Using Arquebusiers and Musketeers?

[Wehr Wulf]

Hey guys, I wanted to check in with you and see if and how you use the Hand cannon, arquebus and musket wielding units?

I really thought these would be staples in my army comp once I was able to start recruiting them but I find myself only keeping the ones I got as novelty honestly..

Obviously the issue with muskets is they cant do this, they need a direct line of sight, my first thought was to place them on my flanks, simple enough but this often leads to the enemy outright charging my units. I even initially place them far away and only bring them into range once the battle is underway but the enemy usually has some cav held back that they will send after my gunners, or they attack with their missile units, or a melee unit fighting my melee units breaks off and charges them. When this happens my guys get off 1 - 2 vollies before they close the gap then theyre forced to skirmish for the next 5 minutes or melee and they will lose a melee.

So I decided id try to do a checker board type set up.. Instead of placing my sword&shield units in one solid line, id place gaps in between them, place the musketeers farther back and fire in between the gaps. One huge problem is that musketeers take up a LOT of room. Place a unit of 120 muskeers in a 4 row recntage then do the same with any other melee/ranged unit...they take up 2x the area. But anyway. this strategy can work, but the results suck... In order to be effective you want thee firing line to be as long as you can to get more rifles firing, so I make the gaps between my units large - this always results in the AI sending melee units to charge my musketmen.

So, I keep the gaps small enough to where the enemies units cant run through without being intercepted by my infantry. When the gap is small like this I only get a handful of muskets firing.


TLDR - They dont seem to be very great, for me theyve been more of a hassle than anything.
Its so much more effecting to just get some crossbows, despite their lower damage, and place them behind my dismounted conquistadores and fire over them safely.


So does anyone here use gunpowder units at all? And if so HOW do you use them? Do you only keep one per army and use them for very specific functions?
As a general ranged unit its just not my cup of tea.. but a lot of times you guys have clever tactics I hadnt thought of

[Red Spot]

Originally posted by 3PoInt14:

TLDR - They dont seem to be very great, for me theyve been more of a hassle than anything.
Its so much more effecting to just get some crossbows, despite their lower damage, and place them behind my dismounted conquistadores and fire over them safely.


So does anyone here use gunpowder units at all? And if so HOW do you use them? Do you only keep one per army and use them for very specific functions?
As a general ranged unit its just not my cup of tea.. but a lot of times you guys have clever tactics I hadnt thought of

That is the problem. You take the best unit in the game, one you can not even recruit without jumping all sorts of hoops and then are even very limited in their use and compare them to 'early' gunpowder units. Gunpowder units are situational at best in this game, not a standard line-unit.
If you use dismounted anything, just spam that and no AI can hurt you.
Look at some of my recent screenshots, how I take the map with stacks of dismounted feudal knights. Nothing beats that and the lack of cav does not even hurt me as most fights are sieges anyway.

[Ashur_Arbaces]

Arquebusiers and any gunpowder unit that has low range outside of reiters I generally don't bother with. A pain to use and their few benefits don't compensate for their many issues.

Muskets have 1 huge advantage, they have the longest range out of any skirmishers in game (180 vs 160 for other long range units). They also do tons of damage. I always put them in front of my army in skirmish mode, skirmish mode is nessecary here so they don't do this 'units rotate after firing' thing that cuts down their rate of fire. Always deploy them in rows of 2 (as in each group of units will be spread out as thinly as possible, so all of them have a clear line of fire and as many as possible can fire at once) it's the most efficient. When they have to run back because of the enemy closing in I put them either on elevation behind my army or on the flanks to make them keep firing. They will still be a pain to use but they do so much damage it makes up for it.

[Mayonnaise Smiter]

Based on you having Conquistadors, you are Spain or Portugal, and can do a pseudo pike-and-shot formation M2TW style in field battle, by having your pikemen (Tercio or Aventuro) directly behind your musketeers, with the tip of the pike stretching over your musketeers.

That way enemy infantries usually would rout and cavalry would not choose to charge into pikes.

[Blitzcraig]

I dont mean to self promo but they are best used with pikemen. More detail in the guide

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2241818112

[Brady Gunner]

I used Handgunners once in a siege defense on multiplayer and they were quite the disappointment. Even when they had a clear shot they barely got any kills at all against a charging cavalry unit and the gunpowder didn't shake their morale what so ever.

Musketeers definitely are good but since gunpowder units are almost always banned I haven't bothered using them much.

[Inardesco]

Keep in mind that so early in gunpowder technology, xbows and archers are more reliable.

That said, if given the time they can absolutely rek high armoured units quicker than genoese crossbows.

[Jambie Lionheart]

Gunpowder infantry are most effective in the opening stages, in outflanking strategies and against cavalry (so long as you can keep teh cavalry away from the gunpowder infantry).

You can just stick them infront of your lines in the early stages of battle. They'll largely win against archers but it's a little more even with crossbows and the enemy will lose a lot of men during the charge upto your front line.

You can also leave them slightly behind your lines on either far side, then circle behind the enemy line and fire into their rear. This breaks moral real fast, and that's assuming they last long enough to be shot at.

and they're really good against cavalry. These guys pretty much shut down standard cavalry tactics because engaged cavalry near one of these units stick out too much and die fast when one of these units are supporting any melee infantry unit from behind.