Empire Realism Unit Guide

[JaM]

UNIT GUIDE to Empire Realism





Western Nations:




Infantry:

Line Infantry
Pros: Good Firepower,Bayonets
Cons: average morale,

Mainstay unit for all Western Armies. They receive standard training upon recruitment, therefore they start with 1 EXP point. Their main defense is concentrated firepower especially from close range, but they also carry bayonets which allows them to charge the enemy. Because armor is long gone, Line infantry is vulnerable to melee attacks from other infantry or mainly from cavalry. Their bayonets are very effective at killing, just not as effective at defending,besides standoff distance they provide. With Line Infantry you need to watch their cohesion status closely, as they become less effective once they start loosing cohesion, which will happen soon if you leave them firing for long time. Also melee will instantly disorganize units so be careful and always keep reserves.

Light Infantry
Pros: Excelent Firepower, Ambush tactics
Cons: low defense against cavalry,high cost, small unit size

Light Infantry was developed after experiences with small war in America and central Europe. They were recruited from men who already served in Line infantry (staring Experience 2-3),but were good shots and presented themselves with good initiative. Once fielded, they were composed into companies, where each regiment had one company, but it was common practice to cross attach Light Infantry companies together. Thanks to their good initiative, they are keeping cohesion better making them very effective ranged unit,which makes them able to outshoot even larger units. Their weakness is they usually don't have bayonets, so they are susceptible to be overrun by melee units or cavalry.

Grenadiers
Pros: High Morale, disciplined,Good firepower, Bayonet, Policing Bonus
Cons: High unit cost and upkeep, limited numbers, small unit size

Grenadiers were another specialist troops, recruited from experienced and tallest men of the Line Infantry regiment. As Light Infantry they were also composed as a Company, but often cross attached into independent Battalions. Some countries like France or Russia went even farther and fielded full Grenadier Regiments (Grenadiere de Roy, Russian Guard Grenadiers). They are good shots, but their main advantage it their individual strength, which made them feared by other Infantry units. Their main tactics should be Shock Action bayonet charge, which might often break morale of weakened enemy just by their presence on the battlefield. They also have good cohesion and will lose it much slower than other units. Grenadiers were also often used as policing unit due to their physical predisposition, therefore they also have policing bonus.

Guards
Pros: Excellent Morale,Disciplined,Good Firepower, Bayonets
Cons: Limited numbers, High cost and upkeep


Guards are Elite Infantry, Pride of Monarchs, who spend a lot of money on their training and equipment. Guard units only accepted exceptional individuals with previous military experience, which means Guard units starts with EXP 4 or higher. Guards have high morale, which makes them very hard to break, while they keep their cohesion better than normal units. Anyway because they are costly, its best to use them as reserve unit and use them at the decisive points in battle instead of letting them to be spend dueling other Line Infantry Regiments.

Garrison Troops/Militias
Pros: Low Cost, Policing Bonus, bayonets
Cons: Average Firepower, low morale

Militia and Garrison Troops are rapidly gathered men, with limited military experience. They start with 0 EXP, anyway if they keep fighting and gain some experience, they will be comparable to other Line Infantry units with the same amount of experience. Most of the time, they are formed into Battalions, and most of the time they protect the cities. Due to low morale, they will be no match to more experienced men if not used properly, anyway they can be very useful as Fort Garrison units (its easier to place them on walls and use fixed guns than with large units)

Infantry Technology advancements:

Bayonets progression was adjusted in ER3.5, as many European Nations start with Ring Bayonet, which can be further updated to Socket Bayonet. Its also possible to improve bayonet charge with improved bayonet drill.
Musket effectiveness can be improved thanks to Improved Infantry Training and Live Fire Drills which will help soldiers to better manage their weapons so weapons will miss-fire less often in battlefield conditions. Slight change was made with Rangers and Natives, as now they will be able to use open order drill and skirmish more effectively. This drill will be also available to Light Infantry units once they are fielded after proper research.




Cavalry:

Cavalry is divided into several classes,which have impact on their effectivity on battlefield.
At the beginning every western nation is using cavalry based on 17.century tactics, armed with pistols and sword, protected by a breastplate. Pistols are their main weapons, and cavalry main tactics is to get close to infantry, fire pistols, and then charge them with swords. Problem with this tactics is, that as infantry improves, they are able to decimate slow moving cavalry by concentrated firepower. Therefore some research will be needed.

