Cannons and Squares

Two fixes to NTW that I would like fixed in a patch. First, fixing cannons so canister does not fire high, and does not target the end of a enemy formation. I really dislike having to manually aim my cannons if I want them to be useful. Second, triple (though I would settle for double) the time it takes a unit to form square.

What do you mean by manually aiming your cannons? I also very much dislike the fact that cannons target the end of the line.

Manually aiming would be clicking the ground right in front of an enemy unit so that the cannons fire there. Only current way to aim for the middle of a group.

I agree with the Canister Shot point. Its so weak compared to ETW. About 70% of it just flies over their heads...

Canister shot fired from cannon seems just fine to me. From howitzers, however, yeah that seems to get fired in an arc. Of course this is probably due to the fact that howitzers are always aimed at an angle (in game) rather than horizontally. Personally this doesn't bother me too much, as I feel that howitzers shouldn't have canister in the first place .

Or when all available enemies are directly to one side of your cannons. They turn to fire on their own and blow the out of the gun 3 yards in front of them.

Turning off fire at will is of course an option...but it just seems to be a lot of micromanaging in larger battles.

I think it's hilarious that people are having issues with canister in NTW, whereas canister was completely broken (at least for me) in ETW in the same exact way.

I've had no problems with canister in NTW, in fact it works like a charm.

Who knows.

Also, apart from time to form the square, what are people's issue with it? People have been saying (in other posts) that it's a-historical and such. I'd just like to know what's so a-historical about it. Seriously, I don't know much about infantry squares except that they are supposed to be death for cavalry. If someone can enlighten me that'd be awesome.

Originally Posted by Dizoakius Maximus

I think it's hilarious that people are having issues with canister in NTW, whereas canister was completely broken (at least for me) in ETW in the same exact way.

I've had no problems with canister in NTW, in fact it works like a charm.

Who knows.

Also, apart from time to form the square, what are people's issue with it? People have been saying (in other posts) that it's a-historical and such. I'd just like to know what's so a-historical about it. Seriously, I don't know much about infantry squares except that they are supposed to be death for cavalry. If someone can enlighten me that'd be awesome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infantry_square

Originally Posted by GTFO. Jamie

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infantry_square

Thanks for the wiki link to the same exact page I was looking at.

Honestly, though this page doesn't tell me how the NTW infantry square is un-historical.

Originally Posted by Dizoakius Maximus

Thanks for the wiki link to the same exact page I was looking at.

Honestly, though this page doesn't tell me how the NTW infantry square is un-historical.

I don't think square formation time is unrealistic. Under ideal conditions it took like 30sec from column, maybe a minute or two from line. Considering that the game's time scale is compressed, they should form pretty quickly.

I think the main ETW gripe was that we got the square formation bonus immediately, while in melee. It looks like they've improved this quite a bit, though sometimes I'm still able to form square while in melee.

My main square gripe was that you didn't need to use it, ie, that infantry in line could slap cav without going to square. They seem to have improved that quite a bit, too. Heavier cav could perhaps use a bit of beefing up yet vs. inf in line, but it's not the teeth-gnashing issue it was in ETW.

Overall, it's improved enough that it's not the major issue it was for me. your mileage may vary.

actually Howitzers were best for firing the grape shots. but of course, they were not fired indirectly when firing grape... their main advantage was large caliber (so there was a lot of bullets in projectile) and short barrel which allowed fast reload.