Cheesy land battle tactics/army composition

[Pan Zagłoba]

I'm almost finishing my first campaign (hard) and now I'm about to go a level higher. Can some veterans can recommend me any OP magic tactis, or specific unit proportions in army? It's just kinda paralysing when you see that enemy has 3x more men, and technological advantage. Sometimes we just need to cheese. I'll pick a normaln faction, not some Marathans or Ottomans (with intention of going outside and touching the grass), so do you have any ideas of becoming a killing machine while on budget?

[pgeerkens]

Fast-track to Fire-by-Rank and Carcass Shot, seeking to get to 6 schools as fast as possible.

First thing I do before starting a new campaign is map out where I might build or acquire 6 schools, and plan accordingly.

If you start as any faction with with Caribbean territories, it's possible to take all North America by 1715-1720; and then tackle Maratha before they reach the Mediterranean Basin.

One can win as Ottomans on VH/VH - but it's ugly as sin. I'm playing that campaign now on VH/VH, and it's 1727 and I've only just gotten to Netherlands, cleared the West coast of India of Maratha fleets, and started building an Army Vizierate for Nizam-I Cedit infantry.

My full stacks have:

• 1 General;
  
• 2 Cavalry (at least 1 light, for the greater stamina in pursuit);
  
• 1-2 quality light infantry;
  
• 4-6 Artillery as:
  1. 4 @ 12-lb guns prior to researching howitzers
     
  2. 4 @ 12-lb guns & 2 @ 12-lb howitzers once available; and
     
  3. 2 @ 12-lb guns and 4 @ 12-lb howitzers once Carcass Shot is researched.
• 9-12 Line Infantry.

Late game, with 4 howitzers, I generally deploy with both flanks refused, the long guns centrally placed and flanked either side by a brace of howitzers. Once enemy cavalry is neutralized, and if necessary the initial AI charge repulsed, I look to swing my own flanks around on offence. I take advantage of every little terrain bump and hillock to protect my artillery, and can often win artillery duels with very minor, if any, losses.

With a very, very, small number of exceptions (ie plantations, occasional fishing ports), do not build past second level of economic buildings except to enable research. The game isn't long enough to pay-back the capital and opportunity cost.

I try to play without missile cavalry, except for Native Auxiliaries in North America, as they are ridiculously over powered relative to cost. But sometimes that's the only cavalry, or at least light cavalry, available; so I make do.

[Bfloo]

My composition composes of:

General
2 horse artillery
2 howitzers (once available)
1 - 2 Grenadiers
1 -2 lights
4 cav, usually 1 or 2 dragoons
the rest line infantry and elites

I like the dragoons as the can be dismounted to fill a hole in the line. The other cav is more to charge the enemy artillery and chase down routed units.
I like the horse artillery because they rip across the map and can set up a good crossfire.
I keep lights and grenadiers together and between the nade barrages and extra distance of firepower of the lights they can rip apart the enemy flank.

If you are having budget issues, leave your damaged units as garrisons, and just replace them with new units. Doing so took care of most of my budget issues.

[Empire_TW]

If you are going for cheese then you will want to go with Spain. They get cheap missile cavalry and light infantry right off the bat, also galleons allow you to take control the seas right away, by the time the ais research bigger ships to counter it should be too late. Spain's mission to annex it's colonies is also fairly easy and you get like half of the americas easily. Another big thing is that you can easily expand into Africa giving you access to
Dahomey Amazons which are really good, though be mindful of their small ammo count. You also get France as an ally so that's a safe buffer state while you expand into Africa. Expanding into the Middle East will also be easy because even on very hard the Ottomans are quite worthless, despite the harder difficulty giving them more money their regions will still be pathetically underdeveloped, actually makes the regions annoyingly unvaluable.

[Centurion]

My standard stack is:

1 General
4 Cavalry (Heavy or Lancers)
8 Regular Infantry
2 Grenadiers or Rifles
4 Artillery
1 extra, usually Light Dragoons

However, I also like to have "Flying Columns" in India and America consisting of:

1 General
6-8 Light Dragoons
2-4 Horse Artillery

The idea is to have a fast stack to deal with unexpected emergencies or to reach those minor settlements that are far away and not worth tying up a full army, like the Black Hills and Kabul.

[SquirrelzQL]

Most of the gameplay is based on battle context. If you're defending, prioritize artillery, guard infantry, line infantry for up front. Against native tribesmen, prioritize irregulars (long rifle men). They shred through the natives. And using cavalry and artillery. Dragoons and Light Dragoons can be used on horseback to catch up to routing units to clean them up really quickly, even better with wedge formation.

I highly recommend bringing along light cannons like 4lb Horse Artillery for town and city assaults, it is actually really fast to move them around and fire down the roads. Don't try to do this with heavy artillery, and only do this if you're not up against a Fortress. For assaulting fortresses, you need cannons that have a high arch, these would be called mortars. Make sure to have maybe 2x Howitzers and 2x Mortars for those Forts since you want to attack what is inside the Fort with mortars and hit the wall or what is outside the Fort with Howitzers. Light infantry is very useful if used in Forested areas but artillery\cannons are not, I find that Light Infantry defend against Cavalry charges better if inside of forests, they're also better imo in industrial areas such as towns or cities. It may be a little different in villages, probably focus the usage of line infantry on those. Towns and cities are very tight areas and it can be really difficult to deploy line infantry.

so probably if it is a town or city, adjust your forces more towards light infantry, 4lb guns and mortars. if its an open battlefield: line infantry, cavalry\light cav, howitzers\horse artillery, guard troops and light infantry. a village: prioritize line infantry, though I've had success with stacked cavalry units and dragoons. forests: prioritize light infantry, mortars maybe, line infantry can be useful sometimes in more open areas. Light Infantry are also probably the best units for assaulting positions that have artillery, high ground etc. Be aware that these units are very weak against Cavalry, and head on battles with line infantry can end poorly. I could be wrong about light infantry in industrial areas, but it seems logical to me at least that if line infantry cannon set up properly, they're less dangerous.

once I have several generals, I will typically have a general that focuses on cannons, one that focuses more on horsemen, and a prioritized general that simply brings a good mixture of line and light infantry. Right before a battle, I will move what I need into the main army, and the remaining generals will simply be nearby the battle for reinforcements. And I will usually move them around the map together, but its usually better only to do this only if you're travelling long distances. If you're only working with shorter travel for battles, its better to just recruit and borrow units from nearby cities and towns.

for naval battles try to move your ships in a serpent like fashion right as you begin to move into gun range so they're always able to engage enemy ships while moving in a general wind direction. this will not only allow your ships to reload cannons and break contact, but it will also keep them moving. it is even stronger to do this if you've cut the enemy off from the wind direction. Heavy ships like 1st, 2nd and 3rd Rate might be easier used as a wall. The faster more maneuverable ships need to basically move, sort of like how light infantry might be used.

[SpiffyGonzales]

This aint warhammer bud. You're gonna HAVE to fight most of your battles. The cheesing comes from strategizing more than anything. And ultimately your unit composition will HAVE to be a mixture of what nation you play and how you personally play the game.

Coming from a Prussia main though I like to go infantry heavy.
1 General
14 line
3 lancers
3 canons.

Once I get more tech I usually go
1 general
8 line
4 elite infantry (life guard if possible)
2 lancers
1 horse arty (just for bringing down walls)
3 light infantry / Frei corps
1 Grenadier

bear in mind though, I DID say as a Prussia main, and they reload faster than any other faction.