Le FUSIL (Unit Stat Guide) for Empire Total War

[brandybarrel]

Le FUSIL v6.0 Unit Guide for Empire v1.6 download is here: MediaFire
Adobe Reader (free download) is required to read and print the PDF files.


All 12 playable factions are represented on individual faction pages, categorized into infantry, cavalry, and artillery.
All unit pictures accompanied by at least 12 stats for comparing unit strengths and abilities:

1. Weapon: Range, Accuracy, Reload, Ammo
2. Abilities: (Square, Skirmish, etc.)
3. Morale: (Shock Resistant, Inspire, etc.)
4. Melee: Attack and Charge
5. Defence
6. Cost

Appendices:
1. The Warpath Campaign
2. Artillery, Infantry, Cavalry pages for inter-faction comparison
3. Theatres: Colonial, India, Eastern, Native American
4. Navy: illustrating 28 Navy vessels

Change log:
v6.0 Improved stat presentation

[Furunculus]

awesome cheers.

[Eusebius86]

Awesomeness!!!

[Oleander Ardens]

Great

[Leodegar]

Congrats, great work brandybarrel!

I only have one question, in your guide you mention a rank bonus (lower right corner of each page). How does this work?

Units receive like boosts of their stats if they are deployed in more than one rank?

Anybody knows something about it?

[brandybarrel]

Thanks for the replies...

@ Leodegar - The bonus is not related to unit formations but to unit experience. The values shown are the increases to the unit stats for each level or rank the unit gains through experience. Though, in afterthought I should have put a chevron icon to make this clearer. Thanks.

[Kobal2fr]

Excellent work, thanks.
May I however suggest something I could very well do myself but am too dang lazy to ? Side-by-side comparison of similar troops. E.g. all factions have line infantry, but they all have different stats, so a "line infantry by faction" chart would be great too.

[Caligula]

This has to be one of the coolest unit guides, THANK YOU!

[Fisherking]

It is exellant!

Thanks!

[brandybarrel]

Thanks once again for the comments and feedback.

For the time being Le FUSIL will illustrate the 12 playable faction’s units from its home theatre or Custom Battle availability. There are several reasons for this: one being that I had wanted to get Le FUSIL out to the community as soon as possible and another being that some modding is required to have non-playable factions’ unit pictures be put on screen, etc. I am currently looking into this but may wait until CA release their mod tools.

[Forward Observer]

moved--wrong topic

[Dreadnought2]

Brandybarrel,
Once again, a great bit of work.

A question if I may: I couldn't see Pandours or Conscripts in V1.3 (or am I just looking in the wrong places for them...)

Cheers,
Dreadnought2

[brandybarrel]

Hi Dreadnought2

The Pandours can be found on the “Theatres” page following The United States faction page.

Conscripts have not been included in Le FUSIL but may make an appearance in the next update.

Thanks,

[Dreadnought2]

Many thanks - I'd only recently started recruiting pandours and wasn't exactly sure which area they'd be listed in.

Thanks once again for providing all this data in a simple and quick reference!
Cheers,
Dreadnought2

[brandybarrel]

Hi everyone.

Le FUSIL for Update 1.4 is now available for download.

The following is a brief outline of changes observed.

Land Units:
+1 morale increases to some light infantry, skirmisher units
+1 morale increases to some cavalry units
+20 range to Light Dragoons
+firepower to Ottoman and Marathas mortars
and few changes to DLC units

Naval units:
As per Jack Lusted’s (CA) July 9th update post, major changes affecting all naval units in:
Range, Accuracy, Reload, Firepower, and Speed have been observed.

Le FUSIL now features a Firing Rate table instead of the Reload Table.
You can now get a better understanding of which unit types have a faster firing rate.

Cheers,

[Tsavong]

Thanks for the update to this

[Azi Tohak]

Brilliant. Thanks so much.

[econ21]

Great stuff, Brandybarrel.

Anyone know what the reload statistic means for ships? For example, it drops from 40 for 5th rate to 15 for a 4th rate (and 5 for a heavy first rate). The reload stats for 5th and 4th rates were equal at 6 in FUSIL v3.0. I'm assuming lower is worse and that this change is part of CAs inexplicable "deny physics to promote balance" reworking of naval stats. But what does the difference mean for the rate of fire of ships per minute? It sounds alarming and I've noticed my 4th rate is strangely silent in battle in comparison to the smaller ships, but it would be interesting to have hard data on this. The firing tables for infantry and artillery don't give me any feel for what the reload stat will imply for ships (there seem to be two reload stats - skill and weapon - and no changes of the range 30 to 15).

[brandybarrel]

Hi econ21

Anyone know what the reload statistic means for ships? For example, it drops from 40 for 5th rate to 15 for a 4th rate (and 5 for a heavy first rate). The reload stats for 5th and 4th rates were equal at 6 in FUSIL v3.0. I'm assuming lower is worse and that this change is part of CA’s reworking of naval stats.

