How to use naffatun effectively?

[shenmueguru]

I know the naffatun can be downright devastating - yet I can't find a great way to use them. You can't put them behind your lines really, they either wont throw at all or kill all of your own guys. This only works if they are behind the lines and elevated, but they still cause too many friendly casualties. Any ideas?

[Lubeck]

Well I have never really used them except for one time, and I didn't use them well, so I can only give you ideas based on speculation.

Their napalm bombs are good at causing morale drops. So if I were to go back to a Muslim faction I would use basic spear infantry to pin my opponents line in melee battle, then send my Naffatun around the flanks and bombard the pinned troops from the side/rear. I'd guess that should lead to a rout and generally speaking a rout on one flank has a tendency to work its way down the line.

[wipeout140]

One time i used them i had them on the walls and AI smashed the walls and they drop them from that great height and it work great, destroying there cavalry and one unit of spear men so that's best time to use them

[Towelie]

yes, on walls they can be great, just place 'em on wall above gate

[Black_Nebula]

I like to stick them behind a line of peasants. Lose some peasants..who cares?

[Trajan]

Moved to Battle Planning.

[Polarballs]

Don't forget they can be used on walls when you attack a settlement as well. Run them up there, then send a unit the defenders will want to attack underneath them. Light cavalry is probably the best for this, or maybe a infantry unit. Other than that use them on your flanks. Run them out and to the side, throw then either melee or run back.

[Saiah]

Here is mine for naffatuns:

1) Use them in bridge defenses where enemy is a whole lot and are totally packed up together. With one naffatun on the bridge, there is a big chance a big number of soldiers die and morale drops.

2) In defenses, they are very useful in holes made by the enemy to enter to the city. They can be useful also in harrassing enemies moving around the walls.

3) An assumption. If you hate rams, get your naffatuns at the front gate, wait for them to come and shoot your bombs to the ram. Also, it might work on siege towers, too.

4) When enemy general is occupied in combat, get your naffatuns to rush to the enemy general and hopefully hits him in the head and burn.

That's all I know.

[Town Watch]

There were those mounted naffatun in the Turks Faction preview? Who are those guys? I never saw them in the turks' units roster, are they just mercenariies?

[Sher Khan]

Mounted naffatun? No, I don't think there was anything like that in the Turks Faction Preview. You might be thinking of Turkish cavalry that are simply holding torches in battle (for night or sundown fights).

[Town Watch]

Dude check for yourself, the mounted guy is clearly throwing the naptha bomb at 00:18.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_MMx...elated&search=

[Spart]

It's a promotional trailer, there are lots of things that didn't get into the final game. Although it looks pretty interesting.

[Town Watch]

Yea mounted naffatun would devastate any infantry units with ease. With much better efficiency than normal arrows mind you.

[Cassy]

Naffatun are wonderful. But difficult to use. I've won more than a few sieges by having Naffatun lob bombs at infantry advancing through streets.

[jaklei]

I've found them devastating when hidden amongst peasants. Just let the pessies charge the hostile knights and keep the naffas close. I got a multiplayer replay if youre interested

[Zhou]

Dude check for yourself, the mounted guy is clearly throwing the naptha bomb at 00:18.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_MMx...elated&search=

I took a closer look and while they appear to be mounted, they are in fact, not. Pause the trailer at 0:16 and use the scroll bar to step through the frames. You'll notice that at 0:17 it shows the Naffatun and if you look at his position in relation to all the other men around him (who are on foot), you'll realize that he has to be on foot as well. It's also shown on the first frame of 0:18 where it clearly shows Naffatun foot troops and their bombs flying towards the target.

One interesting note is that they included elephant units for the Turks pre-release!

[total war lover]

if you've got enough money and time,put them in front of your line,and the skirmish mode of,and when the enemy comes,just let them come and throw the naffatun bombs,it will lower morale very very strong,when they make contact they will flee(the enemy,not your naffatun troops),you will have lost some men in this action,but you should have won this battle very easily.

[Silverheart]

I see it clearly, too. The naffatun in the video are clearly standing on his own two feet. I also think that the elephants seen in the video are mercenaries. You can recruit them after the timurid invasion if you send a family member as far to the southeast as you can. I have never been able to recruit them anywhere else than in that particular region.

Also, Naffatun are not numerous because they are not supposed to play any bigger part on the battlefield.
Place them directly behind the first line or atop a gate, and let´em rip!
However, I rarely use them, due to their short range (I typically prefer long-range troops - for obvious reasons) but I will definitely experiment by trying the examples Saiah presented. Great tip, thanks ^::^

[Old Geezer]

I find them too difficult to use to waste space in an army. They are really only good, in my opinion, on walls; however, I have never needed them there when I had some recruited as the Hordes never were able to make it to one of my settlements to assault one. They are easy prey on the battle field for cavalry, as they never seem to get their muck thrown before they are hit and destroyed in 3.2 seconds. The AI is just not good enough at protecting them.

[Gornard]

I haven't tried it with naffatun, but there are a few units in game that have that sort of catch 22. They need to be close or have a clear line of sight, they need time to fire when they are in position, yet they cannot stand up for long if they get in a fight. Some other examples are ribaults, fire throwers and hand gunners.
I'd say theres three ways of handling them.
1, Keep them out of the way, then when the main force is engaged, move them too the flanks and use their moral effect to rout the enemy.
2, keep them on any position in your lines with a melee unit behind them, at the last possible minute before the charge hits your naffatun, run the melee unit up in front to meet them while retreating your naffatun.
3, leave a gap in your lines, not quite big enough for an enemy unit to pass through but large enough so that part of their ranks spills over, put the naffatun slightly behind this gap so that they do not engage in melee. They should be able to strike the attacking unit without fear of getting engaged and with minimal friendly casualties.