Enfilade fire and shooting into melee in general

[All_the_Sultan's_horses]

1. Do u generally shoot into a melee? If so, how do u minimize casualties on yr side?
2. How effective do u find enfilade fire, i.e. firing at the flanks of an enemy unit engaged in melee?

[Spetulhu]

1: yes, if my infantry looks like they can handle the fight. Keeping those archers on 'fire at will' means they`ll try to minimize friendly fire. If things get too messed up I charge my missile troops into the fray. It does swing the balance at times.

2: effective enough? As long as they`re killing someone it works, doesn`t it? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif I can`t really tell if the enemy runs because of missile fire or close combat losses.

[A.Saturnus]

1. It depends. If your men are less vulnerable to missiles and have higher morale it's better to do so.

2. If it's possible I bring arbs or guns in the back of a enemy. This way you don't have own casualties and the enemy suffers morale damage from melee and ranged.

[NinjaKilla]

Traditionally the TW games have given favourable odds when firing into melees - even from behind your own troops. I'm not totally sure about MTW, but my arbalesters get pretty good kills and aside from avoiding archery duels, I use em the same way when it comes to melees.

[solypsist]

i posted a thread in the EH that showed how to use enfilade fire during bridge battles. any sort of flanking fire is advantageous.

[Shahed]

I always shoot wherever the fire support is required. If I get the chance I run my archers or arquebusiers behind the enemy.

[Kraxis]

I don't use meleefire too much, I try to stress my losses to very low.

When I do I make certain my unit has better basearmour than the enemy has with shields and that can be tricky. Also my unit needs better Morale since any losses suffered by missilefire cause a -2 Moralepenalty.

When I have Horse Archers or Mounted Crossbows I normally take them around to the rear and pelt the enemy from there. That is very successful for me.

[HopAlongBunny]

I find firing at the flanks is more effective; doesn't happen often though.

My casualties to friendly fire are next to nothing, and I will fire into melee more often than not.

[chaka]

enfilade fire is always better than frontal - very often bad guys are coming with shields - this way the shield modifier will be off (perfect example is how unit of AUM will melt under cavalry archer's fire from behind ... shooting from front does'nt hurt them much though ...)

[Musashi]

I find with my archers on fire at will they only very rarely hit my own men anyway, so there's little reason to turn off fire at will. Firing into a melee doesn't produce 50% hits on your troops and 50% on his, it's more like 95% on his and maybe 5% on yours.

-Musashi

[YunDog]

Naptha throwers are the worst for this - more often than not I blow up my own general or at least rout my own men - I hate them their accuracy is up the crack

[All_the_Sultan's_horses]

Hmmm. last night i ran some tests in Custom Battle. i found tt enfilade fire was almost always more effective than firing over the heads of friendly troops. this is due to,

1. accuracy. when enfilading, yr missile troops have a clear line of sight, and can in fact fire at pretty close range.
2. friendly fire casualties from an enfilade were negligeable.

However, this tactic proved far less useful against really well-armoured troops. using Gothic knights as the guinea pig, i found tt 3 units of Mameluke Horse Archers enfilading them cause too few casualties to really bother them.

[Al Qasim Hussein]

I have managed to set up a crossfire w/ arbalesters a couple of times now and there is no surer way to decimate an enemy unit. As I'm the HRE I haven't tried it on Gothic knights, but no unit thrown up by the AI yet can stand against this. THe problem, of course, is getting the arbs to each side of the enemy. Usually you have to engage w/ infantry to distract them first, and even then cav can rain on your parade. Still, if you can manage it (perhaps from ambush?), try it out. It seems to get better results.

[Syterion]

It ain't smart to use naptha throwers when your infantry is engaged with theirs, because you kill your units. But naptha throwers decimate units coming at them. If the enemy comes at you, put naptha throwers in front. Some will die, but they will kill tons of units. They rout enemy units well, too. And if you have a higher ground advantage...well, let's just say there's no point in being greedy http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Anyway, I usually don't use enfilade fire, but now I'll try it. I usually flank with cav or polearm units.

Bye http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif

[hoom]

Aside from bridges, about the only time I get enfilade is when a unit that I'm arching at gets spooked and runs away.
If you get lucky and a flight hits just after they turn, most of the time they take much higher losses than they were when they were standing.

I was a little perplexed about this until the mention by chaka of the shield http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

I try not to shoot into melee.

[TheViking]

I always shoot into melee. All I know is that the enemy take more damage then my men

[All_the_Sultan's_horses]

hmmm. i just had an idea. if u place yr infantry in "hold position" mode instead of "engage at will," would they suffer less from friendly fire? anyone have any experience of this?

[SmokWawelski]

Possibly, as the units do not mix so bad. However, I was thinking how much of a difference does it make in general.

To flank you have to put your missile units ahead of your lines. You have to have open space for your men, and it has to be safe enough (read no enemy cav or infantry in the sight) so that your flanking units will not get decimated.

As I see this you have to be winning anyway (end of battle), you have to outnumber enemy at least like 3 to 1 (your infantry plus two missile units) or be behind a bridge (easy to win as it is). In a large battle with unknown outcome I would bother to direct my other units that to position my archers perfectly.

As I see it it does not matter from where you shoot, make sure you shoot a lot
http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif