Empire Total War Random Question Thread

[germanicus12]

I put my Artillery on the hills behind my lines, if no hills are available, my artillery sits back and watches my infantry do what they do best.

I used to place them on the flanks and have them facing towards the center of the line so that when the enemy comes charging in, they will be fired from all sides, but make sure their fire angle does not face your troops, overlapping fire I find very effective. But the downside to this, (at least against the Native Americans) is that your flanks are attacked first. So this does not work for me at the moment.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Yes, If I find a nice mountain I'll usually plop my artillery on that slope (pity I can't put all of it on the reverse slope ), however I've been having mixed results otherwise, I think the best result is actually just placing one or two cannons next to each other in the line, too many cannons next to each other and you can't pour infantry in when the enemy swarms in.

 

[Rub'Rum]

Do units lose experience ("chevrons") when you replenish them with new men?

 

[germanicus12]

Do units lose experience ("chevrons") when you replenish them with new men?

Yes. They do.

 

[Maniacal]

Yes. They do.

Then how the HELL are you supposed to get veteren troops?

 

[LightSpectra]

Yes. They do.

Huh? If they do, I've never noticed it. Are you using the troop replenishment feature, or are you combining your depleted units with fresh ones?

 

[Rub'Rum]

I think you're supposed to merge veteran units together... I don't even know how to do this, is it possible? I know I never had a unit with over 4 chevrons and even then, most of the time it's 2 or 3. That's why I started to wonder if I was diluting them by replenishing.

 

[LightSpectra]

I think you're supposed to merge veteran units together... I don't even know how to do this, is it possible? I know I never had a unit with over 4 chevrons and even then, most of the time it's 2 or 3. That's why I started to wonder if I was diluting them by replenishing.

Whenever I've used the replenish troop feature, they always end up with the same amount of experience. They only lose the chevrons when I combine them with other troops.

 

[Rub'Rum]

Like I said, I don't know how you combine units. Like... You have a unit with only 45 guys left out of 120, and you combine it with another unit that has like 70 out of 120, to form one unit?

 

[LightSpectra]

Like I said, I don't know how you combine units. Like... You have a unit with only 45 guys left out of 120, and you combine it with another unit that has like 70 out of 120, to form one unit?

Click and drag the unit card onto the other? Or am I misinterpreting your question?

 

[Rub'Rum]

Click and drag the unit card onto the other? Or am I misinterpreting your question?

Must have never tried that. I never saw the use of it when you could just replenish... Until the whole diluting and possible loss of chevrons issue popped up in my head.

 

[Dachs]

It depends on how many troops they've lost.

A good chevron farm is to fire from behind trenches.

 

[Rub'Rum]

So, it's still unclear to me if they lose chevrons from merging, or from replenishing, or both.

 

[Dachs]

So, it's still unclear to me if they lose chevrons from merging, or from replenishing, or both.

From both. Both involve an influx of new recruits, who clearly are not up to the standards of combat veterans. Therefore, the overall quality of the unit is decreased. But, again, it depends on how many men they've lost. If you only suffer casualties of ten men in a unit of line infantry and replenish the unit, it probably won't suffer a chevron loss.

 

[Rub'Rum]

From both. Both involve an influx of new recruits, who clearly are not up to the standards of combat veterans. Therefore, the overall quality of the unit is decreased. But, again, it depends on how many men they've lost. If you only suffer casualties of ten men in a unit of line infantry and replenish the unit, it probably won't suffer a chevron loss.

What if I merge two equally experienced units? ... I guess maybe it'd be better to merge two 5 chevrons units who lost half their men, than to risk getting both of them back to level 4 by replenishing? ... hehe.

On an unrelated note, I am still playing a Grand Campaign as the Marathas Confederacy. I completed all the objectives by 1748 and I was like "Yay I win", except I realize now that I actually have to maintain my objectives until the end of the game 1799... Well, yay I guess. Although now I have no idea what to do for the remainder of the game! I guess I can roleplay or do whatever. It's just, I'm rolling in cash and the AIs aren't doing anything. I bought Sri Lanka (Ceylon) for 150,000 from the United Provinces at the end, that was all that was missing. I decided to do that hoping to avoid a war and finish the game sooner. But as I said, the game doesn't end.

I guess I'll go finish off Portugal who never accepted peace after I captured Goa, and give Portugal to the Spanish, my allies.

I captured all of India plus Persia, Georgia and Dagestan. I guess I can tackle Russia if I'm bored. The Ottomans are my friends (although I bought Armenia from them...).

 

[Kal'thzar]

I got bored too, started a world conquest

 

[Dachs]

Since the new patch, has anyone else gotten a sick bug when you're attacking a fortress in which your artillery fails to actually fire at the fortress walls? It's kinda put a crimp in some things...

 

[Rub'Rum]

Since the new patch, has anyone else gotten a sick bug when you're attacking a fortress in which your artillery fails to actually fire at the fortress walls? It's kinda put a crimp in some things...

I haven't... yet... They did improve battles quite a bit. For some reason it seems units react more quickly, and more firing goes on in the early stages.

As for siege battles, I'm still debating whether or not putting a whole in the wall is really a good idea. Trying to get people through the hole just sends them in a mosh pit of melee fighting and strategy at this point doesn't do you any good. It seems better to climb walls from a variety of locations. On top of that, I find that when you control a gate or dig a hole in a wall, pathfinding issues become even worse. You order units on a wall, half of the men climb, the other half decides to go through the hole against all odds where enemy men are waiting... ugh.

 

[Dachs]

I haven't... yet... They did improve battles quite a bit. For some reason it seems units react more quickly, and more firing goes on in the early stages.

As for siege battles, I'm still debating whether or not putting a whole in the wall is really a good idea. Trying to get people through the hole just sends them in a mosh pit of melee fighting and strategy at this point doesn't do you any good. It seems better to climb walls from a variety of locations. On top of that, I find that when you control a gate or dig a hole in a wall, pathfinding issues become even worse. You order units on a wall, half of the men climb, the other half decides to go through the hole against all odds where enemy men are waiting... ugh.

This is all true. My main reason for putting a hole in the wall is to be able to launch a coordinated attack with cavalry and infantry. In addition, the AI frequently keeps artillery units inside the fortress, who fire on walls that have been captured by my infantry; to reduce the threat of these, I use cavalry since infantry tend to get slaughtered by canister before they get sufficiently close. I've totally noticed those pathfinding issues, as well as ones in which units you order down from the wall sometimes go all in the right direction, but mill around on the top of the wall for thirty seconds, eventually string themselves into a long line of one man abreast, and then walk down.

Also, the accuracy of the AI-directed cannon on the fortresses is almost disturbing now. Counterbattery fire routed two of my artillery units the first time I tried this, when I was careless and let my artillery set up reasonably close to the fort. Now I try to terrain mask with non-line of sight units, but it's a lot more work.

 

[Maniacal]

So have they fixed anymroe bugs and implemented core features such as naval invasions?