When do you use Musketmen?

[Diamondeye]

I find the span of musketmen too short and their role too undefineable to be of any real use - atleast if they're not UUs or you haven't got a serious tech lead - opinions please!

NOTE: If you, as in my case, only really use muskets if they are your UU and you are serious techleader, please check the "two or more of above"

 

[Supr49er]

Due to their short lifespan, I will usually use them only when I'm PRO.

 

[Jaybe]

Muskets with strength of 9 are wimps. I've modified the musket class of units to 10 strength and use them. I also build Pikes to help protect them from horse (as is historical until bayonets were invented).

To partially compensate for the strength increase, Grenadiers also get a slight attack bonus vs. Muskets.

 

[Bhruic]

What, no Musketeer love?

Bh

 

[DigitalBoy]

I use musketmen when I'm able to effectively beeline them. Sometimes I'll skip longbowmen/macemen entirely and try to go straight from classical era units to musketmen. Usually I do this by lightbulbing Philosophy and part of Education with great scientists and get Gunpowder as a free tech for researching Liberalism. Or I just use one great scientist for Education and go straight for Gunpowder.

By the way, you forgot musketeers as a UU.

 

[jlwzap]

I tend to use them because for whatever reason, I always seem to get gunpowder before guilds. I heavily promote them with barracks, etc to combat II or III, (and cover if i can) then bring some pain

this breaks up the deadlock of macemen vs macemen or macemen vs heavily promoted longbows.

 

[lutzj]

You forgot to add an "always" option

Musket-basher

 

[King Flevance]

I use them when the situation calls for it. Currently I am at war in a hotseat game and muskets were the main part of our army after our discovery of gunpowder. We had to take on the most powerful team nation in the world by far (and their 2 ai team vassal) and they did the trick. But they were coming out with Combat 2/3 and the anti-cav promotion. (enemy had alot of knights.)

Some games though they aren't worth much. Especially any game speed above marathon. They may be able to see some short term use on epic though. depends on how they come into the game.

 

[lauralaura]

Only when I'm fighting a defensive war or am in imminent danger of one. I tend not to use them in my invasion fleet, since maces are only 1 point weaker, but can get city raider line promotions, which are key, especially when you mass upgrade to CRIII rifles, which are yummy. Unless I'm under attack, I just skip over them until grens/rifles come around.

 

[Nishdog]

I'll build them if I've been ignoring city defense and have warriors in my cities...and I'll certainly build a bunch if I get the event tied to building lots of muskets...I got that once and got a free golden age for completing it successfully!

 

[bardolph]

I use Muskets when I get Gunpowder. Musketmen are a fairly solid unit, and have no hard counter. In BtS, they have a significantly longer lifespan than in Vanilla/Warlords, since Grenadiers have been moved to Military Science instead of Chemistry. Plus, Musketmen are draftable.

If my UU is based on Musketman (France, Ethiopia, Ottomans), I may very well use the Liberalism free tech to get Gunpowder, or I will snag Nationalism and research Gunpowder next.

If you have the Globe Theater in a high-food city, you can abuse Nationhood to create a massive army of Muskets in a relatively short time.

 

[entwood]

To replace longbowmen as defenders in cities, Archer, Longbow, then Musket...plus a Spear or Pike to guard against Cavalry.

Shouldn't you usually have 2, 3 , or 4 garrison mixed troops in cities when on Hereditary Rule?

 

[bardolph]

To replace longbowmen as defenders in cities, Archer, Longbow, then Musket...plus a Spear or Pike to guard against Cavalry.

Shouldn't you usually have 2, 3 , or 4 garrison mixed troops in cities when on Hereditary Rule?

Longbows don't upgrade to Muskets, so you'll have to build (or draft) your Muskets separately. However, once you hit Rifles, they will both upgrade.

 

[SlightlyMad]

I play marathon, so there's always a decent bit of time for them. They're actually extremely useful against an opponent who has lots of heavily promoted units. Suddenly, all those anti-archery and -melee promotions are completely useless. Even if their actual strength isn't all that much higher, their ability to negate enemy promotions can make a dramatic difference.

They're particularly of use in an ongoing war of attrition, to quickly turn the tides.

 

[eric_]

I typically start building muskets as soon as they are available to replace non- or low-promoted longbows as city defenders, unless I have a pressing need for offensive units at that time.

 

[mentor]

I use them when they are a UU. Otherwise they are just a stepping stone on the road to Riflery.

 

[Slobadog]

I build muskets if its a UU, or if i'm currently in a war, or if i have tech lead.

 

[SlightlyMad]

Keep in mind, they can make useful support attackers as well. They can really make a difference in a stack to take out those pesky pikes and maces that are tearing your knights and your own maces apart.

Their usefulness is limited, but it's certainly there, especially on marathon.

 

[hecubus]

I will build them if I have a lot of gold, just for quick upgrades to Riflemen.

 

[Lightwave]

I use them strictly for defense in the very short lifespan that they have. I tend to leave some cities weakly protected (I'm a single player player), so I sometimes need to build them in certain cities depending on the immediate need, but more often they essentially get skipped.