how to beat lots of light infantry

[oeozero]

My biggest weakness in MP is playing against someone who has an overload of rifles, eight units or more. Particularly Fergs and Green Jackets or Jagers and Grenzers.

By the time my line gets close enough to fire they are shredded.

My standard army usually consists of:

1 generals body guard
2 heavy cav
2-3 light cav or light dragoons
2 elite line
6 line
4 rifles
1 militia (meat shield) sometimes
2 arty depending. I usually substitute light cav or line for arty.

This army does fairly well in most cases except against an army consisting mostly of light infantry. I find myself getting very irritated at my opponent and feeling cheated. I would rather just kick their butt.

Any proven strategies to stomp an opponent who uses a lot of light infantry?

[aletoledo]

I don't think the problem is your build, but more of your tactics. When facing someone that is superior in long range than yourself, the last thing you want to do is have a long range duel against him. The most straight forward method is to give the rifles a target to shoot at (or at least keep them facing forwards) and have cavalry charge in at their flanks. A variant is to have your cavalry get the enemy rifles to turn to protect his flanks, then come at him from the front. whats probably going to end up happening though is that you're going to lose your cav unit to whatever is protecting the rifle unit, but a trade of a light cav for a rifle unit is usually a good trade.

[Keiichi]

I don't think the problem is your build, but more of your tactics. When facing someone that is superior in long range than yourself, the last thing you want to do is have a long range duel against him. The most straight forward method is to give the rifles a target to shoot at (or at least keep them facing forwards) and have cavalry charge in at their flanks. A variant is to have your cavalry get the enemy rifles to turn to protect his flanks, then come at him from the front. whats probably going to end up happening though is that you're going to lose your cav unit to whatever is protecting the rifle unit, but a trade of a light cav for a rifle unit is usually a good trade.

Pretty much dead on.

Force your opponent to look one way while you attack from the other. If your opponent has gone heavy on light infantry, he is weak somewhere else; either in line infantry or cavalry. If you have more line infantry, outflank his line and force him to bend his line to face the threat, weakening his forward firepower. If you have cavalry superiority, then wreak havoc on his flanks. Just the presence of cavalry in the enemy rear can force him to turn units around to ward off a potential charge. Above all else, make sure your units all have support! By this I mean avoid sending your cavalry into attacks without friendly infantry nearby to provide covering fire or to exploit holes created by the cavalry. Conversely, try not to send infantry forward without some cavalry support, otherwise they risk being forced into squares by enemy cavalry and then getting shot to pieces by the enemy light inf.

[daniu]

The most straight forward method is to give the rifles a target to shoot at

Exactly. You even have a meat shield militia in the build, that's what it's for
I usually use my rifles to catch the initial volley.

By the time my line gets close enough to fire they are shredded.

Maybe your advance isn't resolute enough?
My experience is that if you just walk/run line inf into firing range at rifles, you will be able to soak the one or two volleys you receive and still outshoot them;
especially if you are able to use your cav to suppress some enemies from shooting as the others said.

EDIT:
Posted the replay of a game yesterday where my opponent tried out a light-inf only build (plus some light dragoons).

[oeozero]

Thanks guys for all tips. I will have to practice some of the techniques to master them.

In my last game like this I had way more line infantry, we were about equal on cav and he had way more long range rifles. I tried marching my line strait up to his with a meat shield to take the first couple volleys. Got totally shredded.

I like the idea of creating a flanking force to make his army bend. I'll try that next time. I probably could have sacrificed some light cav and disrupted his rifles long enough to get my line firing properly.

Thanks again,

[bushranger]

Hello my friend i have had this game for over 6 months and have been playing it alot since,and i hate rifles number 1,all that time i have been trying to get around heavy rifle armys and am now very good at it.The first thing is you will always need at least some rifles against any good player with them and the second is MEAT SHIELD.
The strat that most people use is lots of rifle then some line to protect and of course cav on flanks.
Well the idea is just to use 3 or 4 rifles just to hold one flank while sending up 2 militia to engage your attacking flanks rifle bullets when they are held with your militia you can send lots of line around them to the enemy's rear or flank and envelop you enemy.

now of course this wont work easy against the good players (very few) but will beat most randoms arty or no arty.Against good players if they have more rifle you will have to push your strong flank harder and use your cav as support to them better,because they will keep pulling there flank back so just keep pushing and keep the ball in your court.

[Kuarlos]

Militia meatshield is a staple of my army now, line up your rifles against theirs, then have one run into their field of fire...then advance sharpish after it. They cant leave it for melee, or advance their infantry up as this is a no no in a rifle engagement.

Cheap as chips and if you are on the ball, you can usually call them back again as their moral is so very low they wont shatter.

Stakes are an absolute joke though...you might as well give cav units the ability to deploy cannons.

[daniu]

Stakes are an absolute joke though...you might as well give cav units the ability to deploy cannons.

I think FearOfNC once said that stakes do reflect some incoming bullets...
Still, I hardly use them for that (or, coming to think of it, at all).

[Kuarlos]

I m starting to wonder whether this FearOfNC guy exists or was just a figment of our collective imaginations...

As for stakes, I hate them so much its untrue...they favour camping lamers in every way- i m not saying the keichii and blonkers types dont know some magic way to make them effective on the offensive whilst making a roast dinner, putting out wildfires and making love to several beautiful women at the same time, but to us mere mortal players with offensive spirit they are just a ball ache.

