A small guide to playing NTW2
In an effort to bring the joys of NTW2 to one and all, I've decided to repost these tips from a long while ago. I made it orginally for some clanmates, but that clan has long since been been rited to a veteran regiment. I will go through and edit eventually, but I wanted to put it out here first. So, without further ramblings, here are some hints, tips, and tricks for playing NTW2 in MP. As always, your gaming experience will vary; taxes, titles and tags not included.
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Hi all, here are some things I saw that could use some improvement as well as just general hints and tips for a more enjoyable and team-friendly NTW2. I’m not expecting you to be fast, to win, to get this all down and be ready to fight as a team, but I do expect that you at least internalize it and can show some improvement little by little as we play more. We’ve not really played as a team, but I hope to change that.
This list might seem like “duh” sort of stuff, but even the most veteran of players still do some of these mistakes from time to time.
-Balanced Armies
This is the most important. Please, from now on take armies that consist of 3-5 lights, 4-6 lines, 2-4 cav, in addition to other things like arty and guards/grens. Play with things and make your own armies that you feel comfortable playing with. However, in order to do this you need the basics of a balanced army to build on. (Sounds like a commmerical for breakfast cereal for).
Always get lights. If you have to scrimp on other things do it; I do not want to see any armies out there without lights. They screen your other units from enemy fire and work great for taking places fast while your main force moves up behind them.
I would also suggest taking 2 generals. One to stay in the back and not get shot to pieces and another which will stand behind the troops to give morale and help them hold.
-Blocks
While they are pretty and geometric and we all love them, try to thin your ranks out. Make them 2-4 ranks deep, depending on the situation. It’s not that the men won’t fire, they will, but men in blocks are more susceptible to fire of both musket and cannister. When you march, do it in columns or blocks but when you approch the time to fight or get within arty range, thin out your lines.
-Cavalry Charges.
When you charge cavalry, please do not charge in blocks. Do not stack cav on top of cav and do not charge strong infantry that are not wavering/small in number. When you use a cav charge, try to spread them into a line of 2 or 3 ranks, preferably 3. This ensures adequate coverage -all the cav is hitting at once in other words- and that the horses will not bunch up and become a mass of unorganized man and horse. The more area you are able to impact the better.
Secondly, always support a cav charge with infantry and more cav if you are able. This means have men on hand to support, not in the back somewhere waiting to move forward. Be there and now. Cav will benefit from the added support of troops nearby as well as the firepower of muskets, so long as you do not shot your own men in the back, but that is more advanced and we’ll worry about that later.
Try to flank the unit being charge by your cavalry as well.
^^Heavy and Light cav charge in to finish off guards.^^
^^More of the cav attacking.^^
^^Note that this attack was doen with units of infantry supprting, and while routing units were running by them, thus dropping morale drastically.^^
-Movement
I am crazy and like to keep moving, this is also a weakness too. Moderation is the key I reckon, but I like to keep moving, as that keeps the enemy moving and more likely to make a mistake. Furthermore, it keeps you on your toes. Reaction time, being able to watch the entire battlefield and make it your own come with better movement and timing.
Don’t be afraid to move backwards rather then forwards either.
It’s great to be able to counter your enemy’s movements, but it’s even better to make them move so that you can control what goes on.
-Play Often
Yeah, I know, there’s no one to play with, no time, etc. However, practice is the key. If we were to play together at least once a week, like this Saturday that would improve our own teamwork. I do not want to have to tell you to move your army here to align with my line units, that should just come naturally after a while with good judgment and the ability to understand how one another plays.
-Before the Battle Begins.
If you are going to play in a purely LGA training game, then please pay attention to what’s going on once we are in the lobby. It should not take 20 minuets to pick factions, teams, and armies.
That’s it for now, but never fear I will add onto this as we go along and play with one another more often.
Please feel free to PM or MSN, email might get sent to the spam folder, so PM and MSN are the best ways of contact with anything you would like to add, if you want some gametime, or yell at me for any reason.
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[b]There was some bad ickiness going on with yesterday's training. There were several false starts before a game was going, but by the main attack, the game had frozen. A full restart and some cussing later found the training ended.Still, I have something to add to the running tally of "stuff" that I am posting here.
