Tips for lowering casualties sustained

[Black Prince IV]

I need some tips to help me not lose as many people. In most of my battles around 2000 vs 2000 I lose 1000 to their 2000. How can I lower this to about 500 casualties?

[nibiski]

Use deploy able cover and garbage units to protect your flank.

[Pink Beard]

Try to let go the peasants.

[dom385]

i have this problem aswell, i think its probably just thestyle of fighting you bound to die lots if eveyones just stood in 2 big lines. its wuite hard to do flank attacks and whatever coz you'll get killed by your own soldiers

[roy34543]

First you should try and get long-range skirmishers as soon as possible.
second use cover, and try and use small "detachments" of single-rank infantry to assault the enemy as opposed to your entire army.

[J. Fishman]

Additional information would be required: What nation are you? What nation are they? What are your relative tech levels? What is your force composition?

Based on the scenario you describe, your army is apparently composed of fat units, or you are playing on ultrascale, which makes your units fat and sluggish and difficult to control: Are you pretty much all line infantry? That boils down to a pure slugging match that favors the AI more than you want. Get some artillery like mortars or howitzers to rain pain upon your enemies as they approach, and force them onto the offensive. Then throw in or so cavalry units to pulverize them as they break and run. When you sub out 4-8 line infantries for some artillery and cavalry, your army will probably slimdown to some 1500 or less, and you will be able to hand out one-sided beatdowns to those kinds of AI armies. I regularly walk away with less than a hundred dead, and that's considered a tough day, with average losses about 10-50.

[Skyphos]

Biggest tip...diversify units. Dont kill their army....route them. Use scare tactics like calvalry charges, puckle guns, and arty (I prefer 4" mortar setups). If they send militia any of these three items (or a combo of some of them) will be sure to send the enemy running. Think of ro-sham-bo. They throw rock, you throw paper. I tend to get more than my share of heroic victories. I just took persia with 750 men against 1200 and only lost 94. Setup included line infantry, jagers, 3x 4" mortars, 2x puckle guns, 2x 12lb howitzers, and a few militia and heavy cav.

Best of luck!

[J. Fishman]

Biggest tip...diversify units. Dont kill their army....route them.

Don't see this as an either/or. Do both! Rout them, and then HUNT THEM DOWN and KILL THEM ALL! This is particularly useful on defense, because unless you plan to blitz and genocide them, routed stacks will continue to terrorize the countryside and raze your towns.

[hugorune]

Don't get into an extended exchange of musket fire if you don't have to. Work out how to outflank the enemy, then destroy their formation section by section.

[Medifh]

<---

Don't see this as an either/or. Do both! Rout them, and then HUNT THEM DOWN and KILL THEM ALL!

May we never meet in multiplayer.

[ilikeicehockey]

Don't see this as an either/or. Do both! Rout them, and then HUNT THEM DOWN and KILL THEM ALL! This is particularly useful on defense, because unless you plan to blitz and genocide them, routed stacks will continue to terrorize the countryside and raze your towns.

Only for open battles. If you're doing the siege a rout will be enough. Everyone in that city will die so its pointless to chase them down. Unless you want the experience for you cavalry.

[NovaColonel]

Try to go into melee at their flanks, while outnumbering them there. It's still the same morale effect as in earlier TWs: occupy their front, then charge into their back. They go routing, then you have the opportunity to attack the neighbouring unit's flank, with support from the according unit of your line. They rout, then go to the next one, and so on. If you do it right, your casualties will remain very modest.

[Eastern Weasel]

My tips will be:
Artillery
Less all-out bayonet charges (its not medieval anymore)
Concentrate on destroying enemy morale

[boboman420]

one word, one statement
Artillery
Shock and Awe

[Black Prince IV]

So what would you say is a good make-up for a full stack army. I've been using 8 line infantry, 2 grenadiers, 4 artillery 4 light dragoons, and General. I just got light infantry so I'll be subbing out the grenadiers for light infantry and subbing out light dragoons for Winged Hussars.

[zoleman]

As stated above, one word... ARTILLERY. I just routed 8000 turks in a 4h battle this morning with a mere 2000 french, having barely 600 of us standing when the battle ended. An no, the turks were NOT militia. (Soz for bragging, couldn't help it ). And the sole reason i could do this (aside from the dumb AI ofc) is that my armies depend heavily on artillery support and morale.

Morale is the main factor here. Grab some (3-5) howitzers and use percussion shells or carcass (i don't like quicklime, takes too long to work, its for mortars rather) to thin the flock before they reach your positions. The AI behaves VERY aggressively if it has the advantage of numbers. Set up your forces preferrably into one of the corners of the map to a heavily fortified position (u use the corner to avoid having flanks in your lines, two lines face the enemy and the edges of the map will guard you rear) with line infantry forward, grenadiers on the flanks (or more line infantry, whichever you like, i prefer a few grenadiers since they are good at melee), some cuirassiers (or other heavy cavalry -2 or 3 stacks- for shockwaves when your line seems to crumble) and a mortar battery (to harass enemy artillery and/or force your enemy in the offensive). Sometimes i tag along a cannon or a puckle too, but their line of fire (which is usually perpendicular to my line infantry) restricts their use (especially that of the puckle... sadly) to be needing to have terrain advantage (cannons with shrapnel shots do come in incredibly handy sometimes), which by the way will be your least concern when facing your opponent 2:1 or 3:1.