Dragoons
Pros: Good Defense, Dismountable, Good Shock Action Charge
Cons: Cost and upkeep,Melee against other cavalry


First modern cavalry unit available are Dragoons. These men usually had metal helmets (or metal cap inside of a hat), as well as leather boots and gloves which provided some protection against melee attacks. Dragoons were also trained as infantry, which means they can be dismounted and used as skirmisher force. They start with standard training (Initial Experience 1), but effectively can be used as a Heavy cavalry to break through Infantry positions especially if other Heavy cavalry is not available. They can perform formed charges, anyway they should avoid melee with other heavy cavalry.
Later Light Dragoons will be also available, which are more specialized troops closer to light cavalry or capable (dismounted) skirmisher force. Anyway they will be weaker than normal Dragoons in charge.

Regiments of Horse
Pros: Good charge, Shock Action, good melee defense
Cons: Cost and Upkeep, Low armor, require good cohesion to be effective

These are standard heavy cavalry, usable for shock action tactics against infantry or other cavalry. Their initial trainig was specialized for Heavy cavalry duty, therefore they start with better initial Experience over Dragoons. They have limited armor (helmets, leather boots and gloves) and are using straight swords. They are slightly more effective than dragoons, but cannot be dismounted. While they can take out any other cavalry unit, they should be careful against enemy Cuirassiers or Lancers.

Light Cavalry/ Chaseur Cheval
Pros: Fast moving, Dismountable, smaller cohesion impact.
Cons: weaker in melee

Light cavalry has advantage of being able to move fast across the battlefield. They dont use formed charges, and instead rely on individual swordsmanship and speed, which means they are less affected by cohesion loss impact. Anyway units like Chaseur Cheval are also skilled skirmishers, able to dismount and effectively skirmish enemy infantry from terrain cover. They can be also effective chasing down routed infantry.

Hussars
Pros:Fast Moving, Shock action charges, small cohesion impact.
Cons: no armor

Hussars are very special kind of Light cavalry. They are very good swordsmen, with very high morale, often charging full speed into battle. While they can be extremely dangerous flanking force, ideal for surprise raids,they should be careful and not charge directly into heavy cavalry but instead use their better speed and maneuver and hit them from flanks. Their starting experience is high (EXP 3 and higher).

Cuirassiers
Pros: Heavy Armor, good charge
Cons: Cost, require good cohesion

Cuirassiers are opposite of Hussars. They are slower, but hard hitting unit with strong armor which protects them well in melee. Cuirassiers can take head on against practically anything, except infantry formed in squares. Their disadvantage is their great cost, and their speed, anyway they can break even strongest positions if used properly. Due to their prestige, only strong recruits were accepted which gives them good starting experience (EXP 3)


Lancers
Pros: Shock Action Charge
Cons: low armor,require good cohesion

Lancers are perfect shock cavalry. they fight in closed formation, dealing most damage by the charge. They can be very effective against other cavalry this way.Their initial impact might overwhelm other cavalry unit they hit. They might run into problems with Cuirassiers, or if outflanked by Hussars. They are also very effective charging and running down infantry. Because they were most of the time formed from former Dragoons Regimets, they have same starting experience.


Guard Heavy Cavalry
Pros: Shock Action Charge, Defense
Cons: Cost

Same as with Guard Infantry, Guard Heavy cavalry get the best men, best equipment and best training of all. Usually they wore metal helmets or metal caps inside of hats, while they also have metal front plate under their coat which gives them good melee protection. Their charge is devastating, they have high morale which makes them unstoppable charging force. Same as Cuirassiers they can overrun even heavily defended positions, anyway because of their cost, its better to use them when time is right instead of initial charge against all guns and muskets enemy has..




Artillery:

Artillery was overhauled a lot and it greatly depends on technology available. It can be produced only in big cities. at the beginning of the game, every faction will have old late 17.century gun available. Those are heavy pieces, which are very slow to be moved, once deployed they cannot change possition, and their crew has low morale as lots of civilians still operated these units as contractors, and it was even hard to make them stay, once firing started.

Two 17.century types are available

- Sakers -which are 5.5pdr light guns with short range and average reload speed, firing standard roundshot and scattershot (small pieces of iron, nails. musket bullets in the bag). Scattershot has big dispersion and is only effective at short range.

