Tactics Help

Hi All,

I started playing NTW, but am finding the battles a little hard to master. I previously played RTW, and on Normal when I played battles against militia/light armies I got victories with often no casualties. Here against the most weak armies I am facing heavy loses. In fact a decent sized army plastered me yesterday on Normal.

I am not very familiar with the Units (have been looking for guides) and my tactics are pretty rudimentary. I try for constant Artillery fire (which never hits anyone) massed fire from Infantry units on the advancing enemy and flanking charges from cavalry (which doesnt break units like it used to and cavalry is a lot weaker now).

I am using a mix of Revlutionary Inf and Fusileers (the best units available at the start of the Italian Campaign) but getting a lot of casualties.

Ironically, every battle I fight is a heroic victory. I hardly had 3-4 Heroic victories in RTW. Did CA lower the bar or something ?

The trick is to force the enemy to attack you.

Put cannon in the middle and infantry close in on both sides. Us skirmishers at the flanks and use your cavalry to raid his cannon, but be careful. You don’t want to lose it on just a few guns.

When you kill their cannon they will attack. You will take loses but once you learn how to handle things it will be much lighter.

Completed the Italian Campaign .. Love the Campaign AI. When I was snatching region after region from the Austrians, the AI did not meet me at the front line like I expected but instead snuck an army to attack my starting regions.

Good Work!

Now on to Egypt and a different set of problems.

Been a long long week ... hardly got any time for gaming. Plan to take up the Egyptian Campaign from where I left.

Queries:-
1. Which techs are must have for the campaign and in which order ?
2. Is it worth going after the British Island ?
3. What happens if the time runs out ? Do I lose or the I can play forward ?

Here is what I think:

1. The ones that get you better troops.

2. On a later run through. You don’t need it and it is complicated to tell you how it must be done.

3. You lose, but you can keep playing.

4 Abandoned Campaigns + lots of swearing later .... I have fallen in love with this game. Now instead of trying to own the AI as I used to do before .. I ll keep my focus to the victory conditions. Lets see how it goes. Now on to the questions :

1. How do I make good use of the artillery ? Round Shot doesn't hit anyone and Canister shot fires too slow. Napoleon's grand battery broke the Centers of Opposing Forces. Here I don't recall routing a single unit with artillery.

2. Any suggestions for battle tactics ( I tried to move my guns and units to better places e.g. top of small hills for better sighting of the enemy. But my maneuver is pretty lame and caused a lot of casualties. )

You need an eye for terrain in this game. That is for sure.

Until you win most battles, make the enemy come to you.

The only batteries you should move until you have more experience are horse batteries. Normal batteries just move too slow.

Use howitzers when ever you can. Two batteries of those will cause lots of casualties.

Unless you want to micromanage your artillery it is best to just let them shoot round shot until the enemy is close and switch them over to canister. I make a group of my artillery to change it faster.

You are best with two or three batteries in the center. The heavier the guns the better. Canister will usually break anyone coming directly at them but you may want a unit of infantry or horse close behind them.

Most important, make the enemy come to you. Anything but horse gets chewed up and spit out before it can do any damage on the move. Maybe your skirmishers will have a little luck at range but not if he still has cannon.

In a long range duel try aiming in front of your target and bouncing the shot into them. It also works at extreme range when you do this.

If the enemy is out of range the guns won’t fire, but if you make the target open ground at the edge of your max range you may get some hits. Just be aware that to let them retarget themselves you have to change ammo and switch back to round for them to retarget on their own.

Make sure your infantry is arranged only two ranks deep to maximize your fire power.

Fight a few designer battles with these formations to get the hang of it and you should do fine.

Let us know how it works out for you.

Thanks for the detailed guide .. will surely use it in the next campaign. I finished the Egyptian Campaign just now. This time I consolidated my presence in Alexandria and Cairo, instead of madly grabbing regions. Built 2 guard armies near Alexandria in addition to Napoleon in Cairo. Built a navy and sent a full stack to Sinai. Captured it, built more troops there and sent the full stack to Jaffa, captured it, built a garrison and moved on to Damascus the last region I needed to win. AI was now accumulating forces near Damascus. An early skirmish (that I made the mistake of auto-resolving :wall: ) depleted my Cavalry and skirmishers and left my line infantry units understaffed. I had a 600 unit force with just one unit of horse artillery against 1800 men (mostly conscripts but with 3 artillery units and 3 generals).

The AI sneaked two artillery units and before I knew what was going on, half my cavalry was running off the edge of the screen !!!! I dealt with them swiftly and then swung across the battlefield to redeploy my troops on the left, with the left and center moving while the right flank moved in to guard positions. This maneuver allowed me to put my artillery on the higher ground with a clear line of fire. I deployed my infantry in the tree line with the cavalry unit and the general flanking the artillery in the center. The AI moved its troops forward all across the line.

Phase 1 : The sword infantry tried to attack my weak left flank with two half strength skirmisher units and 2 under strength line infantry but some how the line held thanks to a suicidal cavalry charge that prevented the swordsmen to reach the part where the skirmishers stood (had they hit the skirmishers the left flank would have collapsed.).

Phase 2 : The attack broke and the swordsmen ran, the center and right faced a large line of angry gunners whom I introduced to canister shot and massed infantry fire. They too broke fast, and withdrew behind a line of dense trees while the last remaining artillery unit tried to hit my troop concentrations.

Phase 3 : I redeployed my troops again this time the line was placed with the artillery as the hinge with a flat line of depleted line infantry on the right. The left was made of whatever was left of the previous melee in Phase 1 arranged at a 120 degree angle from the right flank. The enemy once again rushed, this time on the artillery and right flank. I ordered my remaining cavalry and general to hit the last artillery unit while the enemy Infantry was pounded with massed fire from my right flank and artillery. I quickly moved the left flank to a right angle to the right flank and let loose another volley and saw the enemy breaking and running away. The last standing unit (some Cedit) got lots of canister fire and finally broke and ran.

I got a heroic victory with 200 losses and 1700 kills. Before the battle the bar showing comparative strength gave me approx 30/100 (the bar with blue and red colors). Had I auto-resolved again I would have lost the army and then Jaffa too. Only this time I shook off the laziness and also got lucky :yes: