"Bonaparte" combat difficulty

[ptan54]

Franck: I devised a creative way to fight the battle by deploying on hills on the other side of the map, away from my victory hexes (I'm defending). Demolished everything that came into view of my guns. But because I had to abandon the victory hexes I ended up losing the battle even though I had dished out far more casualties than I had taken.

Shaihulud: Yes they used cavalry to force my inf back into square which sucked. Even after getting back into column, they pushed their heavy arty right next to my inf and BOOM lose 3000 men with one barrage and immediate rout.

[ShaiHulud]

Ptan- I always pick ONE star hex and defend it. I let the AI use its assets to take/garrison the others. So long as I have the one, there's no cost in WTF. I don't necessarily crowd that star hex with troops. Often I can use the terrain to interdict the most logical approach to it and utilize those good defensive positions while leaving a single unit, or half-unit, to garrison the star hex.

A useful tactic is to have a cav garrison the star hexes you DO NOT intend to fight for. That usually causes the AI send multiple units to tackle your diversion. The cav can force inf into square as they approach or flee quickly when needed. Hovering in the area with your cav will, again, cause the AI to defend the star and waste time pursuing your unit.

[ptan54]

In the end I won the battle using the same initial setup (defend all stars). This time I left arty in the villages and infantry behind. Any time their arty show up I shift my infantry to my other flank and hit their arty light flank. Routed my guns and won by the skin of my teeth, with much lower casualties than my first victory in the battle.

Have you tried pressing F4 during a battle? The terrain changes!!!

[ShaiHulud]

Hmm, that F4 thing is news to me....

[ptan54]

Yea it's quite odd, keep pressing it and you can sometimes get your troops standing on water or on impassable mountains. Makes those troops impervious to cav charges. I wonder what the defensive bonus or malus for standing on water is! I'll post a screenshot when I get home.