Army Organization

[NimitsTexan]

Early wars I will use:

1 General
7 Line Inf
1 Grenadier
6 Heavy Calvary
3 Dragoons
2 Foot Art

Late

1 General
2 Light Infantry/Rifles
7 Line/Elite Infantry
1 Grenadier
2 Heavy Calvary
3 Light Cavalry/Dragoons
2 Foot Artillery
1 Howitzer/Rocket/Mortar
1 Horse Artillery

[Servius]

2 Generals
4 Cav (usually Dragoons)
12 Line Infantry
2 Grenadiers

I'm still experimenting with the Grenadiers. I have yet to find anything they're exceptionally better than Line Infantry at. Chucking grenades at enemy units in buildings tends to break those units, eliminating the need to storm the building, but Grens also get chewed up pretty easily in ranged and melee when fighting vs Line Infantry.

I never bring any artillery because I've never found it to be more effective than line infantry at anything. Low accuracy, slow rate of fire and failure to kill even when it does hit makes it essentially useless. Maybe if there were 6 cannon in each unit instead of only 3 it might be a bit better. But with nearly every map being a featureless flat affair, the lack of chokepoints and natural barriers makes it pretty easy to outflank them, unless you babysit them with other units that could be out killing stuff themselves.

I may drop 1 General and the 2 Grenadier units and replace them with cannons just for the hell of it. I like to give arty a try every once in a while, just in case I might stumble up on a use for them.

[Hermann the Lombard]

I never bring any artillery because I've never found it to be more effective than line infantry at anything. Low accuracy, slow rate of fire and failure to kill even when it does hit makes it essentially useless.

Canister is truly devastating in both casualties and demoralization, and round shot is useful to goad the AI into giving up a defensive posture and attack...incidentally often bringing the enemy in range for canister.

In one battle i expected to pound the enemy with cannon and then finish them off with infantry, but the AI adopted a nifty reverse-slope defense, immune to my cannon and meaning that I would have to close to point blank range to even see them, not what I had in mind. I sent a battery of horse guns to their flank and they abandoned the reverse slope and went after the horse guns and then my main line (and very nearly overwhelmed my line, but that's another matter).

Since the AI's goal is often to get to the guns it's effective to set up a shallow "V" with the guns at the bottom and line infantry slanted in on both sides. When the enemy advances they enter a killing ground of overlapping musketry and canister.

Goading the enemy into attacking is a way to turn your attacking battle into a defensive one. Similarly, if you attack a city and lay siege they seemingly never surrender, they sally to try to break the siege, turning you into the defender in the battle. (The other way to become the defender is to get caught with an inferior force, or hopefully a force that the AI *thinks* is inferior.)

[A1_Unit]

I have to bring artillery or the AI will defeat me.

[Prussian to the Iron]

I don't think i've had more than a couple battles where arty really saved the day, and those battles had tons of arty.

1. So I'm Prussia in India (inorite?) and I've just taken one of the Maratha provinces 2 provinces west of Bengal. So, my main army is marching on Bengal (with my Mughal allies) and I leave the town before relatively unguarded (2-3 company infantry, 4 howitzers, 2 mortars) just to keep the populace under control. Well, the Marathas don't like me being so cocky apparently.

So, with overly spammed cavalry, and some very, very elite infantry (using the AUM mod) they come to attack me from 2 sides. My Howitzers, once calibrated right, started kicking some ass as enemy infantry fell, marching perpendicular to me, along a road ready to turn at me. The cavalry was taken out relatively (and astonishingly) quickly, but then the damned dervishes and hindu swordsmen came. I barely survived that. Thier cavalry is regrouped, now i'm totaly screwed. So, I bear all arty on them, and oddly enough, rout them. then there is just 2 units of foot arty left. They then proceeded to rout all 3 of my line inf, and were too close to hit with my arty as the final cav charge began. I lost, but it was easy taking it back with so few defenders.

2. Another battle against the Marathas. This time, I have a full army (with elite Swiss Guards from the AUM mod) with like 6-8 arty (about half howitzers, half horse arty) against a full stack of Marathas (unsurprisingly spamming cavalry and elephants). My line is set up with my main elite infantry in a line about 4 men deep, my Cavalry on the left flank, and my arty + another line inf(maybe swiss guard, not sure) in a line to the side, aimed toward where the enemy will be crossing the fields.

So the main enemy advance comes. Lots and lots of Shrapnel shot is raining down on these guys, and elephants are dropping like flies. A couple bargirs advance through some trees to attack my arty, which is promptly stopped by my guards. While that is happening, about 3 units of Bargirs decide to attack my arty head-on. they got annhilated by the canister shot.

I probably could have beat them without so much arty, but with much more casualties than I recieved. the crossfire with the bargirs ripped my arty crews apaart though.