Handgunners in Expert difficulty games

[Noir]

On a side note: play on Hard - expert only gives AI cheats and unrealistic battle bonuses - its a waste of time and energy to beat the various Obi Wans and master Yodas.

Handgunners under a good general and with a few upgrades are extremely powerful - they are very decent swords (some of the best in the game in fact) - the firepower is just an added bonus. All you need to do is inflict one casualty to an enemy unit and they get a morale penalty that combined with the handgunners' charge may route pretty much anything that can route.

To do that, approach the enemy with enagage at will on and fire at will off or let them approach you. Once you (or they) are in range just put fire at will - the gunners will shoot now as they have their weapons loaded. Do that at the very last moment/closest distance possible so the chances that you make a kill are maximised. Now after the volley just press alt and click attack/charge. Your gunners take their swords out and throw themselves to the enemy taking a few scalps on the way.

Remember that volleys depend on the number of the front row troops - the more breadth your formation has the more bullets are out of them (at the expense of speed reload for reloading ranks units such as arquebusiers). This is true for sword units' melee as well as they tend to wrap round enemy flanks and make their formations crumble. It pays to have a 3 to 2 if possible ranks deep handgunners formation as they take ages to reload and you aren't really interested in getting a series of volleys out of them. The disadvantage is in terms of meneuvrability.

Optimally you want to flank as Ironside says - then you really get the best out of them.

There's more than meets the eye in this unit.

Many Thanks

Noir