Appreciating Grenadiers

[Mr Frost]

To be honest i've never found much use for them. When i pit them against a unit of line infantry or militia, sure their grenades do a fair bit of damage, but a volley from the enemy unit usually reduces their numbers by 50% because the unit is tiny.

Perhaps i'll keep them in reserve and only use them where there is an opportunity to throw the grenades but keep out of combat. I won't need to use them for dislodging enemy units from buildings, i have mobile 12-pounder foot artillery in my army for that.

I use them as spacers between my artillery .
My developed battery goes puckle gun centre , grenadiers either side , filed guns either side of those and line infantry arranged so the battery is in a slightly refused centre .
Behind this forward battery is a unit of guards or ordinary line infantry and then a howitzer battery . When the enemy charge it {A.I. almost can't resist} the guards and grnadiers move forward {put them in a line pre battle and group then once the battle starts , place them where you want in the line . When enemy charges just drag as a group and the should form up smoothly without getting mixed up} and they are almost sure to win a melee together .

[SpiritFox]

I've never read or studied warfare from this period in history, but is throwing grenades into the flank of an enemy unit whilst one of your own is engaged with it not just a tad unrealistic?

Meh - it works. I never studied the history of the period either, but from every account I've heard and tried out, standing around trading musket volleys under cannon fire results in excessive casualties. It's fine when I'm holding the line, but I prefer a little more elan on my offensives. Mostly because the AI is so damn stupid anyway.

[Khorak]

I find Grenadiers completely useless for my own use. The AI is more uncaringly suicidal and reckless, so it can annoy me with them, but they're still not truly effective. An army with a unit of grenadiers is an army that's short of a unit of howitzers.

[HKDDJulker]

on VH battle difficulty, i found that grenadiers were the only troops that even had a chance against enemy line infantry. To maximize casualties, wait till the enemy are bunched up, and exchanging fire with another of your units. you can easily cause massive casualties amongst the bad guys by charging up to nade range and letting loose some volleys back to back. grenadiers seem to die a little slower than regular line infantry as well. Not to mention they don't run away so easily.
IMO anyone that thinks grenadiers don't work are simply using them incorrectly. The battles I was using them in (and losing), the tall boys were inflicting 100+ casualties per 60 man unit, almost exclusively from grenades.

[Monsieur Louris]

They also do a marvelous job with units behind stone walls. I tend to mass four of them per stack and use them en masse either to punch a hole in enemy Line Infantry with melee charge or use their grenades.

[MrWhipple]

I've never read or studied warfare from this period in history, but is throwing grenades into the flank of an enemy unit whilst one of your own is engaged with it not just a tad unrealistic?

Yes it is quite period. Read up on the Ottoman assault on Malta. The Knights of St. John used grenades (and a lot more stuff thrown from the battlements) to fend off the Turks for three months. 700 knights won over some 30,000 turks with large assault guns.

Yes Grenadiers did evolve into just big hulking troops but for a long time they did use a lot of grenades just like we use them in the game.