Culverins are heavier 16pdr guns with long range,but very slow reload speed. They also are able to fire scattershot against Infantry.

To get better guns you need to research Artillery reorganisation. This tech will allow you to build/recruit three types of guns: Light infantry guns, which have relativly good mobility, but they have just half of the guns as normal battery. Because of light calibers they have short range, but relativly higher rate of fire. They are good to be used against enemies that dont have any artillery at all.
Medium foot artillery uses 9pdr guns and is also movable across the battlefield. They have moderate range and rate of fire, but they are not as accurate as heavy artillery which uses 12 pdr guns. again Heavy artillery can be moved on the battlefield, but only slowly due to weight issues. All early 18.century guns are using light antipersonal amunition - light canister which can be devastating at short range.

Early artillery available:

Light infantry guns - 3pdr light guns with short range but fast rate of fire. They have just half of usual number of guns (2) as normally such guns would be directly linked with Regiments.

9pdr Artillery - medium guns with average range,but good reload speed. firing round shot and light canister.
12pdr Artillery - heavy guns with long range and average reload speed. same amunition available.

After Artillery advancement research is researched, new advanced guns will be available and will make older guns obsolete. Light artillery will use 6pdr guns, these guns thans to improved manufacturing process will be relativly accurate and fast firing. Heavier 12 pdrs will have lower rate of fire, but higher accuracy and range. Also gun crews now get better training and better educated officers which gives them improved morale. Another improvement is availability of heavy canister for all guns, which has smaller number of larger bullets which gives gun longer range, anyway its rate of fire is same as with solid shot, while Light canister is often fired very fast as a defensive round.

Late Artillery units:

Light artillery - 6pdr guns,average range and fast rate of fire, roundshot, and both heavy and light canister
Heavy artillery - 12pdr guns. Long range, while rate of fire is higher than with same earlier version of 12pdr gun. They are also more accurate than older version. Round Shots and two versions of canisters.

Next in the tech tree is Horse artillery. Once researched, it will provide two types of artillery - light arty with 3pdr guns and medium 6pdrs. Their main benefit is fast movement on the battlefield and on the campaign map

3pdr artillery will be obsoleted in last tier artillery building by 9pdr Guard Horse artillery unit which will represent the top artillery unit for the west in game.
Ottomans and Indian factions are not included into upgrade schema, they will have standard progression. Their upgrade schema will be added with next update (3.6?)


Naval Units.

Naval units and technologies got overhauled too. Tech tree got several new technologies with actual workable bonuses that matter. Player will start the game with usual 50gun Ship of the Line and some 32gun Frigates. Heavier Early ships are available from military ports as well, with 86gun 2nd rate as early Admiral ship. Big change in ER3 is that player would be not able to build smaller vessels like sloops and Brigs at the start of the game. These vessels represent Privateers, so if you wanna built them you need to research Letter of Marque tech first.

Ship of the line:

Pros: Heavy firepower, good accuracy, strong construction
Cons: Slower, average cruising, high upkeep

Actual Ship types are similar to previous version of ER mod and are following standard classes.lighter Ship of the line is 4th rate 50gun SoL. Its armament depends on faction, where British ships carry 24pdrs on main desck and 9pdr on upper deck, while others carry 18pdrs and 9pdrs.
60 gun SoL has similar armament with 24pdrs and 9pdrs, other factions use similar setup.
3rd rate ships are again different - British use 70gun SoL with 24/12/9 guns, French use heavier and more costly 36/18/9 74gun version. Spanish use 70gun ships with 24/18/9 gun schema. Small factions are using 70gun 24/12/9 schema. These ships will get replaced by late 3rd rate ships of the line after proper research is done. British will get 74gun ship with 32/18/9 gun schema (based on captured french early designs), French will get heavier 32/24/9 variant. Spanish and others will use 24/18/9 or 32/18/9.

As mentioned 2nd rate is Admiral ship (recruited with admiral) and is armed with 32/18/12 guns. THis ship will get obsoleted by 1 rate 100gun ships later.

There are three variants of 1rate ships. Base model available early with 32/24/12 guns, gets replaced by improved 1rate later which carry heavy 68pdr carronades on the prow and similar gun schema.
Latest are heavy 1rate ships with 120 guns, with 32/24/18/12 gun schema, only available from latest tier military ports in limited numbers.

