Use of Ribaults

Hi. i have been playing MTW2 for a long time but i dont find ribaults useful in the battlefield. reloading time is slow and inflicts fewer casualties unlike the cannons. How do is use them?

have a typo..er..i mean how do i use them:embarassed:

Ribaults are very good at killing infantry, very, very good.

They are good if you are defending, make sure you have them on fire at will as they do take a long time to go through the loading animation. If you can get off a few volleys at mid to close range most troops will rout:yes:

I have also had some success defending a street during a siege battle

They're best used in positions that won't be overrun, like directly behind your battle line on a hill (fire over your troops into the enemy) or in siege battles, firing into the breach

The key point is making sure that none of your troops wander into their line of fire; if they do (I always have to move units to get some fool straggler out of the way) then the ribault won't fire at all and will have to start its animation over. I like to keep them in the center and only move my flanks forward at an angle that should keep them well away of the line of fire. That will usually distract the AI sufficiently that the ribault will get off a couple of volleys.

In a thread Carl and I discussed the kill rate of ribaults. They do not pierce units with their shots and 1 unit of ribaults can at a maximum kill about 120 or so people which is hardly impressive considering how many a well placed cannon shot can kill. The only good thing about them is that they can kill people reliably and relatively fast compared to just waiting for a lucky cannon shot

I've found that they're a god-send when going up against elephants. It makes them fall verrrry quickly. ;-)
And they might work a little better than bombards when placed at the end of a straight-away that an assaulting army will be marching down in a city/fortress.

If they could load and get ready to fire before the enemy is in range, they would kick ass. Right now, they lose too much time to fire their first salvo.

As an example, if you put a ribault behind your gate during a siege, once the gate is destroyed, the ribault won't even have enough time to load and fire at incoming enemies. "In real life", it would be ready to fire before the gate falls.

I find them the best when defending and especially on bridge battles. Before the enemies reach the other side, two units have routed and the others are shells of their former strength.
They are the bane of elephants as Rosscoliosis already mentioned.
Finally, they are good to keep around in sieges. Line them up on the streets, far away from the attackers.

The ribault is best used when firing on huge amounts of soldiers! If the enemy sends his knights at you en masse, then fire at will with your ribaullt and see them fall!!!!! :smash: :smash:

Its not my favorite unit. I find bailistas and catapults are better than ribaults. Most of the time I just skip using them because they are rather clumsy to use offensively on uneven ground. My experiences with them so far have been so-so. Better to jump straight to cannons after cats and balis.

Well, the true power of the ribault lies IMO in the morale effect. Place it in the center of your army, aim for the center of their army. Fire, charge and watch them flee. Couple this with 2-3 musketeers, and even the hardiest troops will run.

Enemy cavalry charging straight ahead will ruin your day though...