tricky russian challange

[skallagrimsson]

hi all.

a tricky battle four you.

You have: 4 line inf, 1 12lbes cannon, 1 pikemen, 1 light cav, 1 general.

They have: 3 lbes cannons, 3 lance cavalary, 4 mounted riflemen.

(or something like that)

The battle is set on an open field a dry day.

Their cannons start firing at you, and all but one of their cav encircles your army quickly. What do you do?

-If you move out your light cav or general they will be outmanned
-If you stand ground with your whole army with sqares to handle their cav, their artillery will cause you alot of damage.
-If you move your whole army towards their artillery, their cav will move in quickly while you are moving and shoot/charge your flanks/rear. Your inf can not shoot, nither use defensive sqare, while moving.


How would you solve this???

(i faced this kind of army when i was attacking russia playing sweden, and i have not come up with a good tactic)

[Hannibolico]

abandon the artillery, send my light cav at their artillery, while simultaneously manuevering my infantry to face the mounted riflemen, once i've routed the cavalry i'll square up and they won't be able to win.

[shogger]

Have the infantry engage their cavalry, and have your cavalry make a beeline for their cannons. If you manage to take out their artillery, you can destroy their cavalry safely with musket fire.

[eatme]

If you manage to take out their artillery, you can destroy their cavalry safely with musket fire.

Well unless you get flanked and charged by lancers, and squashed, then yes. Try to take the lancers out first.

[Davincee]

the artillery isnt that strong in ETW, you should just form up squares OR form enourmous long lines that kill a lot of the lance cav that charge, and defeat them at all costs, while you use your cav to destroy the cannons.

In my years of experience with TW, thats the tactic I'd use to great effect

[guerra]

Have 2 infantry groups in the front, 2 in the rear, 2 lines thin and march towards them. If they move up to attack you, stop your men immediately. box up the first 2 infantry groups and leave the rear 2 line.

Or march around the entire map, forcing the artillery to fire through each other and hes forced to reposition.

Is this singleplayer? Multiplayer? Don't ever bring pikemen to a battle. Ever. If you have a save game I'll beat it for you.

[fluffstalker]

I think its singleplayer.

If its a multiplayer situation.. gods help you.

As Guerra pointed out, by arranging your infantry in box/line formation you can kind of achieve a square effect. The blocks resist the intial charge, and the thin lines fire in support. Then use your own cavalry to counter charge- dont linger too long or his cannon will start to eat up your infantry blocks. Breaking his cav would be the priority.

Alternatively you can try to deploy as far as possible, moving out of range of his cannon. Then hide your light cav somehwere in a wood, and have them work around the field with the intention of getting rid of as many cannons as possible, with a suicide charge. If he turns to follow you great, use the opportunity to attack with the rest of your army, or conduct counter-battery fire with your own cannon.

[skallagrimsson]

I managed it in singleplayer, becouse the AI did charge with his cav when he should have used the art instead, so lets say this is a multiplayer situation.

If it was multiplayer (and you did not face a complete newbie) i would say you have some trouble. You cant let your light cav run away towards their art, as the enemy probably will leave his general unit watching over the cannons.

A big thing in ETW is that your range units only fires forward, it takes alot of micromanagement to turn your infantery to face the enemy all the time, this is an advantedge to mounted riflemen as they simply move quickly around and fire at the flank.

davincee, shogger and hanibolico, i dont agree to your tactics. First of all, you cant engage their lancers, unless they chose to, if you run at them, you will end up having your army running around the whole map and then picked of one unit at the time. And as mentioned above, you cant send your own cav to take out their art since they will be guarding it.

Fluffstalker and guerra i think have a good idea, but there is no front or rear as the enemy will surround you. If you box up the front lines, they will charge in the rear, or they will use their monted riflemen on the flanks.

I think the best thing would be to leave your art behind, form a big square with each inf unit facing each direction, and then run with all of them towards their cannons, if the enemy charges, halt and drive them of, then run som more.

[Nastyvale]

I would try something different. Basically your artillery is what can turn the tables with canister shots.

Artillery up front with the pikemen right behind it forming a pike wall. Infantry grouped in pairs on both flanks of your cannons. Fire one or two round shot salvos towards the enemy's general before switching to canister. Should their cavalry tries to flank you, arrange your infantry to form a diamond with artillery on one corner. There is a good chance that the AI will go after your guns and fall right in the pike wall. As soon as you see them charge, order your artillery to retreat and hope that they will be able to re-man the guns, rinse and repeat.

If you can manage to move your artillery around in time you could limber and bring it to where their ranged cavalry is shooting at you and fire canister. Your general and light cavalry should be held in reserve and attack the enemy's cannons after their cavalry is dealt with. You do not want to fight lancers in the open!

[akinkhoo]

mounted can only fire forward as well. the whole thing is bug.

[HawkDreams]

I would love to have that saved game! How it would be handled would be very different offensive from defensive. Out numbered and out gunned I would not try it offensively, but park right outside the red zone and let them come to me! Defensively, set up as far back as you can and let them come to you. Set your line infantry into 2 goups of 2, cannon between these groups, pike and general behind the cannon for reserves and rapid response with the light cavalry off to the side a ways off. Once the battle starts, swing light cab wide and take out the cannon sacrificing the cav if you have to. Keep you pike oriented on the lancers unless they split up and then keep them towards the most numerical using the general to hit them in the flanks as soon as they get into your line's fire. Your 2 groups of line you will have to micromanage and keep them moving to face the horse rifle. Near constant small moves should keep them ready to fire in case they cav charges. Keep the line infantry set to defensive fire at will. When the cav is about ready to strike, set them to melee and as soon as they strike set take them off of defensive so they will wrap around the cav on three sides.

[skallagrimsson]

Hmm... I think i have to take it back...

I played the battle again and its not that hard as i said. The monted riflemen takes a while to form up and fire, and the lancers are not that fearsome, and the artillery is not that accurate. Sorry i overdid my argument.

Guess my units had some casualties, or their units had good morale, or something in my campaign battle..