Request Links that Demonstrate the Square - Battery - Square Division Formation, Please.

[Jean Lafitte]

I thought I had learned how to deploy that Square - Artillery Battery - Square formation that prevents enemy Cavalry from over-running my Artillery, but, a recent test game demonstrated to me that I do NOT understand how to deploy this defensive line.

As such, I'm asking for links to lessons, whether they be here or on YouTube. Dark Rob, which one of your video lessons covers this?

Thanks.

[Hook]

You need to deploy the artillery behind the rear side of the square. If the square is closer to the cavalry than the artillery, they will not charge the guns. It also helps to keep a skirmisher unit in front of the guns to distract the cavalry. You can retreat or reattach them when the cavalry starts a charge and the charge will be abandoned. Meanwhile the guns are firing canister into the cavalry, who seldom stick around long.

Hook

[Jean Lafitte]

Hook there's a screenshot or video somewhere that I need to study because I swear that I thought I had the battery positioned just as you describe.

:sick:

[DarkRob]

The first thing we need to get out of the way is to clarify that the "Artillery between squares" divisional formation and "The Fortress" are NOT the same thing, not even remotely. The divisional formation is to spread out, the guns are to far forward and being that most divisions have only 1 battery attached to it, there aren't enough guns within the context of a divisional formation. I never use the division formation. I always build the Fortress from scratch, and I always bring units over to wherever Im going to build it in close order formations like Column by Division or Column of lines or something like that.

Now about the Fortress. I regret that there is no single video that's sole purpose is to explain the Fortress. Rather it is covered in many different episodes, both in the main scenario series as well as the grog toolbar series. This is because there are so many variations and applications of the Fortress in so many different ways and situations, it would be hard for me to think of every single context in which the Fortress can be used in one video without leaving something out. Even I don't have it all memorized.

Even though I had developed the Fortress before I ever started making videos on youtube, as the series went on I too was still developing and learning new things as a player, a process that never stops, even today 3 years later, Im still learning. As I evolved and learned new things, so to did the Fortress evolve. I got better at using it, at harnessing its strength and at making it more adaptable. Eventually it became the foundation of my gameplay.

I will do my best to explain the basics of the Fortress here, as well as link some of my videos and the timestamps that focus on it.

The Fortress isn't just a series of formations. Its a philosophy of gameplay. One that seeks the surest route to victory by manipulating the game mechanics to the player's advantage while denying those advantages to the enemy AI.

The Fortress is based on a simple concept. Namely, that artillery within 200 yards(canister range) is the strongest weapon in the game in terms of the sheer number of casualties it can cause, and the speed at which it can cause them. It follows then that the most effective tactic available(or META) in the game would be to use artillery at close range as often as possible, while also bringing as many guns to bear as possible at as many different points as possible.

Sounds simple right? The problem of course is that artillery is super fragile, and super skittish. They don't stand for long once enemy infantry or skirmishers close to within firing range and begin dropping artillery men. Artillery is even more vulnerable to cavalry who can close with the guns much faster than infantry and even if the guns try to escape, the cavalry is faster and can run them down.

Cavalry being the bigger threat, I began there. It is basic to the AI that it will not charge infantry squares with cavalry(or at least it very seldom will try such a thing). It is also fundamental to the way cavalry works in the game that it cannot choose a specific target to charge(there is no choose specific target for cavalry, or infantry for that matter). It simply charges whatever target is closest to it within its charge range.

These two factors were what led me to create the first and most basic version of the Fortress, the "Cavalry Fortress". The basic structure calls for 2 battalions of infantry to be formed in square, parallel to each other and separated by enough distance for a 6 gun artillery battery to have an open field of fire between the squares(not an 8 gun battery, even if you are using an 8 gun battery, keep the squares separated by only the distance of a 6 gun battery, the other two guns of an 8 gun battery will move closer in on their own to compensate)

The artillery is wheeled up behind and directly in between the two squares so that when the guns unlimber and move forward they end up behind the rear sides of the squares(In other words the squares, in their entirety are forward of the battery once its unlimbered.)

In so doing, you are denying enemy cavalry the choice of a target. Because cavalry cannot choose a specific target, it can only charge whatever units are closest to it, they cannot charge the guns, because the squares are out front and so will always be the closest target, not the guns.

These formations can be linked together. If you have the guns you can simply do square, battery, square battery, square etc etc. Or if you are short of batteries you can lengthen the line and cover more frontage with the guns by doing something like square, battery, square, square, battery, square, battery, square, or something like that. So long as you maintain the correct distances.

