What are the general tactics in ETW era?

[Taiko]

Hi all,

ok, I'm considering myself as an TW veteran since I have played TW from the day of Shogun. But, the damn AI are kicking my ¤¤¤ 80% of my battles. I'm mostly doing auto battle now. Hence, I'm losing.

So, my question is what tactics are you guys using?

By the way, where is the enemy general? I can't see any flag or something similiar. I know there is a unit call general bodyguard but except that. I'm clueless.

[Collic]

If you poke around the skickied threads there are some great threads that will give far more in depth advice about the land battles, but here are a few things I've noticed.

• Keep your Army organised. This is more important than in previous games because of emphasis on ranged combat. Use Line infantry to hold your main line, and keep a few units in reserve to plug any holes that appear or protect the flanks.
• Time your volleys by turning on fire at will when Melee units or cavalry close. This is most useful early on before you get the better firing drills. Fire by rank should always be a research priority IMO.
• Cavalry is still useful, but far more fragile, and it takes more to break a unit than one charge to the flanks or rear. Never charge cavalry head-on, especially later in the game; they will get massacred.
• If you're getting pounded by artillery move your army up to meet it. Try to take it out with cav as soon as you can if possible, but only if you can do so without too much risk.
• Use the movement dial to advance your army in formation. Grouped units remember their relative position to each other. Using the advance option on the dial is also very handy for making your whole army or certain sections move up as a formed line.
• Line infantry should always be the backbone of your amy.
• Create overlapping fields of fire by advancing your lines and then curling the outside of the line in on them to hit their flanks. Units kept in reserve can be good for this; extend the line and slowly envelop them. An emeny unit being hit from two sides can rout farily quickly.
• Using melee is still very useful on a weakened section of the enemy line. As parts of it rout move your units in to surround them. You'll take friendly fire, but having another unit firing on them can really help you win a melee fight.
• If a unit isnt holding part of your line, take off guard mode when they're in melee. They will break formation and swarm them.

EDIT: If there's an enemy general he's in the body guard unit. The general units in this game are also not as over powered as in previous games. It's a lot easier to lose your general now.

[Collic]

Sorry. Double post.

[BadBlood]

Tactics become very simple for me when I can recruit howitzers and research quick-lime. This allows you to pound the enemy at a distance and forces them to come to you or be chewed to pieces.

My stack usually consists of the following:

1 General
2 Cavalry
4 Cannons
3 Howitzers
2 Grenadiers
8 Line Infantry

Set up a nice defensive line with kinks in it so you have interlocking arcs of fire (cross fire), eg: /\/\/\ , just not so pointy. At the bottom of the two \/ have your cannons positioned so they fire across the front of each other. This is devastating once you research grape shot.

I position one unit of Grenadiers behind each pair of cannons, and have one unit of line infantry for counter attacks or to relieve a badly damaged line infantry unit. My General sits behind the middle /\ to keep morale up. The three howitzers sit further back with the cavalry units on the flanks to deal with any enemy attempt to silence my guns.

If I am the defender I use the same formation, but with sandbags and the Grenadiers and reserve line infantry unit start in front of the line to put horse barriers (like barbed wire) in front of the each pair of cannons and the middle /\ of line infantry. I try to position them so they are in grenade range. I also position the howitzers as far back as possible so they can pound the enemy while they are in my killing ground.

When I have researched schrapnel, my line flattens out even more so the cannons can take out the enemy at longer ranges. Percussive shot for howitzers is also very effective.

[OberonDark]

Standard procedure in a game:

Set up with artillery in front of all of your units. Unlimber them if applicable. You will usually want Shrapnel or Explosive shot, whichever is available. Disable fire at will. If there is enemy artillery in range, direct them to fire at that. When that is destroyed, hold your position and fire at enemy troops. They will attack you soon.

If your artillery is destroyed, you must either retreat out of their range (not advised), or move to meet them.

Have your light infantry or skirmishers (the 125 range ones if possible) in front, keep them infront of your main line with fire at will enabled. When you get close to the enemy, let off one volley, but keep out of their range. Retreat behind your main line if they come after you. When your main line engages, use them to fill gaps or flank or snipe.

Whichever happens, keep your main line of infantry together. Move forward in the direction you're going to do a tiny bit so they're in a line, and then give the order to move father so that the line is straight. You want them to have fire at will enabled.

I personally would pick an infantry unit over a cavalry unit most of the time. They are vulnerable to any sort of ranged combat and have few numbers. That's not to say they don't have their uses, but my style leans towards not using them.

