Mein gott. This is most... Enlightening.
I have been defeated. By the fucking Polish. In the second battle of the campaign. On easy. As the Prussians.
Not only did I have superior infantry, a superior commander, and terrain advantage, but I'm a human. Fighting incredibly stupid AI.
The battle begins, with me setting up my cannons on a little hillock, and spreading my infantry out on either side. I've got a
LOT of line infantry, eight units. Considering I've conquered whole nations with just six line infantry and two cannons, I've gone a bit overboard with eight line infantry, four cannons, two cavalry, two dragoons, and my general.
I underestimated my opponent. He had about three hundred more men than me, but they were mostly militia, some badass cavalry, several units of pikemen, and a few demicannons. I figured it would be a cinch to defeat him. I sieged his Artillery Fort.
My cannons were not quite in range, so I'd left them limbered, to get them into range. As they moved up, lucky cannonfire from the wall guns hit two of my units, killing two whole cannons from each unit. The enemy had a demicannon unit outside their walls, which was part of the reason for my dying cannons. I ordered my cavalry to kill the cannons.
This was my first mistake. My cavalry killed their cannons, but the enemy cavalry, Uhlans, rushed mine and killed them. I poured my dragoons into the enemy cavalry, which was my second mistake. My cavalry eliminated, the enemy cavalry charged my lines. I ordered cannons to canister shot them, but the cavalry never got in range, and went for the line infantry. So my cannons took unreturned fire for several moments, losing another cannon.
My infantry easily killed the cavalry.
After a long wait, I finally busted two holes in the walls, and sent my infantry forward with my general along to provide morale boosts. I poured my infantry in, after assessing the situation and determining that attempting to scale the walls to provide supporting fire would be... Insanely suicidal.
Third mistake. With such a high risk to scale the walls, I should never have sent my men into the teeth of packed melee infantry like pikemen, while there were still units on the walls with guns.
They ground my men into paste. It took about thirty minutes, and I managed to sieze an armory and make a stand with my units around the armory and in another corner of the fort. But slowly, one by one, they broke and slaughtered my men. Finally, I limbered up my cannons, and retreated my general and the cannons before the enemy could kill them.
Most enlightening. And angering. But revenge is best served cold. More cannons next time, no moving the cannons around, start unlimbered. Don't rush my cavalry forward, no matter how tempting it is. Don't send my infantry into a tactically suicidal situation.
Did I mention I need to bring more cannons? A
lot more. I'm thinking eight units cannons, eight units line infantry, two units cavalry, general. I will watch Warsaw
burn.