Is Austria hopeless in MP?

Apparently they are.

Their biggest drawback IMO is the lack of elite infantry. Elites win battles, they make or break the decisive moments, not to mention that they radiate inspiration to nearby units. Austrians have 3 fine DLC line units but none of them is inspiration-radiating elite INF.

It is also my opinion that with time, players tend to build smaller, but more elite armies, instead of large armies made of cheaper units (just my subjective impression, nothing more).

Any faction without elite INF is in serious trouble. Those factions are Netherlands (probably the worst MP faction in the game), Portugal (pretty weak but with good shirmishers and lights), Ottomans (unusual mix of units, but it gets picked only on desert maps because of heat fatigue resistance), and ta daaam - Austria, the only major faction without elites.

Also, Austrian one distinctive unit is nothing special. I was looking forward to Windbuchsen, read a lot about the weapon, even visited copies of the rifle in Vienna military museum. However, in game this unit is insanely expensive - Old Guard price for smallest unit in the game, that is not even capable of planting stakes? They are not even the best snipers in the game - some much cheaper units have better accuracy (and stakes + more soldiers to boot).

Price wise, having to pick between Windies and Old Guard is a no brainer.... OGs win games, Windies are just a nice historical one shot gadget...

Austrians also lack what I call "good cheap unit", like Cossacks or Voltiguers or Ottoman swordsmen, a unit that is good at something, while being so cheap you can fill in the whole 20 slots using them.

So Austrians are hopeless I am afraid.

Austria isn't hopeless..it's harder because of that..but if one plays smart, one can win with them. For starters..ignore the Windbusche and Carabiners.Curassier. Those units are basically useless due to their cost/ Windbusche are undermanned..I think. Also..Grenzers are pretty good when combined with the 1st and some Hungarian Fusiliers.
Quality and Quanity are two differnet things. Of course, people want the best troops..which they pay mroe for, but could end up with smaller amounts of men, to which a quanity army could exploit that and envelop the enemy.
I find for Austria, you need a decent general, who makes up for the lack of insiping units. But they are not hopeless..it's all in how they are used and the unit selection of the player.

Hey, don't you be ditchin on my Austria. They were my favorite faction for a long time.




From my stats

I have more wins with Austira (239) then with France(99) and Prussia(73) combined.

Austria is a good faction, just gotta spread out more, and use your units wisely.

Pic seems kinda small, oh well =/

I would show videos of me using Austria but that's advertising

Austria is great because their units are decently cheap. They are an all round decent nation, but they are counted as a minor nation to most people, making it the best nation to use in a minor nation matchup.

Their lancers beat prussian lancers with the extra 1 melee and charge bonus stats. Their grenzers beat french chasseur light infantry with the extra 5 accuracy. If you want to use Austria well. Just spread them out as Tyler said. Best advise there and that's all you need to know. Minimize or split an opponent's force and utilize Austria's flexibility and choose where or when to fight.

Austria is a great example of the term: Attacking where you are strong.

its one of the most balanced nations in game :/. you're just used to using France aren't you? Oh and prussian lancers with one rank cost just a little bit more than Austrian lancers, can't remember for sure, and have about the same stats if not better so it's not that great of a difference.

Originally Posted by {GODS}Scipio_Africanus

its one of the most balanced nations in game :/. you're just used to using France aren't you? Oh and prussian lancers with one rank cost just a little bit more than Austrian lancers, can't remember for sure, and have about the same stats if not better so it's not that great of a difference.

They are under powered when compared to France,prussia,Ottos but so is every one else.One thing people dont understand when using Austria is that they are a melee based nation,anything with Hungarian in front of it kicks ass in melee including the Hungarian hussars who have excellent stats,and the Hungarian grens have 12/12 att/def stats and can really cause trouble on a flank.

The non elite thing is easily made up for with a better gen,with a 6 star gen your men will last a ridicules amount of time.The WB's are worthless in ultra size,the just run out of ammo before doing enough damage,probably not worth the money on large but on med unit size i think they keep the same amount of men as large and just destroy line in a couple of fast volleys.