By request, I drew up a tiny arty section. This is mainly to keep your arty safe, not necessarily effective lol. Enjoy and feel free to debate and yell at me.
*Saving Your Arty*
Introduction-
Howizers are popular cannon choice because they can hide behind your lines without free that you will shot your own men in the back. However, you have to get close to use them effectively and sometimes you’ll want better support, like the kind that cannister can provide from the striaght barrelled pieces. 6, 9, and 12-pounder batteries are highly effective, pretty accurate, and tend to be easier to kill off by the enemy then their bomb-lobbing cousins. However, you can protect them without blowing your own men’s packs and entrails to Kingdom Come.
(Please keep in mind I did not count stats, them is just numbers. I spent a better part of 18 months in the backrooms of the Lordz Forums with numbers and codes, I play for fun now, with how I “feel” things, not what numbers they contain.)
Loose formation-
Pro’s- psyhcological effect for both you and your enemies.
Con’s- suspetable to a fast attack on the unit, easier to break, unwieldy.
Men in loose formation tend to break faster then those in closed formation, but they benefit from less musket and arty hits. That is, less men are supposidly shot and killed in lose order then in tight. Sometimes I feel this is purely a phsycological thing. You think that your men will fare better in lose order because they are well lose and therefore less likely to get hit by incoming shot, but that might not always be the case.
Two thins lines in tight formation is what I use for protection- from my observations. You may find that lose formation suits you better all the time or in certain circumsatnces of course, so please play around with things.
Anyways, back to guns and lose formation, why do it if your men are more prone to be killed by cav or other rampaging units? Because the enemy thinks they will cause less damage to the arty crew and will therefore pick another target to bombard with their own arty. Now, recently with many of the folks I play with at night, trends are changing and more arty to arty duels are occuring. If you can get a little cheap trick here and there and make them divert their attention from your arty, then why not give it a shot?
Tight formation-
Pro’s- A tad more protection from cav attacks, easier to withdraw.
Con’s- Bigger target.
I perfere tight formations more then lose for just about every unit that can possibly change their formation’s structure. It allows for ease of movement (you know how hard it is to move them long blobs of light infantry around on the battle field) as well as giving your men some tiny advantage of strengh in numbers. For arty crews, this is basically eraneous. Arty crews will break pretty much every time something makes a definate contact with them, but every little bit helps.
Of course a blob of arty crewmen looks like a nice target for some clever-and annoying- anit-arty fire from the opposing forces. So hide, move, and don’t get hit.
Hiding Arty Crews-
This works just like with infantry, only you have to take into account that your arty pieces will need a clear line of sight on the very crest of the hill. So, put your men into a thin line, and set your cannons so that they rest on the hill itself, while the crewmen are on the reverse slope. The men at the guns will be hit, but that is better then all of the men being exposed to fire. Cannon balls will bounce and skip along the ground, so its best to try to minimize your exposure to fire.
I made some pics, oohhh magical. Let’s see if I can post them:
Protecting Arty Crews With Other Units-
Infantry
Infantry do a fine job of keeping your enemy cav at bay, but they also suffer from constant bombardment. Yet, if you want your arty to make an impact, and use cannister, you have to do this, it’s almost a necessity.
I put my arty units in the front with my lights, this makes them not only more effective, but also keeps me away from shooting my boys in the back. I like to literally lay my light infantry unit right on top of the arty, that way they are nice and close to deter enemy cav attacks.
This closeness does have it’s drawbacks: you are able to hit hard with roundshot, and cannister if you can get close enough, but this also means your enemy can as well. So if you want to get close, then do it with purpose. Keep your arty moving with your men, so that you can be sure it is protected and won’t get lost as your line moves forward. Keep in mind, you do not have to move your arty forward, 12lber’s can stay put on some remote hill and hit from afar. But, as is the purpose of this section, have a unit to protect them.
Horsemen
Using cav to protect your arty is another option open to the descerning commander. This is good for when you have to move your arty long distances- like when you set up right at the edge of your deployment zone to march towards an ally. Use them as the screen force and to desuade the enemy from getting too close.
Cav can also be postioned to the sides or right behind arty units to keep the enemy off your ordance. As always, just becareful that your enemy does not shot back, or send a larger cav force to take out what you have done. You’d not let that happen though, since you will always be able to support yourself- right?
