1.War is a matter of vital importance to the state: the province of life or death; the road to survival or ruin. It is mandatory that it be thorouhly studied.
2.Therefore, appraise it in terms of the five fundamental factors and make comparisons of the seven elements later named. So you may assess its essentials.
3.The first of these factors is moral influence; the seconds weather; the third, terrain; the fourth; command and the fifth, doctrine.
-Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Moral, Weather, Terrain, and command are all thing you must concern yourself with in Empire Total War. Doctrine, not so much at least in multiplayer battles.
Basic Tactics
Building An Army To Meet Your Needs
When building an army you must decide what you want out of it. Do you want alot of melee power? Long range might? Guerrilla fighting? Shock and Awe?
Then you must build an army to support you main battle plan. For fast moving militaries like that of the Russian General Suvorov use cavalry, light infantry and horse drawn arty most and do it well. If you want a tank of an army use alot of line infantry and some cav aswell as howitzers and big cannons. But the biggest thing is building an army to counter an army you havnt seen yet. So in essence you have to form a plan you have a good understanding of. Of just use a random army that looks like it could put up a fight. Though an army based off of mostly line infantry, 3 to 4 arty, 2 to 4 cav and 4 or so skirmishers is one of my basic builds that are very reliable. Throw in some elite inf units and you gotta winner, throw in a grenadier unit and you have some fancy explody shit.
Forming a Coherent Line
Forming a coherent line and keeping command of your units is a difficult idea to do correctly.One unit out of place could be destroyed or take other units with it if firing upon your own men or a poorly planned manuevre with incoherent line structure may just get you mowed down.
Upon entering a game your army will look something like this. Do not under any circumstances leave them in this form. Instead, form them into something like in the next image.
This is my standard layout for when I am not so sure what Im giong against as the flanks can be easily supported by cav or infantry and the cannons can be secured easily from an enemy rush and even if one installation is taken there is another on the other side. You may see severeal variants of this variant of line where unit placement within it is different but there is still only one main force or line to contend with. This is an easier line to control as you dont have to keep eyes on everything from two sides of the map but rather just from the point where your army is. Sometimes arty may be placed in the middle where it is most secure but often has less avalible good shots to take on enemy units. It all depends on the army make up. But a little more risky and tanacious tactic is to split your army (I try to match each force to be as manueverable and powerfull as I can ) which in skilled and lucky hands can really give it hell to the enemy.
For new players I do not recomend this, I just want you to know what you may encounter and as you progress what you can do. This though requires the ability to know when to run. Neither of these forces can really take the enemy toe to toe but rather using speed to take some pot shots then run. I dont recommend using foot artillery becuase they are slow and cumbersome like in the image, I simply used them as an example. Use only horse drawn arty with this or use the next tactic I will mention. With the cannons long range you can shoot the enemy without being in range of his smaller roody poody point and shootys and his howitzer and you can flank his cannon in a way if they are all in one area lined up that they cannot fire upon your cannon or fire on themselves or their own men. Using this tactic you have to play a coward at least until his army is diminished and spread out far enough that you can close in wiht both your forces or collect them into one and go toe to toe.
Never place anything in front of cannons that you want to keep alive, becuase friend or foe will die from shells being propelled from the cannon. Howitzers dont have this problem, but if you have another unit surrouding a howitzer to close their is a possiblity that a few guys standing a lil to close could be killed from when the shells are thrown out. You can put units in front of a howitzer but never put a unit to close to any arty as it makes an easier target as many times enemy arty will be firing upon your arty as that is how the scripting for fire at will mode is.
Also it is possible to split your army into three parts, two on the flanks and one in the middle. This is even more difficult to do than two but still has the same effect so its not often of use to me. But if mastered I am sure could be of wonderful use.
Knowing When To Attack
When a commander unable to estimate his enemy uses a small force to engage a large one, or weak troops to strike the strong, or when he fails to select shock troops for the van, the result is rout.
-Sun Tzu
If your enemy is strong and prepared dont attack. If you outnumber him but your units are weaker dont go toe to toe and dont melee charge. If you can attack from a flank by all means attack the flank. If your enemy is in a fortified position move your units to his weakest point and if he tries to reinstate his forces to close this break in his armor than another part of his line will be weakened allowing for a place for you to break through and destroy some of his units. What I often do is move a few units up and act like I am going to attack a flank but then run the rest of my army over to the other side and repeat or keep doing similar maneuvers until I can confuse the enemy or give enough of an opening for me to attack.
Never attack the center of a force. If you attack the middle the sides will then sweep in ( like a door ) and flank you. It is a path only to death. Attack from the sides whenever possible and if you are unsure if you can win or not then don’t attack because your leaving it to chance which is ruthlessly bad choice. Only attack when you are sure you have a chance at winning because one skirmish can decide the fate of a battle.
If a line of line infantry are facing your force and is of equal or lesser force you may attack but be warned of possible hidden units so send a few units to support them as long as this is early in the battle, if this is to the point of where both your armies are in full engagement dont stretch out your army to much and send men where they will be needed or are immediately needed.
If you have skirmishers on a hill or even line infantry on a hill try to weaken them with arty. Or try to go around the hill, if this is not possible do not charge cavalry up a hill, in fact do not try to melee charge up it at all. You have very few choices. You either have to go toe to toe with them, try and get them off of the hill, or just shell the hell out of them. Going toe to toe with an enemy is a bad idea unless you have light infantry that have greater or similar range to that of their units because of the buff a unit gets when they are at a higher area than of the enemy. Its a bitch because your men cant go up hill quickly and its more difficult even firing upon them. If on another side of the hill you can get to where the grade of difference is smaller take that route as its more likely you can take them. To get them off the hill just walk away. Give them a whole lot of breathing room. Make it known that you refuse to fight a pointless battle and bait them out of their hole in the wall. Maybe even use the text chat to tell them what of. Or arty them till they come out. Or just hammer the hell out of that hill till the time limit runs out. I from now on just disconnect when playing with randoms and they hill camp. Its boring to fight against a noob camper who hates fun. So don’t camp if your reading this. When it all comes down to it, its still just a game.
