General hints and tips for MP gaming with HW.

[Gunner24]

Please note : I do not make any claims that I, or other NBC members can play MP games any better than any one else, these are things everyone might already know, but if not, they are useful to know when fighting MP games.

Doctrine
Make sure enemy artillery is the first priority target for your artillery, this is very important, if not you will lose your cannons and then enemy will be able to sit back and bombard you until their ammo runs out.

Deployment
This is critical, you have to make a difficult decision on what the other side may do, a lot depends on the map, bluff and double bluff, if your sure the enemy will attack on the western flank, they may attack in the east, because they know you know the attack will be in the west, so they switch it to the east instead !.

Use farms, villages, hills, woods and rivers to help protect your LOPs, keep “something” at the very rear to take care of any enemy Cavalry that may breakthrough your lines, it is always a bad mistake to allow the LOP to be taken by a single enemy unit.

Always garrison built up area’s with Light Infantry if they are on important routs to your rear, if the enemy attack comes up against these places it will at least slow it down until you can switch other troops to the danger point.

CiC
Always jeep the CiC moving around the battlefield, it helps with spotting the enemy and helps confuse the other side where your main assault might fall - hopefully until too late.

Keep the CiC near the main action when your attacking or defending, with delayed orders you need the CiC close by to get the orders acted on quickly.

Artillery
Try to keep artillery Corps to 3,4 or5 batteries, if they are larger than that they become very hard to position well.

Always position the artillery Cops on a “defend on line” order well before contact with the enemy, do not advance the artillery corps into artillery fire - that will be a bad news day !.

Avoid the deploy on line order unless attacking, do not use deploy on line if you want to defend ground.

Cavalry
Depending on the size of the battle/CEH try to have two Cavalry Corps, rather than one, two smaller ones are better than one large one.

Use Cavalry for scouting to find the weak point of the enemy line, if they have one, but be aware that if the other side have stronger, bigger Regiments than you they will be routed and maybe taken prisoner.  If possible have a battery deployed to cover the scouting Cavalry, then if they are attacked by stronger Cavalry the battery will help yours escape while the enemy takes artillery fire - and routs.

If you have small (weak) Regiments, always try to outnumber the stronger, larger enemy Cavalry, so when they go 1v1 and yours routs, there is a fresh second one to defeat and perhaps take the enemy one prisoner - if all goes to plan.

Cavalry win the battle, but not often when used too early…hold those horses back for the right moment.

Guard Cavalry can rule the battlefield, but not if lost in the early stages, keep them in reserve as long as possible, or use them in support behind the main assault, if the Infantry break the enemy line the Guard  Cavalry will cause havoc as the enemy rout, this is when the prisoners can be taken and the battle won.

Don’t have the Cavalry so far back in reserve that they take too long to arrive when they are needed….but not too close that they go off on un-ordered changes…….a fine balance is needed to get the right distance.

Attacking
Use Corps that are weaker in artillery to attack with, those that are strong in artillery are best kept for defending……..attacks with Corps that have no artillery are very difficult, one or two batteries are a lot better than now, they will support the Infantry as they attack.

Always try to attack if possible, the defenders have a large advantage if you attack them where they want you to, so attack somewhere else, find the weak spot and hit it hard, defenders can not be strong everywhere, the attackers can be strong in one sector, FOW allows the attacker to mass troops the defender can not see, until they are assaulted, then they have to re-deploy, and they might not have time to do that quick enough.

Always have a Corps in support on the flank of an attack to counter the enemy if they attack your flank when moving forward, an attack into a flank of a moving Corps that is deploying to attack can shatter it quickly.

After the first main attacking Corps has been in action for a while, and is taking damage, withdraw them to safety and use them as a fresh reserve in the rear - after they have rested……then continue the advance with a fresh Corps.

Always have at least one Corps close behind the main assaulting Corps in support.

Never attack into massed artillery, if you find yourself in this position withdraw and change the direction of attack to somewhere else.

Don’t attack with the Cavalry (very tempting !) until the main Infantry/artillery assault has caused some serious damage on the enemy, then launch the Cavalry forward.

Look for exposed Corps in a good position, like defending a hill, where there support is perhaps a little to far away, an attack on their flank can win before the other side are able to move their support forward.

LG is a “slow” game but it still allows a “fast” move to be made, as the order delay and movement might stop the enemy from reaching the danger point fast enough.

Defending
Always try to have a section of the front very well defended, even if attacking somewhere else, if the other side attack your well defended line that allows a good chance to counter attack the flank of their attack as it breaks down.

Place you artillery in the best possible position, even if this is behind your front line, then pull the front back and let the enemy advance onto your artillery corps line…..very good result for defender, very nasty for attacker.

Defend behind woods, or between woods, not in front of them.  Defend built up area’s with a garrison, but keep the flanks a little further back, the enemy attack has to “break” around the buildings.