The Withdraw Order-
This is the best defence ever, or so say I. Just press withdraw and watch your men run.like mad away from the oncoming sluaghter. This must be timed accordingly, if you think a threat is coming, go ahead and get prepared to run your men. When you order the arty crew to bolt, make sure they are running towards the safety and protection of whatever forces are near by to guard the art.
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Encirclement
Alrighty, because the past training session was a bit-- odd, I’ve chosen to write a little bit on encirclement, that is taking on a force by closing them in on themselves. This is pretty risky, as it can backfire quickly with a slight pressure for the enemy’s force, but on certain maps, in certain terrains and in certain occasions, it works like a charm.
The map I’m using for the pics is Flanders Fields, it’s good for 1v1, 1v2, or 2v2 practice as an attacker. In the 1v1, the map is pretty tiny which allows perfect access for a two-winged attack.
-I’ve tried to include some pics, I hope they help, I’m none too good at the screenies.-
Deployment-
The first thing a commander needs to understand in a tactic like this is that you will be spread thin, very thin at times. The key is, they you are able to move and support yourself if you have to. Always be ready to move forwards or backwarsds until help can arrive. Secondly, if it’s looking like the whole pretty, neat encirclement thing is not going to work, pull out and try the standard head on attack. There’s nothing wrong with having to pull out your forces and try again.
I generally have all my forces pretty close to each other when I begin, but as I move outwards, they become more departmentalized. I have a force that is a main attack force, one that will support and draw troops away from the main attack, and one that will close in and help to finish the job (generally cav or guard units depending).
The main force, is well you main force. It is the first wave of attack. I keep my arty in this wave and move it forward into a nice position to harm the enemy. Raking firethat is, firing lengthwise down an enemy infantry unitis always a plus. Not only does it take out more men, it also forces your enemy to move. If you can push your enemy back or make them cramp into a smaller space, the easier your job will be. I like this force to include half of my infantry, all or most of my lights, my arty asformentioned and maybe a cav unit or two to help scout. (This force can be seen on the left hand side of the pics.)
The secondary force is generally the rest of my line infantry, perhaps cav and sometimes guard units. This force moves to the opposite side of the main attacking force. These men will sit and wait. They draw fire, harass, make feints to attack, and so forth, all to keep some of the enemy’s forces away from the main attack force. (Right side of the map, attacker’s view. Note how far away I am, you can see the red line.)
The smaller, third force is cav in this example, but it can be whatever you like. I used cav because they fly up the rocky outcroppings fast. In a game where you do not have to worry about such things, use whatever you want. These brave cav men are the linking force of my two wings. This is an important point, make it look like you have a strong force, even if you do not.
Make sure you have the ability to link up with reinforcements, or pull back to a safe spot to wait it out. The worst thing that can happen to armies that are separated is each little piece being taken out before the rest of your army can bring to bear their guns.
Attacking-
This bit is pretty striaghtforward. Use your main force to engage. Get your lights out there to tackle the enemy’s, force them back into a postion that you can handle, use arty to weaken their lines. My opponant was kind enough to put his men into thick ranks, 3-5 at times.
Make sure that you are able to guard your flanks. As you engage with the main force, the rest of the forces have to bring themselves in closer too. Keep them out of arty and gunshot, but keep them close enough to be menacing. The whole idea is to weaken the enemy’s forces while you wait for his defences to crumble or move.
Not much more to add really. Keep pushing, keep plugging away and do not attack fully until there is a break. The secondary force would have hopefully drawn enough men away from the main attacking force so that it can make some headway. If not, get creative.
^I used my small force of light cav to wreak havoc in the centre of Flanders Fields. They were able to run up, kill a few men, or take out some artycrews, and then run away before they were hit. (Don't fret, my arty was out of ammo by this time.)
Never engage fully with your entire force until you are certain you can break them. Move in the secondary force one the main force is able to make some good kills. Only move in the mopping up force or reinforcments when you have made enough kills from both of the larger wings. I hope the pics help with all of these words lol.
The secondary force moved in to soak up fire and keep the main force free of these men. They were able to hold out long enough for the main force on the opposite side to come around the buildings and hit from behind.
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