Quote Originally Posted by Vladimir
Just line 5 arbequsers in front of 5 spears/pikes, and walk in formation towards the enemy. Since he's defending, he'll usually stay put...
Depending on the size of the attacking force, I have found this to be NOT the case in the majority of my battles. Usually when I approach the AI to achieve a better terrain advantage, what inevitably ensues is an endless cat-and-mouse game of my army chasing his army all over the battlefield. This can be very frustrating, as it wastes away valuable time on the clock (which is needed in order for a ranged attack to succeed) and severely wears down my units (especially if they're marching around in the desert!).

Sometimes, if I have enough spear units and ranged units, I will split my army into two groups, and then approach the AI on BOTH flanks. But this can sometimes have dire consequences as well, as the AI seems to "choose" the weaker group, then attack it once the arrows/bullets start flying. I lost a huge battle like this once while fighting the Egyptians in a desert province.

Quote Originally Posted by Vladimir
That and bring a few cannons along for terrain denial.
What exactly do you mean? Do you use them to prevent this kind of cat-and-mouse scenario? How do you keep the AI from overrunning your cannon positions without having to commit units to protect them?