What unit is causing most grief on the MP battledield?

[NemenKaerady]

According to me it has to be Howitzers!! They need nerfing, ASAP!!
Too accurate.
If I have 4 of those I feel sorry for my opponent.Heck even two is nightmare to his troops.

PS:Aware of title misspelling, cant edit it

[{GODS}Scipio_Africanus]

lol, yea, funny name. I believe you are correct, I feel like it is impossible to replace them on the battlefield with any other unit, you really must bring this unless you plan on using foot artillery which pretty much runs out of usefulness against anything other than cavalry and artillery. I also must say that I fire out of range with my foot artillery otherwise I don't bring it. I use my foot artillery to go for generals specifically too; I don't right click the unit, I right click right in front of where the general is. Howitzers are terribly accurate... If I am able to get in range of the enemy's artillery, I will usually be able to take it completely out in just a few volleys. I can damage elites really well too. And unicorns are extremely powerful, even when you run towards an enemy with unicorns, you still end up losing about 100 troops before you can touch your enemy...

[Marshy]

The cuddly Unicorn.

[Timox]

Guard infantry. En masse they are way more dangerous than the same amount of howies or unicorns. Artillery dies quickly but those guys take forever to bring down.

[♔DoomBunny666♔]

Why does everyone moan about howies and Unicorns, their not that bad, noraml art outranges them, so if you dont like uhm, play on a flatter map, or take some cavalry...

[DeerHunter]

Rockets own Howizters further range and also kill's infantry better

[Aanker]

Rockets own Howizters further range and also kill's infantry better

As in... Two rocket batteries can bring down an impressive, astounding and quite frightening... 40 units during the time it takes to march across the entire length of the map Pyramids? I do respect the rockets, but frankly, two batteries were only able to bring down four units per volley during the particular game I based my numbers on. I think that rockets are only dangerous against a camper, or just someone who doesn't like moving into an engagement quickly.

[DeerHunter]

Aanker if you fire the rockets were is infantry is mostly massed then you will kill lots fo men , not just on one unit but many since the rockets fire 4 at a time instead of 2, Also with there outstanding range of 750 you have killed lots b4 your opponent gets in range, even the Unicorn has only 600 range and normal howitzers more like 400

[Hekko]

My experiences with rockets this far has that they are more something that makes the people behind the screen nervous rather than actually inflicting that many casualities, and I am rather convinced unicorns will make the process short with rockets.

[Aanker]

Aanker if you fire the rockets were is infantry is mostly massed then you will kill lots fo men , not just on one unit but many since the rockets fire 4 at a time instead of 2, Also with there outstanding range of 750 you have killed lots b4 your opponent gets in range, even the Unicorn has only 600 range and normal howitzers more like 400

If you spread out your line (as is a custom of mine going back to the Early Period in E:TW, where there was, like in N:TW, no fire by rank), you render your opponent's rockets virtually useless. Cavalry is the only useful thing I can think of targetting.As for the outranging, I think that an army with, for instance, two Unicorns, will do fine against the rockets. As soon as those Unicorns get into range (even though only a few might be alive), the targetting ability will have those rocketeers evaporated in seconds.

[Danweck]

Artillery a Pied and artillery a cheval are my personal pet peeves in this game. The incredibly high accuracy, the ability to barrage fire, and either 600 range or the the ability to move at a cavalry pace. Cav simply melt when fired at by these things, and the frustration of having generals sniped by the things is also a serious burden. Finally, the fact that these pieces are precise enough to be reliable counter battery fire makes them reliably useful against an great variety of targets.

[daniu]

If you spread out your line (as is a custom of mine going back to the Early Period in E:TW, where there was, like in N:TW, no fire by rank), you render your opponent's rockets virtually useless. [...]As for the outranging, I think that an army with, for instance, two Unicorns, will do fine against the rockets.

Yes, normal howitzers are enough for that actually. I was up against someone with four rockets in two groups of two units and still took out one of those groups with a single howitzer unit (couldn't be bothered to target the remaining two units because they were on the other flank).

According to me it has to be Howitzers!! They need nerfing, ASAP!!

I think so too.
However, I don't think the accuracy is the largest problem; their cannister shot is.
I had two battles I won with only one howitzer left because you can both bombard the enemy from the distance and massacre him even worse when he's near... a weakness would be nice.

[Aanker]

Hm... It's really hard to make a verdict.

I would like to say that if the howitzers go down in efficiency, so should some of the higher-end guard units. Currently - at least with Britain, being outnumbered - one has to rely on artillery barrages to tear down enemy guard units to survive the main engagement.

[Keiichi]

While I think the howitzer's accuracy is part of the problem , I think it's magnified by the fact that they really have no weakness aside from range, which is really a non-issue in my opinion. It's a simple matter to use terrain to keep them protected from long range cannon or even to just rely on luck to protect them; I've not lost an artillery piece to cannon yet, every single artillery piece I've lost so far (limbered or not) has been to howitzers of some sort.

At range, howitzers have the most effective shell type (even stretched out into two ranks, a line can easily take over 20 casualties from a single direct hit), and while using their special ability it is also one of the most accurate (making direct hits a fairly common occurrence). As you close in on their minimum range, their accuracy only gets better, and once you do get inside their minimum range they have canister ready and waiting. Just as important is the fact that the in-direct nature of their explosive shot means that howitzers are very easy units to manage, safely firing over your troops heads and without concern for any obstacles in the terrain. Heck, just this ease-of-use alone is worth a premium price.

