

So have any master tacticians out there managed to beat this battle? If so, does it afford you any benefit in the Road to Independence campaign (such as more starting troops?)

In my last go at it I thought I had it. I don't know if your army has raised morale, but they really seemed to fight on and on, only giving up at the very last (being down to about two units of decimated militia, completely surrounded by the massed remnants of line infantry regiments). First thing I did was abandon the thought of trying to defend all entry points onto the hill and pulled my army back to present a full frontal defence. Half my artillery were taken out during the movement and I gave up on the other half, as it wasn't very effective in the new, lower position. My cavalry and rangers managed to incercept their flanking forces (though enough of their cavalry broke through to cause my main line a headache). The infantry turned back wave after wave and the Brits only won through the sheer grinding down of my troops. Now I'm not a great commander by any stretch of my own imagination, so I'm sure it must be able to be done.

In a way I'm suprised how accurately all my attempts have played out with regards to historical accuracy. I can't seem to beat them, but I sure give them a severe whipping each time.

Like winning, I wonder if you losing really badly has any ramifications for the campaign, or do they all start the same, regardless of how you do in the battle?

Share your stories, and hopefully, victories!

[coman]

Yes, pull all your troops back from the hill behind their starting point. Do it at once, and disable all automatic fire. Get your men out of there. Except for your horse. Send the eastern horse towards the nearest artillery (base of the hill). Send the western horse towards the rear artillery position further afield to the left. Have them hit the guns, then pull back to your new position across from Bunker Hill.

Set up your guns covering the reverse slope where the British will enter from. Place your rifles left and right in the tree line alongside the guns. Load canister and wait for them to manually fire.

Place a picket to either flank, horse is good for that. Place a strong infantry point on your left flank. Have fun shooting.

Oddly enough, this tactic would have worked in the real place and time as well. It was realized after the fact, of course.

coman

[Remo]

Yes, pull all your troops back from the hill behind their starting point. Do it at once, and disable all automatic fire. Get your men out of there. Except for your horse. Send the eastern horse towards the nearest artillery (base of the hill). Send the western horse towards the rear artillery position further afield to the left. Have them hit the guns, then pull back to your new position across from Bunker Hill.

Set up your guns covering the reverse slope where the British will enter from. Place your rifles left and right in the tree line alongside the guns. Load canister and wait for them to manually fire.

Place a picket to either flank, horse is good for that. Place a strong infantry point on your left flank. Have fun shooting.

Oddly enough, this tactic would have worked in the real place and time as well. It was realized after the fact, of course.

coman

Sad but true...

[Matsky]

Can't wait to finish work so I can give this tactic a go. I knew it was a bad idea to stand around defending all those entry points.

[Ishoss]

I crushed the Brits like the stinking tea-drinkers they are.

However, in Ep.1 the Indians owned me so hard it wasn't funny.

How I did it was: Let the Light Infantry guarding the flank where the house is stay. Keep a unit of cavalry near. (Behind them) Try to have two units of Minutemen the place the brits will hit hardest. Have them at fire at will. (Seriously, it's not like they're going to run out of gunpowder )

Use two of your cannons to shoot the British cannons. The last one will have to use canister shot. I'll admit, that if hadn't been for my cannon decimating two units of British line I would've been done for. I took away one unit of Minutemen too reinforce another unit. However, the brits stormed the flank where I took this minutemen from. Luckily the Cannon canister shot those bastards into oblivion.

[Magic Man]

I thought it was fairly easy... Use the minutemen to cover the approaches, cannon with grapeshot on to hit the big block of Redcoats, militia + Cavalry to defeat the light inf, then group everything to kill the last ditch Cav + General attack.

[Chevalier IX]

Speaking of bunker hill...anyone else notice that there are file pictures for more historical battles that have seemingly been removed from the finished game,amongst them Leuthen???sorry for the off topic

[Fires]

Was that battle supposed to be hard? Cause I don't even remember what I did now. With the way I handled that battle the whole thing just seemed like a huge mess of bad decisions.

[amigafan2003]

Can't remember how I won it but it wasn't particulary hard - I know canister shot really helped me out. Even dealt with the cav charge near the end with no problems. I know I didn't move back of the hill, in fact I think I came down off it at one point to set up a flanking manuver. If I remember correctly though - the British army basicall attack in three parts. Concentration of force against any one of these three parts will defeat them quickly and in turn. Reading up on real world battle tactics will greatly help you in this game:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_concentration

In fact, I've yet to lose a single battle in the RTI campaign so far on vh/vh.

[Baron Thunder-ten-tronckh]

How about keeping them all how they were? That isn't entirely true, but until the end, the units (except cav and arty) hadn't moved much. Minutemen were used to defend the entrances facing the water and the british. Once cav from behind almost took them out, but I was able to engage my cavalry. By the end, I had to pull all units to the Farmhouse and just pwned them. Easy as.

[AP49]

I hardly even used my cannons in this battle (didn't know I had canister shot). I just moved my men around to meet the different attacks while my cavalry hit already enagaged enemy in the flanks.

[Zetto]

1) Unpack all arties immediately and start shooting
2) move cavalry to take out enemy arties
3) man the house
4) make sure that every enemy infantry unit is met by two of yours (pair them up, as it were), Angled formation works well here
5) charge the cavalry (if any left) into infantry rear

Worked for me like a charm, since the english don't attack all at once, 4 worked very well and I held succesfully all the front entrances to the hill. One enemy cav tried to sneak from behind but I was able to repel it. I had just one cav unit left and I had to micromanage it quite a bit to keep it alive but it did wonders with the charges into the enemy rear. I think except for one cavalry, I had all other units beat up but standing at the end. Arties never moved, and I'm not even entirely sure if I used anything but ball ammo (didn't know much about the game at the time). The garrisoned house stopped quite a few enemy units, although I did send a unit or two to help out with repelling the enemy waves.

[Warhammster]

I didn't use any particular strategy. I just tried it once and I won.

[Engrish]

Wait, you're supposed to lose it?

[helmersen]

What is bunker hill?

[Muffer Nl]

It doesn't matter though winning it makes it easier to win the campaign.
And so does making 4 research facility's.