Use square formation and almost no cavalry will be able to beat you (especially if you have ring or socket bayonets).

When your main line engages, make sure every unit is firing straight. You can have fire at will enabled, and especially try to keep your units in a straight line. When one of the sections of his line is killed, you can curl around to create a semi-circle around the next target. Forming a full circle around anything is not advised because it takes too much time and is just not good.

This is a bad thing I do, but I tend not to keep units in reserve. You should though, to fill spots in your line. I forgo this and use the semi-circle tactic as I will usually outnumber the enemy.


Everything that Collic said is equally applicable. Adjust these tactics for different situations as needed. But these are the basic steps to playing out a winning battle.

P.S, use Cavalry to flank. No head on charges.

[RedGuard]

all I do is overwhelm the enemy by sending all men forward. this will work if you have numerical superiority. You can use scirmishers or riflmen if your far enough in the game to harass the enenmy and make them come for you. If defending during deploymnet see if any buildings or walls are around to hide behind. defenending a village is easy if they don't have artillery. if you have one or you can spare it and they have artillery, send calvary on a charge for the artillery. this usually throws off the ai and find your horse more interesting than 1200 men coming at them.

[Taiko]

Thanks guys. I will try your advices as soon as possible. by the way have any of you tried to assassinate an enemy general by using light infantery? If so. Does it work?

[OberonDark]

Thanks guys. I will try your advices as soon as possible. by the way have any of you tried to assassinate an enemy general by using light infantery? If so. Does it work?

It works. It's not neccesary, but I'll usually try it after my main line engages, then just sneak my light infrantry around to the flanks and assault his general is possible, who is usually sitting in the back.

[masterproctor77]

There are plenty of good points already posted so I will add just a few more tips

In battles, know the technology you have developed vs that of your enemy (if possible) and use it to your advantage. Eg. if you have file by rank researched and your enemy doesn't use that ability to lay devastating fire on their forces.

Keeping at least one unit in reserve is necessary. It helps to fill gaps, extend the line or simply engage in combat where necessary.

Keep your general as far away from combat as possible without exposing him.

Early on, direct as much artillery firepower on the enemy general to knock him out. Cavalry are very suceptible to artillery thus it's quite easy to do.

When you are on the defense, protect your flanks. That means either curbing your outermost units inward or at least putting some kind of defense against cavalry. I tend to like squares at the ends of my lines if I know I will be facing a few cavalry units.

Use grenadiers. They are way overpowered IMO, but they are very effective either way.

Honestly, the most important tip is just to adapt to the type of enemy/army you are facing. So adjust your tactics accordingly when you are fighting the French compared to Iroquois.

[johannlo]

Same as any other TW game: hammer and anvil. Or in this gunpowder era: fix, fire and flank. Flanking is 99% of winning battles (without relying on clearly superior odds of course).

Always keep a reserve.

UInlike Medieval/M2TW your cavalry are no longer killing machines. Hold them back or on the flanks until you can see a weak point to exploit. Alternatively, use them to harrass and distract the main enemy thrust. Mounted light dragoons are great for flanking fire.

And despite the fact that is a gunpowder game, there is plenty of scope for good old bayonets: sometimes a charge is better than sitting around exchanging volleys. I'm also big fan of sacrificial lambs. Every unit tied up in melee is not firing on you and you can use this to your advantage.

OH and always protect your artillery, esp. against AI who likes to suicide charge their cavalry straight at your cannons. Escort them with a pair of line infantry, watch the angles.

Oh and one last thing: DEPLOYMENT IS KING.

[madwullie]

Ah, didn't realise there was an advance button - I've been micromnagaing each individual unit's movements.

[gobbothegreen]

well it seems that you have already been told the offensive sp tactics i will take tell you a defensive tactic, directed at early in the game, all that is needed is that canister shot has been researched.

At least 1 cannon and one other piece of artillery of any type is a must, but i would recommend two cannons and two other artillery pieces.
in the deployment first you should look for a hill, size doesn't matter but large is generaly better, put your artillery pieces on the hill.
Then deploy your infantry in one of two different ways depending on your amount of troops:

1. Half a stack or less, deploy around the hill if its big enough otherwise use 2

2.more than a half stackdeploy in a long line 3-4 men deep.

No matter which one you take put a number of small holes in it depending of how many cannons you want to put there. Now deploy your cannons (note your other artillery might also be cannons if its all you can build) in those holes slightly behind your infantry.

