Gunpowder units

[Byzantine Prince]

Ok how do you effectively use gunpowder units. I know that they are suposed to be on the frontlines but what are they suposed to do once the hand-to-hand fighting has comenced?

[Duke of Gloucester]

They are cheap, expendable, and have some armour. I use them to assault castles - nothing else.

I would be interested to hear what more expert posters have to say.

[Byzantine Prince]

I didn't mean cannons. I meant handgun units.

I too am interested in what the experts have to say.

[Procrustes]

Well, I'm not an expert but I've found that the regular handgunners aren't bad if you use them kinda like javelins that can fight. Don't put them in your front line - keep them in your second line or on the flanks. When your main line engages, try to run your handgunners around the flanks or back and get off a volley or two. When things get messy then charge your handgunners into the enemy - they have the stats to fight. Note that they have a short range and slow reload rate, so don't expect to be able to stand there and deliver volley-after volley, and never expect them to halt a charge - you'll be lucky if they get off one volley.

Couple of cautions: (1) If it's raining then your handgunners can't fire - makes using them on defense a bit of a gamble. (2) There is some muslim handgunner unit (Mamluk gunners?) that I've only bought as mercs, and they stink - stay away from them, they have no melee capabilities to speak of. (3) I don't really like the arquebus units. The gun is a little more effect than the handguns, but not a lot - and they have crappy melee - you'll get more use out of a good unit of arbelasts.

Oh - almost forgot - imo skirmish doesn't work very well with any missile unit that has a short range; you need to take your handgunners off of "fire at will" and skirmish and micromanage them a bit.

Hope this helps a bit. I'll be interested in what others have to offer, too.

Best wishes,

[_Aetius_]

Gunpowder units arent very useful but remember in this period primitive muskets were highly inaccurate, dangerous to the user and have a shocking rate of fire, so its accurate to history that they are quite literally more miss than hit.

Notice that guns (have aside from other disadvantages to archers) are unable to fire over lines of troops, this means that whereas archers can be placed behind your infantry to fire over them at the charging enemy, guns cant and will kill your own men instead.

They are superior when firing upon armoured troops, however for the time it takes for one shot volley from arquebuisers (sp?) to be fired 3 4 or even 5 volleys from archers can be fired (im not sure on the ratio) however gunpowder troops are vastly superior in melee, arquebuisers for example have very good armour and can easily hold their own for long periods of time as can arbalesters. Handgunners I think are absolutely useless, aside from using them as cannon fodder when assaulting castles and on some bridge battles where they can fire from the side.

One good thing about arbs which I dont think actually use gunpowder but are in the same class seperate from archers is their range, placed ontop of a hill they can fire volleys into specific targets causing much damage for example having 3 units of arbalesters concentrate fire on one enemy unit namely the enemy generals unit can kill him from a great distance.

Overall archers are vastly superior I suppose gunpowder causes fear but they are inconsistant and I have very few examples of gunpowder playing a pivotal role in any battle ive used them in.

[ajaxfetish]

Arbalests definitely aren't guns, rather they're the highest quality crossbows, having the slowest rate of fire, but the greatest range and power. One great advantage that they have over guns and even other archers is that they can fight just as effectively in the rain. This is because they employ a steel string that doesn't get soggy like other bowstrings or gunpowder.

[sephirothno12000]

I realize that they are not gunpowder units...but...HOW DO I OBTAIN NAPTHA THROWERS AS THE GERMANS?!

[sephirothno12000]

email me at sephirothno12000@yahoo.com, if you have an answer,please...It would be very much appreciated.

[ichi]

You'll have to mod the game to allow Germans to have Naptha Throwers, bribe a unit, or buy one as mercenaries.

For info on modding, check out the MTW Modifications Forum.

To bribe, drop an emissary on 'em.

To get a good chance to buy as mercs, capture some provinces in the area around Rum and build inns but don't upgrade the castles.

ichi

[sephirothno12000]

k...this sounds like a newb ?, but...how exactly do i mod it?

[sephirothno12000]

nm...i didn't see the info on moding...thanks