Observations of a Newbie

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Observations of a Newbie - 10/23/2006 1:36:19 PM

Andy Mac

Posts: 15222
Joined: 5/12/2004
From: Alexandria, Scotland
Status: offline

Been playing this game a while now I found it difficult to get into at first but after the learning period I love it !!!

I have only played as Britain so far and I have a few observations

British Infantry

Guards exceptional !!!
Rifles Great !!!
Line Infantry appear better than everyone elses as well because of the high national morale.

Basically British Infantry are the true Queen of the Battlefield and appear to be almost as good as guards for other armies (high national morale is wonderfull) I take every Infantry upgrade I can get especially the extra square firepower as its a lifesaver.

British Cavalry - Always outnumbered never seem to keep there shape.

I think I am not using the optimal army mix 70% British Infanty/Guards or Rifles, 20% Cavalry, 10% Arty.

I seem to win a lot of indecisive battles as you really need to preserve your cavalry to make the victory decisive - mine always seem to be outnumbered and are a one shot deal i.e. I break or counter charge once then my guys get routed in turn.

I fought a 3 hour 4 day Waterloo battle last night in Central Germany

Br 1st Army with 1st and 5th Corps backed by some Swedes fought off the whole French Army to an indecisive draw.

(I had no Caissons as I forgot the Depot and my reinforcements were slow to arrive it was incredibly tense)

The French Army had a LOT of Cavalry but not much Inf or Arty so I basically found some bad country and dug in in squares River to my front, village and forest to my Right and nice open plain to my left.

So I had 1x Guards/2 x Line Inf to my Front with my only Cav Div in support.

Hvy Arty and 2 x Rifles on my Right in square in the forest and town with one Inf Div in reserve

And 1 Guards and 5 Line Inf on my Right echeloned in line with squares anchoring the open flank - it was tense as my divisions arrived slowly and Frnech Cavalry was inside my perimeter many times.

Each night the French seemed to redeploy and probe a differetn part of my line - the AI did well in this so guessing where the French would attack with no recon cavalry and fewrer and fewer supplied infantry divisions (I had 2 town squares which I could rotate troops into for minimal supply)

I have observed that I probably rely to much on the superb British Infantry and the AI relies on good French and Spanish Cavalry to much every AI army I face has to much Cav and not enough Infantry so my Cavalry gets run out of the battle as soon as I use it and then my long suffering Infantry break AI Cav Div after Cav Div.

The AI is actually not bad in the tactical battles it just seems to have its army mix wrong to break quality Infantry had it had 2 or 3 more Arty or good French Infantry it could have turned my right into an attritional battle that my Ammo would nit have sustained.

As it was 2 of my Divs morale really dropped and I was seriously worried about a cascade rout at lunch on day 3 when fog came to my rescue.

By Day 4 the French had broken enough of their Cav against my squares that they withdrew (the routed but I lost 9,000 to there 12,000 and I had no cavalry to exploit so I call it a defensive draw)

If FOF is this good its a must buy !!!

Andy

Post #: 1

RE: Observations of a Newbie - 10/23/2006 1:39:53 PM

Andy Mac

Posts: 15222
Joined: 5/12/2004
From: Alexandria, Scotland
Status: offline

p.s. I think the reason so many french cav disordered was I had in floating reserve 1 Rifle Div and 1 Horse Arty Div (with rocket upgrade) and these two units got priority each night for my limited resupply each deay they broke one or two FR Cav Divs after they had became disordered against my squares.

(in reply to Andy Mac)

Post #: 2

RE: Observations of a Newbie - 10/27/2006 5:53:07 PM

Joram

Posts: 3198
Joined: 7/15/2005
Status: offline

All cavalry have a disadvantage to getting back into good order once disordered. And on top of that there are penalties for all units at night. It's not uncommon to have much of your cavalry disordered for the vast majority of the battle even if it stretches into multiple days. This is why you really need to think when to commit your cavalry because unless you are lucky (or just have tons of cavalry) you may not get to use them again. And if you are not able to screen your disordered troops, the AI will act like a shark smelling blood and mercilessly pound your disordered troops into oblivion.

Of course this leaves the obvious tactic of tricking the AI into charging you by sacrificing low morale militia or other troops. Doesn't work well if the enemy has certain upgrades but you can often wear out the enemy cavalry by tricking them to go after useless troops.

(in reply to Andy Mac)

Post #: 3

RE: Observations of a Newbie - 10/28/2006 12:42:12 AM

Russian Guard

Posts: 1251
Joined: 10/14/2005
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Joram

Of course this leaves the obvious tactic of tricking the AI into charging you by sacrificing low morale militia or other troops. Doesn't work well if the enemy has certain upgrades but you can often wear out the enemy cavalry by tricking them to go after useless troops.

Yes this is a cheezy tactic (IMO) that could be fixed by having the AI "assess" the value of the nearby disordered unit, as in, a percentage die roll perhaps, based on the type/strength of the disordered unit. So for example a nearby disordered Guard unit would be charged 99% of the time, whereas a lowly militia unit might only be charged 10% of the time...

Easy for me to say. Coding it might be a different story...

And then there's the obvious choice - don't take advantage of the AI in this way.

(in reply to Joram)

Post #: 4

RE: Observations of a Newbie - 10/29/2006 8:51:09 AM

Joram

Posts: 3198
Joined: 7/15/2005
Status: offline

Don't get me started about the AI, I know I sound like a broken record these days. :)

To your point, once you realize something I think most people have a hard time un-learning it. While you make a fair comment, just saying "don't do it" isn't as easy as it sounds. Especially for something so simple.

(in reply to Russian Guard)

Post #: 5