SeanBeansShako
Sergeant Knight at Arms
Congratulations! If you are reading this I’ve expected you’ve just formed your first Napoleonic Wars regiment out of a circle of internet friends or you’ve volunteered to be one of the few Officers to lead your men into battle. That is a very wise choice. Because appearances can deceive being an Officer in NW is a lot more than just a glorified game of ‘follow the leader’.
The contents of this guide will ensure that you and your regiment on the field will turn from this:
Into this:
Providing you read carefully let everything you’ve learned from it settle in and most importantly practice enough to get the hang of it. I’m also going to request that you pass this around to non officers in your regiments to also get the general idea of what will be done.
I’m not going to lie to you, after reading this you will not suddenly be a tactical genius of Napoleon or Frederick The Great levels and your fellow regiment members will not be Old Guard. But you will have an edge with knowledge of knowing what to do when a cannon ball wastes half the line and nobody else is stepping up to lead and that really is the most important thing.
Please note I am writing this in the context that the line battle will be using buffs as they should since it promotes teamwork and ignoring the more petty specialist rules if some line battles. I’d like to request FSE into ensuring this thread is copied and stickied at the top of both the events and regiments sub-forums as this is essential reading really.
Now let us begin first with the basics, assuming you’ve picked to lead a regiment into battle for the first time.
Officer Basics and General Field Tactics:
Ensure that everyone in your TeamSpeak or Mumble communications software can hear you clearly, turn up your volume slightly and request your regiment members to lower or mute the game music and drop the sound effects to around 50% for best communication results.
Tell your regiment to download and install this modified crosshair. The default Warband one is quite complicated to use combined with the different ballistics of the guns in the DLC. Installation is simple, drop into the textures folder and remember to replace the file if an update happens and replaces it with the default one once more.
Delete those unfunny admin commands from your NW sounds folder. Advise everyone to do it.
Rebind and remind everyone to rebind their all look key from tilde to ‘Q’. Have your regimental staff as well as yourself always briefly check around you using free look. Situational awareness cave save you being shot or stabbed in the back.
Read and share out the rules of the line battle beforehand, answer any questions regarding them as well as informing newer regiment members the role of each unit on the battlefield. If buffs are on and they are up to the task assign them Ensign and Musician of their choice.
Pick two of what you consider the most veteran of the group of the gathering to take command if the worst should happen to you. Officer fatalities can happen so the best thing is to prepare for it.
Some regiments in the games provided classes Officers have confusingly similar uniforms. Consider selecting an officer of another regiment or giving your NW character a really unique looking face. Also, with Cavalry consider riding on a horse with the rarest coloured coat to be a quick visual reference.
When giving orders on spawn, be as clear and precise as possible. It is best to leave the tactical military jargon to training as it confuses some people.
Ensure that with a line battle event server with buffs that the ‘staff’ stay alive with you and behind the bulk of your regiment. Keep them close too as buffs have a radius field of effect.
Practice your sword arm, especially blocking. This is vital as in melee the enemy will try and take you out first to cause chaos and confusion in the ranks. If your regiment doesn’t have a training server relax. Play single player Warband either vanilla or with a mod and just get used to the melee system especially with the blocking. The Officer sword is one of the more higher tier melee weapons in the game and deadly in the right hands. Save that Flintlock pistol as a surprise defensive resort.
Use your spy glass. Find the enemy locations. Avoid them or move into a better position.
Do not be afraid to pick up a musket when your numbers are dropping and shoot in line to support. Fire support and survival are vital.
Remember, as long as you're not shooting your flintlock pistol it is not mandatory to stay in line with your men when engaging the enemy. Yes it may look cowardly hiding behind the backs of your men but they need you alive commanding not dead on the first volley. Just remember to get back in line when moving out again.
Order your men when to independent fire, don’t let them do it on their own account. Suvorov sometimes is very wrong with his quote with the bayonet and the line with enough musket balls to fire in an organised volley at a bayonet charge WILL WIN.
Learn the default and buffed times it takes to reload a musket and count the seconds in your head. Why you ask? to pull off the perfect bayonet charge in a medium distance you will need to commit as soon as the enemy starts to reload as you will only have a handful of seconds to make it an effective attack.
