Too Defensive?

[MrOsterman]

I feel like I'm getting spoiled.

Against the AI I am nearly never on the offensive on the battlefield. I will carefully deploy my men and then usually manage to have some plans for reactions but for the most part I assume a consistantly defensive posture. Draw them in, canister with arty, fire off volleys and if needed, advance reserves while my main line falls back to reload or to absorb the charge.

Don't get me wrong, I'll exploit a weakness when it presents itself but I don't generally send my legions across the field. I find a nice place to wait and let them walk into my musket range first. Once I see where they are commiting thier forces I then respondand prepare to flank, shift my reserves etc.

But for the most part I feel like most of my game is spent in that defensive stance because no matter what the computer WILL come to me and in doing so give me the advantage.

Mr. O

[Keepbro]

Problem is that this era was the THE era of defensive warfare. Line infantry were able to attack sure but in reality were more suited to defensive action than offensive action.

The other problem is that even a crap defense in this game can mean you getting a drubbing if you attack the wrong place and even more if you lose or don't have artillery (although you deserve to lose if you don't bring arty)

If being too defensive isn't your style then try this - use more skirmishers and Light Dragoons in your forces and have them pick at the flanks of the enemy. Horse artillery is also quite useful to more aggressive generals whilst effective use of the bayonet (once youve researched it) is also fun.

Oh and Lancers - get lancers or some form of spiky cavalry - nothing quite like them for offensive action though like most cavalry they tend to die quickly.

[Eastern Weasel]

well, first of all what do you mean by offence? It isnt really nessesary to advance or charge at your opponents front to call it offencive. Outflanking enemy army and deploying defended artillery position on enemy flank would be as offencive, as flanking with cavalry for melee charge. As previous poster said, in that era armies were better suited for defence, so when it came to offencive it was more about manouvres and gaining better ground, rather than simply close lines in and quickly decide battle outcome.

[Mahatma Gandhi]

If I was capable of manauvering my lines, squads whatever as quickly as the computer AI is then I'd be more aggressive. But lets face the facts, thats just not possible. I look at it like its a massive twitch game w/more peices and I'm just not quick reaction time to 20 pieces anymore. Hell half the time the AI is into the neutral zone and already in a pre-set gameplan based on my deployment before I could click and drag my groups accordingly. I typically find the AI is into aggressive bum-rushing tactics in a hopes of overwhelming your decision making skills.

Then again, I could be saying these things cause I've been fighting natives for the last 30yrs and foolishly have aggro'd all 4 tribes in a vain attempt to cap New Spain before the Spanish, only to get waxed by 3 full stacks before I even got close to Mexico City.

[Flavius Silvanus]

If I was capable of manauvering my lines, squads whatever as quickly as the computer AI is then I'd be more aggressive. But lets face the facts, thats just not possible. I look at it like its a massive twitch game w/more peices and I'm just not quick reaction time to 20 pieces anymore. Hell half the time the AI is into the neutral zone and already in a pre-set gameplan based on my deployment before I could click and drag my groups accordingly. I typically find the AI is into aggressive bum-rushing tactics in a hopes of overwhelming your decision making skills.

Then again, I could be saying these things cause I've been fighting natives for the last 30yrs and foolishly have aggro'd all 4 tribes in a vain attempt to cap New Spain before the Spanish, only to get waxed by 3 full stacks before I even got close to Mexico City.

Do you use Groups?

I divide my army into a couple of groups of infantry, a group of cavalry, and a group of artillery.

So for the majority of the battle I am commanding 4 units not 20.

And the cavalry need to be handled carefully.

[HordeOfDoom]

If I was capable of manauvering my lines, squads whatever as quickly as the computer AI is then I'd be more aggressive. But lets face the facts, thats just not possible. I look at it like its a massive twitch game w/more peices and I'm just not quick reaction time to 20 pieces anymore. Hell half the time the AI is into the neutral zone and already in a pre-set gameplan based on my deployment before I could click and drag my groups accordingly. I typically find the AI is into aggressive bum-rushing tactics in a hopes of overwhelming your decision making skills.

Then again, I could be saying these things cause I've been fighting natives for the last 30yrs and foolishly have aggro'd all 4 tribes in a vain attempt to cap New Spain before the Spanish, only to get waxed by 3 full stacks before I even got close to Mexico City.

This has been my experience playing as France vs. Natives on vh/vh, doubly annoying because of their vast legions of melee troops and ridiculous stat bonuses. Against more standard European armies I can easily win whether defencive or offencive, but natives just overwhelm one part of the line, and my morale crumples too fast to react.

As for AI manoeuvres in general, I do find it exploits weak spots and uses flanking incredibly well: I've lost my general a few times to flanking cavalry while tied up in the infantry manoeuvre battle, not to mention having my line break after they charge forces from the rear that are already engaged in melee. I've even had them attack in column or outflank my line and roll it up. They do sometimes have trouble forming a cohesive battle line, but that's often because they're throwing everything at specific points rather than engaging your army as a whole.

I attack fairly often, and what usually results is a simple attempt to outflank their line just before I advance into range. Sometimes they charge into my line just before I attack, sometimes they let me come to them. It's a nice and varied experience.

[Frederf]

This is why I spend 99% of time in battles at the slow-motion speed. The troops move way too fast. I can't count the number of times I have lost cavalry troops because of the game's faster-than-human-commander speed.

