Something I've Noticed

[The Spaniard]

I've noticed, when watching the replays of some clan battles and 1v1s, that both parties involved tend to extend the width of their units to almost their maximum thus making one very long front line. Is their a point or practicality to this move?

[Alf]

well basically if your units are massed at a point(say 3 rank deep) rather than wide lines, all fire would be concentrated on a smaller area rather than a long line thus allowing shots hitting more troops. See think of 1 line deep unit, one bullet=kill or miss, 3 rank deep unit, 1 bullet=kill or miss the first line, kill or miss the second line, kill or miss the third line.

So as you can see the possibility of a shot hitting someone in 1 line deep unit rather than 3 line deep unit is very less.

There are of course advantages and disadvantages in that advantage: as explained above. Disadvantage: less maneuverability, weakness against cavalry charges, and in case there is an unbalanced unit count say 7 line against 5, making your 7 units wide open is not useful since you will loose the firepower of the 2 other units you have.

Hope I make some point clear there probably I'm missing some other points but others will cover them up as well

[Keiichi]

Disadvantage: less maneuverability, weakness against cavalry charges, and in case there is an unbalanced unit count say 7 line against 5, making your 7 units wide open is not useful since you will loose the firepower of the 2 other units you have.

Agreed on the lost maneuverability and the weakness to cavalry, but why would you lose firepower? It's not as if you're forced to maintain all your troops in on continuous line . I would think that if one held such an advantage in line, that one would use those extra units to advance on the enemy's flanks while the rest of the line kept the enemy occupied from the front. Excellent description, however, on the reduced casualties from musketry, which is one major reason to thin out lines.

The other two major reasons have been pointed out by daniu; a longer line is difficult to flank and a thinner line will take much less casualties to artillery. Just imagine a cannonball ripping straight through a regiment of line; if the line is two ranks deep, two men will die, if it's three ranks deep three men are dead. As you can imagine, being difficult to flank and taking reduced casualties are pretty serious benefits.

There used to be a saying around here, "Go thin to win," and it really rings true. For example if both sides have 5 line units and 1 artillery piece, but one side keeps his men in 3 ranks while the other uses 2, the side using 2 ranks is more likely to win. 4 line units arranged into 2 ranks will create a longer line than 5 line units arranged into 3 ranks; the extra line unit can then be used to flank the enemy. In the mean time the men in 3 ranks will be taking much heavier casualties to successful artillery strikes.

[Geordie-warlord]

Well it's just down to human error or the fact it's quicker to place them in that way,there is only one draw back as i can see it and thats the time it will take to form square.

In the early period yes,you need to spread the line out to maximise your shot's down range,but in the late period if you see this type of placement its because they were in a hurry and didn't really care if it was 2,3 or half and half, i have placed units 4-5 lines deep before just because i was in a rush.

Don't read too much into it.

[daniu]

The main reason to stretch out your line is that it offers your opponent less opportunity to flank.
Plus, what Alf said, they are less vulnerable to fire, especially artillery.

[ccqwert7]

When you bring 10 line you find it hard to fit the map with 2 rank deep >_>

Normally putting your units into two lines makes it harder to flank, while 3 ranks gives a more consistant fire. At the end of the day, 120 bullets are going to go off, so meh.

[Alf]

yea lol you're right on flanking with extra units Keiichi

another point which is really annoying is that: fire and advance is an annoying formation.

it takes time to form and shoot however(especially AI does that) because they fire with even wider ranks and spaces in between soldiers, you get 5-10 kills in 120 bullets whereas the annoying fire and advance formed enemy gets 10-15 kills. So not only wide lines but also the fire and advance (although not used by many of us) makes it deadly. I figured out, many times 2 of my 3 deep line inf. against one unit of fire and advance formed enemy ends up with almost same losses: about 70-80 units from each side and of course not to mention AI's direction changes while im still shooting at them. This is not supposed to be like that but anyways I should try that on one of my multi player game and see if works.

[Soveriegn]

also, platoon firing units seem to fire faster to compensate for smaller ranks

in addition artillery does not kill as many troops/its harder for artillery to hit infantry (howitzers especially)