Is anyone else looking forward to their old tactics being out of date.

[PBI]

I think the biggest change will be the diminished role of cavalry, in the demo at least they really seem very fragile under musket fire, and therefore a lot less effective against infantry than they used to be. As far as I can see the only asset they will really hold now is mobility, to race around the flanks and chase routers rather than being in the thick of the battle. It will be interesting to try to adapt to use them more cautiously; since I am not a big fan of cavalry anyway I suspect I may tend to abandon them entirely apart from a couple of units to chase routers. For one thing it looks like we will need to be much more careful with generals now, getting them anywhere near the enemy line infantry will be practically suicide.

Artillery seem to behave more like archers in previous games, long ranged and pretty accurate and therefore good for keeping up a constant, demoralizing, but comparatively bloodless barrage, rather than the pot-luck devastation inflicted by their medieval forebears. Of course in grapeshot range they become much more efficient killers, but I'm not sure I will be using grape all that often TBH; using artillery at close range seems like an inherently risky approach to me.

Interesting idea about the possibilities of relieving line units, hopefully with the main encounter taking place at range there will be more possibility for breaking off an unfavourable encounter in good order, although ordering your men to turn their backs to the enemy muskets is still unlikely to do wonders for morale. It will be interesting too to see how effective charging to melee will be, in the demo I didn't find it too effective; I hope for some sort of balance where in the normal course of things charging straight in to a full strength enemy line will mean disaster (except for a few nutcases like the Swedes), but charging once the enemy are already depleted will act rather like a charge to the rear in previous games and end the battle in a decisive rout rather than a ragged shootout.

Naval battles of course are a whole different kettle of fish. Playing the demo, I was reminded of how badly lost the first few battles I played in STW, not really knowing how best to use my fleet other than some vague ideas of raking fire and doubling up being quite effective. It will be fun to learn a whole new set of battle tactics.