[Maderas]

Yeah. The way the AI reacts is kind of lame sometimes, to be honest... I've seen regiments abruptly move out of the way immediately after I target them with artillery, and such. I've also seen them avoid coming into canister shot range with uncanny precision. I usually 'trick' it by waiting until they're in range and then quickly switching to canister and blasting them. It's annoying though, I know you want to make the battles challenging but there's better way than giving the AI omniscience.

[Eastern Weasel]

Yeah. The way the AI reacts is kind of lame sometimes, to be honest... I've seen regiments abruptly move out of the way immediately after I target them with artillery, and such. I've also seen them avoid coming into canister shot range with uncanny precision. I usually 'trick' it by waiting until they're in range and then quickly switching to canister and blasting them. It's annoying though, I know you want to make the battles challenging but there's better way than giving the AI omniscience.

Well, still that aint so bad with ability to target ground instead of units. In Cossacks 2 it was even worth, computer knew over which part of the battlefield your camera was placed, so he started to manouvre and attack on the opposite side of the battlefield

[MrOsterman]

Yeah. The way the AI reacts is kind of lame sometimes, to be honest... I've seen regiments abruptly move out of the way immediately after I target them with artillery, and such. I've also seen them avoid coming into canister shot range with uncanny precision. I usually 'trick' it by waiting until they're in range and then quickly switching to canister and blasting them. It's annoying though, I know you want to make the battles challenging but there's better way than giving the AI omniscience.

I saw that two when I took on Prussia last night with my British Expeditionary Force. But they totally surprised me: I deployed with my line next to a forest and put two regiments in the trees to cover that flank, and the Prussians charged En Masse through the woods, covering the ENTIRE field at a run. I could barely redeploy before they were on me.

I think that pause is the key in a defensive battle to help with that too, though. I lost a battery that was in the CENTER of my line to calvary that completley encircled me without my knowledge. They literally rode 10 feet from my general and I wasn't able to notice them. Gr.

But I can see where with the relative speed of the battle that in MP being aggressive has its advantages if you can identify a weakness in the enemy formation early, but then you're not aiming for tactical advantage you're into attacking faster then they can process a reasonable response.

Though I think there defensive deployment is still the better approach....

Mr. O

[upsettingshorts]

Pause button is my best friend

[MustardParty]

I always thought that this era of warfare favored the attacker - or at least didn't favor the defender the way mid 19th century warfare did? Muskets were deadly at close range yes, but the smoothbore musketry of the day was only good for engaging anything around ~50 yards or so - that limited range did not give the defender significantly more advantage than the attacker per se - at least that was always my understanding. no doubt some here can disabuse me of any misconception

[Sergeant]

well unless you're playing the game with battle difficulty easy the enemy shouldn't just walk at your cannons and infantry... if i have overwhelming firepower they will usually play about for abit and try and charge some cavalry in at my cannons. normally i have to lure them in with a few infantry divisions that i have sent out

[Gabriel Anton]

I always attack.

Even if the AI advances, I advance to meet it.

I prefer to set my own terms

[MrOsterman]

I prefer to set my own terms

And that's the philosphy of my defensive posture. I pick the ground and challenge them to come meet me on it.

If they want to try to flank me or to manipulate my ground they are welcome to try but I make sure that when they do they are met in force.

[Gabriel Anton]

And that's the philosphy of my defensive posture. I pick the ground and challenge them to come meet me on it.

If they want to try to flank me or to manipulate my ground they are welcome to try but I make sure that when they do they are met in force.

Call it what you will.

Sitting in a nice formation with the time acceleration jacked up waiting for the AI to attempt something is, well, not for me.

Do you have the your battles time limited?

[MrOsterman]

Call it what you will.

Sitting in a nice formation with the time acceleration jacked up waiting for the AI to attempt something is, well, not for me.

Do you have the your battles time limited?

Yep and no need to accelerate time. Invariably the computer comes to me. But I'm still on normal dif. I need to up it.

Mr. O

[Red Rider]

Yeah, I have to agree that most battles start with an AI offensive, despite them having an easily defendable position. I usually find when I'm attacking an enemy army, especially in the field, the AI launches an attack and then falls back to a defensive position if I beat them back. I've only had a few battles where the AI has been too stubborn to attack my army first, and are usually when they are severely outnumbered. However I do like that the AI does take advantage of weaknesses in my lines, and on occassion has been known to suprise me. What's even better is when I let them think they're taking advantage of a weakness, like unguarded arty in front of a forest full of hiding dragoons...

[Hellman109]

Yeah I use groups extensivly, but I use more groups then the guy above.

Generally I have in a large army my central line infantry, then two other groups which are the flanks. The reason for this is that I can easily swing flanks forward and back depending on enemy movements.

Cavalry are a group, along with Artillery.

Then it depends on the rest of the units in the force.

[fluffstalker]

Up it and you'll find yourself "spoiled" even more. The AI will still come to you, even if they have more arty then you, and then they'll charge into combat with pikemen/militia and break you because of their incredible stat bonuses on higher difficulties. Seriously- enemy unit of milita takes two of my volleys AND canister, not only to survive with half numbers but isnt even shaken. Proceeds to charge my line infantry and start slapping them around. This is on VH. The only way I can win is to take advantage of the Ai's stupidity on the campaign map and have very high end units, and only then in very large numbers.

Also naval battles are nigh impossbile to win without outnumbering/outtecching the enemy by great margins on VH. So Id suggest either N with house rules or H until the AI gets revamped.