[Keiichi]

I m starting to wonder whether this FearOfNC guy exists or was just a figment of our collective imaginations...

As for stakes, I hate them so much its untrue...they favour camping lamers in every way- i m not saying the keichii and blonkers types dont know some magic way to make them effective on the offensive whilst making a roast dinner, putting out wildfires and making love to several beautiful women at the same time, but to us mere mortal players with offensive spirit they are just a ball ache.

The only times I ever put down stakes are when I see cavalry coming for my light inf and the inf's guns are empty or when I get my artillery in a good firing position, I might put down a row of stakes to secure one of the arty's flanks and force attacking cavalry to come from a certain direction.

Yeah, stakes aren't terribly useful for when you're attacking. The do block shots so it can be handy if you've got a rifle unit facing some WBJs or Fergs and you want to try to last a bit longer. The way your average camper uses stakes is pretty hilarious though. They've got their line of line infantry, then their rifles in front, then they put down stakes. Well, that's fine with me, it's not as if I was going to have my cavalry charge his line head on anyways...

It's also pretty cute when people form little 'stake fortresses' and make a ring of stakes around their army. First of all it ties them into a tiny knot and makes them an easy target for artillery. Second, if you approach a row of stakes from an angle (so that if you look at them from ground level, the stakes look to be overlapping each other), it actually forms almost a solid wall against any musket shots. Shots will still get by of course, but a large percentage can get blocked, meaning you can pretty much march right up to their face and give them a point blank shot. Not a tactic you really want to rely on, but I had a fun battle where my opponent (as Great Britain) camped in place and set down his stakes. By approaching from an angle, I was able to tie up a Ferguson unit with a regular light infantry unit just because the guy's own stakes were blocking all the shots being fired at my light inf.

And I did that while curing cancer, directing a major motion picture, and pleasuring 3 women at once!

[daniu]

it's not as if I was going to have my cavalry charge his line head on anyways...

Ah.
Aha.
Ahahahahaha!

That is so to the point.
Also it's like, thanks for telling me where your rifles actually are.

while directing a major motion picture, and pleasuring 3 women at once!

Next time you do that, stand in front of the camera (and don't forget to share ).

[Claus DeWitz]

thanks for telling me where your rifles actually are.

True. I love how it is a statement of intention: "I'm not going to move one inch". There are few other moves where so few give away so much by doing so little (see what I did there?).

However, even poorly placed stakes can take up space in your opponents mind, but it is fun surprising the living daylight out of anybody that doesn't know the full-speed-charge-free-pass-angle on stakes. Or of course the minimal deployment time for stakes: that is pure gold.

And the fact that horse blood is so acidic that enough of it will dissolve stakes in an instant: stake-meatshield.

[daniu]

There are few other moves where so few give away so much by doing so little (see what I did there?).

Little do you know how few see how much.

[aletoledo]

course the minimal deployment time for stakes: that is pure gold.

What "minimal deployment" are you referring to? Is there some trick to getting them deployed faster?

[Keiichi]

Next time you do that, stand in front of the camera (and don't forget to share ).

[Jack Aubrey KB,MP,JP,FRS]

Cav doesnt die when running into stakes at a 90 degree angle either.

[Claus DeWitz]

Micro-fähig hands are the devil's plaything. I remember some Napoleonic battles where Tirailleurs were decisive, but that was due to them staying in actual cover.

[{GODS}Scipio_Africanus]

When u dont expect to fight a rifle spammer and u feel u lack the ability to win in a rifle fight:
1.CHARGE CHARGE CHARGE!!! lol
2. Be sure to use militia in battles like these, they are a godsend
3. charge militia first
4. You can either use rifles as a supporting line behind your main line inf (far enough to where u are not firing at the enemy through your line inf but are in range of the line inf) or just keep the rifles right in front of the line inf in loose formation. In my opinion keeping your rifles behind the line works best because your rifles are protecting your line from a potentially fatal blow to their backside.
5. keeping a straight line of line inf is probably best while the enemy still has cavalry.
6. Cavalry in this is mainly just depending on the possible exploitable areas of your enemy so think about where u can affect the enemy the most with it.
And with that u should be good to go. I don't know if I was of any help but i hope so . good luck on the battlefield.

Oh one more thing, if you're in a team battle and your allies are defending it might be best to follow suit charging head on with one enemy is can be easy but when he has two allies beside him that can send him cav to disrupt and probly even take out ur rifles in the back its best u just stay back or be demolished by a double team.

~Scipio_Africanus_The_Dragon

[Lumina]

Or you can do a bayonet charge after hidding some line infantry in the woods as the rest of your and allies flee the scene to avoid the spam, before they know it soldiers charge out of the woods right into their rifled infantry, quite fun, definity since woodland is harder to detect hidden units normally until it's too late. 3 line infantry regiments routed half a dozen Austrian Jaegers back in the day when they had rifles... I miss those versions of the Jaegers, so fun they were.

Makes me hate the fact that MP has to be balanced, nerfing units took some uniqueness away, and some challanges away as well for people who faced them.

[RomulusAugustus]

I usually host 2on2, 3on3, or 4on4 games with the rules: 2 art max, no mortors, 2 dragoons max, and 4 125 range max
I think it makes for a much more fun game and at least somewhat balanced armies. But thats just me.