I had a disappointing battle using arqebuses recently, and someone suggested that I was shooting from too far away. I tried some more battles using them after that, and found that a volley from some arqs really can take out most of a unit of royal knights in one shot! The trick is to get really close - wait until they are almost upon you, or pin them with something else and then flank. The moral penalty they give is a huge advantage.

I also had a battle recently where my handgunners killed more than 200 enemy, though most of them died as well. I kept using them as flankers during a massive, confused melee - very effective. Again, close range made a huge difference.

Some things really suck about guns though....

- If it rains you are screwed - they turn into expensive clubs.
- They reload really slow - you may not get a second shot.
- You can't leave them on skirmish, or they never fire - their range is too short.


I like to use them now, but I generally never bring more than one gun unit as they are more of a novelty than something I can depend on. Also, careful on defense as you can't pick the weather - if I use them on defense I make sure I have something else I can swap them for if it's raining when I set up.

I got a lot better at using guns after playing a bunch of the "quick battles". I found that many of the QB's include guns - if you get one that doesn't just escape out and try the next one. I found the QB's to be an awful lot of fun - you get to use mixes of troops that you'll probably never get from playing solitare.