Firing volleys vs. 'at will'

In M2TW, you can only have arquebusiers and musketeers fire in volleys it seems, while certain units like reiters and handgunners fire at will. Is this historically accurate? For instance, right now I'm playing as the Spaniards in the Americas campaign and my musketeers have been fairly useless so far. They can barely get off one volley before the enemy charges straight into them. Seems to me letting each individual musketeer reload and fire at will would be quicker. Then again, I don't know if they did this, historically. Any idea?

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Originally Posted by Sirrvs

In M2TW, you can only have arquebusiers and musketeers fire in volleys it seems, while certain units like reiters and handgunners fire at will. Is this historically accurate? For instance, right now I'm playing as the Spaniards in the Americas campaign and my musketeers have been fairly useless so far. They can barely get off one volley before the enemy charges straight into them. Seems to me letting each individual musketeer reload and fire at will would be quicker. Then again, I don't know if they did this, historically. Any idea?

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Keep them stationary, a moving gunpowder unit is useless especially on the offensive. It takes them forever to reform to line up and fire against an enemy, so let them come to you. Also, they are long ranged, so you should at least get a good 3-4 volleys off, then you can pull em back while your melee troops holds the line:sweatdrop:

There was a discussion like this a while ago in the Citadel about the historical accuracy of firing by rank (i.e. volley fire).
This type of firing wasn't developed till very late, and only Western factions did so then.

You can disable this by removing the fire_by_rank attribute off the units.

Which also begs the question:

If my melee units are engaged with the enemy, and my Musketeers in the rear open fire on the enemy, will my troops incur casualties too?

Logically, I'm thinking yes, since muskets fire in a straight line as opposed to arrows which can be fired in an arc...

They will, most probably.

Unless you are using a mod, your muskets will fire just like arrows, IIRC. Your musket shots arc just like xbow bolts arc. I have'nt played a great deal with gunpowder (sadly) in Kingdoms so correct me if I'm wrong.

Gunpowder infantry and cavalry can also friendly fire, although not as commonly.

If gunpowder infantry are behind ur ranks, they will show the firing motion with boom sound but nothing will come out and no nozzle flashes will occur. Think greek fire/nafftun.

I found i the 2 Americas campaigns playing as Spain that musketeers were an exercise in frustration and not worth the cost or frustration. The only time they were helpful was when I was attacking other Europeans.

While playing Medieval2, I thought that musketeers are useless, I recruited them only to hear the sound of gunpowder weapons.:2thumbsup:
Now, in kingdoms america's campaign I had to rely on them a lot, so I am getting better in using them with each turn. Few tips.

1) Nothing new, but just mention, that musketeers have to be used in a wide formation, if possible, make it so that there is only 2 lines in the formation. That way 2 units of musketeers can be more effective than 5.

2) The best feature about muskets is still the armour piercing ability, so they are most effective against heavily armoured infantry, which moves slowly (ya, Europeans indeed).
Natives in america's campaign are lightly armoured, and move incredibly fast, almost as horses, so it is actually better to employ mercenary archers or crossbowmen against them.

3) Still, gunpowder units scare enemy troops, and this can be used in some key moments of the battle. The way I use musketeers against natives: put them in front, fire few volleys, retreat back, whait until enemy line meets mine, then move my gunpowder units to the flanks, and fire into ranks of enemies from close distance. This, maybe, has brought me victory in some battles, as enemies start routing at the most important point of the fight.

4) Musketeers need quite a long time to deploy for firing, so you will almost always have to predict or guess enemy's movements, and deploy them in time. If opponents meet line of musketeers, who are ready to fire as soon as they get into range, they will take heavy loses and will have to withstand some 3-4 volleys.

5) If attackers march in a line, which is as wide as the musketeer line, musketeers won't be able to stop them. But, if foes are forced to come in a narrow formation, against a wide line, it will be hard for them. It is, when they sally out of the settlements. I once stationed three units of musketeers outside Aztec city, and half a stack of Aztecs were unable to leave it. They came unit after unit: unit comes, gets shot, routs back into the city, the next one comes, routs, moves back to the city center, to come back later, etc. So musketeers were vey useful in that battle.

6) I recently started using a formation, something similar to "Tercio". If a unit of pikemen is positioned behind musketeers, as close as possible, with "spear wall" turned on, each musketeer is protected by a long pike, but still able to shoot at the foes. This doesn't help much against infantry (but infantry will probably never reach such line:beam: ), but it ensures that your unit of musketeers will not be destroyed in a one charge of heavy cavalry.

7) Other than that: musketeer line, with crossbowmen line behind them. Devastating tactic, and almost the only one musketeer tactic I used in standard Medieval2. Have beaten armies of gothic knights that way. Foes have to endure both line fire, and crossbow volleys. Crossbowmen mess up enemy's formations, making them slower, while musketeers finish them off.

That's all for now.

Crosbows closelz behind or with gap? And does it work on flat terrain, or muskets needs to stand bit lower?
And if muskets stands on little hill behind someone else, can they shoot?

crossbomen have to stand with gap, just the same way as behind infantry, also, this tactic is useful if you have some cavalry too, to quickly aid them if anything goes wrong, cause if enemy cavalry ever reach this formation, loses will be heavy.
About muskets standing behind the hill: In the first versions of medieval2 they could shoot at anything behind the hills, just like archers or crossbowmen, but I think I that it was fixed with one of the patches, so now they shouldn't be able to do that.

I didn't meant behind hill. I mean on top of "hill" and melee troops infront of them little lower. I hope that this way straight flying bullet can fly just above heads of protecting units when enemy is far (once they are realy close, this will not hold)

Oh, clear. Yes, the units which are lower than musketeers won't be harmed, just I am never sure how much lower exactly must they be. But even one of the historical battles in Medieval2 starts with pikemen lines, and musketeers behind them, on a higher ground.

I just would like to know clearly, if mounted musketeers can shoot over the lines of infantry. I guess, they can.

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Originally Posted by FactionHeir

You can disable this by removing the fire_by_rank attribute off the units.

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Do you know if there's a mod that does only this? M2TW sure is a lot more confusing to mod than the previous games. :(

Its should be pretty simple, i've never done it but I believe you just need to unpack your files, look in the export_desc_units or whatever it is called, find the gunpowder units and delete the word fire_by_rank for each of them. Then add the -io filefirst (i forget the exact syntax, i think its in the unpacker readme) switch to your shortcut.

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Originally Posted by Sirrvs

Do you know if there's a mod that does only this? M2TW sure is a lot more confusing to mod than the previous games. :(

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Not to my knowledge. Most mods change a lot more than 1 thing. If you want a file that changes only this though you can PM me your email address and I can send you a file that changes only this.

First of all, musketeers have fire at will option. If you enable it you will get a more or less continuous fire.

Second, if you have them on fire at will they wont fire into friendly troops. Which means that if you have them on level ground behind your engaged troops they wont fire at all.

If you have them on a hill behind your lines they will fire, but ofc they still can get friendly kills (though not much).

Best place is a cliff overlooking the battlefield.