spreading line infantry

[dmcheatw]

i was playing a game and i saw the other guy spread his infantry out wide, putting them in loose formation (similar to what you can do with skirmishers). how do you do this?

[Godless Pickle]

Some units have an option for Light Infantry tactics, displayed as a horn or something, and spreads out the infantry just as loose formations would do. I believe only certain light infantry units can do this however, its more of an elite tactic.

[PrimeChaosVC]

At late erra every infantry can do it, its the same button placement where you click your light infantry to spread out. Though I honestly do not know what is the real advantage of doing this other than reducing damage from shooting...it probably makes your infantry less vunerable to shooting but more vunerable to melee. Just an assumption.

[Ríoga Ceannfort Lynch]

Click on the said unit now click and drag on a empty space until there two to one line deep this helps minimize the casualties caused my arty/mortar.

[Dirty Jesus]

"Fire and advance" spreads line inf out into 2 lines with wider spacing. Its good to use on an already faltering enemy. Increases the amount of shots per volley plus the advancing troops weaken the enemy's morale.

btw Godless. 1337 posts. Nice

[dmcheatw]

as standard practice i draw out my infantry as thin as possible. it may be a button in the full UI that i don't see with the minimized UI

[Dirty Jesus]

Could be. I haven't used the minimal UI myself.

You always draw your line inf as thin as possible? Thats a very aggressive approach. That'd make your lines very easy to break. How do you deal with that?

[tw2obsessive]

You always draw your line inf as thin as possible? Thats a very aggressive approach. That'd make your lines very easy to break. How do you deal with that?

I do two sets of infantry, one in front of the other, thinned down to 2 lines in each group. Everyone gets a shot off and if the front is charged I make them square formation, the 2nd groups then fire into the melee situation in front. I see another benefit of long infantry lines as outflanking on both sides of an enemy whose disposition is thicker columns and thus less wide across the map.

[dmcheatw]

that was a bit of an overstatement but with regular infantry i draw them thinner based on morale

at its heart, this game is about being longer than your enemy, not thicker than him. envelopment and flanking tactics work better than penetrating tactics.

ONe thing i have verified with my keys, rotate unit keys to not seem to work for me, but if i press rotate on the full UI it does work.

[Fingon NL]

I have a similar (the same?) problem, the hotkey for rotate only works to the right, the one to the left does not work.

[dmcheatw]

additionally, my keyboard assignments for increase rank and increase file do not work either, i have to choose full UI and click on the button on the monitor. AND I STILL CAN"T GET MY F'in LOGITECH MOUSE THUMB BUTTONS TO WORK WITH ETW AND MY MOUSE IS THE Mx518, the most common mouse on the planet, and it works fine with every other game.

[dmcheatw]

you take a lot of ff casualties that way...

[tw2obsessive]

you take a lot of ff casualties that way...

Really? At first I thought that might happen but never noticed it.

So how about when you have long rifle men or similar and you place them in front of a line of line infantry? I do this, as most players I've played do. Are the long rifles also prone to getting shot if the enemy advances, opening up your line infantry?

[dmcheatw]

Really? At first I thought that might happen but never noticed it.

So how about when you have long rifle men or similar and you place them in front of a line of line infantry? I do this, as most players I've played do. Are the long rifles also prone to getting shot if the enemy advances, opening up your line infantry?

since i made this post i made an effort to stack two infantries behind one another and the casualties were not as great as i thought.

i assumed they would be great for obvious reasons, but maybe somhow the game overlooks it and lets your infantry live while being shot in the back.

[Brusilov]

I would presume that a unit that is 'spread out' may be less affected by area attacks such as rockets, howitzers etc. You could always advance with them in this mode and then concentrate them before they are in musket/rifle range.....

[Stonewallis]

I wonder if friendly fire is mitigated when its your own troop. I`ve noticed friendly fire casualties from my own army, but when an ally comes up behind me and starts firing away at the enemy, I swear all his bullets just smack me in the back. Then I start to politely scream for them to stop. They rarely listen.

[dmcheatw]

I would presume that a unit that is 'spread out' may be less affected by area attacks such as rockets, howitzers etc. You could always advance with them in this mode and then concentrate them before they are in musket/rifle range.....

yes exactly this is what I want it for. I have seen regulars spread on more than one occasion. I KNOW it is possible. i can't fiigure out if it is bugged or i'm crazy or what. you could do it against arty in other TWs, and that arty was just rocks hahaha. these explosive percussion are something else.

[average650]

just throwing it out there, but maybe they cheated? Is it only on unkown opponents where the regular line infantry spreads out?

[Dirty Jesus]

Its "Fire and Advance" mate, without a doubt.