If a line infantry unit is in a square use infantry and arty to fire upon them, dont use cavalry to attack, this is misuse. Even with missile cave its risky because with so few units compared to infantry losing even 10 horses is a decently large but not so big deal. Use cavalry to attack flanks and rears and routing units that are still a risk of coming back or units that are already diminished heavily. Cav are a fast attack but pretty weak. Only heavy cavalry can really get into any sort of melee fight.
If you are at a higher point try and bait the enemy to you and when the time is right charge down the hill like Gandalf at isenguard. If you are at even ground then fight by all means attack!
Also if fortifications are setup such as spikes or battlements. Go around those.
Flanking
Flanking is moving to an enemys side or flank and attacking them from there. To do this you need to make sure that the side is not easily defended and is weaker than the other. Pick the weakest flank and attack. You can feign an attack to the other flank to get the enemy to believe you so he will take units out of reserve to protect his other flank further weakening the one you will attack.
A tactic that is of most use is when your line is facing an enemy line, try to be perpendicular, parrallel is fine but a few units perpendicular to the enemy line will allow those units of yours to hit your enemy more easily with their fire thus winning!
Try to surround your enemy, a force that is larger could be taken under control when fired upon from three sides. Unless they counterflank they cannot fire upon all your men and will have more guns beared upon them then they can bear upon all your men at once. So expect counter flanking, to counter this counter you can bring some cavalry to be the hammer to your anvil. Once surrouded you may charge the enemy as you will surely win that day, so along as your units are of equal stats or close. Or yours are better that is.
Charging
A brave charge can turn the tide of a skirmish. But a brave charge that is planned and execute with skill can win the battle. As said before dont charge cav into the fronts or a square of line infantry. But the reverse is a good idea, as then the cav have no charge bonus and are much easier to kill, bring in some elite units to fight heavy cav though as they are much more tough and they could possibly cause a good amount of pain to most of your units.
A infantry charge at the begining unless at the flanks or rear of a unit is a bad idea, The enemy is at mostly full strength, kill some of his men first and later in the battle if you are doing well charge him. If you are on the recieving hand it is likely you have already lost, you can try using guerrilla type warfare but it would be best to hang your head and take it like a man. Unless your troops are still of decent morale and good strenth, then try to flank their charge with cav or inf, whatever is at hand. As stated never charge up hill. Didnt work at Bunker Hill, or Waterloo and sure as hell wont work in this game. But downhill gives your men enough boost that they can really kick ass.
Advancing and Retreating
At the beginning of a battle you start a good distance away from the enemy. So you must advance, as not doing anything and camping really wont work and is just going to get you hated. So move damnit!!!
You have formed your army already, so you can select all and tell them to move forward, this is where being tricky comes in, you can be tricky or obvious its your choice but being tricky requires a little bit more finesse. You can just walk your men till you find a point within a good distance of the enemy and set up your cannons and slowly move your line forward after setting up your cannons and making sure all your men are formed up correctly and then going at it or be a bastard and try and trick them. Make a random formation then march them up in a cluster fuck of a line, make the other guy go “d’oh this guy is so dumb man I could beat him as easy as my lil brother or my wife” (Yes your enemy is always a wife beating dog kicking prick and you want to kill him because he stole your water when you went on a hike into Arizona last year( Tis True bro)) But you have to have complete control of this cluster fuck, just as soon as your about to meet up with him form your battle line that you planned for. If splitting up your army is the plan make one force seem like the one your paying attention most with and going to attack first with ( use running, and menacing looks to your advantage) then attack with the right hook just when he though you were left handed.
Now War is based on deception. Move when it is advantageous and create changes in the situation by dispersal nad concentration of forces.
-Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu was right, 9/10 of the battle is just in the commanders mind. If he thinks then he shall do but if I think that he thinks he shall do than I can fool him.
Use retreating movements sparingly (and don’t use the button that says retreat ever because they may run headlong into the enemy and call that retreat, gotta love ETW scripting.) Such as if you get flanked you must fall back so that you may counter that but don’t bring back your entire force rather the units that are being flanked. So that you may position them so that the flank is no long under assault and is now the front of a unit. Or if you have bitten off more than you can chew and before committing realize this you should retreat, if you are already committed to an assault do not fall back, this only spells loss. Committing is when your men are so deep in that taking them out would do more good than anything, this is usually when infantry are trading volleys.Random advancing and retreating early in a match can be used to confuse the enemy as well.
Responding To Enemy Tactics
To respond to the enemies tactic or movements you must think first, if he flanks move your units so that he is no longer flanking. If he flanks you with cav use your cav to put a stop to that. Dont let the enemy move undaunted, if attacked while moving units take more damage as they have not prepared to fight and cannot fire back until setup so you may score a volley or two before they get one. If they fire cannon at you then spread out and either press on or pussy out if the heat is to much. Dont just throw mens lives away.
I have tried to cover as much as I could in the sense of the basic strategies. There is so so so much more to this then I can put into a short guide and so many more scenarios than I have fought in. So I recomend PrinceofMacedon as a good source of commentary total war videos as he has played pretty much all of them NTW and ETW included heavily.
http://www.youtube.com/user/PrinceofMacedon
Its fun to watch you often get something out of it as well as good quality uploads, something my connection will never let me do in anything less than the speed of snail mail.