Types Of Unit

[pdoyle007]

Traditionally a 'light company' or 'grenadier company' would be the same size, but made up of the brightest or strongest men (as a general rule).

I like the idea that with careful research and development you can get advances ahead of their historic occurance, e.g. rifles earlier than normal.

Artillery will obviously play a big part this time round, as you can change between 'shot' types in the naval battle so you think you can here and have roundshot for distance, grapeshot for closer targets and possibly 'scrapnel' casing for the British?

Also has anything been mentioned about horse artillery? Very quick moving but light caliber artillery piece. Basically a gun attacked to the back of a team of horses?

[Sheogorath]

As pdoyle007 said, grenadier, light, and line companies were traditionally the same size in most armies.
Once again, I only know this for certain about the Russian army, but most Grenadier companies essentially WERE Line companies that had performed very well and had been 'promoted' by the Tsar. The same goes for Lifeguard companies, who were basically Grenadiers who had done something above and beyond the call of duty.
I'd say something like this for regular size:
Up to 120 for militia units (especially Russian and Ottoman militia, since they frequently didn't get firearms and, by the Russians at least, tended to be raised in staggeringly huge amounts)

80-100 for most infantry (reduce to 60 or 40 for rifle companies, maybe.)

40 for cavalry and elephants (although elephants would mount 2-3 men per 'mount', which would mean only 20-13 (and one third :P) elephants per unit)

20 for battlefield engineers, sappers, or whatever you want to call them.

For artillery units, lets say five men per gun plus 20-40 men to stand behind them looking like idiots (as is traditional in TW games). This might vary based on the gun, though. If the game is going to feature the Ottomans traditional massively over sized compensation guns, I think they might take more than one man to haul the shot to the barrel.

[rajpoot]

For artillery units, lets say five men per gun plus 20-40 men to stand behind them looking like idiots (as is traditional in TW games).

I never really understood why they incorporated the idiots anyway..........artillery companies weren't meant to take part in melee, and how many men can you lose, that you need 20 men for backup!

[Polemists]

I have to agree on this one

For artillery units, lets say five men per gun plus 20-40 men to stand behind them looking like idiots (as is traditional in TW games).

You can lose them. I've been overwhelmed by crossbolts before. I mean they have uses, it's just they just stand there. I'd rather give them rifles and have them covering the artillery while it fired, or swords to hold off a charge while the guys at the seige weapons run or something. As was previous, they were by far the most useless melee unit ever.

[Sabuti]

So with this time period will we see the death of the peasant untis?

[Mailman653]

So with this time period will we see the death of the peasant untis?

I think so, they would just get replaced by armed militias instead.

[Caliburn]

Specialist units most definitely have their uses.

In Shogun, you used Arquebusiers to smash armour and break enemy morale.

In Empire, light infantry or riflemen might have a similar job. There would be maybe 2 companies in your stack, shooting slower, but with several options.

Free, continuous fire might cause maybe less casualties but that would mean causing them constantly. Light companies would also being resistant to enemy fire (in loose formation), and these free-firing companies would cause more morale penalties than normal infantry (taking out NCOs and officers, and causing constant death among the ranks).

Also, I'd love to see the level of organization having an effect on an unit's firepower and fighting ability; continuous rifle fire would lower the level of organization in a unit (i.e. casualties make the redressing of ranks nessessary), and smaller spearwall-bonuses. Light infantry or rifleman companies would also be a good type of unit to use to give fire support to a unit engaged in melee, because they're more accurate and cause less friendly casualties.

Cavalry specialists I don't really know about. Lancers with less speed and a better charge and a bonus against cavalry sounds logical (the lance was concidered "cumbersome" and "old-fashioned"), and carabiniers/horse archers have their uses as well. The general's unit shouldn't be a band of SPARTAA!-shouting ueber maniac knights.

The specials shouldn't have 2 hit points, and they should be as big as normal units. Nothing annoys me more than charging a 2-hitpoint unit and see them retain all their men. Loses the whole point of charging anything, don't it?

[Tartantyco]

Also has anything been mentioned about horse artillery? Very quick moving but light caliber artillery piece. Basically a gun attacked to the back of a team of horses?

-Yes, horse artillery will be in game. I think it's in the 5th or 6th FAQ, not sure though(Will try to find it).