Guard/ Keep formation and its use

Hi all,

I was wondering what exactly the guard button does for Line units.

Does it give any bonus or advantage or ist simply just make the soldiers to keep their post in the line?

I know if my line unit gets charged by a column in the middle, the soldiers keep their place and dont join to the melee, only the ones got attacked directly.

Question is: is there any advantage/disadvantage of this?

Thanks,

HWick

The main advantage that I can see for GUARD mode is to keep a cohesive battle line. For instance, you wouldn't want infantry units drifting off to persue any retreating enemy if you've posted them next to your Artillery batteries as protection. I habitually tag my Grenadier & Guard Infantry units for this exact reason. This is paricularly important if your whole army is adopting a defensive stance.

When in guard mode and engaged in melee, men who are holding their position and not joining the melee will sometimes continue to fire. This can be especially handy when you are in melee with a unit that has you outmatched and it helps your unit last just that bit longer by only sending men up to fight in the melee when necessary. Conversely, if you are using a very strong unit to melee with a weaker one, you want to turn guard mode off so as to engage as many of the enemy in hand-to-hand as possible. So for example, let's say a line unit has engaged in melee with a Foot Guard. In melee, the Foot Guard will easily beat the regular line, so the line unit should stay in guard mode so that the bare minimum of the unit is engaged in melee, while the rest of the unit can try to provide supporting fire. If the line unit turned guard mode off, they would likely rout much faster as the entire unit tries to find someone to fight it out with, only for all of them to lose their matches. On the other hand, if the regular line was engaged in melee with militia, go ahead and turn guard mode off so that you can quickly defeat as many militiamen in hand-to-hand combat as possible.

Guard mode holds them in formation. If you charge in melee, do not use guard mod, because then they fight in defencely, but if you dont use it then they fight aggressively and they try to cruch enemy lines & and they try to go forward only. This was in Rome Total War and I think same is with Napoleon Total War. If you are in defence, then use guard mode.