Best way to use line infantry

[gamerfun]

Pls help

[Insaniac]

In campaign or MP?

[NIck]

put them in a line

[TripleAxes33]

use hills to your advantage, place lines behind each other to shoot over top of units at the bottom of the hill. Watch out for friendly fire though

[operating1]

Depends on the tech they have

[Coocoodas]

Don't attack enemy units by clicking them. Position your line infantry and wait. Easy.

[Drewsko]

yeah never click on enemy just line them up and face the enemy and u good.

[Base Invader]

I find to minimize casualties using line infantry involves a mixture of the units abilities.

Positioning on high ground and waiting is good for landing a few volleys of fire into enemy targets. This stratergy in itself works, however I have found I can reduce casualties further when confronted with a particuarly troublesome infantry block that refuses to break, by deselecting fire at will, selecting to melee combat and bayonette charging home into the target to utilise a charge bonus.

[Inardesco]

^ only works with certain nations. Prussia early game, when rushing Fire By Rank, will beat everyone in both melee and skirmish.

Other natiins like France will make life difficult though.

The reason is simple; even though they're all called Line Infantry, the stats of each nation differs. Some are stronger in melee attack, some in melee def, higher accuracy than other or quicker reload.

The further you go into the Bayonet line, the more it is going to ruin your charge as it then starts providing bonusses against charging units, instead if increasing the melee attack,def and charge bonus.

[Răzvan]

Russia has a big charge bonus tho, and very very cheap melee infantry and cavalry. I conquered the whole Europe with Russia using only artillery, cossacks and streltsy.

[Maximus]

when ever my french soldiers are losing a battle i have 40 line infantry charge into over 150 enemy line infantry and most of the time the french win. idk if its just the french line infantry but they are very good in meele combat, i have found the square formation is pretty useful once your men are surrounded in enemy soldiers. (during meele)

[Sturisoma]

If you have more soldiers than enemy did formation. If enemy has more soldiers did formation. Cannons to center, mortairs behind . Grenadiers or near cannons or on lateral flangs. My averange army so:
General squad - 1
Chilvary - 2
Cannons - 3
Mortais - 4
Grenadiers - 2
Infantry - 8

Better if infantry formation looks like

or

In company, ofc.

[Inardesco]

I always box the AI in. Though that makes the battle be like; 20-30 minutes walking into place, 5 minutes of actual pew pew.

Then again, you do wipe out every last one of them.

[EoNightcore]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

I always box the AI in. Though that makes the battle be like; 20-30 minutes walking into place, 5 minutes of actual pew pew.

Then again, you do wipe out every last one of them.

And my friends complain I'm thinking too hard on my planning.

But everything must be perfect, the last general of the last army in the last settlement fort must be executed....by firing squad, courtesey of my most veteran and battle-hardened troops!

[EoNightcore]

Before Fire by Rank, I tend to make Line Infantry as spread out as possible. Large Single Line files to get off as many shots as possible.

After Fire by Rank, two/three line ranks will be sufficent.


When combat is initiated against infantry, Line Infantry that isn't firing into the enemy or warding off the enemy should be turned around to fire into the enemy flanks. The more guns beared on the enemy means more dead foes, which means less dead troops.

Bayonets will be useful against deticated melee troops here, to hold the enemy in place, before guns from the flanking line infantry can get a shot off and start whittling down the enemy.


Against cavalry, the best I can offer is to place Line Infantry in Squarewall formation. If that hasn't been researched yet, positioning the line infantry so that they can easily cover the flanks if needed, just in case cavalry should decide to flank your troops instead. However, often times the enemy cavalry might decide to just charge head-on. Bayonets will be incredibly useful here.


Against artillery, find out which infantry unit is being targeted and get them to safety, and attempt to find a way to use othe line infantry units to take out the artillery. If the targeted infantry is required to take out the enemy artillery, position them in one or two line ranks, to present a target that won't cause you to lose several of your men from a stray cannonball.


The above applies in field battles. In town battles, the buildings can be used as a way to prevent the enemy from firing on your men, allowing your line infantry to get in close and either start melee combat or flank the enemy. In town battle defense, the same applies, but buildings should be utilized to protect your men while bearing some guns on the enemy. Non-melee ranged troops or militia can be placed in buildings while the Line Infantry holds the ground next to it, so as to protect the weaker troops from being attacked.


In Fort offensives, Line Infantry can either be split up into several groups to attack the enemy from several areas, or concentrated into one area. On the walls, bayonets will carry the day, as the walls aren't large enough for line infantry units to concentrate their fire. Several points from the above paragraphs will apply once within the fort, as it is large enough for line infantry to bear their guns and there exists buildings that can be garrisioned for defense, especially against cavalry.

In Fort defensive, Line Infantry should either be manning the walls, or to be more specific, the cannons on the wall. Some damage to the enemy is better than no damage. If the enemy has artillery and is countering with their own artillery fire, troops should be taken off the wall once it is sufficently damaged (around 50% or so for me). Once enemy infantry gets closed, line infantry should be shuffled around to either defend the walls with cold steel (bayonets), or moved to the inner part of the fort to allow for the player to fire upon the enemy once their troops come down from the walls.