Help me with this battle please :b

[Runes]

Hi, i have the battle summary here:
What to do.JPG
Basically, my question is if you have any tips on this, I think i should be able to win this, but I can't. I've played the battle three times now, but they always seems to win. First of all, i never get to set up my men before they charge my ranks with cavalry, and second of all, their bowmen seem far superior to my riflemen, not to speak of their melee units. Never had trouble with any other factions than the native American ones.

So generally any tips for countering the native Americans, they piss me off

[nimoto]

Try retreating at that screen, and they might engage your main force, which would mean you could setup your main army rather than having them come as reinforcements.

[jouno53]

What I want to know is how the heck Indians got cannons...

But yes, nimoto is right, you will be able to deploy all of your troops if you have them all attack.

[kokonut666]

fight it. i normally win in such confrontation. put you fixed artillery forward to engage their artillery. put the other artillery in a staggard position in depth and orientate them so that you can engage almost 180 deg forward. then put you infantry to form a box around your artillery positions. put you line infantry up front (3 lines) and others on flanks and in the rear. you can thin out the rear units to save a reserve company but put their facing toward the back so they are ready to engage. put your calvary to cover the rear and as a reserve. now when battle opens, engage them with long range artillery. you should choose to hit the front units so the iron balls can do some more damage when they roll over. as soon as the opponents are in range, change to canister shot (hopeful you did not neglect technology). this will do quite a carnage to their lines. continue to engage their archers with other cannons. in the meanwhile, they will proably try to outflank you or to attach you in the rear but you should be able to take care of them quite easily and drive them off with a couple of calvary charge. key is to keep you line. put your reserve close. and shoot like hell with your cannons.

[kokonut666]

oh forgot to mention, you should sacrifice the first line infantry in a delay action. no retreat!

[Runes]

So basically what you're saying is i should do like on the very creative drawing i just made (Red being line infantry, supported by cavalry, and the black being artillery?
I always hit my own men when my artillery is in front though :S. I'll give this a try though. Maybe place it on a hilltop

[fluffstalker]

No dont, placing your arty on a hilltop makes them even more inaccurate unless your using load of mortars or howitzers. Sorry the image wont open for me so I cant tell what your using.

My advice is, retreat from the intial clash. Then either attack with your full stack directly or let them come to your full stack. Build a fort if you can, the AI tends to be fairly silly when they attack forts. Just remember to garrison your weaker units and fill the square with line infantry, and use skirmishers to temporarily man the walls. Dont try to hold them at the walls, they;ll catch you in melee and destroy you as you run to the square.

Try placing your artillery in between units, or slightly in front. Then use cavalry or cheap infantry to countercharge enemies that you have just canistered, tends to rout them unless your playing on VH. In which case I suggest downgrading to hard or just spamming stacks, because the AI just gets silly strong stats in battles.

[Runes]

I am playing on VH, maybe that's why i get my ass kicked by the natives. I'll try to build a fort

Thanks for all the help so far :b

[War&Politics]

You've got solid infantry and enough cannons to wreak havoc. So you could take the battle, however, many of the mods out make the Indians have much looser formations which reduces the impact of the artillery. But the defeat I handed them was so big they requested peace immediately after the battle. Of course, by then they were ripe for the picking, so I didn't need to give them peace. I'd say send you cavalry (not the general of course) on a suicide run to get rid of their artillery, then form a defensive formation with your artillery wreaking havoc, easy win.

EDIT: Wait, the artillery is in the reinforcing army and that's immobile artillery too? So they won't appear on the battlefield. That makes this battle harder. I say sacrifice the one unit in the "main" army, and have the rest retreat! Then use the above strategy if they attack your bigger army.

[Faris ad Din]

EDIT: Wait, the artillery is in the reinforcing army and that's immobile artillery too? So they won't appear on the battlefield. That makes this battle harder. I say sacrifice the one unit in the "main" army, and have the rest retreat! Then use the above strategy if they attack your bigger army.

That's the thing - reinforcement fixed artillery doesn't even appear. This worked in my own favor a few times. Great job there on your victory, worthy of a great TOTAL WAR player.

[Runes]

Thanks a lot for all the help. I retreated from the initial battle and took em on when i could set up my army. I won with 600 losses and they lost both their armies. I basically set up a solid line at a big open field with artillery and line infantry, and reinforced with grenadiers. Their initial cavalry charges were head on and they lost their general early on, and from that point on it was a picnic.

[MyKingforahorse]

AUtoresolve it, you should win nearly 90% of the time

[fluffstalker]

Congrats Runes on the win. I certainly couldnt be bothered to play on VH, not that its unbeatable, its just so ahistorical that I cant enjoy the slog it becomes.

General sniping may be lowly but war is dirty!

[Jor95gen]

shoot them to bits! With some of your muskets, always works for me

[Runes]

tyvm. for the kind words ^^