General Tactics

[Ishmael]

Ok folks, I was wondering: what sort of basic tactics will we need to use in Empire? I'm not talking exact, 'to the seconds' sorts of strategies, but more general techniques that will be the basis of battles.
Kinda like the 'Infantry hold enemy into mass, archers shoot at mass, cavalry flank mass' of Rome and Medieval. This is just to help all us newbies out here.
Also, preferably not purely hypothetical advice here: either stuff they've confirmed in-game, or that is so fundamental to the period that they have to include it.
Thanks!

[Polemists]

CTRL-A

Click on Enemy


Victory




This has worked thus far, 70% of time. I am hopeful it will change in ETW, but we will see. I give MTW 2 credit, because the enemy finally countered charge, but still CTRL A pretty will did the trick. Hopefully this time with formations, battle lines, and entrenched positions, this will not be the case. Then again seeing is believing.

[Sol Invictus]

CTRL-A

Click on Enemy


Victory




This has worked thus far, 70% of time. I am hopeful it will change in ETW, but we will see. I give MTW 2 credit, because the enemy finally countered charge, but still CTRL A pretty will did the trick. Hopefully this time with formations, battle lines, and entrenched positions, this will not be the case. Then again seeing is believing.

LOL, so true. I desperately hope we have seen the end of that.

I hope that we will need to time our change from exchanging volleys to bayonet charges carefully. Same with Cavalry charges. I think timing will be the key as to whether the battles are interesting and challenging.

[Sheogorath]

I know Russian tactics favor bayonets over bullets. The general idea is to minimize the time spent engaged in musket duels, substituting artillery fire to soften up the enemy prior to a musket charge.
Basically, let your cannons do the ranged work and try to preserve your infantry until they can get into the melee.
Theoretically, Russia should have some very nice light cavalry in the Cossacks, so make good use of those too. Chasing routers and picking off any infantry that get isolated.

In general, for all-faction tactics, I like the old 'flank, isolated, surround, destroy' move, which I've gotten pretty good at in NTW.

The idea is to try to draw off a section of the enemy force, isolate them, surround them with infantry, move your cannons up and give them a whiff of grapeshot if you've got the time.

Keep the remainder of the main force pinned with your own main force.

Just repeat until the main force is small enough to annihilate.

[Megas Methuselah]

Here's a good question we should always ask ourselves while playing Empires:

"What would Napoleon do?"

[Mailman653]

What would be better is to travel in time and let Nap beta test the game.

[Sheogorath]

Here's a good question we should always ask ourselves while playing Empires:

"What would Napoleon do?"

Too bad the game will be pretty much over by the time he shows up :P

[Megas Methuselah]

Not if I can help it. He'll be the emperor of a new Roman empire.

[Polemists]

Too bad the game will be pretty much over by the time he shows up

I wouldn't panic, I'd be shocked if he wasn't in the expansion considering how much CA and Sega keep mentioning him.

[Mailman653]

Even the official website has a space that says Expansion which is grayed out.

[Megas Methuselah]

Whatevah. Just recruit an artillery unit in Corsica and you'll get this short, greasy-haired genius who can crush the old regimes of Europe with a mere swipe of his hand. Of course, the royals'll keep coming back like flies, but still...

[Polemists]

Whatevah. Just recruit an artillery unit in Corsica and you'll get this short, greasy-haired genius who can crush the old regimes of Europe with a mere swipe of his hand. Of course, the royals'll keep coming back like flies, but still...

Quite true, while you may not get NAPOLEAN as a unit, there's no reason you can't have a famous Corsican General rise to power during this time.


As for tactics, I plan on playing Austrian's and i'm curious to see how the tech tree breaks out. On the one hand, I'd like to focus on infantry, but then again I will probably have to keep with the times so my fleet and other aspects arn't out teched early on.

That said I am very excited that the tech tree has different results of same tech. Drillng Tech for America gives a different ability then Drilling Tech for England based on preview example.

My plan is going to probably involve urban combat as often as I can. Lure enemy in, get in buildings, let them have it.

I mean as Austria we don't number as vast as the Russians, our artillery isn't unbelievable, and even our calvary is not number 1. So I'll have to use the landscape and what I have to my advantage :)

Numero Uno tactic, Conquer Prussia so the German Dualism ends early on

[Sheogorath]

I thought Austria was supposed to have rather good cavalry. Part of their Magyar heritage and all that :P

[Polemists]

I never stated they were not good, simply they were not the best.

My opinon is if you don't have the best in a certain area, spread it out.

[Oleander Ardens]

Well if there is a nation who can be considered to have the finest cavalry it is Austria.

[Polemists]

truly?

and here I thought Prussia was the one with the military academies and Austria with the uniformed infantry, am I mistaken in this assumption?

Perhaps someone can better elaborate on the Prussian v Austrian tactics debate.

As prussia is who I intend to take on.

[delablake]

As Austria, I have 7 preeminent goals:

1)Crush whoever soils the Balkans, wipe out Venice and rule the Adriatic
2)Stave off the pagan Prussians until Silesia is heavily fortified, then counter-attack
3)Carry the Cross to the infidels in Costantinople/Istambul
4)Chop up the Orthodox Russkies
5)Bribe the Pope for moral support
6)Marry, marry, marry, bring young ripe princesses and their dowries into my folds
7)Hope nobody realizes what's lurking in the Alps until it's too late

[Pinxit]

As Austria, I have 7 preeminent goals:

1)Crush whoever soils the Balkans, wipe out Venice and rule the Adriatic
2)Stave off the pagan Prussians until Silesia is heavily fortified, then counter-attack
3)Carry the Cross to the infidels in Costantinople/Istambul
4)Chop up the Orthodox Russkies
5)Bribe the Pope for moral support
6)Marry, marry, marry, bring young ripe princesses and their dowries into my folds
7)Hope nobody realizes what's lurking in the Alps until it's too late

Since I will be playing as Sweden my goal is pretty much set up for me by history. Survive The Great Northern War. Who knows what will happen after that. I will most likely focus on surrounding the Baltic Sea with my borders. The danes and the norwegians might have to step aside, as will Russia... Besides, if Sweden covers the entire scandinavian peninsula, I am most likely the most powerfull country out there. At that point I might focus on becoming dominant in the Atlantic and conquering colonies.

