Tactics
It is lot of fun to be dare and creative, but if you look for a relatively simple way to win most of your battles slowly but steadily this little manual may do it - there is one general scheme that almost surely works... And it is simple enough to describe.
You also can test it in "Combat Demo" (choose 48-50 points, increase Leader to 6 to have 9 attacks). You may not win every battle there, especially if give enemy more artillery and Infantry, less cavalry and one-two less attacks.
But you should use your strategical skills to never get in battles that balanced... ;-) ...and as soon you have any noticeable advantage over your enemy, you should win with this.
I will start with 18 Unit army of 9 Cavalry, 6 Infantry, 3 Artillery. For first, assume we are attacking.
1. turn:
Move one Cavalry to every square in second row.
Move one Cavalry, one Artillery, two Infantry to every square in first row.
(3 Cavalry remains in reserve)
2. turn:
(assuming enemy filled third row with his Cavalry, what is most probably to happen)
Charge with Cavalry from first row, together with firing Artillery and second row Cavalry. Do this for every line (if have less than 9 attacks don't fire front Cavalry, but only charging Cavalry + Artillery ).
Advance all Infantry to second row.
Move one Cavalry to every square in first row.
Now you have what I will call "standard position": 2 Cavalry and 2 Infantry at second row, one Cavalry and one Artillery in first at every line.
Every turn until enemy front line breaks:
Move back forward any retreating Infantry (or out of action if it remains at last point)
Move back one Cavalry from second line (or not, if any retreated, of course)
Charge with Cavalry (the one that was there at end of last turn) from first line, firing Artillery of that line and any active units in second line. (this may need up to 15 attacks to do in all 3 lines, if you have less, choose enemy weakest flank and attack there full force every turn, spend most remaining attacks at center, fire other flank only occasionally or just few shots, but not leave it defensive only altogether, and always repair position there as needed - and sure, it better charge fresh one, not just move retreating Cavalry back in position.
When one flank of enemy looks very vulnerable:
Only attack there with charging Cavalry and Artillery (may add one Infantry if feel a need).
If previous cleared the third line, advance Infantry there.
Charge-flank with second row Cavalry together with full force attack in center line. If the center line looks weak too, may save one Cavalry and infantry there (also, no need to charge here, can fire front Cavalry directly).
If center is cleared also and you have any units active, and attacks left, repeat with advance and flanking charge along center, aiming the far flank. It is not uncommon to advance to third row along all 3 lines at once. If both flanks look weak but center strong, you may try to advance both flanks and charge-double-flank the center. Don't be too hastily to advance to third row, if you have no pressure to do it (like defending against a raid) it is risky enough to hold back a bit even if you could.
For every line that advanced to third row:
Move back row Cavalry to second row (yes, you can do that even if pulled it back already the same turn)
Now you will have: one Cavalry and one or two Infantry in third row, two Cavalry (maybe one Infantry) in second, Artillery in first (you may add second or even third Artillery, if happen to have more in reserve or even move from other line along back row, especially if truing to advance trough center in hopes to rout enemy fast (as may be in the case of defending against a raid)).
After partial advance to third row:
(assuming your units there survive, or the square is still unoccupied by the enemy)
Charge one Cavalry and fire all Artillery forward, may add front infantry also if feel like (best one of, if have both there already)
Advance Infantry to third row if not yet there.
Pull back the front Cavalry and flank-charge the next line, together with full or partial attack along it, as described above.
After full advance to third line:
Cycle your Cavalries in third-second row to charge each turn, just like previously in second-first. It would be good now if you had two (or more) Artillery per line to back your (by now surely weakened) units. Move it along the back line if you get a chance. This phase rarely last anywhere long, enemy flanks will break easily, and then you advance again, just like previously to third line, only now you have much less risk to do so, as no more enemies in front and Artillery can't fire sideways.
Final moves
I usually try and kill as many enemies I can, and avoid taking the flag unless that a goal from the start.
Use Artillery from side you got the final, fourth row, to reinforce center.
Keep cycling your Cavalries, if you have any units you want to train more than others (like having mixed level 5 and level 4 army, or having some level 3 units on the field for whatever reason) it is time to give them one-more shot in this fight, you can happily flank-charge in fourth row with units of even one-point left, there little risk of losing units at this point (unless in front of enemy Artillery, pull out anyone very low from there, replace with as fresh units as you can find)
Well, as you noticed I ignored the obvious fact you may have loses... you will have, unless not have huge advantage in War College research. So, you still will need to interpret this creatively to account for that ;)
Variants:
- Attack in force: If you attacking and can't see any or only very few Cavalry for enemy, or think you are massively more powerful (like attacking native village) and plan for fast battle, forward two Cavalries to second row first turn, then try to kill enemy Cavalry (if any) with charge + Artillery from first line, and charge forward to third row right away if that possible, or you can pull one Cavalry back and advance infantry to assemble the "standard" position.
- Defense: you can use exactly the same moves for defensive battle as well. Be aware, the lone Cavalry in second row can become easy kill for attacker, especially if it is another European player, but it often the price you are willing to pay for getting on the second row at all, and not letting him to charge your back row right away. Forwarding two Cavalry per row may add survival chance, or only increase loses, depends who you are dealing with and with what research levels (combat tends to become insanely deadly and attack-driven in late stages). Anyway, it is highly likely the second line will be yours at end of second turn, with something much like the "standard" position, what you finish to build in third turn if necessary. It don't differ an inch are you attacking or defending from this point on.
- Small defense: you may choose to not forward any Cavalry at all to second row, and let them charge your back row. This works great against natives who have tons of weak Cavalry and no artillery. Your combined force defense is likely to stand the charge with minimum injury. Then you fire Artillery and one Infantry, if that kills or routs enemy Cavalry, flank-charge with Cavalry, advance infantry, etc. Chances are, at the end of second turn most of enemy forward Cavalry be dead and you have something very like standard position.
- Small army: most of time you won't have all units mentioned. Additional Artillery is helpful at late stages, but clearly optional (you may want additional Cavalry instead). If you have less than 9 Cavalry, pull back one, and charge with another, you only have one Cavalry and two Infantry in your front line at end of turn, but that weakens your position less you may feel about (what it increases is sudden-death risk, a little bit, as more hits will be taken by one-less unit). Likewise, you can get along with only one Infantry per line (but position without any is considerably more vulnerable, Infantry are much better defenders then Cavalry, no matter the research levels you may put on).
All this is true if you get beaten, lose and/or gradually pull back one-point-left units to avoid loses.
- Even larger army: it is easy to cycle Cavalries to your reserve and replace them with fresh ones (it may sometimes be beneficial to only allow most units to take one hit, especially when defending city against multiple, massive, repeating attacks). Much harder to do with infantry. You may force it to die in front line, and just move fresh in, even this may be problematic to do, you can't cycle charge while do that.
- A lot of infantry: if you for whatever reason have huge army with a load of Infantry but relatively little numbers of Cavalry, advance some Cavalry to second row as usual, but move 4 infantry to every square in first row for your first turn. Then, at second turn, move all that Infantry to second row, pull back the Cavalry. You won't be able to fire anything but Artillery that turn. Then, charge with Cavalry next turn, and after cycle it with another as usual, only having 4 Infantry one Cavalry forward. This tend to make somewhat longer, defensive feeling battle, unless you have extreme number of attacks - but then, this may be slow, but strong attack and good way to utilize the excess of attacks you have accumulated.
Post edited April 22, 2015 by Enneagon