How to use grenadiers?

[ollicompolli]

I tried experimenting with them a lot...not very succesfull in the centre, but very useful at the flanks - grenades plus horse was quite effective.

How do you guys use grenadiers?

[PBI]

I tend to keep my grenadiers behind the line as a tactical reserve; in the heat of battle between the two bodies of line infantry I like to sneak them through to lob grenades on any dense concentration of enemy troops. They can also plug the line in the event that a line unit breaks (I find the AI does tend to try to concentrate its fire on a single unit rather than spreading it along the line).

Otherwise I find they work quite well on the flanks to guard the cannons from cavalry; the small unit size is actually an advantage in a way against cav, since they can turn and form up quicker than line infantry to catch out annoying cavalry units trying to nip around the flanks.

Incidentally, when using grenades a little micromanagement is in order; after they throw their bombs, I find it best to immediately have them run forwards or backwards to avoid the bombs that some of your guys will have dropped at their feet.

[Dead Guy]

Usually put them on the flanks, hidden. Then they can surprise cavalry sometimes, or otherwise wrap around the flank when shooting commences. I usually have them in two ranks, let both fire then switch to grenades and run up and throw them then charge. This was you avoid having to reload and get maximum efficiency out of them.

[Tsavong]

If I use them I have one or two units of them behind my pain line with fire at will off so they don't shoot my line in the back and once the enemy line and my line are shooting each other I will run them up to lob some grenades at a enemy unit and run them back behind my line to safety.

[A1_Unit]

There is no way to tell whether your grenadiers will throw their grenades correctly - it's a risk but if they do it well it pays off.

[Hermann the Lombard]

There is no way to tell whether your grenadiers will throw their grenades correctly - it's a risk but if they do it well it pays off.

Just assume that they WON'T and manually step back after the throw.