My First Battle in NTW: AAR
In my allied campaign as GB, I attacked French held Hanover
Forces:
I fielded with 7 Line Inf, 1 Light Inf, 3 Cav, 2 9lbs Arty, 1 6Lbs Arty, +General 1 +General 2
French-Hanover fielded a full stack, the majority were armed citizenry, 1 line inf, 1 9Lbs Arty, +General
Deployment:
The city had no walls and I got to deploy 2nd so I could see where his troops were arranged. The enemy infantry was lined up just outside the town with their arty on their left (entrenched) and their sole line infantry right next to their arty. Their general was in the rear.
I deployed group 1 on my left flank as follows: a front skirmish line with my light inf with 3 line inf in column behind them (no fire at will) with General 2 in the rear of the gorup. I deployed group 2 in my center as follows: all 3 arty units in a line facing the enemy arty position with 3 cav units on the arty flanks and rear. I deployed group 3 on my right with a German Legion (Line Inf) as a skirmish line with 3 line inf in column behind them (no fire at will) and General 1 in the rear of that group.
Strategy:
My plan was to line my 3 arty up in front of the enemy entrenched arty and use my 2 9Lbs cannons to pound them to dust while group 3 moved quickly to the enemy left flank to clear the firing arc of their arty defending their left. Group 1 would be used to close with the enemy infantry and form line of battle only after they were within range (since I was not afraid of armed citizen accuracy). My only worry was the sole enemy line Inf (they had no cav) so I set my 6Lbs cannon to raking them. Once my group 3 made it to the enemy left flank I would roll them up like a rug.
The Assault:
Everything went according to plan initially. My 9Lbers opened up on the enemy cannons and right away their guns opened up on my group 3. I assume because I had my main general in that group so they were trying to hit him. Group 3 I had to change to the double quick to get out of the enemy's fixed arc of fire (remember they were entrenched so could not turn their guns to follow my group). Group 3 was well on their way to the enemy's left flank and group 1 was marching ahead at regular pace to give group 3 time to reach the flank before I met his infantry.
To my surprise, suddenly the enemy actually advanced on my line. The French Line Inf made a B-line toward my arty and the enemy armed citizens advanced in line of battle toward my left (group 1). I completely lost track of where enemy general went and assumed he was hiding for his life. Group 3 had not yet made it into position but the enemy line inf was fast approaching my arty line and my 6Lber was not slowing them down enough. I had to peel off one of my line Inf in group 3 to flank the enemy line Inf barreling toward my arty. I was not concerned because I still had 3 cav units to call on surrounding the arty line if they got too close. Another surprise... the enemy line Inf stopped its advance on my cannon and turned to meet my Line Inf I sent to flank him. I was impressed since I never saw this in ETW where a AI unit actually responded to my maneuvers. The leader of that unit was still unfortunate though because now he was stuck engaging my line Inf on one front, lined up perfectly in front of my arty line on his right and if I wanted to, my group 1 in his rear. If NTW had put in the voice "Oh, what did I just get myself into?" this would be the moment you would have heard it from that unit. My 6Lber hit him with canister (from flank to flank straight down his ranks) just as my Line Inf fired a volley. He shattered in short order.
Meanwhile group 1 was ignoring the charging enemy line Inf unit and instead focused on closing with the long battle line of armed citizens. Once I got close to range I began to form a battle line and got into position just as his line came into range. They stopped and began firing as best they could though my accuracy was getting the best of them. Since they were losing so badly against my line infantry I had expected them to pull an ETW and go charging into me for hand to hand. They didn't. The firing just continued and fed right into my plan.
While his whole line was engaged, group 3 came smashing into the enemy arty entrenchment from the left. I immediately looked around to find his general since I lost track of him and just then I saw the "Enemy General Killed" icon come up. What the??? I looked and found the enemy general actually rode all the way to my left flank using some trees to hide his advance and was attacking group 1 in the flank and rear. That was really the stupidest thing the AI did during this battle. Not a couple seconds after the enemy general attacked, he was shot dead. What was cool though was immediately after the general died, I saw the entire enemy line of citizen units break and run (broken).
I never used my cav or group 3 really after they took out his arty. My arty switched to "fire at will" when group 3 made their attack. The only melee I experienced was group 3 rooting out that entrenched arty unit and the enemy general briefly engaing my infantry.
Conclusion:
Even though I out-gunned the AI it was fun to actually have a firing match without all the MTW hand-to-hand. The AI figured out he had guns! There were a few surprises I saw that make me excited to see how things go when I meet a real enemy full stack on the field!
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