The reload statistic is the Reload Skill of the Gun Crewmen (not the numerous and different cannon types found on the vessel). A lower reload value means slower performance. The change is part of CA’s rebalancing of naval stats and you can get a better idea of the changes here or in the spoiler below:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Naval Gameplay Enhancement (CA July 9, 2009)

So for update 1.4 there has been a rebalancing of ships to create greater diversity between different ship types along with improving the overall game play of the battles.

The balance that now exists for naval battles is like this:

Ships of the Line beat Frigates who beat Small Ships who beat Ships of the Line who beat Ships of the Line

Now of course this is not the complete extent of it. Ships of the Line are still the best at taking on other Ships of the Line. Special ships such as rocket ships, bomb ketches and galleys fill special niches on the battlefield.

This new balance has been achieved by adjusting the hull strength, marksmanship (accuracy), reload rate, ranges, morale and damage of various ships.

The ship types now work like this:

Ships of the Line
Pros:
- Best morale
- Strongest hulls
- Best firepower

Cons:
- Slow speed
- Large turning circle
- Low accuracy and slow reload time
- Shorter range guns

Frigates
Pros:
- Good accuracy and reload speed
- Long range guns
- Good speed and turning rate

Cons
- Relatively weak hulls
- Not much firepower

Small Ships (sloops and brings)
Pros:
- Fastest ships
- Very manoeuvrable
- Best accuracy and reload time
- Long range guns like frigates

Cons:
- Very weak hulls
- Lowest amount of firepower

Now of course there is variance within each ship type, and especially within Ships of the Line there are now more noticeable differences in firepower and other stats between ships such as 4th rates and 3rd rates.

And with the above changes, you can see how the new balance dynamic works. Ships of the Line are very strong and have large amounts of firepower, but low accuracy, slow turn speed and lower range compared to frigates and small ships makes them vulnerable to fast small ships like sloops. Frigates are also a threat, but being bigger targets than small ships means they are vulnerable if they wander into the Ships of the Line range.

Small ships, being very fast and manoeuvrable can keep at range of Ships of the Line and hit them with their longer guns whilst out-turning them. As chain shot has received a boost in damage, even with their low amount of fire power ships such as sloops can be a threat to even the biggest Ships of the Line. It may take a few of them or a long time, but they can wear them down.

Frigates sit in between the other two types. Still fast and nimble, they have long range guns like the small ships. But because they are bigger in size, they are more vulnerable against Ships of the Line if they wander into their gun range. They have good accuracy and quite quick reload rate, and this combined with their nimble nature allows them to take on the even fast sloops and brigs.

All ships have been adjusted to have overall more accurate gun types, and the sterns of all ships have been weakened a lot in order to make raking shots more damaging. Various modifiers have tweaked to reduce the amount of random ship sinking whilst the health bars only showed little damage. Now it is pretty much always clear when a ship is likely to sink.

The turn rate whilst stopped has also been reduced for most ships to prevent them from turning quickly on the spot and acting like turrets.

Rocket ships have also had some changes made to their rockets to make them less powerful.

----


All these changes combined add a new dynamic to naval battles. The best fleet will still be mostly Ships of the Line with a few frigates in support, but now there is the possibility of a wider range of tactics.

So with 1.4 you will be getting a new gameplay experience for naval battles which adds a new dynamic and rock, paper, scissors element to them.

The firing tables for infantry and artillery don't give me any feel for what the reload stat will imply for ships (there seem to be two reload stats - skill and weapon - and no changes of the range 30 to 15).

The Reload Table in Le FUSIL v3.0 only applied to the reloading of the weapon and did not include other timely factors or animations such as platoon firing or aiming. So I replaced the Reload Table with the Firing table.

The Firing Table in Le FUSIL v5.0 is based on actual observation of the individual unit on the battlefield in Custom Battle (fire-to-fire). No formulae were used. It’s subjective but provides a more accurate picture of what is happening.

I have included the reload values for both the unit skill and weapon so that players can get an idea of a unit’s rate of fire within each category. Also, I’ve included both reload values so that players realize that units with the same reload skill may not have the same rate of fire. It also depends on the type of weapon, stance, etc.

With regards to naval gun rates of fire, I haven't thought of it but providing such a data table would require a lot of time if based on in-game observation alone.

I hope this clears up some things for you.

[brandybarrel]

Hi everyone,

Le FUSIL unit guide is now updated with the Elite Units of America.

Other changes include grouping units into categories (e.g. Light Infantry, Line Infantry) on the faction pages and illustrating a unit’s fire drill capability (platoon fire, fire by rank). A “quick” fire for those units with rapid weapon/reload capabilities (e,g,, Windbüchse Jaegers) has also been added.

[Tsavong]

Thanks man nice work