Fire by rank vs Platoon fire

[Kulgan]

I have been skipping the fire by rank tech and moving on to the others because, if you have not noticed, it carries a penalty of a 6% increase in infantry upkeep.

Are you being serious? I find the fire by rank advancement the single most influencial technology on the battlefield. Before fire by rank only a third or less of your infantry could fire their weapon. Half can fire if you line them up two deep but those formations get owned by melee charges and the width of only a few of those units take on too much space to be a make a realistic battlefield.

Once fire by rank is there however, you can line up say 6-7 line infantry 3-4 deep* in the center of your line and have a real solid line that won't break anytime in a melee and will kill anything with musketfire that stands in front of them real soon.

This leaves you with both the free units and the free time to micromanage the flanks which are made up of specialist infantry and cavalry/horse artillery.

* 3 Deep when facing a lot of charging enemies and 4 deep when facing other musketbased armies

[Dead Guy]

Are you being serious? I find the fire by rank advancement the single most influencial technology on the battlefield. Before fire by rank only a third or less of your infantry could fire their weapon. Half can fire if you line them up two deep but those formations get owned by melee charges and the width of only a few of those units take on too much space to be a make a realistic battlefield.

Once fire by rank is there however, you can line up say 6-7 line infantry 3-4 deep* in the center of your line and have a real solid line that won't break anytime in a melee and will kill anything with musketfire that stands in front of them real soon.

This leaves you with both the free units and the free time to micromanage the flanks which are made up of specialist infantry and cavalry/horse artillery.

* 3 Deep when facing a lot of charging enemies and 4 deep when facing other musketbased armies

completely agree

[Servius]

I too agree with Kulgan.

In my experience, Fire by Rank > Platoon Firing.

Fire by Rank is better vs melee enemies like Native Americans and cavalry because 2-3 ranks can get off 100% of their shots before a charging unit reach them. I've often found that 2-3 full volleys is all it takes to make a melee unit change it's mind and flee.

Even vs ranged units, I believe Fire by Rank is superior because there is no suppression in ETW, which negates the usefulness of weaker but sustained fire, nor do I believe there is a morale penalty for being under sustained fire that is any greater than being under fire by volleys. That last part is just a guess though, I haven't actually seen that in the code.

[Marquis of Roland]

Fire by rank is the single most important battle tech you can research in the whole game. Without it your line infantry is pretty worthless.

Btw, only 3 ranks fire.

[al Roumi]

I'd like to jump on the bandwagon here and proclaim myself a heartfelt supproter of FbR (Fire by Rank). It not only marks a sea change in my battle deployment and tactics, it's also a death knell for most Militia units I have.

Would it be fair to say that the shift from FbR to platoon fire actually weakens elite unit's musket fire?

If so, that no sort of supression fire mechanic exists in ETW (as it does in Company of Heroes, for example) begs the question as to why CA bothered to include it?

[AussieGiant]

I'd say the boys at CA are going to get around to important gameplay mechanics like this in future patches.

Can someone confirm, that Platoon Fire is only for elite units? Not Line Units?

[al Roumi]

Grenadiers, Guards and other elite line-type infantry (Infanterie petits vieux, coldstream guards etc) can use the platoon fire drill once it has been researched.

AussieGiant, your unswerving faith in CA to "deliver the goods" and live up to expectations never ceases to amaze me.

[Dead Guy]

I'd say the boys at CA are going to get around to important gameplay mechanics like this in future patches.

Can someone confirm, that Platoon Fire is only for elite units? Not Line Units?

My source for this information is the in battle unit card of dutch republican guard and line infantry, as well as observing their behavior in battle. With both relevant techs researched, of course. Though blind faith is never good, I've never, that I can recall, seen false information posted by FactionHeir, so there's further proof :p