Cavalry is often the king maker in matches. If you lose your cavalry, you have a smaller chance of victory, as your manoeuvres are limited.
Basic rules:
Don't tire out your cavalry. Don't double click everywhere. Only when you absolutely have to. You want them to trot. Tired cavalry has a very very weak charge, while fresh cavalry has such an incredible charge its not funny.
Don't attack the enemy head on unless they have already discharged their ammunition. Cavalry is a beautiful thing that should not be wasted.
Watch out for traps. If you are playing multiplayer, your opponents, especially the Austrians, will have a seemingly weak flank, but jaegars or other skirmishers are waiting for your cavalry, to shoot them down. One volley from prepared infantry can take out an entire cavalry charge. So proceed with caution!
Not all cavalry is created equally. Lancers are meant for charging but cannot sustain melee long. Heavy cavalry with swords are better in protracted melee, carbiners and light dragoons are meant for skirmishing and flanking, only charging if you really must. Regular dragoons are mostly for flanking and being used as mobile infantry, not cavalry.
Now that we have the basics settled, you should know that cavalry should be supported by infantry. This is not Medieval II Total War, where an entire army of horse units works perfectly. You need a balanced force. Skirmishers work particularly well with cavalry. You can fire upon an enemy, when the enemy shoots back, you can flank and charge.
Charging from the Side or Rear does the most damage. Charging uphill slows down your charge dramatically, to the point where its not really worth it. Charging downhill massively increases the charge bonus and it becomes one of the most incredible things to watch. Your cavalry charging downhill will puncture right through the enemy, Return of the King style.
Cavalry formation. This is something that is still not entirely certain, it's impact on the game. Generally, you want to have at least 2 lines of cavalry, but it depends on your purpose. So if you are doing an attack from the side on line infantry, you want a dense group of cavalry. The deeper the rank of cavalry, the farther the charge goes into the line, and thus the more people it kills, and disrupts while keeping your cavalry relatively unscathed. If you are attacking a thin line of infantry (1-3 ranks) then you want to have 2 ranks deep of cavalry and charge from the rear. This will do maximum amount of damage and tear half their company to pieces. Diamond and wedge formations are good if you are unable to flank the enemy. A wedge or diamond charge is best done into a thin line of troops that has already discharged their weapons. Once the infantry is split up, retreat your cavalry and charge with infantry and take advantage of the gap.
Distractions: Use infantry as bait for your cavalry. My opponent had some redcoats coming towards me, so I positioned my French troops at the bottom of a hill with 2 groups of cavalry hiding in some trees at the top of the hill. The British player thought this was the perfect time to attack my infantry, since he had height advantage. As he marched downhill to attack my men, I produced my 2 cavalry groups and charged from the rear, it completely massacred his men and I must say, was a very satisfying cavalry charge. Here's the replay.
Square Formations: If you see the enemy go into square formation to fend off your cavalry, for goodness sake pull them back immediately. Don't waste your precious horsemen. That goes the same if you see skirmishers with pikes set up. Generally, you don't ever ever want to charge prepared infantry head on. The best times to attack infantry is when they have already exchanged fire with your troops or when they are on the move.
Psychological warfare is also a good one. While you march your troops towards the enemy, move your cavalry around, out of range to flank the enemy, make sure to keep them safe. It will make your enemy's movements restricted and he may get impatient and irrational. This a particularly good tactic to use in 2vs2 games or larger multiplayer games, where you want to support your team-mate to crush an opponent, and want to keep the other one busy and out of the fight.
Artillery hunting. This is a really important use of cavalry, but pretty much every solid player out there and his dog WILL hide troops near the artillery. Does it look like the mortar is alone? It's probably not. He's probably got jaegars or other riflemen guarding it. The only way to be certain is using a squad of skirmishers. Guerillas are probably the best for this task as they are entirely invisible while moving.