Like daniu said, howitzers just need some sort of weakness; one that actually matters. For example, have the explosive shot be highly inaccurate against fast moving targets such as cavalry or men on the run. Or, increase the minimum range of the howitzer's explosive shell from the current 100 range (I think it's 100 ) to something like 150 or so. That way there is a 'dead zone' between the ranges 150 and 120 where the howitzer is completely ineffective. As it is now, the minimum range on howitzers is fairly pointless, as they can simply switch to canister. Ideally I'd like to see canister simply removed from howitzers, but I don't see that happening.

I would like to say that if the howitzers go down in efficiency, so should some of the higher-end guard units. Currently - at least with Britain, being outnumbered - one has to rely on artillery barrages to tear down enemy guard units to survive the main engagement.

I don't really see the need for that, especially for Britain. The shooting stats of their standard line rivals that of the Young Guard; while they may lose against the best (such as the Old Guard), everywhere that British line aren'tfacing a guard unit the British line can win. Just avoid action with the guard units while the British line thins out the less elite elements of the enemy line, or focus fire on the guard unit if they can't be avoided any longer. Furthermore, if your opponent is relying heavily on guard units to break your line, it means he is placing a significant cash investment on elite units, eroding any numerical advantage he may have been able to hold over your British army.

And then of course Britain has guard units of their own, with excellent stats. If the howitzers are ever adjusted, and you feel that they've been rendered ineffective at tearing down enemy guard units, you could just skip buying howitzers and upgrade your foot regiments to guards with the money you saved.

[Aanker]

Okay, thanks for the advice.

However, has anyone used the fire and advance formation successfully against howitzer shells? It would seem as if, the units being more spread out, this would reduce casualties taken. It would need testing though, since the addition of a third line (the formation being made deeper) would actually concentrate units... Against cannons with round shot, it is obviously safer, but what happens against cannister?

[Timox]

Okay, thanks for the advice.

However, has anyone used the fire and advance formation successfully against howitzer shells? It would seem as if, the units being more spread out, this would reduce casualties taken. It would need testing though, since the addition of a third line (the formation being made deeper) would actually concentrate units... Against cannons with round shot, it is obviously safer, but what happens against cannister?

Howies make FAA useless because they tear out large chunks of the formation and while your men close the gaps in the line they just get shot to hell by everything else.

[ccqwert7]

Explosive shots are overpowered because

They have targeting shot BS which basically doubles their accuracy
Experimental Howies DON'T bave targeting which makes them useless
Mortars DON'T have targeting which makes them useless
Howitzer explosive shells have sattelite-guided pathfinding

E.g.

My opponent has 1 howitzer at 400 range, I have 1 unit of heavy cav at 400 range

He turns on targeting whch gives his effing howie 80% accuracy and then shoots my cav

I move my cav some 100 range forwards

Following the laws of physics, you would assume that the cannonball would hit somewhere around 100 range behind me, because I moved 100 range AFTER he shot the howie (so he couldn't guess where my cav were going to end up)

But instead, the howie shells have sattelite guided targeting and end up hitting my heavy cav anyway. The same applies if I move my heavy cav 100 in any direction except for back, oh wait..red line

Unicorns are worse, because if their targeted shot works on the same principle then they get upwards of 90% accuracy.

It seems that howitzers aim at the target, not the piece of ground that the target is on, and the computer doesn't see the difference between a still target and a moving target. It just puts the numbers through a computer (size, no. shells, accuracy, range) and fires the damn shell. If there is at least 1 shell that will land below 400 range, it will calculate 'x' accuracy and work out the size of the damage that will be done (something like that)

[Spectre11B]

It seems that howitzers aim at the target, not the piece of ground that the target is on, and the computer doesn't see the difference between a still target and a moving target. It just puts the numbers through a computer (size, no. shells, accuracy, range) and fires the damn shell. If there is at least 1 shell that will land below 400 range, it will calculate 'x' accuracy and work out the size of the damage that will be done (something like that)

I could go on all day about howitzers in this game. Even ignoring the laser guided rounds, they need to make up their minds whether they want the howitzer to fire air bursting rounds or impact rounds. The shells are completely different.

Air bursting rounds are designed to explode down and out. Their effectiveness is greatly reduced if they explode in the ground. Yet, in this game, they do just the opposite. A direct hit from an air bursting round does even more damage. I've seen it kill up to a third of a unit from a direct hit.

I suggested in another post, get rid of the individual targeting system, and have the howitzer behave the way it was intended, as an indirect weapon. Instead, you should have a desired area of effect, and those within that radius have the potential to become affected. If the round hits the dirt, then most of the kinetic energy should be absorbed.

Howitzers can still be accurate, it's their level of precision that needs to be readjusted.

[Keiichi]

I suggested in another post, get rid of the individual targeting system, and have the howitzer behave the way it was intended, as an indirect weapon. Instead, you should have a desired area of effect, and those within that radius have the potential to become affected.

Oh I like this idea, I like it a lot.

[NemenKaerady]

I suspected that I wasnt alone in this.. I was right, too many good players have probaby been tearfull by this weapon hhaha
I could be wrong regarding the rockets but arent rockets not good against artillery only infantry?
But Howitzers and unicorn.. well they are good against both.