Arquibusiers - annoying formation problems

I couldn't find the previous post about this issue and didn't know if there was a solution yet.

I can't keep my gunmen lines to stay in a straight line on the battlefield. Each gun unit keeps changing their orientation to the nearest enemy and I think they end up with friendly fire. During the heat of battle, it is a pain to continually have to realign them. I don't seem to have this problem with my archers. I tried the "guard mode" and "skirmish" with different options and still the same scattered results.

Thanks in advance.

It kinda makes sense sometimes if the whole line faces a direction to shoot: archers have to aim upwards at least a bit, to hit a target and to avoid hitting their own unit; arquebusiers have it a little harder.

Hitting your own units, that are in combat, is, I think, easily avoided by just shutting off Fire At Will.

But maybe somebody else got some tips for ya. I ain't using gunpowder that much.

Bad experience:

Had gunners in front of my artillery, they send some units to the flanks, my gunners turn to face them, middle of my line opens like a flower and enemy cav rushes straight thru my army into my artillery train LMAO:smash:

Yes, in a long campaign I did as Portugal I ran into this problem a lot. It seems that a line of gunners has about a 120 degree arc that it will target. If the target is outside of that arc, the ENTIRE line moves. Usually I have a wall of gunners and just want them to shoot anything that moves, not scurry around to target the flanking cav. And like you, I had a problem getting them to just hold their position and not reform.

Anybody found a good way to counteract this?

Guard mode - Default - Volley fire in which the unit requires a direct line of sight and will reform

Skirmish mode - Fire at will, slower, but a soldier will fire whenever he gets a clear shot.

If formations screw up a bit (Which shouldn't), hit backspace or stop to reset them.

"Guard mode - Default - Volley fire in which the unit requires a direct line of sight and will reform

Skirmish mode - Fire at will, slower, but a soldier will fire whenever he gets a clear shot.

If formations screw up a bit (Which shouldn't), hit backspace or stop to reset them."


Guard Mode and Skirmish On together? I think I tried this config already. It's tough when I have about 6 units of gunners in a straight line. In the heat of battle, it's hard to micromanage gunners while trying to use my calvary/infantry to flank and other stuff. I don't like using the "pause" button.

microing gunners is very important. As a counter to the reform bug is to repeatedly tell them to fire at a target. 3 or 4 times is usually enough to snap a unit out of it. Unfortunately, that's a painful amount of micro. If you don't do this though, you end up with sometimes up to 50% of your gunners not firing or firing ineffectively. Watching them and hitting backspace to cancel them turning is a great idea.

Given how difficult they are to use, you are probably better off with high end archers for the bulk of your missile force. Just throw in 2-3 units of gunners to get that strong gunpowder morale hit on your enemy.