Also, in case it needs to be said, ALL YOUR UNITS SHOULD BE TC'd. Always. The AI does not know anything about the Fortress, it doesn't understand the concept behind it or how to use it. If you leave your units under AI control they will not hold their positions and will start wandering off aimlessly to engage the enemy, dismantling the Fortress.
(For the artillery batteries only TC the battery commander. This will make sure the battery holds its overall position where you place them, but the guns themselves remain under AI control so they can shift around, rotate, whatever, so that they always are maximizing their targeting abilities and switching to the correct ammunitions. The AI is far superior to any human player at doing this, so I never TC the guns themselves, just the battery commander.)

You can see this, the most basic Fortress in action in my video "Episode 18" covering the scenario "Mont St. Jean: Sabers Vs Bayonets" starting at 19:00. This was still at an early stage in the series, and while the concept of the fortress was for the most part fully developed. I don't think I had actually coined the name "Fortress" yet.

Here is a link to that video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-t_O2ghDFU&t=1363s

Start with this scenario and try to replicate what I do in it. Don't worry about winning the scenario or your score or anything. Just concentrate on setting up the formations like I do, focusing on maintaining the correct distance between the squares and keeping the batteries behind the squares while providing them a good field of fire. If any of the French cavalry make it through to the guns its always because of two possible errors.

1. Your squares are to far apart and the enemy cavalry is able to get in between them in such a way as to be closer to the guns than they are to the squares, allowing the cavalry to charge the guns. You want the squares close enough to each other so that their zones of control overlap with each other(yes, I know ZOC is a board wargaming term, but I don't know what else to call it)

or,

2. Your guns are to far forward in relation to the squares and the enemy cavalry is able to find a position where the guns, and not the squares are its closest available targets.

Practice getting the setup right and making sure no enemy cavalry can get through.

Tomorrow Il make another post covering the 2nd variation of the Fortress, the infantry fortress.

[Jean Lafitte]

"The basic structure calls for 2 battalions of infantry to be formed in square, parallel to each other and separated by enough distance for a 6 gun artillery battery to have an open field of fire between the squares(not an 8 gun battery, even if you are using an 8 gun battery, keep the squares separated by only the distance of a 6 gun battery, the other two guns of an 8 gun battery will move closer in on their own to compensate)"

OK, here's where I think my methodology failed -- deploying an 8 gun battery at full spread and planting TC'd squares to both sides. Apparently, it is too wide a space and allows enemy cavalry to pick the 8 gun battery for a target! Oh, man! That's funny. LOL. What a nasty surprise I got when it happened.

[Jean Lafitte]

"Tomorrow Il make another post covering the 2nd variation of the Fortress, the infantry fortress."

My thread has a chance to become legendary due to your efforts, Sir! Huzzah!

[DarkRob]

"The basic structure calls for 2 battalions of infantry to be formed in square, parallel to each other and separated by enough distance for a 6 gun artillery battery to have an open field of fire between the squares(not an 8 gun battery, even if you are using an 8 gun battery, keep the squares separated by only the distance of a 6 gun battery, the other two guns of an 8 gun battery will move closer in on their own to compensate)"

OK, here's where I think my methodology failed -- deploying an 8 gun battery at full spread and planting TC'd squares to both sides. Apparently, it is too wide a space and allows enemy cavalry to pick the 8 gun battery for a target! Oh, man! That's funny. LOL. What a nasty surprise I got when it happened.

It can still work for an 8 gun battery as well, its just more iffy. The squares need to be placed even further forward ahead of the guns in order to intercept the cavalry further out. This can sometimes make it so the cavalry can come forward and still remain outside of canister range. They will still be repulsed by the squares but that isn't the point. The point is to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy. Therefore, its better to just close the gap on an 8 gun battery with the squares, allowing the enemy cavalry to get closer and receive the full broadside as it were. The two outermost guns of an 8 gun battery will find a way to make themselves useful, either by shifting around or moving inside with the other 6 guns.

[DarkRob]

Part 2 - "The Infantry Fortress"
The Infantry fortress is used when no enemy cavalry is present. It is only used for fighting infantry.

The Infantry Fortress grew out of the cavalry Fortress, although it wasn't quite the bullseye at first that the cavalry Fortress was, it took some experimentation for me to find the right combinations to make it work. Cavalry has only one mode of attack, the charge. Stop the charge, and you stop the cavalry. Squares stop the charge, and so stop the cavalry. Simple, and so the Cavalry Fortress was also a simple, static formation.