Infantry Corps are stronger with about 25% Cavalry, so they can help counter attack any routing attacking units, close Cavalry support is vital to catch the attacker as they break.

Reserves
Keep good reserves to protect the LOPs and/or help the breakthrough if attacking, but don’t hold the reserves back so long that the rest of the army gets broken and the reserve is then no use, better to use them, than have them the only troops left at the end of a losing battle.

[McHugh]

I downloaded the demo a few days ago and have tried the battle scenario.  I found your hints and tips very informative but I do have a few questions.  You mention about bombarding enemy batteries, I assume that this is done by giving the command to bombard an area?  You also indicate that you should garrison a built up area (town?) with light infantry.  Is this done by giving the command "defend on line" and moving the unit to the town?  I'm little confused about how the commander in chief helps with FOW as you said he should be moved around.  Please clarify.  All in all, my initial impression of the game is that it is not a micro managment type of game.  You order units to specific locations and they automatically do things like deploy skirmishers as they approach the enemy etc.  So far, very impressed with the game as it appears it is much more realistic then the Total War series. 

[Gunner24]

You mention about bombarding enemy batteries, I assume that this is done by giving the command to bombard an area? 

You can do that, or if you set your doctrine to make enemy artillery the first priorty target the AI will do it for you.

You also indicate that you should garrison a built up area (town?) with light infantry.  Is this done by giving the command "defend on line" and moving the unit to the town? 

They will do that if the defend on line order line is drawn near to these places, but sometimes you will need to micro manage it.

I'm little confused about how the commander in chief helps with FOW as you said he should be moved around.  Please clarify.

 
I find it helps to have him move around, but you can place him on a high point and leave him there.  If you play with order delay (best option) you need to keep him near to the Corps where the action is to keep the order delay lower than if he were the other side of the map.

All in all, my initial impression of the game is that it is not a micro managment type of game. 

Yes, your right, you can play it without worrying about mm if you want to, but, IF you choose to, you can do as much m m as you want - good combination.

[McHugh]

Sorry to ask so many questions but have only had the demo for a week.  Here are some more.  How can you tell the range of any artillery unit as I don't know how far forward to move.   Ideally I would like to keep my artillery back behind a line of infantry or cavalry to protect it but close enough for it to able to bombard.   In my first attempt at bombarding an area, I clicked on an enemy unit but after observing with the 3D view, it appeared that the artillery unit was actually bombarding an area where there wasn't any enemy units.   Giving orders in 2D such as deploy on line or defend on line, it seems that individual units move at different speeds so that some of them end up moving ahead of the main force.  It appears that you can only change the formation of units in 3D view?  How do you stop cavalry from attacking units that come in range?  Finally, with the demo, how do you load a saved game?  Thanks again for any replies.   

[Gunner24]

How can you tell the range of any artillery unit as I don't know how far forward to move. 

 
The artillery range is listed in the manual, different for different nations......there is a "measurement" tool on the F2 map to check distances, although I don't bother to use it very often.

In my first attempt at bombarding an area, I clicked on an enemy unit but after observing with the 3D view, it appeared that the artillery unit was actually bombarding an area where there wasn't any enemy units. 

That can happen, but also the artillery unit will change it's target if a "threat" comes into view.  The other way is to use the "attack" option - then the artillery will move into position and then open fire when it's ready.   

How do you stop cavalry from attacking units that come in range? 

This is done with the "doctrine" editor, that is where you can give the doctrine of how your army will behave.  There are many options on how you want your men to act.

Finally, with the demo, how do you load a saved game?   

 
Not sure if that is possible with the demo, it's over a year since I played it.  In the full game the file is saved to the Save/Battle folder and you select it from there to watch the replay.

I would say takes things a bit at a time and don't expect to learn everything about this game too quickly, there are still things to learn, even after a year of playing MP games every week - it's a gigantic game !.

[McHugh]

Okay, I'm sold on the game as I've continued playing with the tutorials.  The artillery ranges are obviously not available in the demo.  I was wondering about cavalry that are ordered to scout an area.  They seem to more often then not get involved in a fight, usually with enemy cavalry.  I would have thought that when given a scout command they would turn tail as soon as the enemy is spotted, or at least halt.  Also I noticed that when I ordered an infantry regiment to support an artillery battery, the artillery battery moved well ahead of the infantry regiment.  The infantry took a long time to arrive at the location where the artillery stopped.  I quess this is where the timing of orders is important.  What exactly does support a unit mean?  For example, an infantry regiment supporting an artillery battery.  Or what about a cavalry unit supporting an infantry regiment?  Hope many of these questions are answered in the manual.    Anyway, going to order the game this week.  Trying to convince a couple of my friends to order it too so that I can play some PBEM with them.