Battle of Waterloo - Strategy

I finally am up to the Battle of Waterloo, and I have no idea how to win here!

Wellington has the ridge, and is occupying these indestructable houses. I sent my grenadiers to melee the guys inside, and they lost (and they were skirmishers. wtf?). As soon as I'm making some sort of progress, the Prussians show up on the east and it's all over.

At least your doing as good as Napoleon, take comfort in that.

I haven't played the battle or NTW but I will just make some recomendations from what I know of the battle. Try flanking right if possible, avoiding Hougomont (left flank) and La Haye Sainte (center). Speed is of the essence, as that is where Blucher will appear from, so once a route starts you have to quickly roll up in the line but not in a right to left fashion, otherwise you will be too spread out to face the Prussians. If possible, just ignore the estates even if the rest of the British line has folded up, but again this may not be possible though since I haven't seen the actual battle in NTW.

Throw everything you've got at the Hougoumont.

Uh, wait, that didn't work that well in history either..

Originally Posted by monsterfurby

Throw everything you've got at the Hougoumont.

Uh, wait, that didn't work that well in history either..

Maybe that's because that's not what happened in history.

I actually beat this battle on hard, but seriously, I have no idea what I did. Things got so crazy on the battlefield that I remember that I was jumping around my room with my mouse in my hand yelling orders at the monitor. Somehow I edged out a victory (Barely! Almost everyone on the field was routing), but if it makes you feel better I've tried two more times after that and both times got utterly crushed.

I just hate how the houses cant be destroyed. There's 160 foot guard sitting there killing everything, and I can't kill them.

I dont even remember how I won it was that frenzied.

I'm close to the battle on NTW (I'm at Borodino) and I'll take a shot at giving you a strategy.

Mass your artillary in your center pounding the troops on the ridge with cannon fire.

Take any cavalry you have and make a full scale assualt on the your right flank with your Cavalry followed by 2-3 units of Infantry (Line Infantry is preferable).

At the same time as your attack on the right attack Hougoumont (Your left) with any Skirmishers/Light Infantry.

Wait until either Wellington's left or right is routing then take any remaining Infantry up the center.

If everything goes well your infantry in the middle will be assited by the troops you sent on your flanks (If you have to, leave your troops on the right side awaiting Blucher's troops)

When Wellington's army is routed focus on Blucher's army.

If all goes well you should have won the battle.

The issues here are

A. He's up on a ridge so my cavalry have a bit of trouble taking his flank.
B. I have no skirmishers.

I tried playing the battle on very hard, I was crushed by the British.
I tried on hard, the British killed off 80% of my troops and I was then crushed by the Prussians .
I tried on normal, flanking from left, right, going head on, staying far away and only using artillery, making a pincer maneuver, attacking at the center, waiting for the Prussians to defeat them first and then the British, but in the end I was still crushed in one way or another.
I think I'll have to finish this on easy

I've won this a couple of times.

I shifted my attack at the start to the farmhouse on the far right. It has a small contingent of 80 in there. I send 1 Grenadiers and 2 Fusiliers to the house, usually the grens are all thats needed to capture the house.

By this time I have shifted both Young Guards toward this house as well as Ney and several cavalry. I also have swung the 6lb horse artillery to the right side too, while keeping the other 2 cannons firing at the ridge behind the farmhouse on the right.

By the time I capture that farmhouse, I have essentially 2 Fusiliers + 2 Young Guard + remnants of the grenadiers + Ney and his cavalry to clear the ridge behind it. There are some weak Dutch units and the Black Watch. Easy enough to lodge them off the ridge and now you've completely compromised their left flank! Turning, I now sweep them off the ridge which forces the remainder of the line down from the ridge and across the fields to me. This is where the 2 old guards + 1 Grenadier + some additional Fusiliers can hold them while my arty pounds them.

By now the Prussians are coming in, but you've eliminated the British. You can now fire from the ridge down onto the approaching Prussians and swing you Old Guards + Artillery to the East to face them as well.


Thats how I did it a couple of times. Decisive victories all 'round.

Originally Posted by klesh

I've won this a couple of times.

I shifted my attack at the start to the farmhouse on the far right. It has a small contingent of 80 in there. I send 1 Grenadiers and 2 Fusiliers to the house, usually the grens are all thats needed to capture the house.

By this time I have shifted both Young Guards toward this house as well as Ney and several cavalry. I also have swung the 6lb horse artillery to the right side too, while keeping the other 2 cannons firing at the ridge behind the farmhouse on the right.

By the time I capture that farmhouse, I have essentially 2 Fusiliers + 2 Young Guard + remnants of the grenadiers + Ney and his cavalry to clear the ridge behind it. There are some weak Dutch units and the Black Watch. Easy enough to lodge them off the ridge and now you've completely compromised their left flank! Turning, I now sweep them off the ridge which forces the remainder of the line down from the ridge and across the fields to me. This is where the 2 old guards + 1 Grenadier + some additional Fusiliers can hold them while my arty pounds them.

