Has anyone made a guide to FKoC?

[ColdFire]

I have just started this mod and find myself woefully ignorant, of tactics and strategy.

How many lines should my musket men be it?
Should I start the war when it started?
How should I position my pikemen to protect my musket men?
How many cannons should I use?
Which are my most important cites?
Who has the best moral out of the many regiments?

You get the idea, so has anybody written a guide to this mod?

Thanks in advance, megajames75

[leonn]

no one has written a guide as far as i know,so i can only tell you what i do.i generally put my muskets in 4 ranks if theres room,they fire by introduction i.e front rank fires,they go to the rear the the next rank fires etc.sadly you cant get the whole block to volly fire all at once. i try to attack as early as possible,you havnt got much money and some quite poor troops so you need to capture a few citys early.i tend to set out my armys in a chequerboard pattern,although this may vary according to terrain.use your musket to blow holes in pikeblocks,use your pikes to protect them against cavalry,use your cavalry to scatter enemy musket.cannons are slow firing and need protection,but can make a right mess of blocks of infantry.i try to have at least two in a normal army,more if i want to take settlements.as to moral the named regts are better than,say trayned bands.but i find having a winning general improves moral for the whole army.thats how i do it anyway,seems to work for me.if you have any more questions,ask away!

[matt will]

Well what I normally do is have the best cannons I can get for seiges (Demi-cannons I think) so that I can attack on the turn I get there. However for field battles I stick with Sakers because every cannon does the same damage to infantry.

In the campaign I wait the 8 or so turns you have of peace and build up my armie and my economy and get my troops into position to do as much damage as possible i.e get an army outside of Warwik Castle as the Royalists.

For musketeers I don't have a fixed depth but I like to have them lay down a field of fire to do as much damage as possible before the melee starts.
And for Pikemen I generaly try to gain local-superiority and rout the enemy of my cavalry to kill. I then move my freed-up pikemen and do the same to the next unit.

[gaunty14]

[quote=matt will;4470523]Well what I normally do is have the best cannons I can get for seiges (Demi-cannons)[quote=matt will;4470523]

I trust you also use mortars, those are nice

in seiges I generally deploy a unit of musketeers or dragoons just behind the gatehouse infront of the street leading to the town centre.

so me and the ai just trade volleys, which is quite cool

[matt will]

I don't normaly for some strange reason. I normaly just make a hole in the wall, send in my infantry and get annoyed about not being allowed to use my artillery.

[leonn]

watch the ai if your defending during a siege,it behaves very strangely at times.in my case knocking 9 holes in the walls of newcastle and then just standing there while my musket decimated them! goodbye scots army!!

[gaunty14]

I'v never had them stand still

but hthey do smash 9 ish holes
infantry go through the 2 by the gatehouse, then cavarly go through the far end ones and charge into your flanks

Go clever AI, flanking by pikemen

[Ightenhill]

Can somone explain the range difference (if thats what it is.. I may be barking up the wrong tree) between muskateers and dragoons... I often seem to end up with the dragoons just standing and not actually obeying instructions and wonder if its my fault for bringing them to close (I suppose I expect them to run to the correct range)

[gaunty14]

Can somone explain the range difference (if thats what it is.. I may be barking up the wrong tree) between muskateers and dragoons... I often seem to end up with the dragoons just standing and not actually obeying instructions and wonder if its my fault for bringing them to close (I suppose I expect them to run to the correct range)

dragoons have a much longer range, have you checked they have LOS and their muskets are not being blocked by other units:hmmm:

as they are definetley worth it

[Emperor of The Great Unknown]

ok sence i have never lost a battle in FKoC wihtin reason once i did a test of how strong the bodguard was lets just say he wasn't so good. I'v played on all difficultlys and fond that medium uses the best strategtyus for this age.
To start with the basics pikemen defeat cavalry musketeers defeat pikemen and light cavalry and most of other infantry. light cavalry defeat dragoons and are good for running down fleeing infantry. Heavy cavalry are good vs everything expecpt for pikes and hadblers. Halduers are good vs most infantry and cavalry kinda of hybrid between heavy infantry and spearmen but are slow and easy target for guns.

tactics the basic thing you need to remeber is that guns can't shoot over peoples heads if they aimed it like arrows it would be extremely inaccurate instead they have a "line of fire" and cant have units in front of their guns remeber cavalry can be just behind the infantry and still fire because there on their horses. when setting up your muskteers in a line you put in more columns then rows so most people can fire at once and close formation vs loose formation depends in melee you definatly want clsoe formation there is more mutral support and loose formation takes up alot of space where other units can take up that space with more people firing anther formation of muskteers that i have found interesting is zigzaging it not so much that it blocks their line of fire but so when one engages in melee the others can support it plus cavalry tends to get in closer to zigzag formations then straight line formations. dragoons are best used to hide in near by forest by your army harassing the emeny all the way to your battle line and they have a long rnage and deadly accurate so use them vs elites but never have them in hand to hand combat. If you find a hill get your infantry into 3 lines 2 if its a small hill you have your elites at the top of the hill the meduims in the middle and the rookies all the way at the bottom to serve as cannon fodder this formation will also have punishing affects if cavalry get too close. If your facing a cavalry army with only muskets make the infantry into a square facing outwards or many squares for more mutral support. and for pikemen deploy them right behind the musketeers the intercept a cavalry charge and when the main skrmish is over deploy them in the melee same goes for haldbers but they can handle more infantry but less cavalry and always deploy your pikes in offensive mode you want them pushing angist the emeny and if they're surrounded dont put them in the spearwall formation and let them fight their way out but most of the time you got to get anther unit in support. make sure that your pikes have a more deep formation to litteraly add the puh plus FKoC AI tend to deploy pikes in deep formations so in a longer formation most of your pikes arn't even fighting when they are ploghing into your formation in this case turn off spearwall and let your pikes encircle theirs but you have to do it at the right moment too soon their spearwall will break your unogranised troops too late they already made a hole in your formation. Also face a cavalry charge standing still. For the final stages use your guns to make the emeny pikemen rout while your pikes and haldbers doing the melee for the chase use cavalry and dragoons because of their long range and accuratcy.
Ill post the rest later, if you dont loose anther battle again using these flied infantry tactics im a liar that is for infantry battles. Sorry for the bad english.

[matt will]

Yeah the AI does strange things. When they attacked Winchester as the Royalists and they almost knocked four holes in the wall. ALMOST. They ended up getting the parts to 70% damage and then left them.

[ColdFire]

For sieges I have a very effective tactic, or rarther pair of tactics.

For when you have a greater number of musketers.

Place a line of pikemen in front of a hole, but place them about 8 lines of men back so there is lots of room between the hole and there wall of pikes. Set them to garud and spearwall.

Place 2 units of musket men futher down the pike wall with there guns faceing across it. This means the enermy run though the gap, into the pikes, and are fired upon while they fight the pikes. Then rout.

Example:

___ = Ground
+++ = Wall
> and < = Muskets and faceing
^= Pike men and faceing

+++++++________++++++++++
++++++++_____++++++++++++
>>>>__________________<<<<
>>>>__________________<<<<
>>>>__________________<<<<
>>>>__________________<<<<
____^^^^^^^^^^^^^_____
____^^^^^^^^^^^^^_____
____^^^^^^^^^^^^^_____
____^^^^^^^^^^^^^_____


If you have more pikes than Muskets swap the positions but place the muskets further back. The AI allways attacks the pikes first. This is very powerfull if muskets can be rplaced by cannon, but that can be a little overpowered.