Your favorite units? Tell us:

[Dayve]

Land unit is line infantry. Plain and simple, it wins your battles and you can't fight without them.

On water, 2nd rates. They're bloody evil. A friend and i fought a naval battle online where we tested them out. I had a second rate surrounded by 4 4th rates (no experience on either side), he was ripping into me with grape shot, roundshot, every shot you can think of, he barely scratched the 2nd rate, i sank 2, disabled one and one got away.

[Fisherking]

When it comes to infantry I love all the rifles, but my top land unit is light dragoons. They are just so very flexible.

At Sea I have to go with good old third rates. Thy just stand up and dish out. They are also the quickest to get anyplace on the campaign map.

[loony]

24-pounder foot artillery (shrapnel or canister anyone?)
mortars (big bad boom in the middle of an infantry square)
Line infantry (they die for you, gotta like them)
Fergusson riflemen (a bunch of puckle guns)
3-d rate (can both sink 1-rates and chase down sloops)

[Oaty]

Galleys. Great for initiating the battle, they'll tearup/sink the lead ship before your main line gets there. there so small that the biggest ships have trouble hitting them and 4 of them has over a 50 percent chance of sinking a heavy first rate. Considering their cost ratio they are well worth as having as support ships for the main fleet

[Oleander Ardens]

-Powhatan Warriors, numerous bowmen with nice stats and long range, rather cheap. Fighting with two lines is not a waste of manpower as they can shoot over each other at the shorter-ranged line infantry.


-Ferguson Riflemen, rapid-firing riflemen. Great for the pre-battle skirmish. Once the lines advance, they can be brought to the flanks and annihilate the enemy (with proper support).

- Grenzers, unit of light infantry with 80 range. Able to fire 2 musketballs per shot, these guys can outfire anything with a 70-80 range. In fact, they can almost replace line infantry. However, since they're rather weak in melee, it is best to have a couple units of line infantry to act as backup and cannon fodder.

- Howitzers, essentially a unit of shorter-ranged, mobile mortars. They can wreak havoc on the enemy and force them into an attack.

Windbuechse Jaeger are the better Ferguson Riflemen, but other than that we seem to agree. Light dragoons are a integral part of most of my forces, especially the Austrian ones. Ideal in combination with rifles.

[Dead Guy]

Line Infantry is of course the mainstay of any army, capable of dealing with anything and numerous, but oh so boring...

Mortars are my artillery of choice. Deployed correctly they can often reach the entire used portion of the battlefield. Sometimes you have to deploy them out of range of enemy cannon but I don't think I've ever had the enemy stay out of range. Therefore, I value them higher than howitzers.

Riflemen. The AI seems to be helpless against them especially when defending. It'll bunch up by some stone walls and you can surround it with long range accurate death. Their only weakness seems to be cavalry (even if you manage to get a volley off, there'll be cav left to charge your reloading regiment), they run away from pretty much anything else.

If only those light dragoons would reload properly I'd love them, as it is they're too much of a head ache.

[Alsatia]

Byzantine Infantry.
Extremely helpful when defending my cities.

Dismounted Chivalric Knights
Used well in offence, or backing up the lines

Adventurier
Brilliant when shooting from afar, also used as heavy inf. Particularly if you are worried if they will get smashed by cav.

Rocket Launchers
Nothing special (Except for decimating entire armies of elephants and advancing infantry). They just look cool when they fire.

Chivalric Knights/Knights of Edessa/Heavy Cavalry
Good for flanking and destroying enemy formations. Particularly helpful in a big infantry fight.

[Liberator]

On water, 2nd rates. They're bloody evil. A friend and i fought a naval battle online where we tested them out. I had a second rate surrounded by 4 4th rates (no experience on either side), he was ripping into me with grape shot, roundshot, every shot you can think of, he barely scratched the 2nd rate, i sank 2, disabled one and one got away.

If he would have used the roundshot all the time, he could have destroyed all your 2nd rate's masts. Without masts, all ships are easy targets.

[Khorak]

Second Rates cause a strange bug with my game, when I have a fleet of them in a port, it takes over a minute for the game to process anything at all to do with the fleet. Choose the port, wait ages, add army to fleet, wait ages, click the navy tab, wait ages, order the fleet out, wait ages. I can't use them.

My favourite units are Heavy First Rates and 24lb howitzers. Obviously. I'm an artillery madman, I don't understand any concept which isn't absolutely overwhelming brute force. Let the computer bring its dozens of full stacks, I shall shell them all to shit.

[Fisherking]

How about speed and mobility?

How about the guys who are hidden while marching?

I love to kill artillery!

[Khorak]

How about speed and mobility?

How about the guys who are hidden while marching?

I love to kill artillery!

Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe. Maybe. I have yet to meet one who can outsmart shell.

[knoddy]

mortars mortars and MOAR MORTARS!

i usually have 4-8 units of mortars in an army destroy the enemy from the other side of the map :D

[seireikhaan]

Line infantry- pure versatility, can't live without them.

However, outside of that- 64 lb artillery. Lots of range, and excessive power. Gotta love it.

[Forward Observer]

I'm with Khorak on the the heavy guns, and I also favor the 24 pounder howitzers. After they become available, I rarely field an army without at least 6 artillery units and at least 3 of those will be howitzers.

I always set my howitzers and mortars directly up behind my infantry lines, so an enemy has to come from behind to get them. As for direct fire cannons, I will put two light horse 6 pounders on the flanks, but still also flanked by my cavalry, and I have occasionally sacrificed said cavalry just to protect my guns.

My only complaints about the artillery are the limbering and ceasefire command bugs that rear their ugly heads at the worst times, and the issue of an artillery unit being able to self-destruct by shooting their own horses and guns. When and if they fix those issues, I'll be a very happy camper.


Artillery--don't leave home without it!


P.S. I am only referring to such a set up when facing the A.I. in the single player aspect of the game. If I was to try multiplayer against another human, I realize that I might have to adjust my army composition and tactics.