Intercepting enemy cavalry. This is a really important use of cavalry. You want to limit the range of motion of your enemy. It's also important however that you don't waste your cavalry. If you have a company of so-so cavalry, please please please do not attack winged hussars, as they will turn your horses into Polish Sausage. Use your cavalry to slow down enemy cavalry. If they are running for your unprotected artillery battery, or your flank, then charge until some infantry can ready themselves, then run off again. Out numbering enemy cavalry is also good. Charging them from the rear, charging at them downhill all give good attack bonuses. You don't have to finish them off, just surround them entirely and they will route easily.
Well, that's all I can think of for now, if you have any suggestions or comments, you can always message me on the Total War Forums.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Experience and it's affect on units.
Experience has a fairly large impact on units. Each level of experience does the same thing for all units. Each unit; artillery, infantry, cavalry, and ships get these bonuses (when applicable, melee troops can't get a bonus to accuracy and reload)
+2 Accuracy
+2 Reload
+1 Melee
+1 Defense
+1 Morale (every 2 levels)
There is a maximum of 9 levels. So a maxed out unit gets +18 accuracy and reload, +9 melee, +9 defense, and 4-5 morale bonus.
Experience I find, is best used on artillery pieces, they have a default reload speed of 5. So each level of experience increases that by 2, which is quite a dramatic increase in rate of fire. Essentially, one experienced artillery piece is better than two, so long as it's safe.
Hope it helps.
To battle!!!!!
+2 Accuracy
+2 Reload
+1 Melee
+1 Defense
+1 Morale (every 2 levels)
There is a maximum of 9 levels. So a maxed out unit gets +18 accuracy and reload, +9 melee, +9 defense, and 4-5 morale bonus.
Experience I find, is best used on artillery pieces, they have a default reload speed of 5. So each level of experience increases that by 2, which is quite a dramatic increase in rate of fire. Essentially, one experienced artillery piece is better than two, so long as it's safe.
Hope it helps.
To battle!!!!!
Friday, March 13, 2009
Empire Total War: Naval Battles Guide.
The Basics:
Ship stats:
Guns: This tells you how many guns you have on your ship. Usually it's a good indication of the power of your ship. There are a variety of different artillery types used in ships, larger ships typically have powerful cannons on the lower deck, medium ones in the middle, and lighter cannons at the top of the ship.
Crew Size: How many sailors you have aboard your ship. The more you have, the better you can man and reload your cannons. So if your crew gets killed, you will notice a decrease in reload speed for your cannons, and you can even see your crew running from one end to the other to fire the cannons because you lack the manpower. Your crew are also valuable for boarding enemy ships. Typically the bigger crew wins a boarding, but not always.
Firepower: This is the total offensive power of your ship. The higher the number, the more damage it can do. Some ships have less cannons but more firepower. Since each ship typically has more than one different kind of cannon, it is difficult to calculate the firepower per cannon.
Hull: The stronger your hull, the more damage it can withstand without sinking. The weakest parts of all ships is the front and rear. The side of the ships is the strongest.
Maneuverability: How able the ship is to turn, very helpful when you want to fire, turn and fire again.
Speed: Self explanatory. A quick ship can generally go into the wind better than larger ships, better able to escape. Or catch routing ships.
Unit Experience: This is shown as chevrons and stars on the unit icon. The more experienced the crew, the more accurate their shots, the higher morale they possess (and thus less likely to rout) and the better they fight while boarding. Experience may have some other variables such as reload time, but I haven't seen concrete proof of this.
Interface basics:
Wind Direction. This is perhaps one of the most important parts of the game, and you should always keep an eye on wind direction as it can change from time to time. Generally you want the wind at your back, and your enemy to be facing into the wind. If you are forced to go into the wind, go either left or right and zigzag your way up the screen, much faster. Turning with the wind is a VERY quick turn, so keep this in mind when you want to fire one side, then turn and fire the other. You don't want to turn into the wind, because it will slow your turn down dramatically, especially if you have a larger ship.
Sail health. The white bar at the top indicates the status of your sails and masts. As your sails and mast takes damage, this white bar will decrease and slow down your ship's speed and turning capability.
