Tactic tips

Hey I was wondering what improvements people could make on my battle line. Attached is the general setup I normally use. My general plan involves trying to push the enemy line towards my artillery and wrapping my flanks around the enemy to envelope them while using my cavalry to destroy the enemy cavalry and artillery. What do you guys think of this sort of tactic and what improvements could you recommend?

i use the same kind of tactics

A pretty solid and basic formation.
With enough numbers, keeping that while on the defensive will get you through any battle.

this game is so retarded alowing you to succesfully use this crap.

Well, you have to be carefull that your artillery doesn't autotarget and shots trough your lines. That would be devastating. I therefore prefer to have the artillery in my front line. That way they can open up with canister earlier. The BAI is too retarded and usually ignores artillery shooting the units left and right of it instead.

Don't put your lights on the flanks. They can be overwhelm by enemy flanking cav easily. I suggest you to put them in front of your main line in light infantry behaviour.
Also don't put your cavalry right behind your line. When they charge through your line meleeing with enemy units they will inflict more damage on your men than the enemy! Better put them on far flanks where you can make them threaten enemy flank or rear easier.
Arrange your units in a straight line. In MP this formation can be exploited easily by attacking the sharp points of your ''V'' shape segments.
The ''V'' formation is slightly outdated (it's more useful in ETW where cavalry is less effective and musket fire is slower to reload). People place them between two units of line infantry now because the formation can provide more firepower (in ''V'' your overall fire power is limited because two line are used to protect your art) while still provide protection for the artillery.
And finally, never put your general behind your art. The AI LOVES to bombard your art and may hurt your general.
The formation is basically defensive, which is deadly to AI (they never figure how to flank effectively). But as attacker this formation can be broken easily. But quite good still. I used it before.

Counter-bombardement will most likely destroy your tightly packed artillery (and perhaps kill the general aswell) and then you're going to be forced to do something offensive.
And this formation will get decimated if used offensively.

This formation is easy to pick a-part and to decimate.

That build would not work in a multiplayer game...

Lights on the flank= your main line getting peppered by enemy lights. The indent for the cannon is useless, unless you absolutely want to protect your artillery since you would be taking away two line from your force meaning they have the advantage on the firefight. also the formation isn't exactly mobile. Maneuvering that around would be tedious.

Originally Posted by Prince of Darkness

Don't put your lights on the flanks. They can be overwhelm by enemy flanking cav easily. I suggest you to put them in front of your main line in light infantry behaviour.
Also don't put your cavalry right behind your line. When they charge through your line meleeing with enemy units they will inflict more damage on your men than the enemy! Better put them on far flanks where you can make them threaten enemy flank or rear easier.
Arrange your units in a straight line. In MP this formation can be exploited easily by attacking the sharp points of your ''V'' shape segments.
The ''V'' formation is slightly outdated (it's more useful in ETW where cavalry is less effective and musket fire is slower to reload). People place them between two units of line infantry now because the formation can provide more firepower (in ''V'' your overall fire power is limited because two line are used to protect your art) while still provide protection for the artillery.
And finally, never put your general behind your art. The AI LOVES to bombard your art and may hurt your general.
The formation is basically defensive, which is deadly to AI (they never figure how to flank effectively). But as attacker this formation can be broken easily. But quite good still. I used it before.

Thanks, I generally play defensively and try to use my cavalry and artillery to try and make the enemy attack me. But thank you for the tips, I don't really play MP that often so that isn't an issue.

Originally Posted by Yarkis

Well, you have to be carefull that your artillery doesn't autotarget and shots trough your lines. That would be devastating. I therefore prefer to have the artillery in my front line. That way they can open up with canister earlier. The BAI is too retarded and usually ignores artillery shooting the units left and right of it instead.

I tend to manually target with my artillery to do more damage

Originally Posted by Eazyrider

That build would not work in a multiplayer game...

Lights on the flank= your main line getting peppered by enemy lights. The indent for the cannon is useless, unless you absolutely want to protect your artillery since you would be taking away two line from your force meaning they have the advantage on the firefight. also the formation isn't exactly mobile. Maneuvering that around would be tedious.

Don't play much multiplayer so....
I have noticed the AI doesn't tend to use lights very often and when it does just send them to the flanks. Manoeuvring it can be a bit tedious but it can pivot around its axis easily and each wing can easily swing round to envelope the enemy and break their flanks and encircle the enemy.

Thanks for the tips in general though guys

Moved to Gameplay and Strategy Discussion.

I would have my skirmish line further out front, just in line range in front get there shots off then pull them to the flanks,also give your self a reserve of at least 1 line and when the lines have engaged move it to a flank where it can do the most damage and try not to have to many kinks in your line it allows players to double up line fire on 1 unit.

This game does not let you act, you simply camp and react in most battles.

NEVER ever deploy you general behind your artillery.

I havn't tried this yet, but instead of indenting your artillary inward, stick them ahead of your line creating a bulge in the line. They're a big target and make the opponent more careful so I would keep the cavelry right behind. Light infantry would work better on each side of the cannon with line infantry going straight out. With that tactic they're going straight for the cannon so keep canister shot on. haha

and NEVER put general behind artillary

Originally Posted by Ikarash

NEVER ever deploy you general behind your artillery.

Originally Posted by Crusader Bubba

and NEVER put general behind artillary

I'm still waiting for the reasoning on that one.

Originally Posted by daniu

I'm still waiting for the reasoning on that one.

The ai targets your artillery with theirs, and will express mail your general a nice warm cannon ball