By now the Prussians are coming in, but you've eliminated the British. You can now fire from the ridge down onto the approaching Prussians and swing you Old Guards + Artillery to the East to face them as well.


Thats how I did it a couple of times. Decisive victories all 'round.

Pretty much exactly my strategy as well. Focus on your right, capture the farmhouse, advance on the ridge with a strong contingent. Turn their flank and kill the remainder of the british between the flanking force on the ridge and your other contingent + artillery. After that, consolidate your force quickly and deal with Bluecher . He comes in rather spread out. If you have concentrated into a cohesive force again you should be able to pound him to bits with no trouble at all.
Worked very well on hard, haven't tried very hard though.

Why wouldn't they give you skirmishers. There were alot of them at Waterloo.

I can't remember either. But I sent all my Cav at the guys on the right ridge, and all my Troops to the guys on the left ridge. Took both houses with just 2 units each of regular foot. Bye the time the prussians were on the way I had taken out the cannons and lost lots of men. I reformed when the prussians were walking in and took them on when they were not organized.

It was real close.. I mean real close. Like I only had 120 men left after close.

I used all my Cavalry to charge the guns in the centre. Because of the Cavalry traps this is the easies way to push them all through. When they were up there I attacked Wellington and they all died but achieve this as well as weakening the forces in the centre.

At the same time I deployed two Infantry units to the right to defend against the Prussians, the rest of my Infantry going left. Sent 3 units to capture the left farm, the rest engaging the troops on the ridges including charging them. Captured the farm and formed a line on the ridge and slowly advanced killing everything. My two lines of infantry on the left somehow wiped all the Prussians as well as some English that attacked from the hill. When they come down from the hill make sure you change your Artillery to Grape shot as this devastates them as they are drawn to the Artillery like months to a light.

Was all over pretty quickly. Setting was Hard.

Haven't played it yet but that sucks that you can't destroy Hougoumont. So you can just pound away at it with cannons and they will just sit in there all happy like?

This battle was very easy on hard. At first, I made Napoleon's mistake, trying to penetrate the British strong positions to the left flank. I lost MANY units, and wondered whether or not I would be able to win. However, realizing my mistake, I saw the British right was VERY vulnerable, I sent almost all my remaining units there, doing a flanking maneuver with my cavalry while my infantry went up hill. As they charged against the British infantry, my cavalry came to their flank, and they were obliterated. Once I had the right, it was only a matter of forming my infantry in a line facing toward the rest of the British army, routing them (oh btw, at the beginning of that right flank maneuver, one of my lancer units killed Wellington, which helps), and waiting for the Prussians the get to the field to do too little, too late. I did have some units of British cavalry and infantry trying to get to my artillery and Napoleon, for which I left a contingent of cavalry and one of the Old Guard units, which managed to rout, together with the artillery, all opposition.

I guess that would be the best bet.. Take the right with everything you have. Set A defensive position to counter the Prussians. And then flank the remaining british from the tops of the ridge with a few units.

Bet that works everytime.

At first I was afraid I was petrified / Kept thinkin' I could never win against the allied...
(ABBA featuring Gloria Gaynor: I will survive Waterloo)

So I lost a battle against the English and Prussians, thanks to the indestructible bunkers they invented, during the loadscreen.

Using the time machine of Red Alert 3, which I acquired during the Moscow campaign, I returned to the morning of the battle, and searched the terrain. I found a little road to the east, next to the border of the map.
I marched there all of my army, leaving behind the foot cannons, to draw the enemy's cannonfire to themselves. I marched all my infantry in a very (a)historical „en masse” column toward the ridge, when I reached the border. Then right before my troops, the prussians started to stream into the map. The majority, of my infantry charged them, while my cavalry went around and started harrassing them from other directions. Napoleon pressed every speciality buttons he has, and most of the Prussian army had a near, or over death experience in a minute.

Meanwhile I sent 3 infantry units and the cavalry artillery to the mill, to form a defensive position against the slowly awakening English, who till then pounded happily my mudstucked foot artilllery, and shot great metal balls on dead bodies.

After the last Prussians fled I just had to turn around my main army and wait for the English, who using their cutting edge Battle AI poured on me with maximum 2 or 3 units at a time, like they are henchmen from an american ninja movie. More importantly they left their titanium-concrete houses, breathed the fresh air, took a blink at my troops, tasted some lead, then headed for the tunnel. The Great Wellington started a suicide-commando style flanking against my right side, charging into an infantry square, maybe because he didn't want to see his army collapse.
In the last 3 minutes of the fight, the last 3 infantry units of the late Wellington tried to copy my attack plan and surprised me from the south. They were easily persuaded by my nearly full army, that the party is over, and they left behind the battlefield, and their fellows incredibly fast decaying corpes.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

After that, there was a video with Napoleon staring at fireworks, and he looked very young. Maybe because of the side-effect of the time machine.

"At first I was afraid I was petrified / Kept thinkin' I could never win against the allied...
(ABBA featuring Gloria Gaynor: I will survive Waterloo)"


LOL thats very funny.