Hull health. Separated into the left and right. So sometimes your ship is green on one side and orange on the other. The orange side is hit badly, the green side is in relatively good condition. You will generally sink once it goes dark orange-red, it's just matter of time.
Cannonballs: Used to damage the hull of your enemy's ship. It will take out a fair amount of cannons and people, but is mostly for hull destruction.
Chain shot: This fires a cannonball split in half with a chain linking the two. It destroys sails and masts, very effective way of disabling your enemies.
Grapeshot: This shot is used to kill the enemy's crew and weapons. Best used in close range before boarding.
Fire At Will: You can toggle this on and off by clicking the button or pressing T. Generally fire at will gives you the best accuracy in medium to long range.
Broadside: This is the manual broadside, only to be used at VERY close range. Point blank really. Don't use this often. Only if you are side to side with an enemy ship. A lot of people use it for long range fire, it is not effective in this manner.
Anchor: This is pretty useful if you have a superior position, for instance, if you have de-masted an enemy ship, park your ship behind it, so you can fire upon it without getting harmed. Just drop anchor and blast away.
Sail speed: This will adjust your sails, with all of them unfurled, you go the fastest. However, chain shot is more effective with unfurled sails. If you are under chain shot attack, I recommend furling your sails to protect them. Double right clicking an area will automatically unfurl the sails to full speed.
Group formation: Quite useful to make your fleet more manageable. You can use the standard Ctrl + 1-9 to set up a group. You can make your own formation and group them, or you can use a preset formation. In large naval battles where the numbers are equal, I recommend using Line Astern formation.
Focus fire: To focus your fire on a target hold ALT and right click on the target. This will make this ship a priority when firing upon, but won't change the direction of your ships. So they will attack someone else if it's more convenient, but will fire upon the target when possible. This is really handy, especially when you are in larger battles, you can take out their capital ship first and the rest is easy to deal with.
Combat tips:
Ideally, you want to pass by the enemy's front and rear, as they do the most damage and keep you safe from harm. Never present your rear or front of your ship to the enemy.
Right click to attack a ship is perhaps the worst thing you can do. It is hands down the worst naval option possible. If you right click on a unit to attack it, your ships will just go right up to them and get blasted to pieces. Worst possible option.
A wise strategy when facing a larger navy than yours is to go with the wind in front of them (or behind them) fire chain shots to slow them down, run away, then turn around and fire more chain shots from afar (chain shots are most effective when facing their front or rear, it tears through more sails)
Also, I suggest splitting their navy in half using your line astern formation. Fire at them, then turn into them and force the other half of their fleet to turn around and go upwind while you concentrate fire on their split up navy. When using this tactic, I recommend having a large broadside force of your biggest ships, and a smaller force of ships (quicker and more maneuverable ones) used to round them up and block them.
I'll post some pictures and videos a bit later to help. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to email me or leave a comment.
Here's a replay where I split the enemy fleet and wrapped around them with broadsides.
Ship stats:
Guns: This tells you how many guns you have on your ship. Usually it's a good indication of the power of your ship. There are a variety of different artillery types used in ships, larger ships typically have powerful cannons on the lower deck, medium ones in the middle, and lighter cannons at the top of the ship.
Crew Size: How many sailors you have aboard your ship. The more you have, the better you can man and reload your cannons. So if your crew gets killed, you will notice a decrease in reload speed for your cannons, and you can even see your crew running from one end to the other to fire the cannons because you lack the manpower. Your crew are also valuable for boarding enemy ships. Typically the bigger crew wins a boarding, but not always.
Firepower: This is the total offensive power of your ship. The higher the number, the more damage it can do. Some ships have less cannons but more firepower. Since each ship typically has more than one different kind of cannon, it is difficult to calculate the firepower per cannon.
Hull: The stronger your hull, the more damage it can withstand without sinking. The weakest parts of all ships is the front and rear. The side of the ships is the strongest.
Maneuverability: How able the ship is to turn, very helpful when you want to fire, turn and fire again.