Bushranger I will try the 6-star general tactic. I never use anything above basic general, how does 6-star guy work? Does he radiate inspiration and morale boost on a limited area or influences all units on the field? I feel inspiration is the biggest problem for Austria as they have no elites, so this could help.

To those who say "quantity vs quality" I agree quantity is Austrian advantage. Having 20 units to opponent's 16 is good, but it's not really too spectacular tactics wise.

Tyler your hundereds of victories with Austria look impressive, but you didn't exactly elaborate on how did you manage to get them, what army builds, tactical tips etc, come on, share some...

I only ever used Generals staff. My 1st epic army was the ever hated 8 lancers, 1-1 hussars and a gen. 4 lights and the rest line, slap upgrades where needed. Simple bum rush your opponent and you win. I also got a lot of them using a normall army, a howie or 2 5-7 cav, 5 lights, the rest line. Nothing really special.

on medium funds, the quality vs quantity dynamic is a lot more evident. on large funds everyone gets 18-20 units (usually). on medium funds you might have a 12 unit french army facing a 16 unit austrian army. there is a real difference there.

They arent bad but morally they do suffer a little bit.

and the windbusche? they shoot twice as fast as other riflemen i think. They are deadly if left to do as they please.

The windbusche have I believe 45 reload;british rifles have 55 and schutzens 50.

Personally,I feel that on large funds austria isn't a great faction to use.They're line has the second worst reload in the game (spain is the only one that falls below it),they have no units with a reload better than 55 and they're skirms aren't that great compared to britian and prussia.They do have good cav and art,but france has them as well.They also do have good melee stats,but russia has even better ones.I guess they're a pretty balanced faction,but they're tougher to use than france or pruss.

It doesnt depend on their reload it depends on what type of weapon they are using. The fact is the austrians shoot faster than rifles.

Originally Posted by DunkFunk

It doesnt depend on their reload...

It doesn't ?Wow,I guess then that i'm off to march my russian jaegers against some cazacadores...

Historically,you're correct,but we're not talkin history here.

Originally Posted by AqwertyBqwerty

Historically,you're correct,but we're not talkin history here.

But the weapon type still does matter, it is modelled.
Each unit has a weapon type which has a base reload time, which is then influenced by the reload stat.

Originally Posted by AqwertyBqwerty

The windbusche have I believe 45 reload;british rifles have 55 and schutzens 50.

Personally,I feel that on large funds austria isn't a great faction to use.They're line has the second worst reload in the game (spain is the only one that falls below it),they have no units with a reload better than 55 and they're skirms aren't that great compared to britian and prussia.They do have good cav and art,but france has them as well.They also do have good melee stats,but russia has even better ones.I guess they're a pretty balanced faction,but they're tougher to use than france or pruss.

Russia does not have better melee stats just a better charge,and pulling off a solid charge in this game is a dodgy task at best, Hungarian line will beat Russian line in a fire fight and in melee plus they cost around the same amount with both having 7 moral,but russia does have a slight cav edge plus the mighty uni and guards,The best fights i have had in this game is Austrian vs Russia,very closely matched when not on snow maps.

dunk is right...


wbj seem worthless to me, but that's more of an opinion as i haven't really tested them

so a 50 reload for line is different to a 50 reload for lights?goddamn, CA screwed up again.better to make it all relative imo.i know the weapons they use are different, but just seems silly to me if they aren't relative.

Originally Posted by Y@$!N

so a 50 reload for line is different to a 50 reload for lights?

Yes, mostly.

goddamn, CA screwed up again.better to make it all relative imo.i know the weapons they use are different, but just seems silly to me if they aren't relative.

It's more flexible that way; the thing is that for instance, a chevron gives like +2 reload which will have a different result in reload time depending on the weapon.

But you're right, it would have been easier to understand if they had chosen to display "average reload time" in the stats, regardless of how it's calculated.

lights and line both carry the same weapon