Being in bayonet mode with a musket slows your speed down. Do not go into melee mode when attacking the enemy unless you are close enough to hit them.
Use team chat to communicate with the rest of the army. A lot of regiments are willing to work together and support each other if there is some sort of vague direction. As long as you're not endlessly spamming what you're trying to get through there is not real harm. And lets face it you aren’t really interrupting anything important being said in public chat.
Tell your men to hold your fire until the enemy line halts and is preparing to shoot. Due to the randomisation and inaccuracy of the common musket as well as latency issues shooting targets on the move is virtually P***ing in the wind.
Be mindful of where your marching your line. Friendly fire is always on and even if they don’t fire a good shot is wasted when you march across their field of fire.
Cavalry too. Always ride BEHIND friendly line and cannon and don’t approach too aggressively it causes confusion.
Treat your allies with polite respect. Keep all grievances and petty attitudes in your TeamSpeak or Mumble channel.
When playing as Cavalry or engaging in melee remind your men to block or attack a second before getting into contact to make up for latency issues when playing on foreign servers.
Remind your allies as well as your own men that killing stray horses is forbidden.The same also goes for Artillery Train horses. You are hurting your own team.
Tunnel vision for you and your men is unhealthy. Do not get focused on one target or one regiment. Pull out and regroup. Do not be afraid to do a tactical retreat for the advantage of your team.
So now you're on the field of the line battle and everyone knows your name and will be following you until the end of the round or until your NW avatar meets its demise.
Line Infantry:
The role of the line infantry is explained in the name in itself. Forming a stationary line to get the most out of the smoothbore muskets whilst keeping disciplined highly drilled men in tight groups for flexible defence and offence in melee line infantry in this game requires patience, teamwork and understanding from everyone playing it like with real life you will eventually die at some point. The main duty of line is to make sure the main force of the enemy stands fast and fights providing a focus for the rest of the regiments on the field to engage.
First off lets talk numbers. A regiment with around 15 men including you and the staff (musician and ensign) is the most flexible and in my opinion easiest to lead during a line battle. You can fight offensively, defensively and move with some speed with barely any setup time. We will refer to this number as Medium Line.
A regiment with 6-11 men is too small to do any independent actions like pinning down a bigger line or forcing a cav regiment to engage in melee but it does have its uses in defensive fighting at the flanks of the bigger lines as well as escorting and assisting with artillery guard or simply lying in wait behind cover. We will refer to this line as Support line.
And finally a regiment of line with over 20 attendees in it is quite frankly the heart and soul of the army you're fighting in and should be led wisely as they can easily turn a battle from a close victory to a defeat depending on their actions. A line this big can pull off double lines, split into two lines to cover their flanks and when formed in perfect defence lead to the swift death of a foolish cav regiment charging them. This will be referred to as Heavy line.
Call for the occasional halt behind cover to get your bearings and scout with your Spy Glass as well as tidy up your lines formation which gets messy over time due to terrain differences and latency issues.
Support Line Tactics:
Pick a Grenadier regiment if possible, the slight boost in stats will help alot if you are caught in a desperate melee situation.
Stay behind in spawn! wait a few minutes and go ahead to scope out the situation with your spy glass. Pick your battles as you might only have one shot.
Offer to support Artillery in setting up. Artillery guard will sometimes be non existent to very little numbers (6 on average) and losing your cannons early in a line battle too a Hussar charge while they are seeking a good set up spot quite frankly is a disaster.
Do NOT attempt to musket snipe another line or enemy regiment a mile away. Your muskets will barely hit anything and you will just draw attention to yourself. This is a standard rule for ALL types of line. You are suppose to meet and fight other line in medium ranges or bayonet charge cannon positions/lightly defended skirmishers.
Pick a medium line and move out with them on the march. Your job will be to stay behind them and then move to shoot or cover their flanks to ward off any raking volleys from other smaller or medium lines. Plus your numbers will be handy in bayonet charges.
Also consider teaming up with light infantry and skirmishers. Cover them from the rear with your bayonets while they are reloading in cover to surprise any attackers trying to close in on melee. Also screen for them while they are reloading by taking a shot at their targets themselves.
Use as much stealth as possible, limit or ban battle cries until the heat of the conflict as well as stray shots.