The key is to hold your lines and let the artillery soften up your enemy. With careful positioning and management during the battle - meaning you actually turn auto-target off and scanning their field of fire constantly for suitable targets - your artillery will CONSIDERABLY reduce enemy troop morale (aim for incoming targets, let those routing go about their business, if they come back, shell them again). Target cav first since 1, they are fast and reach your lines quicker and 2, for some odd reason artillery hits cav 8/10 times (bug or feature?). Plus if you manage to rout troops their allies will suffer morale penalties for seing friends routing. Do NOT concentrate on killing enemies, rout them instead. Routing is like an epidemic, the more troops you rout, the more will start routing on their own. After that just reorganize your lines and keep bombarding the fleeing troops with artillery fire (concentrating on the larger stacks first). If you're severely (at least 2:1) outnumbered than this tactic gets even more important, because your infantry will eventually run out of ammo, while you artillery will still be able to rain fire upon your opponents. Thats why you HAVE to protect your artillery at all costs. The battle gets fun when your lines engage in melee, when you have enemy squads pressing a single point in your line, charge them with heavy cav and retreat. Repeat until you rout them, you can not allow your lines to break.
Plus you have a mortar to keep firing at enemies who are not so eager to come to you. Either by patient bombardment (go have lunch, take a bath or whatever) or by forcing them onto the offensive you will massacre the leftovers too.

Practice makes perfect. Understand that in the napoleonic era artillery was a vital element of armies, and it is crucial in ETW if you want to win battles you start out with several handicap in numbers. Just keep practicing a few times in custom battles and you will get the hang of it.

Also note that while this kind of tactic works especially well against a computer AI, against a human opponent you will not be so lucky coz a human thinks and exploits your weaknesses. So thats a story for another time.


Hope I gave you a few tips there.

edit: Just forgot i saw skirmishers mentioned above somewhere. Well, having thousands of enemies pounding your lines will not likely give you opportunity to use light infantry sadly. They work perfct if your evenly matched, but avoid if you are outgunned. Stick with morale shock resistant line infantry and Hold Your Line soldier!

[pnokey]

I had the same problem when first playing empire. Throughout all the TW games I have always focused on having better troops, not just a bigger army. So I was used to superior infantry that can hold a line without sustaining many casualties, but that's not really the case now. At first I figured I'd cut down on calvary and roll with more infantry to slug it out. But there's not a huge difference in killing power between militia and line infantry. A bullet hurts no matter who shot it, line infantry and better foot units will just take more of a beating before running.

So I started using more artillery and went back to 4 units of calvary per stack. I use more of a 'fire for effect' strategy rather than just trying to kill as many as I can. I'll turn of fire at will to start battles and take my time getting infantry into place which leaves time for artillery to make it's mark on the battle. You can sit there and trade volleys with the enemy all day but a timed volley from multiple angles with a carcass shot coming in will really make a difference.

[Izak]

If you want to attack their morale and have them split and run, box them in on three sides but leave the fourth side open (an exit). three sides of gunfire does a ton of damage, and then they end up running away. just make sure you have a unit on either side for flanking. and yes, let bullets and mortar do the work, dont charge unless you have to. I would also recommend having your trips in the longest ranks possible, especially in early game.

[Hunter Makoy]

Use musket exchanges as a way to engage their main force, NOT to win the battle. Get their line engaged while using your cavalry to outflank them. If your in a defensive situation make sure your front line troops are able to deploy the trenches. I would also have the last unit on both sides deploy the stakes instead, just in case they send in cavalry.

Grenadiers are excellent at routing units, particularly single units. have at least one unit of them on hold and if a unit of their breaks off, hit them with the grenades. They are almost guaranteed to rout, particularly if they are militia.

Artillery can be very useful, but ultimately in my battles they don't play a major role. (at least at round shot level)

Bottom line is you will still lose quite a few men no matter what unless you auto resolve. I lose about 300 in a 1200 vs 1200 battle if I play it, but sometimes only 50 or so if I auto resolve.

[Malkuth]

Arty is your friend. The AI hates them. If you have them use them. If your attacking set up in a defensive position.. With line inf in front, with cav on the flanks, and cannons on the flanks too. If you have Howitzers have them set up behind your lines covered by gen unit.

When the battle starts you want the AI to come to you. This way he comes into your fire range first and you get the critical shots off first. Use the canister shots for your cannons on the flanks of the line, and explosive shot for mortars or howitzers.

The Ai will try to flank you with cav.. Counter with your own cav and stop the attacks. Pay attention to the ai cav. He sometimes holds some back for when your line inf engage his, he sends the rest to get your arty.

The ai always cocentrates on one side of your line or the middle. You will find that you always have line inf on either flank that is not ingaged with anyone. YOu use these guys to form a L____ to get as much firepower on the enemy as soon as possible. Then you shut the door on the ai when his lines start to falter with flank manuevers to his rear lines with grenadiers or militia if you have any in reserve.

At the start of the battle always pay attention to were his cannons are. Lots of time until his cannons are destroyed he will wait for you to come, or get in a cannon battle with you. Bad idea you loose to many men this way. Wait for an opurtunity when the AI is not covering its cannons very well and send a cav unit to hit it. The unit will most likely route, but you want to destroy that cannon for the AI comes to you.. And you can do the steps above.

I only loose about 200 men per battle with this method of attack and defend. If the AI has good armies I loose maybe 300 or so.