Infantry is different, primarily because it has more modes of attack. While cavalry can only charge, infantry can both charge and shoot. With the enemy having more options, the fortress must become more flexible. Therefore, the infantry Fortress is not the static formation that the cavalry fortress is. The principle of it though is the same, to be able to bring your artillery within canister range and be able to protect it so it can keep inflicting maximum casualties.

The infantry fortress is quicker and easier to put together than the cavalry fortress, both because you can make use of stock formations from the Grog toolbar(as opposed to the cavalry fortress which must be put together by hand, one unit at a time) and because precision of unit placement is nowhere near as critical as it is with the cavalry fortress.

It can begin with a simple stock infantry brigade formation like "Line" or "Double Line". Even "Line with reserves" will work fine. This is just an outline anyway. Lets assume we are working with an infantry brigade of 5 battalions. Pull one of the battalions off the front line to open up a field of fire for the guns, and then wheel the artillery up and place them in the space left behind by the unit you withdrew.

You should end up with an infantry battalion on the left, deployed in line, the artillery in the center also in line, and another infantry battalion on the right in line as well. The Infantry line should be setup even with or a little ahead of the guns once the guns unlimber, so initially place the artillery a bit back from the infantry. Something like this: --------_________-------- When the guns unlimber they should be about even with the infantry. The two infantry battalions in this forward position should be the two units in the brigade that have the highest troop quality in the brigade.

You don't need to squeeze in on an 8 gun battery the way you do with the cavalry fortress. Just deploy the guns at full spread and extend the infantry on either side.

That leave us with 3 battalions left to position. Of the 3 remaining battalions take the two with the highest number of men and deploy them in assault column directly behind the frontal infantry battalions that are in line, both the left and right frontal units. This is your counter attacking force. Should an enemy infantry unit charge one of your frontline units and force them back, you can immediately counter attack them with the rear units before the enemy unit has a chance to reform and charge the guns.
(These units are sometimes optional, depending upon the size of the brigade you are working with. For instance, if you are working with only a 3 battalion brigade, the assault column reserve is the least critical part of the formation, and the one you would do without when working with a smaller brigade.)

The final battalion is your source of skirmishers. I generally deploy them in line behind the artillery, kind of right behind the battery commander in a more or less central position. From this battalion you want to split off four 100 man skirmisher units. One each to be placed in front of the two frontal line battalions, one to cover the left side of the battery, and one to cover the right side of the battery(if using a 6 gun battery you can probably get away with just one skirmisher unit to cover the whole battery) These skirmisher units should all be deployed about 15 to 20 yards ahead of the infantry battalions and the artillery battery. Far enough ahead that the skirmishers are effective screening the battalions and the battery, but not so far ahead that they force the enemy to stop and engage them while still to far away to come within canister range of your battery. Remember that's the whole point of this, canister, blazing away as fast and as regularly as possible.

This is basically a game of you having all the options and abilities that the AI has at its disposal, but you are always one arm ahead, because you have the guns at close range, and they don't.

If the enemy comes forward with skirmishers, they will engage your skirmishers. Skirmishers vs skirmishers is generally an even fight as far as a shooting match is concerned. But its not an even fight here because the enemy skirmishers are not only dealing with your skirmishers, but also dealing with being pelted with canister fire from your guns. They will not stand for long.

If the enemy line infantry advances, they will do one of two things. They will either stop and engage your skirmishers in a fire fight, or charge the skirmishers.

If they stop and try to shoot it out, they've already signed their own death warrant. The skirmishers will get the better of it in a fire fight with line infantry as it is, and the canister will rip huge holes in the enemy lines as well. They will soon run off as well.

If the enemy infantry tries to charge your skirmishers you have two options:

1. Even if TC'd skirmisher units will not engage in a melee, they will retreat instantly. As soon as you see the enemy getting ready to charge the skirmishers, form your line units directly behind them in assault column. When the enemy attempts to charge the skirmishers, the skirmishers will retreat and the enemy unit will stop to reform. While they are reforming they are vulnerable. Counter charge them with the unit you just formed in assault column and drive them off. Your artillery will probably give them some canister shots as they withdraw as parting gifts, thanks for coming, please come again.

