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Battleground 3: Waterloo cheats / Battleground 3: Waterloo hints / Battleground 3: Waterloo faqs / Battleground 3: Waterloo solutions Battleground 3: Waterloo hints Disclaimer: The information presented on this page is presented purely as a result of my own playtesting and experiences. Please don`t take it as gospel and if anyone out there has better ideas/suggestions send them in! General Advice: 1) RESERVES In any of the scenarios I cannot emphasise enough the requirement to keep a decent sized reserve available. In attack or defence fresh unfatigued units can save or win the day depending on how you look at it. A reserve element should consist of ALL arms not just a weak Quality 2 rated infantry battalion! Keep them out of harms way until the critical moment as they will be of little use if the enemy are allowed to punish them with artillery fire or outflanking cavalry charges whilst they wait.for their moment of glory. Also, rotate fatigued untis out of the line whenever and wherever possible as the adverse modifiers they attract can turn even the Imperial Guard into a substandard melee unit. A unit rested for 1-2 game hours can often play a decisive role later in the day rather than suffer the ignominy of constant routs. 2) OBSERVATION The old saying of "Know thy enemy" is still as valid today as it ever was. You should also know his dispositions including strengths and weaknesses at any given point in the line. This can be accomplished quite easily with minimal loss by the adept use of small skirmish formations or detached cavalry squadrons. Go on...take a look over that next hill, you may lose 25 skirmishers but you may also find that your next attack will surely fail when they get charged by the 3000 heavy cavalry that are hidden behind the reverse slopes. Observation becomes critical at dusk and at night as you can`t see beyond 400 yards (4 hexes). Keep those lookouts posted! 3) SKIRMISHERS Whether in attack or defence always keep a strong skirmish line in front of your main force. They can not only reduce casualties in your densely packed line battalions but can also hinder enemy cavalry movement when in enough numbers and force your enemy to use valuable artillery rounds to clear them away. Remember to keep skirmishers on the flanks as well as in front as an enemy flank attack/volley is even more devastating than frontal ones. Make good use of all your light infantry battalions, I often find that detaching all but 100 can give you a very strong skirmish line without stripping standard line battalions of their light companies. Finally, pull the skirmish formations back to their parent units every now and again to reduce their fatigue levels. 4) COMMAND & CONTROL Observe Divisional & Brigade Command radius at all times. Endeavour to keep your formations together and you will find that units quickly rally and reform. Keep all the leader units busy - have them racing up and down the field, rallying routed battalions one turn and then leading an assault the next.. The modifiers they bestow are well worth the time spent taken in good leader placement. Army and Corps Commanders are especially useful at rallying broken units due to their excellent leadership ratings. However, beware of using replacement commanders in critical situations as they are often nowhere near as good as the original leaders. Finally, don`t stack 2 leaders in the same hex, this is just a waste of good leadership. 5) TERRAIN The field of battle is covered with defiles, hills, hedges, orchards, buildings and sunken roads - make use of them! It can be tempting to form a pretty line going straight across the map with your troops in nice neat formations, but you will soon find that units in the open will suffer tremendous casualties as opposed to ones behind cover. When in defence use every obstructed hex/hexside to your advantage. It hinders cavalry charges and massively reduces casualties from enemy volleys and melees. Follow Wellington`s example of using the reverse slopes to protect your densely packed formations with only handfuls of skirmishers on the ridge tops for observation. On the attack, keep checking line of sight using the "visible hexes" command, you will often find safe areas where the enemy batteries can`t touch you while you manoeuvre your units into position. One last thing, avoid obstructed hexes like the plague when advancing as there is nothing worse than having to spend 2-3 more turns reforming disordered units when they are needed instantly. Infantry Infantry form the core of both armies and as such you can be tempted to throw away battalions in risky ventures as after all you`ve got 30 more where that one came from. Don`t do it! Stop and really analyse if the move/attack you are making is necessary. example: Why send a decent brigade to attack the enemy in an area where there are no VP`s to be had! A simple