When the game starts if the enemy outnumbers you and you used deployment 2 you should take the units standing at the edges of your army and bend them inwards forming a bowshape to hinder the enemy to easily outflank you, Alternatively if your army is larger take those units and make a bow in the other direction when the enemy gets close for outflanking fire.

Your cannons which is the most important part of this strategy should start the game using normal round shots then when the enemy gets close switch to canister shots and watch the carnage.

Warning this tactic won't work against human opponents.

[18Zulukiller]

My stacks normally consist of 2 Howitzers, 2 Grenadiers, 4 Cavalry (Light Dragoons if possible), A General and 9 Line infantry.

In most battles i line up like this (arty can be put on left side) :-

Line In, Line In, Line In, Line In, Line In, Line In, Howz, Howz, 4 Cavlry
---------Grenadiers----------Grenadiers--------General----------------
-------------Line Inf-----------Line Inf---------Line Inf----------------

First row of Line infantry 3.5 deep, with fire at will enabled. The grens and gen i stretch 2/3 the length of the front row of line infantry slightly of to the right. The reserve Line infantry i stretch to the length of the first 5 Line inf in the first row and line them up on the left. The Grens and reserve line infantry i turn fire at will of and enable melee mode for the reserve line infantry.

Note :- I only setup like that once i've researched Square & ring bayonet, reason being the left flank can look after itself then so i dont need cavalry there. If Cavalry tries to come round from the left i just set a couple of the left most line units to square and they should decimate the cavalry. If Infantry tries to flank me that way i just use a single unit of reserve line infantry to out flank the flankers.

Anyway the reason i setup like that is to give my Arty as much protection as possible while maintaining a nice solid line at the front. As the A.I. Cavalry will always try and kamikaze my Arty. So with that setup they can't get it from the left, they can't get it from the right. If they try and come at me from the rear i just set my reserves Line infantry to square and stop them. Meaning the only way the can get my arty is from a head on charge which i can meet with a head on charge from my cavalry.

The reason im so protective of my Arty is i dont want to lose my horses that they have so it can remain mobile (that can be vital ). Also with the A.I. having a massive hardon for the Arty i tend to use that as bait as well. As i know there going to keep going for it, so i get as many guns around it as possible so i can increase the enemy loses and reduce mine through attrition.

Also this setup is very good in India and the Americas were you come across stacks with plenty of melee units. As the melee units will charge your front line so when there battling your front line you can get your granadiers to lob grenades causing them rout faster.

Its also good if you're fighting multiple stacks. If you're fighting multiple stacks When you're setting up have you're army closer to the edge of the map and have you're reserves facing the edge, So if the enemy reinforcements come onto the map there marching straight into the fire of you're reserves right away. Which should give you enough time to switch things around to deal with the new threat.

God what i would give for an about face button.

Like others have posted when you're setting up use the terrain as best you possibly can (using hills is very good tactically). If possible use walls to line your men up against as that gives them extra protection, so they should last longer. Also fences can be handy as they slow the enemy down when they have to climb overthem so take that into account as well.

Anyway kidda i hope that helps you in your game ;-).

[klesh]

God what i would give for an about face button.

I have found that using the advance arrows works pretty good for that. Just use the one facing downward and don't send them off far. If you do it just right they'll turn around and maybe take one step in that direction.

[Rhaegor]

I find that I just take the biggest blob of troops I can make and run them all into the enemy and I win. I don't think I could possibly lose if I wanted to. This is on hard/hard.

[Taiko]

Wow.........your tactics really works. Thank you all, and thank you 18Zulukiller. Your line tactics is a little unorthodox. I will try it if any chance comes.

I have never really used terain in my battles since both Rome and Med2 never really required it for a victory. But, Empire have never before more alternative and hints on a battlefield. Both Rome and Med2's AI was stupid when it comes to deploying. That is not what we are facing on the Empire battleground. I really find it more challenging then ever and hence more fun. AI can do sneak attacks and counterattacks. ( that is fun)

Do you have any advices on have to use the terrain?

[BadBlood]

Do you have any advices on have to use the terrain?

Best fun with terrain is to use fences to break up the enemy's advance. If you can, set your line back from a fence so your arcs of fire just extend to the other side of the fence. Enemy infantry will be disorganised and bunched up as they cross the fence, while your line fires on them!

If you have grenadiers, set up your line so that grenade range just extends over the fence or wall - the enemy will stand/hide behind the wall making a very nice target for grenades.

If you have light infantry, have them set up stakes in front of your artillery, that way the enemy cannot charge your guns with cavalry.

[Norpheus]

Dont read the tips. This game is so easy anyway that getting help will only make the challenging parts even shorter..