In my last game, the forces broke down like this:
Conquisatador level, MArathon game.
Me: 38 soldiers, 9 dragoons, 47 cannon, 10 Ships of the line, 11 privateers.
4 soldiers were veterans. 1 dragoon was a veteran, and 6 of my dragoons were former seasoned scouts with a LOT of experience.
Enemy: 212 regulars, 115 dragoons, 88 artillery, 13 warships.
I had enough horses and guns stockpiled to make another 14 dragoons or 17 infantry on demand, and I was producing enough horses and guns to make another 1 or 2 units per turn.
Basically, I had a slight advantage in naval power, and the REF ground forces outnumbered me by about 4 to 1.
In that game, I beat them quickly with a naval victory, then reloaded the game, and beat them in a ground victory, without using any ships.
beating the Ref is pretty easy. What you need to know:
1. as far as I know, the ref has all the normal bonuses and penalties for terrain. meaning, dragoons don't get any bonuses for terrain, soldiers do, cannon/artillery gets a 50% bonus for defending settlements, but no other bonuses. You have the same restrictions.
2. all REF units get HUGE bonuses, above and beyond the normal, for attacking any settlements.
3. all cannon/ artillery, on both sides, gets a 100% bonus for attacking any settlement, and a 50% bonus for defending any settlement.
4. Cannon/artillery/ Ships of the line/ men of war can bombard a settlement's stockade/fort/fortress defense bonus down to zero eventually. also, that bonus only applies to soldiers in the first place.
5. Soldiers are your key defensive unit, inside settlements or outside. Dragoons are your key offensive element, outside settlements. Artillery are best used to attack settlements, but make decent settlement defenders in a pinch.
So, here's how to beat the REF:
First method: Naval victory.
Loaded ref men-of war will make a beeline for your shores, unload, THEN turn and fight, before eventually returning to europe to reload.
in general, in order to sink a man of war, you need to swarm it with 4 privateers, 3 frigates, or 2 ships of the line. only one of your attacking ships will survive. my prefferred method was to sacrifice a privateer to damage the enemy, then attack with a ship of the line. that worked about 50% of the time. when it didn't work, I had a designated experienced ship of the line which sailed in and finished of the wounded. That experienced Ship of the line was eventually powerfull enough to take out an enemy Man of war in a fair fight.
So, if you have enough ships, you win. easy. Try to spread your privateers out in an early-warning screen, so you have plenty of time to find and engage the enemy before he reaches your shores, and keep your ships of the line together, so they can protect each other. I killed about half the ships in the first wave, all but one in the second wave, and finished them off in the third. with no ships, the REF can't reach your shores, and you win as soon as whatever ground forces DID reach your shores are finished off.
Second method: Kill them on the beaches.
I had ONE settlement bordering on the ocean. all other settlements were inland and serviced by wagon trains. my ONE settlement on the ocean was surrounded by forested hills and mountains. for 2 squares up and down the shore, there was nothing but forested hills and mountains touching the shore. beyond that, it was plains, and I had clear-cut those plains so that there was NO forest for cover. everything had a road built on it, so my dragoons could quickly reach anything nearby.
Then I put stacks of infantry on every piece of shore near my colony. 6 tiles near my colony had 6 infantry each fortified on top of it. 4 reserve infantry in my colony, and about 15 artillery in my colony.
I placed one artillery in each of my inland colonies. my 9 dragoons, and ~ 25 remaining artillery, were all placed in the closest inland colony. EVERY colony had a fortress.
The enemy sailed in, and tried to make amphibious assaults, against fortified positions, on some of the most defensible terrain possible. whenever some of the infantry in a stack got too badly damaged, I withdrew them to the colony to heal, and shuffled my forces to fill in the gap.
If i had green units defending a tile, who had only been fortified for one turn, the enemy took 4-1 casualties.
If I had EXPERIENCED units defending a tile, who had been fortified for 5 or more turns, the enemy took 16-1 casualties.
It helps to get at least one unit in each stack promoted as a surgeon, faster healing in place.
VERY RARELY, the enemy would land troops in the plains to the far north or south of my colony. 9 dragoons with pre-laid roads were more than enough to take them out.
The only time I had to use my cannon was when I didn't have enough infantry in my colony to defend the colony proper against a direct amphibous assault. Infantry make better settlement defenders, especially with a fortress.
the one time a man-of-war stuck around long enough to bombard my defenses down to a dangerous level, i sailed my fleet out from the colony, killed him, and sailed back in. otherwise, I left his fleet alone.
Method 3: Fight him within the interior.
Fighting the enemy in the settlement proper is a very bad idea. all his bonuses come into play there.
your dragoons want to fight him on the empty plains, where your dragoons can withdraw to safety, and he can't catch you. your soldiers want to fight a defensive battle, in forests and mountains and hills, where the enemy has to leave his comfort zone, and fight a constant uphill battle. Certain founding fathers and other revolutionary heroes will give you massive bonuses for these sorts of tactics.
Let the enemy charge you, bleed him out, then run away and repeat. make him come to you, over and over again. Cavalry hit him when he's unfortified on the plains, or wounded and retreating in the hills.
Method 4: feed him a poisoned settlement.
pick a settlement along the shore, and GIVE it to him. The enemy is much better at taking colonies than he is at holding them.
then put a very large force of infantry and cannon on a mountain or wooded hill overlooking the colony. the infantry dig in to resist any attack. the cannon just pound him. kill everything he has in the settlement, retreat, give it back to him. Repeat constantly. Cannon are much better at attacking settlements than anyone is at defending them. remember not leave any defensive walls standing, and beware the cavalry. cavalry are designed to kill cannon BEFORE they reach a settlement: that's why you need an infantry screening force, and defensible terrain.
Whichever method you use: ALWAYS CONCENTRATE YOUR FORCES. Soldiers who aren't shooting or healing are worthless to you. if a settlement isn't being attacked, divert all but a token force towards whatever is being attacked. it's far better to lose a colony from a flank attack than to lose a colony AND a significant portion of your army from a frontal attack. Colonies come and and go, armies are forever.
but I have had the tactic to attack and sink as many of the kings warships as possible. That will help... It might not be the best way...