[Ishmael]

As Austria, I have 7 preeminent goals:
.....
5)Bribe the Pope for moral support
.....

hmm..."Bribe the Pope"..."moral support".....is it just me thats picking up a discrepancy in the logic here?

[Pinxit]

hmm..."Bribe the Pope"..."moral support".....is it just me thats picking up a discrepancy in the logic here?

That was kind of fun, yes. In this case I would actually consider bribing the Pope to be a moral act.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I don't think tactics have changed all that much over the last 5 millenia. There are endless variants, but it basicly boils down to Patton's summary:

"Hold 'em by the nose, then kick them in the...."

[Sheogorath]

As Austria, I have 7 preeminent goals:

1)Crush whoever soils the Balkans, wipe out Venice and rule the Adriatic
2)Stave off the pagan Prussians until Silesia is heavily fortified, then counter-attack
3)Carry the Cross to the infidels in Costantinople/Istambul
4)Chop up the Orthodox Russkies
5)Bribe the Pope for moral support
6)Marry, marry, marry, bring young ripe princesses and their dowries into my folds
7)Hope nobody realizes what's lurking in the Alps until it's too late

Pagan Prussians?
And I think by this point the Venetians weren't much of a threat at all.

[Megas Methuselah]

Heh heh. Look at the disgraceful level we're reducing ouselves to while waiting in anticipation for the next preview or video. It's insanity.

[B-DogKY]

Seamus,
Your sig is incorrect. The Morrison line is "five TO one, baby, one in five". It's 2 seperate statistics. But rock on for having it in your sig at all!

[Spookybear]

CTRL-A

Click on Enemy


Victory




This has worked thus far, 70% of time. I am hopeful it will change in ETW, but we will see. I give MTW 2 credit, because the enemy finally countered charge, but still CTRL A pretty will did the trick. Hopefully this time with formations, battle lines, and entrenched positions, this will not be the case. Then again seeing is believing.

Oh well I just watched a video from CA

They said

"Don't play E:TW as you played any previous TW game, you will simply loose"

And as we nearly don't have any info regarding the units etc. it'll be hard to figure out tactics... :P

[Megas Methuselah]

And as we nearly don't have any info regarding the units etc. it'll be hard to figure out tactics... :P

Well, we could study history and use tactics that were popular during this era. But I'm too lazy...

[Polemists]

"Don't play E:TW as you played any previous TW game, you will simply loose"

Believe it when I see it, keep in mind these are the same people who said don't play MTW2 the way you played RTW or you will lose. Which while playing like rome may have slightly hindred you it was hardly DRASTIC. Yes the AI used ranged weapons more, and yes the AI counter charged, but you could still use the basic rush all to win most battles.

I've seen the videos, despite the few screenshots of volleyfire exchanges, the videos have alot of infantry charging, calvary charging, duels, etc. I am all for infantry charging....tactically. I just think there should be some factions (England, France, maybe Prussia) who would win more through volley fire exchanges and some factions who it would make sense to do the horde charge thing (Russia, etc)

Since you can garrison inside buildings, and put up your own fortifications, I assume these two aspects will alleviate the old charge mentality.

That said, the longbowmen of mtw2 had spikes, and they never seemed that useful

[Sir Beane]

Believe it when I see it, keep in mind these are the same people who said don't play MTW2 the way you played RTW or you will lose. Which while playing like rome may have slightly hindred you it was hardly DRASTIC. Yes the AI used ranged weapons more, and yes the AI counter charged, but you could still use the basic rush all to win most battles.

I've seen the videos, despite the few screenshots of volleyfire exchanges, the videos have alot of infantry charging, calvary charging, duels, etc. I am all for infantry charging....tactically. I just think there should be some factions (England, France, maybe Prussia) who would win more through volley fire exchanges and some factions who it would make sense to do the horde charge thing (Russia, etc)

Since you can garrison inside buildings, and put up your own fortifications, I assume these two aspects will alleviate the old charge mentality.

That said, the longbowmen of mtw2 had spikes, and they never seemed that useful

Spikes and longbows were useful in the right situations(such as stuck in front of a city gate.)

I think the reasons the videos are melee heavy is because melee combat makes for more dramatic, dynamic video. It might also be to soothe all of the fans who are up in arms about the period being nothing but 'men in lines shooting till one side falls down'.

[geala]

My tactics will be simple: keep the enemy busy with infantry, move some infantry and artillery to concentrate fire to a certain spot, charge the weakened units with heavy cavalry. It's more or less the same I use in EB because it's imho the way combat is fought since the invention of war. The niceties must be judged after release.

@ Polemists: Austria/Hungary had the best light cavalry in Europe imho. (Maybe together with Russia, I cannot appraise.) The Prussians suffered very much from it in a war of attrition and tried to create a similar force of it's own. And in the 1. Silesian War Austrian heavy cavalry was also clearly better than their Prussian counterparts.

[Fisherking]

I am guessing that I will play the Road To Independence first. With that, in taking on the British I want to try about a three to one mix of Rifle Militia and Regular Line Infantry with Bayonets.

I want to see how much skirmishing riflemen can whittle down the opposition before engaging them with the regulars. Of course I might have some dragoons and a few cannon in the mix but that is the basic tactical experiment that I want to try.