Frigates:

Pros: good battle speed, good maneurability, long range cruising.
Cons: Average firepower and hull strength

Base Frigate type is 32run 5rate armed with 12pdr/9pdr guns. This gets replaced later by improved 32 Frigate model with heavier armament 18/9pdrs. With carronade research, carronade version is available with 32pdr carronades on main deck and long 12pdrs on upper deck.

At the same time as late 32pdr Frigate gets available, 44gun Frigate emerges. This is larger ship with 18/12pdr armament, probably ultimate cruiser until very late in game comes Razee.

Razee is similar to 44gun Frigate, but instead of 18pdrs it carries heavy 24pdr guns on main deck. This ship can easilly take on older 4rates due to supperior speed, maneurability and similar weaponry.


Auxilary vessels:

Pros: High battle speed, high maneurability, long range cruising, zero upkeep
Cons: low firepower, fragile construction

After letter of marque is researched, you can build Privateers. Sloop is cheaper, and can better sail into wind. Brig cost slightly more, is armed with similar light guns but due to rigging is it will not escape into wind. Both those vessels have no upkeep once build. This makes them ideal at blockading enemy trade (as they provide pure profit from it)
After carronades are researched, heavier Brig variant will be available with carronades (18pdr) which will make it quite dangerous to any other auxilary vessels.

Trade Ships:

Pros: zero upkeep, trading
Cons: lightly armed, low morale

At the begining there is simple Trade ship available with 12 guns. Trade ships have very low morale so it is not really good idea using them in combat. anyway, due to no upkeep they earn a lot of money once placed in trade areas. Later, also Armed version become available. Armed Indiaman is slightly heavier, and is armed with 36-38 guns (12/9 pdrs) - just enough to defent themself against pirates and privateers. Anyway, because it is still trade ship, its crew will not hold for long so it better to accompany those ships or put them into larger convoys. again, they have 0 upkeep, but cost much more than simple trade ship.

Eastern factions have Dhow trade ship available. THese ships are also armed, therefore dangerous for any trade ship they might encounter,but any military Frigate will do quick process with them.


Pirates:

Pros: high battle speed, high maneurability, long range cruising, zero upkeep
Cons: average firepower and hull strength

Pirates are special now. They dont have access to similar ships as standard factions anymore. Instead, they have unique ship available - Pirate Ship - this is 24gun small fast Frigate armed with 9 pdr guns. These ships can be dangerous to any trade ships, in larget numbers even to military ships (if surrounded) anyway, they last military discipline and training. instead, they preffer boarding actions.

[JaM]

Empire Realism 3.5 Battle Mechanics

Several new concepts were introduced while other already present in previous version were improved.

Musketry:

All Muskets got much smaller reload delay. Reloading animation will be historically correct, soldiers will ram the bullet 2-3 times and fire. Overall infantry will fire much often, anyway prolonged shooting will have also negative effects - Infantry has limited amount of ammo, so it will run out more often. Musket fire will also cause cohesion loss to firing unit, which would result in less and less effective musket fire. Cohesion loss also reduces morale a bit, so such units are more likely to break if attacked with fresh force.

Bayonets ad Melee:

Bayonets convert musket into effective thrusting weapon. For a human body even weak thrusting attack can deal fatal wounds, so even if normal human could deliver limited amount of force one handed using underarm grip (about 45-60 joules), it would be still lethal. Thing is musket was used in both hands which means actual blow would deliver much more energy than any one-handed spear or sword would be able to do.
Another important fact is, that in 18.century infantry was not wearing any armor,therefore they were very vulnerable to any melee weapon. This is fully implemented into ER3.5 - infantry defense is very limited, but can be improved by increasing unit experience, which simulates better skill defending themselves with bayonet. Anyway when faced with any melee specialist unit, infantry would be very vulnerable. This all was well known fact to all men, therefore willingness to engage in close combat was very low. Everybody knew such combat was lottery and there was no chance to protest themselves in such situations. This resulted in units retreating from approaching enemy even before actual close combat started. Anyway because of engine limitation, this was simulated to some extent. Both units in melee will get huge cohesion(fatigue) loss, while both will also get big morale loss for being in melee. With very high casualty loss in such situation it means units will break and run very shortly after contact is made.

