HRE: Reiters Tactics and Deployment.

[Doug-Thompson]

Found something that needs careful testing between two human players:

I think skirmish keeps you out of trouble more effectively when "fire at will" is turned off.

As best I can tell while goofing around in custom battles, reiters have to finish their rather lengthy firing animation before skirmishing away. Now, consider the combination of:

1. Short range
2. Lengthy firing animation
3. Not the fastest horse in the stable.

Reiters kept getting caught by the "kamikaze" troops sent out by high-morale infantry before they could skirmish away. When I turned "fire at will" off, however, skirmishing was generally more effective at breaking contact. I could get my reiters away and turn on "fire at will" later.

Now, as I've already said, the best way is not to use autoskirmish at all with these guys. However, not everybody is a big fan of micromanagement.

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As mentioned, I like to put three reiter units in column formation and loose, then drag them into thin lines. This results in a "super square." If the enemy is advancing, I let the first rank get a good, solid volley into him, then hit skirmish. This means that since just about every unit has fired in the first rank, that rank can skirmish away without a long wait. It falls back through the gaps in the second line and the second line fires. The process is repeated. with the third line, and everything is blazing away.

Even chivalric men at arms can't take such a pounding. If circumstances had allowed, I would have charged the decimated unit with all three reiters. I was goofing around with three reiter units against four such m@a, though, so I didn't charge.

I micromanaged, turning fire-at-will off, then skirmish, then moved the reiters to a new position. We were running all over the map on grassy fields, but I was easily able to wipe out all 241 m@a for the loss of 11 to friendly fire.

Against an enemy that was not advancing, I probably would have used the units separately in single line formations.