2. You can recall the skirmishers right before the enemy charge comes in contact with them.(This is cheap, damn cheap, in fact its practically cheating) When you recall a skirmisher unit as far as the game is concerned, they instantly become part of their parent unit again(even though their sprites are still present), their unit flag vanishes and they are no longer considered valid targets on the field.
Doing this has a number of advantages:

First, it stops the skirmishers from taking any casualties at all from being charged.

Second, it still forces the enemy unit to halt their charge and reform because they have lost their target. You can then counter charge them with your infantry while they are reforming exactly the same way I described above.

Third, it saves you the trouble of having to bring the skirmishers back up to the front after having retreated, which can sometimes be very far to the rear, and they use up a lot of their fatigue by running that far. Instead you simply kick out a fresh skirmisher unit from your skirmisher source battalion deployed behind the guns.

And finally, by doing this you are constantly cycling in fresh skirmisher units with full ammo and recalling more expended skirmisher units. Because all the skirmishers are coming in and out of the same unit(the one deployed behind the artillery), this one unit becomes a never ending source of fresh skirmisher units.

At any rate, once the enemy has withdrawn, DO NOT PURSUE THEM. All that will do is lure you away from your guns and force you to engage the enemy under less advantageous circumstances, possibly even within range of the enemy cannon, a most certain No No. Reform the Fortress, bring the skirmishers up again and wait for the enemy to come back for more fun. Rinse and repeat.

Some video examples of the infantry fortress in action include:

Episode 12: "The King of Westphalia" beginning around 23:38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHG7Y6M2K5U&t=2386s

Episode 22: Ligny: "St. Armand" starting around 1:22:42
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBpxQjDmuuo&t=5021s

Episode 24: "Count D'Erlon's Attack" starting around 29:00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI7m-VsTlAw&t=1745s

[DarkRob]

Special side note:
The Infantry Fortress is ineffective against the French Imperial Guard. There are no troops in the game equal to the French Imperial Guard. You cannot protect your artillery against them with just infantry. It cannot be done. The Imperial Guard will plow through your skirmishers and any infantry you send against them will get demolished in hand to hand combat with the Guard. You must have cavalry to force the Guard into square and keep them locked down. You can then use skirmishers and artillery to shoot them all to death. Never put yourself in a position where you have to deal with the French Imperial Guard in hand to hand combat. You will just lose.

Episode 36 "The Battle of Waterloo" Part 5. Scroll to 1:23:38 to see how to defeat the French Imperial Guard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gL12-ABZRoA

EDIT: Tomorrow I will finish this little essay on the Fortress with the final part, the Fortress in its final form: "The Combined arms Fortress".

[DarkRob]

(Sorry it took me a few days to get back to this)

Part 3 - "The combined arms Fortress"

The combined arms Fortress is the highest evolution of the Fortress, the Fortress in its final form, so to speak. It uses all three arms and takes the best aspects of the cavalry and infantry Fortress's and combines them into one impenetrable formation.

Step 1 - Setting it up.

The basic outline starts the same as the cavalry fortress(see part 1), two infantry battalions in square with the artillery wheeled up in between and behind them.

From there we continue building up the fortress with aspects taken from the infantry fortress. Assault columns are deployed behind each square as a counterattacking or relief force and another battalion deployed in line behind the artillery as a source of skirmishers. Skirmishers are then kicked out in front of the guns and in front of the squares.

Finally your own cavalry is brought up in rear of the fortress. They have no position within the fortress itself, but are kept in rear for purposes we'll cover later on.

Step 2 - Applications.

The combined arms fortress is the most adaptable, and therefore, least static of the fortress formations. The one downside of this is it also requires the most attention from the player in order to make it adapt as different situations and challenges are presented to it, and the more of these fortress's you have linked together, the more the player has to watch. High camera views are recommended when linking together many fortress's in order to see the most of whats going on in the field.

The basic idea is the same as all other fortress's, protect the guns while luring the enemy into canister range in order to inflict the maximum amount of casualties.

What you do here depends on what the enemy does, and in this regard there is no substitute for experience. Handling the Fortress properly(especially a lot of them) takes some practice. If you don't have the experience and the practice then the shifting situations can catch you off guard, and if you don't know what to do, the fortress can be breached. I can pass on the basics here, but ultimately, there are to many different variations of what can happen on the battlefield for me to possibly include something on every single contingency. It would be like trying to count the stars in the sky.

