rediscovering handgunners

[A.Saturnus]

Up to now I didn`t use much handgunners. I thought "a ranged unit without range, great". I usually built arqs as soon as possible. They can rout units with low morale, but mostly I use them for fun. But now, I`ve had a look at the stats of handgunners. Their attack is 1, def 3, armor 4 and morale 4. So I thought "hey, maybe they are not so bad in melee". I tested it with FMAA. Well, they lost. I guess because of their weaker attack and the charge bonus of FMAA, but the fight was quiet close and they are also cheaper. Some test showed they are worth their price: 2 of them can defeat byz inf in melee. On arid groung I routed hobilars. Ghazi inf, turcoman inf and f-sgts are no problem. Ok, they have short range, low RoF and don`t do much damage against heavy troops. But from close they can inflict a lot of damage to light armored troops and they don`t need to fear melee. And don`t forget they cause a higher morale hit than other ranged.
So, they`re surely not an uber-unit, but usefull skirmishers

[TenkiSoratoti]

Theyre pathetic, or maybe i just dont know how to use them?

[Knight_Yellow]

Many a time i have made my enemy pay for not attacking them and he feels cheated when handgunners charge his rear and he routs lol

[TenkiSoratoti]

So they do have a use
Rear attacking the most annoying most effective tactic there is in the book.

[Furtrapper]

I agree with Saturnus. I did have the view that they were a bit useless and pathetic, but sent an army into battle against an enemy possessed of a couple of units. They made mincemeat of my light and medium infantry and successfully dealt with hobilars.

I now use them as a kind of useful light infantry, keeping them in blocks three deep just behind archers. When the archers are charged down, they retreat behind the handgunners who let fly then can melee. I find them better on defence against units without a great charge bonus, when it does tend to scatter them. But they are cheap and can rout quite successfully (Armenian so-called 'heavy' cavalry seem a prime target for routing in this way).

So roll on handgunners, the undiscovered unit

[DthB4Dishonor]

No one uses Handgunners as much and as skillfully as UglyElmo, IMHO. Elmo has been using those handgunners for quite some time. Many might be familiar with his many hosted games. The are usually in Late era and ask all participants to please choose no artilery. His games are always fun and interesting battles.

RTKPaul

[Pachinko]

Handgunners works very well http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif Ha...If I had a **********(stars) for the general http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[Alrowan]

i learnt this a long time ago when elmo did his famous handgunner rushes