Firedrill in NTW

Hi i want to ask if someone know what kind of firedrill will be in Napoleon Total War?
In some pictures i see the Infanterie just in one line and max. 10 soldiers in the second line. That looks like the first firemode in Empire Total War. What is with Fire by Rank and the Peloton Drill?

Originally Posted by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus

Hi i want to ask if someone know what kind of firedrill will be in Napoleon Total War?
In some pictures i see the Infanterie just in one line and max. 10 soldiers in the second line. That looks like the first firemode in Empire Total War. What is with Fire by Rank and the Peloton Drill?

I wish they'd can fire-by-rank, it was actually very hard to do in the heat of battle. Where is the kneeling first row and standing second?

Originally Posted by ♔EmperorBatman999♔

I wish they'd can fire-by-rank, it was actually very hard to do in the heat of battle. Where is the kneeling first row and standing second?

one of the videos did actually demonstrate this tech in battle,if i can find it again i will post for you a link,it was player made

It looks from gameplay videos that rank fire and platoon are gone. Kind of sucks because they looked and felt really cool.

Yeah the gameplay movs show it too, but why they haven't a real Firedrill? If the Fire Drill is able to use in the End of Empire it should be usable in Napoleon Total War.

There's like mass_fire but only in case of three lines deployment and less.
There's also just first_line in case of militia units.
Most advanced is fire_and_advance looking cool and being almost as effective as platoon_fire

*as seen on MP beta

I've also wondered this and I've been watching the videos VERY closely for any indications of firing drills in action. In a few videos I've seen men in the second rank firing, but only sporadically. Mostly it is only the men in the first rank firing, and apparently this is historically accurate to the period:

Theoretically the men of 1st rank would be kneeling and firing - it gave more space for those standing in the 2nd rank. Some veterans (for example Tanski) declared that they never saw among the French troops kneeling and firing soldiers as was prescribed by instructions.
If they were kneeling and firing it was difficult to get them stand up and advance. Kneeling soldier presented a much smaller target for the enemy and he wanted to keep this advantage as long as he could.
Kneeling by the 1st rank when firing was abolished in the Austrian infantry already before the 1809 campaign. By this time kneeling in the Russian infantry was considered as idiocy.
Most experts considered kneeling 1st rank good only for the infantry formed in square against cavalry

source: http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/in..._tactics_2.htm

The article also makes mention that some nations would try to have only the first and second ranks fire, while the third rank loaded muskets and passed them onto the forward ranks. If this source is accurate, then I suppose I'm happy with with a more historically authentic drill. I really would miss not having rank/platoon fire, however, I also love the way they look.

Oh, but I should mention, in one of the gameplay videos that was posted before (I believe it has since been removed from youtube) I saw 'Fire and Advance' in action and it actually looked like an effective drill this time around. There was almost no 'set up' period (where the men take the time to form perfectly spaced lines), the men just immediately started firing and then leap frogging over each other.

Is it historical that there are no other firing drills except for volley fire (& fire and advance) ?

If not, I see no reason to assume that they won't be in the game ..

The French used Fire by Platoon in some instances at Austerlitz when they were at their peak of tactical efficiency but I don't think they used it much after 1807. Certainly not after 1809 to much of a degree.

Well, I'm guessing they're still in the game, just because it was rare in the time doesn't mean it won't appear.

They also got the code from Empire's firing drills which they probably could use for N:TW ..

Platoon fire is a historical firing drill, but wasn't depicted well in Empire. Fire by rank may have been written about, but the way it is depicted in Empire is totally unrealistic and nigh impossible.

Wasn't fire by rank more 1st rank kneel, 2nd and 3rd stand and shoot roughly one rank after the other?

In a vid that was linked to this forum there was a vid showing the front row kneeling with the second one firing-perhaps that was a square that I saw but I could have sworn there was no cav near it....

Someone might have formed square just for a video purpose.
I can confirm that the only units kneeling are those of light infantry.

I hope you can make light infantry lay down and fire!

I think fire by rank is shown at 2:23 here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Ngp8Ezl_4

and platoon fire is shown at 1:03 here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lc_OhN_Cfo

Tell me if I'm wrong. I'd say they can only make the game worse by removing firing drills but then again, they took away lean in Modern Warfare 2 so...

The first one is a cinematic, so I wouldn't trust it... and the second one is a <1 second clip, but it does indeed look like platoon fire

When I played NTW last friday, there was just first rank fire for infantry and mass_fire for light infantry.
There was no technology option in custom or MP battles, so there was just first rank fire.

In the videos, you see the first rank fire too..

Originally Posted by Hinkel

When I played NTW last friday, there was just first rank fire for infantry and mass_fire for light infantry.
There was no technology option in custom or MP battles, so there was just first rank fire.

In the videos, you see the first rank fire too..

Did you ask CA why?
I really like Napoleon until now, but no other firing drills are game breaking for me ... and I never thought I would have to use this term.