If the enemy leads off with cavalry they will likely charge the skirmishers in front of your infantry squares because the skirmishers are the furthest forward and so come within the cavalry's charge range first. In this instance the skirmishers act as bait. The idea is to let the cavalry come forward and commit to the charge. You want to let the cavalry come as close as possible to the skirmishers without actually coming into contact with them, and then recall the skirmishers. The skirmishers will immediately become invalid targets and the enemy cavalry will halt and reform because they've lost their target.
If you've done your job right, the enemy cavalry should be halting and reforming right in front of your infantry square and well inside canister range of the guns. This is your chance to let rip while they are vulnerable. The square will fire into them at close range as well as both the skirmishers in front of the guns, and of course the canister from the guns themselves. Trapped in front of a square and with no other recourse available to them, the enemy cavalry will quickly run off, probably so quickly that you wont get more than one or two shots of canister at them. That's ok. The point is to hit the cavalry over and over when they come up and just keep knocking them back. The losses will add up.

Now after a few rounds of this lets say some enemy infantry starts coming up. That changes things. If the enemy cavalry has already forced you to recall your skirmishers and are still hanging around close enough to be a threat then your squares are vulnerable. With no skirmishers to screen the square an enemy infantry unit can form line and begin quickly whittling down your square, or worse, charge them and break them, dismantling one side of your fortress. Fortunately with one move we can nullify both of these threats. This is where your own cavalry comes into play.
Within the context of the fortress your cavalry plays one singular role, that of forcing enemy infantry into square. That is their most important function, and so you don't actually need a lot of your own cavalry because all youre really doing is playing games with engagement distances.
So if an enemy infantry battalion comes within range of one your squares simply bring up one cavalry squadron and put them either off to the side of the square, or behind the skirmishers in front of the guns, just get them no closer than they need to be in order to force the offending infantry battalion into square. This nullifies both threats. The infantry unit cannot charge because now its in square, and since its not in line, but rather in square, its now even stevens with your infantry square as far as firepower goes.
But its not really even stevens because you are still the one with the guns. Now stuck in square the enemy unit is at the mercy of both your skirmishers in front of the guns, as well as the guns themselves. This is where the big damage can really start to happen. Your guns will quickly begin tearing large holes in the enemy formations and there isn't anything they can do about it except break and run.
During all of this keep an eye on the enemy cavalry. What are they doing? Are they staying close by? Have they moved off? If they've moved off this is your opportunity to kick out your skirmishers again. Screen your square again, screen your cavalry if you can. If the enemy cavalry really moves off it may be safe to actually form your square into line and begin shooting at the enemy square that is being held in square by your cavalry.

Keeping an eye on these rock/paper/scissors situations and exploiting them fully to your advantage while denying these same advantages to the enemy is the key to making the combined arms fortress the most deadly formation in the game. To quote Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid, "If do right, no can defend"
But doing it right is the part that takes the most practice. Even Im not perfect at it, and no one has as much experience using the Fortress as I do(I mean, obviously, since I invented it.)

But practice makes perfect. The more you do it, the more you will be prepared for the shifting situations and eventually you will be able to predict, even know what the AI is going to do before it even does it. Once you can anticipate these rock/paper/scissor situations and have the proper counter moves ready to go, at that point your Fortress will become impenetrable.
And remember, only you actually have rock/paper/scissors. The AI only has paper and scissors because you are the one with the guns. The AI is woefully bad at using its artillery in an offensive manner and there are ways to force its guns to turn around beforehand even further limiting their effectiveness.

Again this is only some of the basic ideas behind the combined arms fortress. There are tons of subtleties and nuances that only experience can give you and that I probably couldn't explain that well anyway. Every situation is different and so what you do can be different as well.

As far as video's demonstrating how this formation works, there are to many for me to list them all here. Its by far the most common formation I use in bigger scenarios.

Fortunately however, there is one video that is pretty much the final word on this formation, and that is part 4 of my Battle of Waterloo as the French. In order to stop the Prussians cold, I deploy the biggest line of combined arms fortress's out of any video in my series. Made up of Lobau's corps as well as elements of D'Erlon's corps, Milhaud's cavalry, the Imperial guard, and bristling with more artillery then anyone should legally have a right to bring to bear, it is truly the ultimate Fortress and the carnage it unleashes is truly epic.

(skip to 44:14 to begin just as the Prussians are approaching. Notice how I begin by having Jaquinoit's cavalry division engage the Prussian cavalry to disrupt their approach and force the Prussian guns to turn around and back off. Once I pull Jaquinoit back behind the fortress's, the Prussian cavalry will have to go it alone against the fortress until the Prussian infantry can come up. Then the real fun starts.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S34YRyyqVP0&t=4751s