Handling Ranged Infantry

[Sun_Tzu1]

Am I right in saying that higher level players engage and then back off (with RI) more than lower ranked players? (i.e., keeping the opponent engaged but frequently moving out of range).

When I played Aztec, and built up an army, I found that when my opponent engaged me and then backed off it could result in the front of my army chasing him back. This would break my army apart and make the units that chased quite vulerable. Quite hard to manage. Particularly if I had a number of different unit types.

Is there a way to stop this happening? For example, does anyone use the "stand ground" button as a normal part of the game play?

If you know what I'm talking about, any tips?

[wicked_assassin]

probably the attack move.

[Aaryn_GenD]

just micro them all the time, DO NOT use attack move with ranged infantry in a battle, the only times you use it with ranged infantry is

a) you somehow wanna explore fogged terrain, so they just attack enemy settlers or units they face(which is a bad idea though, they could run into cav or an outpost)

b) if you retreat with your ranged infantry, attack move on the ground near you so they turn around and shoot a volley, but then walk away again(without attack move)

attack move is mostly used with cav to decrease their pathing problems

[Kaiser_von_Nuben]

Handling ranged infantry is very tricky. Attack-move is very handy on the retreat, as Aaryn says, but make sure you immediately move after shooting. If you don't, your guys will just stand there like idiots and get killed. Individual micro is probably the best thing you can do, but I think it all depends. Sometimes a misclick (or lag... I had 20 skirms walk right into an enemy mass once, even though I SWEAR I clicked them on a target) will send one group walking right into the enemy without firing. That annoys me. But if you take one group, attack move with it, then take another group and attack move with it, it avoids that problem. But it winds up being micro intensive anyway, because you need to take those groups and move them after firing.

Longbows are a different issue entirely. In that case, you just need to stand still and individually micro like crazy to take advantage of the killer ROF. Moving with LB's is actually not a good idea, since it takes them an hour to redraw the bow once they stop and stand still again

[hallchr]

Are longbows better than skirms?

[36drew]

[quote=""hallchr""]Are longbows better than skirms?[/quote]

I'm not sure, but everything Kaiser said is bang-on. Better is relative.

[Aaryn_GenD]

well, skirms are better against HI later, cuz of counter infantry rifling, but lbows are cheaper, base on a food/wood econ(bommy brits) and have that insane range

[TheRam]

[quote=""Aaryn_GenD""]just micro them all the time, DO NOT use attack move with ranged infantry in a battle[/quote]
I don't understand why you would say that.
Attack move = all troops attack the nearest unit.
If I have 15 xbow vs 10 xbow/ashi/whatever it's infantry then why would I want to overcomplicate by dragging groups of 5 or so Xbow to shoot when I could just use attack move to auto-attack the front line and not overkill anywhere near as much?

Move your troops so they're facing the most units possible.
Use attack move when fighting an enemy normally, or when they're retreating or when you want to do some micro whilst running away.
Attack move is incredibly versatile and I think that all high PR players should use it for it's convenience/moving away from overkilling tendencies.
+ if you have other unit groups it's way easier to micro your whole army.

[Sporting_Lisbon]

+1, Attack move sounds dumb and easy but it's effective.

[Aaryn_GenD]

yes but with attack move i found the ranged infantry units attack the targets randomly, which sucks because after two volleys none of the HI is down

[Sporting_Lisbon]

Well, when it isn't enough you micro them yourself with drag boxes.

[TheRam]

[quote=""Aaryn_GenD""]yes but with attack move i found the ranged infantry units attack the targets randomly, which sucks because after two volleys none of the HI is down[/quote]
It's not random, they attack the nearest.
Gear your units so they are in position to hit as many as possible taking into account how many you can realistically kill.
It's not as effective as literally choosing all your units a target, but it's a lot easier and in practice it's the best and a very simple way to micro RI especially early game.

[hallchr]

Yeah, I found that the attack move made my life a lot easier. Apparently the fast clicking dragging or even double clicking is impossible for me since my brain injury so I made do with what I can.

[Wetmelon]

[/quote="Sun_Tzu1"]
When I played Aztec, and built up an army, I found that when my opponent engaged me and then backed off it could result in the front of my army chasing him back. This would break my army apart and make the units that chased quite vulerable. Quite hard to manage. Particularly if I had a number of different unit types.

Is there a way to stop this happening? For example, does anyone use the "stand ground" button as a normal part of the game play?
[/quote]

If you have ever played Starcraft, you would have seen how incredibly powerful this microing can be against an army that outnumbers/powers you.

The best way to avoid your units getting dragged is.... *drumroll* - constantly checking them and moving them back... Unfortunately, if you put them on stand ground then the enemy will get close enough to shoot your guy and stay out of range of the others. Defensive mode is better, but the best way to avoid losing your units is to move them back the instant you hear that alarm bell...

[Aaryn_GenD]

yes it's true what sporting and cammel says, what i mean is when you're especially fast with the mouse, individually micro>all

btw, attack move is frowned upon