Gameplay tips, ideas, tactics - share your experience

[JaRo]

I started playing after 1572 and its much enterainment! Those regimental cannons are much fun- but talking about effectiveness, i wonder if they are worth a place in my armies.
what do you think?

[seireikhaan]

Was that a serious question? I ALWAYS have AT LEAST 4 regimental cannon groups if I can in any way manage it. They've got a much longer range than any musket and quite enough ammo too. I have found them extremely useful in forcing the AI to abandon a hill or else get punished for it quite severely. Of course, that's just attacking. Defensively, if you can get those boys situated on a nice hill, their nigh upon unstoppable. I have won a defensive battle with absolutely NO casualties, all because my regi's were on a very steep hill, I had 6 of them, and they flat tore the enemy apart. My poor Tufecki's hardly got any action in the battle. Plus, since they've only got 4 men per group, they can gain valor VERY fast, making them extremely accurate. In all, USE THEM! I have never, in all my experience playing any mod, had quite as much fun with a unit, and one that's so darn effective as well.

[JaRo]

Sorry for the dumb question . And thank you for your answer. I just fought one battle with them- they didnt kill that many enemys but they seemed to drop the enemys morale.
I hadnt more fun with any other mod either!

[Hound of Ulster]

I quickly discovered two things with two of the factions in this mod (which is brilliant btw); don't but all your heirs in one army and you can build huge armies with the Dutch.

[Musket]

I'll divide my tactics into two lists, infantry and cavalry.

My favourite tactic when commanding cavalry is to set feint attacks. The tactic requires stretching a unit of 100 dragoons out as far as it will go (to maximise firepower) and using them as the feint soldiers. I set them to skirmish, and form up my main body of Ironsides ready and waiting. What the tactic comprises is the following:

The Dragoons trot up to the enemy cavalry troops, and begin firing off volleys into them. Usually, enemy cavalry troops which rely on shock rather than sniping are likely to charge. So, the faster Dragoons will be able to get away, and the enemy cavalry will be stretched thin chasing the dragoons. Then I order my Ironsides to charge, and they hit the now unprotected flank of the enemy cavalry.

Sometimes the tactic doesn't work, as the AI of Medieval Total War leaves much to be desired (they don't even advance their armies in lines for christ sake).

For Infantry, I try to outflank my enemy as much as possible. I always position my most powerful and experienced troops on the left and right flanks of my infantry line. When they advance into battle, the two lines will look something like this:

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Hopefully, my flank regiments will repel those of the enemy, then I can turn my flank regiments in on the enemy, so it will now look like this:

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[cegorach]

I see one weakness of the cavalry tactic - dragoons in the game (and in the reality) have weaker horses than ordinary cavalry - they are a bit slower and their stamina is much worse. It would be really risky when fighting a faction with really fast cavalry for example the Ottomans especially the Delils whose morale should allow them to charge even if shot by a couple of musketeer units at close range.

[Musket]

It is a very risky tactic, you're right. At one point, enemy ironsides outflanked my dragoons and annihilated them. By the time by Ironsides had caught up to them, they had re-formed. After about twenty minutes of intense combat (combined with the rest of the army), we routed them, killed about 1,000, took around the same number of prisoners.