Do not be afraid to line up, fire a volley then retreat behind some cover at medium ranges to reload.
If you are caught in the field by enemy cav, try and use the terrain to your advantage. Anything like a rock formation, sapper defences or an abandoned cannon is good for bunching your backs up against and forcing the enemy horses to rear giving you a split second of a chance to kill the rider.
If engaged by cav with some distance between your men and theirs, order your men to shoot their horses.
You can form a line much quicker than the bigger line counterparts use this to your advantage when deploying ambush tactics.
If you have been spent (lost over 50% of your line) consider either falling back to the Artillery or link up with anothe line.
Medium Line Tactics:
Whilst you have the numbers I still would consider waiting on spawn for a minute or so and surveying the battlefield whilst the Heavy line and its support moves on. One Medium line should always be doing this so they can cover the Heavy lines flank during the earlier stages of the battlefield. Now is also a good time to locate where the enemy artillery is setting up and the field of fire they have before them.
Depending on the rules of the line battle or not regarding double lines you still have more men and a slightly longer set up speed to engagement with the enemy. Use the terrain as cover. A slight dip to a medium sized hill is perfect for cover against Artillery and sharp eyed Skirmishers. Maps with trees and buildings are perfect for cover too.
Move around hills and unless you are fighting defensively do not go over the top of them. Hills are great cover from roundshot and volleys as long as you are behind them.
When the heavier lines have made contact with some medium or enemy heavy lines move swiftly to support their flank and help decimate and break the enemy with volleys. When a bayonet charge happens maneuver your men to the enemies side and ensure nobody escapes.
If attacked by enemy cavalry you have the advantage of forming the perfect anti cav defence. There are two types. One is for double lines the other is for single.
Blob Anti Cav Defence (single lines): Officer and staff in the middle with the standard every other man forms a tightly packed blob around them backs facing the staff. Half the line braces the other half crouches and goes in melee mode with their musket. This one is best used as the emergency cav defence and can be used by smaller numbers.
Double Line Cav Defence: If given time this simpler maneuver warns off any ballsy cav regiment looking for cheap kills. Simply tell the rear line to turn around and move forward enough to position yourself and regimental staff between each line then order both lines to crouch and brace. The men on the edges of the lines should however be in melee mode to ensure to protect the flanks of the line.
Do NOT try and musket snipe against another medium or heavy line across the map. You will simply waste ammo and attract the attention of everyone on the field.
With max numbers of a melee charge with bayonet with the right timing can easily wipe them out. Just remember to remind your regiment of the rule of ‘two on one’ when engaging a single target.
When moving to clear out skirmishers or Artillery in an entrenched position with bayonets remember that as long as you have no plans to shoot you don’t have to be in a straight line.
Do not be afraid to play the hero and save the smaller lines from being wiped out. Use team chat and inform them you will be happy to support if they watch your own lines flanks and keep cav distant. Teamwork wins battles not numbers. Be happy to receive smaller or spent units to march with you and keep your numbers up.
Practice with volleys and general timing if you can. Use the line battle setup period instead of messing about and stabbing a friend in the face.
Do not be afraid to work with your artillery and keep their field of fire in your mind if you're fighting defensively. Lure other line regiments towards them and hold ground so they can drop some roundshot on them.
Once your numbers drop to the average Support line, switch to Support tactics and be cautious.
Heavy Line Tactics:
Be the first on the field next to the skirmishers. You are technically the ‘centre’ of the army you're fighting in and the line battle should be around you.
Your numbers might make double lines slightly confusing. Have the Ensign lead one line next to you and you lead the other. Make your Musicians march at the rear.
Once again I will state this: DO NOT MUSKET SNIPE ACROSS THE MAP. You are heavy line. Save your shots for causing the most damage as soon as you get sight of the enemy.
Like with Medium line be conscious about your numbers on the move try and use as much cover as possible to get close enough to the other heavy and mediums.
Hold the line. Especially if you have positioned your line right and your only exposed enough to give the enemy full brunt of all your musket volleys.
Seize good ground. Terrain is important when picking the fight. Try and get a decent minor slope or hill and stick on top of it. Lurk behind the crest to stay covered from artillery fire. Enemy cav will have a hard time attacking you up hill.
