Wait, what to escort cannons with?

[Archon_Wing]

For obvious reasons, this is before rifling.

So I just thought of this, and usually if going steel, I would use muskets to go with cannons and eventually upgrade the muskets to rifles. But waiting for rifling and cannons to make the first push is too late for any meaningfully difficult game.

Take a scenario where you have beelined to steel and the enemy has mostly maces, knights, and eventually muskets (mostly a non-factor). You just go up to their cities, and destroy everything in them, but what's to actually stop your cannons from being damaged en route?

The game chooses the defender with the highest strength and that would be the cannon by far (12 vs 9). So unless the muskets are combat I and on a hill/forrest, the cannons would be picked to defend. No other unit would have a high enough base strength to matter. Maces have 8 and bonus vs melee.... but that only affects other maces that just cancel out the bonus. X-bows don't have a high base strength. Oh, I guess you could have knights, but then if you have horses then it'd make more sense to go Military Tradition. Or you're Spain with Conqs and Citadels, but that's pretty obscure.

The only thing that changes this before rifles or grenadiers would be pikes against horse units. Or that HRE UU! Knights are obviously the greatest threat here as their flank attacks would quickly rip cannons apart.

Now, I guess this you should always find their biggest set of units and destroy them before you push deep into their territory and your forces should be so concentrated that this isn't an issue. But in reality though, what is the point of muskets beyond defending cities then? I suppose there is the draft.

Tl;dr Not having horses really sucks.
Tl;dr 2 Or does that mean..... Grenadiers?

 

[Pangaea]

Knights don't get flank attack against cannons; only catas and trebs.

With a big stack the AI won't dare to counter it anyway, at least most of the time, so you're pretty safe. And if they do, cannons should be able to beat their attackers for the most part. May hurt a little, but not if you have 20 cannons

 

[Archon_Wing]

I blame google for the knight error. It shows you how much I use them.

So in reality, I should really just grab as much "filler" junk units as I can to go with the cannons for cleanup then? Be they obsolete axemen, spearman, or maces, it's all the same against units that have been bashed down from siege.

 

[Randy Random]

Before rifles? Grenadiers come one tech after steel and they're pretty strong. Otherwise maces, pikes, knights, and war elephants.

 

[Tristan_C]

After a couple of Lib-Steel games in a row I realized the other units were just there to make complete kills of 80% damaged enemies. The cannons handle literally everything else. So yeah, use whatever is sitting around from earlier wars. Having a Drill promo cannon present will discourage the enemy from attacking the stack in the field.

Oh, I guess you could have knights, but then if you have horses then it'd make more sense to go Military Tradition.
...
Tl;dr Not having horses really sucks.

Should you consider Lib-Steel cannons rather than cuirs or draft rifles, my personal checklist:
□ marathon (don't build the Globe on this speed, and vastly favor siege stacks over mounted)
□ Equatorial; lots of caste workshop land (chem plz)
□ Paucity of tech trading towards nationalism
□ If there is need for navy - frigates and/or privateers
□ Preexisting veteran maces, or even some ancient units, need action
□ Ridiculous hammer site present and/or you need a GE for a corp later (ironworks)