Use of Ribaults

[Morgomir]

Hi. i have been playing MTW2 for a long time but i dont find ribaults useful in the battlefield. reloading time is slow and inflicts fewer casualties unlike the cannons. How do is use them?

[Morgomir]

have a typo..er..i mean how do i use them

[Xehh II]

Ribaults are very good at killing infantry, very, very good.

[Hochmeister]

They are good if you are defending, make sure you have them on fire at will as they do take a long time to go through the loading animation. If you can get off a few volleys at mid to close range most troops will rout

I have also had some success defending a street during a siege battle

[sapi]

They're best used in positions that won't be overrun, like directly behind your battle line on a hill (fire over your troops into the enemy) or in siege battles, firing into the breach

[gardibolt]

The key point is making sure that none of your troops wander into their line of fire; if they do (I always have to move units to get some fool straggler out of the way) then the ribault won't fire at all and will have to start its animation over. I like to keep them in the center and only move my flanks forward at an angle that should keep them well away of the line of fire. That will usually distract the AI sufficiently that the ribault will get off a couple of volleys.