Focus firing with Firearm units

[bill.stevens]

It's no exaggeration to say that gunpowder units are one of the greatest advantages that the Empire and Dwarfs have. They have won me many a battle, but one disadvantage is stymieing their use; I can't seem to get all of them to fire on one target simultaneously.

The almighty Zerkovitch showcases the importance of Focus Fire in the below video, gunpowder's "line of sight" issue prevents me from exploiting this tactic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LkVXzVIZrM


When deploying my front-line, I take care to space out my units like so;

i = infantry
G = Gun

i---i---i---i---i
-G-G--G-G

This allows them to fire through the gaps, and potentially into the sides of shield wielding units without directly exposing my guns to Melee. However, it also means that my ranged units can't gang up on a single high value unit and wipe them out in one or two volleys (barring monstrous / flying units of course). Is there any different type of formation or maneuver that preform to get all four gunners wailing away at a single hapless target?

[bill.stevens]

P.S. I assume this topic applies to Multiplayer and Singleplayer equally, but pointing out any nuances between the two would be welcome.

[MeDaDaddy]

Multiple reasons:
1a,b,c and d) Formation of the units (thin or thick; thick the back ranks may not be in range or may be blocked by terrain. In thin it takes longer to re-adjust alignment and the flank may be more vulnerable. In the video you can see the firing range/arc so you need all the ranks of your unit to be within that range);
2) Arc fire/direct fire depends on the unit (bows can arc, guns fire straight);
3) Ideally you want to fire into the flanks and/or rear of the enemy ...so you can use Infantry to tangle up the enemy and run your ranged around to the flanks/rear.


EDIT: so, basically you could have your ranged unit (say) 10 models wide and 2 deep, or 5 wide and 4 deep. In the latter case, the unit would need to be closer for all the models to fire but would be able to adjust facing quicker.

[Emmental]

For super cheese just have a few heroes and a small number of melee units to make up the front line with huge gaps. Guns can wreck everything. Like more than half your stack made of guns.

[Falaris]

I often use formations like this:
GGI-I-I-I-IGG, where the infantry falls a little back and the gun line surrounds the incoming enemy, like this:

G.............G....
..G.........G......
.....I-I-I-I-I.......

That only works in certain cases, though, and needs to be used with care. Reversing it is safer (having the infantry fall in from the sides with the gun line at the center.).

Generally, though, this is the real weakness of guns, and you really need to use the terrain. Find dips in the terrain to put the infantry, or hills to place the guns on, etc.

Hills can be really useful. (Seen from the side):

.................G___
______I__/

[Happyscientist]

You could set them up in a v formation with infantry rows between the guns (see below, and yes i suck at ascii art but you get the idea) but you are more at risk of being flanked. Be super careful with your guns though, looks like you have a lot of them and they tend to be a trade off between microing and friendly fire.

I-----------I
-g-------g-
--i-------i--
---g----g--
-----g-----

[Insane Scientist]

Old but gold guide on gun formations for TW:WH, helped me a lot: https://imgur.com/r/totalwar/NnQdt

[Happyscientist]

Originally posted by Insane Scientist:

Old but gold guide on gun formations for TW:WH, helped me a lot: https://imgur.com/r/totalwar/NnQdt

awesome glad someone found that, was looking for it!