Do not be afraid to use the bayonet to force an isolated medium line into retreat and full on rout. Just remember to count the seconds after their last volley.
Keep pushing if you have the numbers, once the enemy has taken heavy losses and you clearly have the number advantage to win.
If possible on a buffs enabled server have TWO musicians. The effect stacks meaning reload times have an extra second shaved off.
If you want to be more flexible, do not hesitate to split your heavy line into two medium lines to support each others flanks in the shape of an L to get full battlefield coverage. It is a good way to encourage other members of your regiment to practice being an Officer themselves.
Once your numbers drop to Medium line average, switch to Medium line tactics and be more cautious.
Skirmishers:
Skirmishing is old, older than you’d think. The job of skirmishers in NW is to lure the enemy towards a defensive point, harass and slowly cause casualties over a distance and provide screening fire so an allied line can fall back and regroup. A well led line of Skirmishers whether they be Rifles or the more populated less accurate Light Infantry can survive slightly longer than their cousins in the line. But they are much more fragile.
But lets get this one thing clear right now.
You are not Sharpe. Richard Sharpe is a fictional character played by Northern English actor Sean Bean based on the novels written by Bernard Cornwell. Pretending to be Sharpe will get everyone killed. Stop being Sharpe.
Riflemen Tactics:
Encourage your regiment to practice offline with bots or during casual play with the Rifles to get the ‘feel’ of the Rifle. It handles very different to the Musket and people who’ve never tried it will certainly be thrown off. Also ensure that everyone has the provided custom crosshair instead
of the default Warband one for better accuracy.
Move out fast from spawn ASAP along with the heavy line. Your speed is one of your greatest gifts on the field. Only a man on a horse is quicker.
Cavalry is your worst enemy. Do not be caught unawares by them. Always make note of the locations of enemy cavalry.
Remind your regiment you are not line. Depending on the line battle rules Rifles usually are allowed of at least three men spaces between each other on the move and stationary.
Cover is your friend. Seriously. Cover with Rifles is ten times important with Skirmishers as they can space out and crouch. Use cover and keep your small numbers from being out sniped by enemy skirmishers in a shootout or to prevent being ambushed by Cavalry.
Go for the heights when possible. The Rifle is one of the few guns that can shoot straight with minimum randomisation meaning the projectile is slightly more accurate. Height adds to that advantage.
Remember to pull your men back behind the hill after the shots have been taken for full defensive coverage. A good height also means cav will hesitate to charge you as you’ll have enough time to shoot them or their horses.
After your men fire their shots, remind them to relocate position to reload. Line Infantry are the disciplined ones with the death wish. Skirms need their numbers to win.
Avoid melee. Next to the reload time it is the Rifles biggest disadvantage. If caught in melee try and encourage your men to just use the Rifle butts and go two on one trying to use the knock back effect to smack the intended aggressor. Always use your superior ranged skills.
Work with smaller regiments or Light Infantry and provide flanking support. Line Infantry is the better choice as they have bayonets and are good to fall back and hide behind if enemy cav or infantry get too close. Also try and team up with friendly Dragoon Cavalry if possible.
When things are desperate and numbers are halved if you can try and fall back to the friendly Artillery or abandon your Rifle for a Flintlock and join a friendly line.
Light Infantry Tactics:
The differences of Light Infantry compared to Line are quite a few both in the advantages and disadvantages. Unlike Rifles they can be equipped with firearms with bayonets on them. Unlike Riflemen though these are all Smoothbores.
Most Light regiments in the game apart from the British (and I’m including Opolchenie despite the fact they aren’t official) have a Cavalry musket or carbine which lacks a bayonet for melee but has a slightly increased reloading speed. Light Infantry also have much better ranged stats but are more delicate melee wise.
They can also be more flexible and can shift between line and light tactics when the situation demands it. They also have more numbers allowed than Rifles.
Most of the Rifles tactics will also work with Light Infantry as well Support Line tactics. Just remember Light Infantry is made for medium ranged skirmishing instead of long ranged skirmishing and requires you to be closer to the battle with the lines.
Working with Riflemen and Dragoons is also heavily encouraged. Just remember Light Infantry are trained to be ranged specialists and are not made for heavier bayonet charge style encounters.