manoeuvre like refusing the main attacks flank may well do the job without you having to suffer casualties. Be careful that you garrison strongpoints and critical areas of the line with good quality troops that don`t often break. Prime examples of poor formations are any of the Dutch-Belgian Brigades in the Anglo-Allied Army. They may look impressive with 4-5 battalions but if one of them routs and the others are close by the whole brigade will soon disappear. Use them as a second line of defence so that when they do make contact at least the enemy are already fatigued and perhaps even disordered. Move infantry in column whenever possible, the line formation is just too fragile for extensive manoeuvering. Finally, only use the square formation when you find your units under threat from enemy cavalry. It requires careful timing to anticipate the best time to form square and the problem can be accentuated by units becoming disordered due to enemy threat zones. Again, keep those lookouts posted and you should avoid having to face this problem in the first place. Cavalry Cavalry come in all shapes and sizes. Some are just made for breaking squares and counter charging enemy cavalry, others are of little use except for harrasing, threatening and further routing already broken infantry units. Know the difference. The greatest asset cavalry have is their ability to threaten the charge, this in itself can cause the enemy untold problems with manouevering, defences, assault lines etc. Before you do commit a cavalry regiment or brigade to a full-blown charge ensure that they won`t sacrifice themselves at the end of it. Consider every eventuality and once you have decided to go ahead and charge stop and think it all through once again! This way you won`t give the enemy the opportunity to decimate your splendid mounted regiments for the glory of perhaps taking out 1 artillery battery. Remember that the best charges are made from the enemy`s flanks where you can sweep along an entire line of his troops routing unit after unit. Now thats a charge! Make use of detached squadrons for observation and wider coverage. Above all try to keep your enemy guessing as to your true intentions - use the threat... Cavalry are also very handy for protecting your infantry`s flanks when on the move. This will hopefully negate the chance of an enemy cavalry charge decimating your units from the flank. Finally, keep the cavalry out of obstructed terrain such as orchards, forests and building hexes - they are of little use here and will quickly succomb to enemy skirmishers as they mill about trying to move away and reform. Artillery Properly handled artillery can prove absolutely devastating, poorly handled they provide easy pickings for enemy skirmishers and cavalry. Keep the cannon well back unless properly supported with infantry and cavalry. They can be a source of much-needed victory points to your opponent and rest assured they will be annihilated unless positione accurately and safely. Don`t squander valuable rounds on enemy skirmishers, keep your stocks high for when you really need them. The French Commander can afford to expend round after round on counter-battery fire, the allies can`t. Remember this. Also, take note of the fact that when artillery batteries are overrun if there is a friendly infantry unit in the adjacent hex the crew will temporarily abandon the guns to take refuge. This is a great feature which I`m sure Talonsoft are proud of, someone had their thinking hat on with this one. Finally, artillery strengths are doubled within 2 hexes of enemy units, if you can get your cannon this close then do it, its worth the effort. Summary One last thing that has only been touched on in the above: Combined Arms. No one unit type can accomplish much without the support of the others. In both defence and attack keep a well-balanced force in all local areas and you shouldn`t go far wrong. Swarms of skirmishers, then columns/lines of infantry with cavalry on the flanks and cannon tucked in behind - endeavour to use this formation every time. It works. Remember to keep your enemy guessing as to your true intentions and placements, make use of terrain, rotate front line units and keep those reserves. If you`ve made it this far then I thank you and hope this site has been of some use. Please contact me if you have any observations/suggestions at mst@ndirect.co.uk. This is my first attempt at Web Publishing, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Mark Trowbridge mst@ndirect..co.uk From: Mark`s Unofficial Battleground Waterloo Home Page http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~mst/ Other Battleground 3: Waterloo cheats hints faqs solutions: 1. Battleground 3: Waterloo cheat codes 1. Battleground 3: Waterloo faq and solutions 2. Battleground 3: Waterloo faq and solutions 3. Battleground 3: Waterloo faq and solutions 4. Battleground 3: Waterloo faq and solutions |