Infantry Tactics in Empire: Total War

Infantry Tactics

Infantry form the backbone of most armies in the game. They are using to hold the line, wear down the enemy, garrison, skirmish and many other key roles. Generally they are not used to out manouver an enemy, as that is more the role of cavalry, but if they are successful in manouvering and enemy, they can be extremely effective.

Pre and post firing drills

One of the technologies that can be researched in the game is the fire by rank drill. Once researched, the use of infantry greatly increase. They go from only having the first rank firing to the first 3 ranks.

Pre firing drills

Early in the game the infantry available will be milia, line infantry and possibly grenadiers a bit later. Before firing drills, all these units will only be able to fire with the front rank. This mean that, unless the line is spread very thin, a lot of units will not be firing and therefore the full weight of firepower cannot be brought to bear. This must be taken into consideration when using infantry. Although spreading the units into 1 rank thick lines will maximise the firepower, a lot of units will be too far away to be of any use.