Speed: Self explanatory. A quick ship can generally go into the wind better than larger ships, better able to escape. Or catch routing ships.
Unit Experience: This is shown as chevrons and stars on the unit icon. The more experienced the crew, the more accurate their shots, the higher morale they possess (and thus less likely to rout) and the better they fight while boarding. Experience may have some other variables such as reload time, but I haven't seen concrete proof of this.
Interface basics:
Wind Direction. This is perhaps one of the most important parts of the game, and you should always keep an eye on wind direction as it can change from time to time. Generally you want the wind at your back, and your enemy to be facing into the wind. If you are forced to go into the wind, go either left or right and zigzag your way up the screen, much faster. Turning with the wind is a VERY quick turn, so keep this in mind when you want to fire one side, then turn and fire the other. You don't want to turn into the wind, because it will slow your turn down dramatically, especially if you have a larger ship.
Sail health. The white bar at the top indicates the status of your sails and masts. As your sails and mast takes damage, this white bar will decrease and slow down your ship's speed and turning capability.
Hull health. Separated into the left and right. So sometimes your ship is green on one side and orange on the other. The orange side is hit badly, the green side is in relatively good condition. You will generally sink once it goes dark orange-red, it's just matter of time.
Cannonballs: Used to damage the hull of your enemy's ship. It will take out a fair amount of cannons and people, but is mostly for hull destruction.
Chain shot: This fires a cannonball split in half with a chain linking the two. It destroys sails and masts, very effective way of disabling your enemies.
Grapeshot: This shot is used to kill the enemy's crew and weapons. Best used in close range before boarding.
Fire At Will: You can toggle this on and off by clicking the button or pressing T. Generally fire at will gives you the best accuracy in medium to long range.
Broadside: This is the manual broadside, only to be used at VERY close range. Point blank really. Don't use this often. Only if you are side to side with an enemy ship. A lot of people use it for long range fire, it is not effective in this manner.
Anchor: This is pretty useful if you have a superior position, for instance, if you have de-masted an enemy ship, park your ship behind it, so you can fire upon it without getting harmed. Just drop anchor and blast away.
Sail speed: This will adjust your sails, with all of them unfurled, you go the fastest. However, chain shot is more effective with unfurled sails. If you are under chain shot attack, I recommend furling your sails to protect them. Double right clicking an area will automatically unfurl the sails to full speed.
Group formation: Quite useful to make your fleet more manageable. You can use the standard Ctrl + 1-9 to set up a group. You can make your own formation and group them, or you can use a preset formation. In large naval battles where the numbers are equal, I recommend using Line Astern formation.
Focus fire: To focus your fire on a target hold ALT and right click on the target. This will make this ship a priority when firing upon, but won't change the direction of your ships. So they will attack someone else if it's more convenient, but will fire upon the target when possible. This is really handy, especially when you are in larger battles, you can take out their capital ship first and the rest is easy to deal with.
Combat tips:
Ideally, you want to pass by the enemy's front and rear, as they do the most damage and keep you safe from harm. Never present your rear or front of your ship to the enemy.
Right click to attack a ship is perhaps the worst thing you can do. It is hands down the worst naval option possible. If you right click on a unit to attack it, your ships will just go right up to them and get blasted to pieces. Worst possible option.
A wise strategy when facing a larger navy than yours is to go with the wind in front of them (or behind them) fire chain shots to slow them down, run away, then turn around and fire more chain shots from afar (chain shots are most effective when facing their front or rear, it tears through more sails)
Also, I suggest splitting their navy in half using your line astern formation. Fire at them, then turn into them and force the other half of their fleet to turn around and go upwind while you concentrate fire on their split up navy. When using this tactic, I recommend having a large broadside force of your biggest ships, and a smaller force of ships (quicker and more maneuverable ones) used to round them up and block them.
I'll post some pictures and videos a bit later to help. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to email me or leave a comment.
Here's a replay where I split the enemy fleet and wrapped around them with broadsides.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)