Rank fire, Fire and advance, Platoon firing

**Melvish** · 03-11-2009, 15:31

Originally Posted by dopp

The enemy will probably get the first shot in and maybe even a second volley before your unit is ready to open fire.

If you use 5+ rows it pretty much continuous fire and advance.

**dopp** · 03-11-2009, 16:01

Originally Posted by Eusebius86

So are you saying that it is best to first engage the enemy and then use the button interface to select fire and advance?

As the name might imply, fire and advance isn't particularly useful when defending because you sacrifice first strike, but I think when attacking the enemy is going to get off the first volley anyway so you might fire and advance a little to even the score before charging home with the bayonet. It still takes so long to execute that you'll probably be finished and ready to charge just in time to eat yet another full volley in the face at point blank range. Yay. YMMV.

**Melvish** · 03-11-2009, 18:19

Originally Posted by dopp

YMMV.

Grenadier can't fire & advance, only line infantry & co. can. It as to be done properly or else i agree with you that result can be catastrophic. Done properly (5+ rows) and at the right time (after a FULL rank by fire volley) it is a very efficient tactic. In fact sometime (especially: Prussia, UK & France) the proper AI troops (no levy troops) recognize this tactic and use the only right counter... they charge you. Then it is a matter of who has a cavalry to flank. But if they don't charge you kinda gain the upper hand because contrary to what you said the fire is quite sustained (although it is just 1 rank firing at time but without much pause if the unit a xp enough). and you gain a massive charge bonus when you do charge.

I've just tested this in quick battle and here my conclusion:

For green infantry (no xp bar) you are right they DO take a long time before reloding the first time and are bit slow at reload and advance.

BUT for 3+bar of xp they start the first reload quite fast and advance and fire even faster.

So i would only recommend to use this if you have experience veteran in your army.

Also having 2-4 grenadier on the flank of your line is useful to cover your line infantry with platoon fire and draw enemy fire because AI seam to make a priority to fill them with lead.

Like said earlier a calvary unit is also useful in this situation for final charge from the rear.

**dopp** · 03-12-2009, 06:35

Ranking up deeper gives a constant rate of fire, but since less men are firing per rank it has no advantage over rank fire, it is actually inferior because five ranks takes longer to discharge than three ranks for the same number of musket balls fired. It's really difficult to see what advantage fire and advance has over plain fire by rank.

**Ginger Yellow** · 03-12-2009, 13:51

It's really difficult to see what advantage fire and advance has over plain fire by rank.

You can fire and advance. Obviously. Use it if you're in firing range of the enemy and want to get closer. If you don't, don't.

**dopp** · 03-13-2009, 06:44

Just as obviously, you can already do this by firing normally, then running forward or charging.

**Sheogorath** · 03-13-2009, 07:07

The purpose of fire and advance is to allow you to reenact that scene from 'Zulu'. That's the only reason it's in the game :P

**dopp** · 03-13-2009, 07:11

But this time the Zulu are shooting back at you so it hurts. Good movie though.

**NimitsTexan** · 03-13-2009, 08:08

It should theoretically allow you to close range for a charge while continuing to damage the enemy, theoretically leaving him more vulnerable to the charge when it is delivered.