Platoon firing

[Demon of Elru]

Does this work?? Whats the benefit of it?

[Czar Salad]

It works in vanilla, but most mods I've seen disable it, and even in vanilla only certain units use it, like grenadiers and guards. Essentially, the unit never stops firing, as it starts with the guys to the left and ripples all the way down the line. Usually by the time the right has fired, the left is ready again.

[Czar Salad]

Also, there is heavy debate as to whether it's better than ranked fire or not, so I'm not gonna take any sides.

I will say that on time I was playing a 2v2 on multiplayer and my teammate was afk but I managed to still beat both guys, using primarily platoon firing units.

[Demon of Elru]

I play using the Darthmod. Is it disabled there?

[Czar Salad]

Originally posted by Demon of Elru:

I play using the Darthmod. Is it disabled there?

Yes, because to be honest, although it's technically better than fire by rank, it takes so long for your men to start actually form up and start shooting if they were doing anything other than idling, they usually lose too many men first.

[Horcerer]

The idea of fire-by-platoon was mostly about suppression rather than getting many shots off. Suppression, however, is not modelled, so there is really no point to it.

And as Henronicus said, you take quite a few casualities every time you reform.

[XIII]

How is it better than firing by rank, tho? Firing by rank always give you a full alpha in the shortest amount of time.

I imagine that is a lot more valuable than constant fire, because it inflicts higher casualties in a shorter time.

Originally posted by 52ndCplDavid Dire:

The idea of fire-by-platoon was mostly about suppression rather than getting many shots off. Suppression, however, is not modelled, so there is really no point to it.

And that's a nice explanation to it.^^

[Demon of Elru]

Fire by Rank is still working in Darthmod right?

[Czar Salad]

Originally posted by Demon of Elru:

Fire by Rank is still working in Darthmod right?

Yeah

[Demon of Elru]

Ok good.

[Insaniac]

Platoon fire is significantly faster and gets off significantly more rounds than rank fire due to the reload speed modifier it grants units. As a rule, unless there's some sort of significant stat difference (Bulkeleys Regiment vs Scots) then the platoon firing units will almost always win. Just test it yourself. Scots vs Prussian Line Infantry. It's no contest, despite the fact that the Prussians have 10 more to reload and only 1 less morale. Additionally, platoon fire guarantees that about 3-9 men are always firing, regardless of the unit's status in terms of manpower. A rank firing unit's firepower is totally dependent on its manpower. Basically, as a rank firing unit loses men, it loses effectiveness, whereas a platoon firing unit doesn't lose effectiveness unless it is very very severely depleted. Also, because most of your first rank always has its weapons loaded, then platoon firing units are pretty much always ready to deflect cavalry charges, whereas rank firing units have a period of time during which they can't really bring any guns to bear against cavalry.

[Empire_TW]

Platoonfire is better then fire by rank as it revolves around the concept of you men always getting shots off. While your enemy is reloading your still firing.

Originally posted by Demon of Elru:

I play using the Darthmod. Is it disabled there?

It is disabled in darthmod because it got buggy when the mod authors made the units so stupidly large.

[Inardesco]

Platoon fire works for Grenadiers and Elite Infantry and allows the unit to fire continually towards the enemy because only 6 out of the 120 troops fire at the time.

In comparison, Fire By Rank allows the unit to fire three rounds across all ranks BUT, unlike Platoon Fire has the disability of needing all your troops ready to fire before they actually fire (so if a unit still hasn't reloaded and you send them away, they will first wait till all soldiers have reloaded their weapon before firing, which could allow the enemy to fire twice (once + reload) before your unit is ready to fire.

[Noob2Pro]

what is platoon firing???

[XIII]

Checking the wiki, it recommends not to research platton firing in the first place, in particular because units with fast reloading work better with fire by rank (and all platoon fire units have fast reload). Wastes shots by waiting for the platoon to go around.

http://empiretotalwar.wikia.com/wiki/Platoon_Firing

No mention of reload modifiers...

Originally posted by General Veers:

Platoonfire is better then fire by rank as it revolves around the concept of you men always getting shots off. While your enemy is reloading your still firing.

The enemy is reloading because he has fired a lot more bullets in a lot shorter time. There is no worth in constant firing.

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Platoon fire works for Grenadiers and Elite Infantry and allows the unit to fire continually towards the enemy because only 6 out of the 120 troops fire at the time.

In comparison, Fire By Rank allows the unit to fire three rounds across all ranks BUT, unlike Platoon Fire has the disability of needing all your troops ready to fire before they actually fire (so if a unit still hasn't reloaded and you send them away, they will first wait till all soldiers have reloaded their weapon before firing, which could allow the enemy to fire twice (once + reload) before your unit is ready to fire.

edited: I see what you're saying, but that's rarely the case. If their target runs away, then there usually isn't much of a hurry.

Also, units like grenadiers have very fast reload in the first place. The delay introduced by platoon fire actually slows them down. Prussian life guard have like 5 second reload time or so.

[Insaniac]

Originally posted by XIII:

Checking the wiki, it recommends not to research platton firing in the first place, in particular because units with fast reloading work better with fire by rank (and all platoon fire units have fast reload). Wastes shots by waiting for the platoon to go around.

http://empiretotalwar.wikia.com/wiki/Platoon_Firing

No mention of reload modifiers...

Originally posted by General Veers:

Platoonfire is better then fire by rank as it revolves around the concept of you men always getting shots off. While your enemy is reloading your still firing.

The enemy is reloading because he has fired a lot more bullets in a lot shorter time. There is no worth in constant firing.

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Platoon fire works for Grenadiers and Elite Infantry and allows the unit to fire continually towards the enemy because only 6 out of the 120 troops fire at the time.

In comparison, Fire By Rank allows the unit to fire three rounds across all ranks BUT, unlike Platoon Fire has the disability of needing all your troops ready to fire before they actually fire (so if a unit still hasn't reloaded and you send them away, they will first wait till all soldiers have reloaded their weapon before firing, which could allow the enemy to fire twice (once + reload) before your unit is ready to fire.

edited: I see what you're saying, but that's rarely the case. If their target runs away, then there usually isn't much of a hurry.

Also, units like grenadiers have very fast reload in the first place. The delay introduced by platoon fire actually slows them down. Prussian life guard have like 5 second reload time or so.

Well it's in the pack files. And with the exception of very specific units like Prussian Life Guard, and Coldstream Guard most units certainly benefit from platoon fire. It's pretty clear and visible if you just put a unit like Black Watch next to Swiss Infantry. The two have the same reload speed but the speed modifier makes a very noticeable difference. And again, platoon firing units are ready at all times to repel a cavalry charge since most of the first rank is loaded, and platoon firing units' firepower is not derived from their manpower, rather they fire at a consistent rate.