Cavalry combat:

Cavalry got overhauled in ER3.5 Their initial melee stats were reduced, where all removed melee points were transfered to charge value. Anyway all cavalry units start with some experience which increases their melee effectivity a bit. Anyway, whole point is that cavalry will be most effective during time its charging, when it actually gets both melee and charge bonuses. Once charge is spent, charge bonuses are removed, and cavalry will have to rely on their smaller melee stat. Anyway they will be able to resist attack thanks to their better armor and defense based on horse type or weapon type and skill they have.
There is also very distinct difference between charge of heavy cavalry and charge of lights. Heavy cavalry charge starts closer to enemy, which means they will be charging longer. They will also impact the enemy in formed fashion delivering all the damage. For proper charge, player needs to watch unit cohesion, because if its too low, charge will be less effective, and it could be even broken by infantry fire.
Lights at the other end will charge full speed, anyway their charge will start sooner so they will spend less time in contact with enemy when charge bonus is applied. They are not as affected by cohesion, anyway frontal charges against prepared infantry are not advised. charges against flanks might cause rout very quickly, which would result in complete slaughter of routed infantry. And this time, cavalry wont take that many loses just by chasing down enemy (it might happen sometimes, but not very often)

Another difference between Heavy and light cavalry is in their movement speed. All units are keeping same movement rates, anyway there are some differences between units - All Cavalry units walks 100m/minute which is about 2x faster than movement of Infantry units. Heavy cavalry will run trot speed (200m/minute) and will charge at gallop (300m/min), anyway they will not crash into enemy formation overrunning it, but instead will stop in front of them instead (horses are not suicidal, they would not crash full speed into solid barrier of men..) Light cavalry will also walk 100m/minute, but will run and charge gallop speed (300m/minute)


Artillery:

Artillery depends a lot on technology level. Early guns available are fine for defensive battles, have relatively good accuracy and are able to fire anti-personal ammo for their defense (scattershot/light canister) Anyway their dispersion is slightly larger than its the norm with more advanced guns. Also heavy culverins while having superior range are very slow to reload.
Therefore developing proper artillery system should be a priority even for early game. Improved guns are available in several versions, from light infantry support guns (2 pieces of 3-6pdr guns), medium divisional guns (9pdr) to heavy 12 pdr with best reach. Again, rate of fire of guns is based on caliber where light guns will out shoot heavier guns easily, but will have less range and smaller accuracy. All guns are also able to fire Light canister, which is only effective from short range, but with double rate of fire of solid shot.. so if enemy gets close, its best to switch to light canisters no matter what is the gun. You will be using these guns for some time, anyway more advanced Late system brings several useful improvements. Late guns are slightly more mobile than their earlier predecessors, while more accurate (thanks to better manufacturing process), will have smaller dispersion and will able to fire slightly faster. But they will also introduce Heavy canister round to all guns (even early era guns will have them, but it wont be available to culverins and sakers). Heavy canister will have same rate of fire as standard solid shot, but because of using smaller number of heavier projectiles it will have longer range than light canister. This will make this round usable as attack anti-personal ammo, as you would be able to move your arty closer to enemy infantry, and start bombarding them with canister at distance from which they would not be able to fire back. This round will be also useful for initial salvo against charging cavalry, as most of the time artillery crew will be able to reload the gun with light canister before cavalry close down the distance.

Anyway, all generals preferred artillery to not be used as counter-battery force, actual battery profile was reduced, so it suffers less damage from enemy guns (its much less vulnerable than with vanilla ETW,but just slightly increased in comparation to former ER 3 version). But of course bombardment will reduce morale anyway, so its more desirable to keep enemy artillery under fire while you move your flanking cavalry in position to charge it from behind or flank (just dont forget to order your guns to stop firing otherwise you will hit your own cavalry.


Command Structure:

Morale and cohesion now have bigger impact than ever before. keeping unit with flanks protected in good defending position will provide certain bonuses to morale, anyway artillery and musketry fire produces much higher morale loss. Concentrated fire can break morale of any unit. Anyway you can increase soldiers morale by simple General presence near the units. This is important in defense, but even more important in attacks, where your units walk into enemy fire. Having general unit nearby can be difference between win and rout... Generals are using separate battle Entity, therefore their walking speed is about the same as infantry walking speed, so you can order them to follow infantry and they wont arrive first. Anyway if you order them to run, they will be able to gallop around the battlefield, which allows player to quickly reposition general to a most important post. Just keep your watch as enemy cavalry often consider general a vital target.