User Guide

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Cavalry Regiments
These mounted warriors are the most powerful
regiment available for field combat at the begin-
ning of the game. Their mobility and fearsome
charges will often cause an enemy to break and
run from battle. They lose much of this advan-
tage when the terrain or weather inhibits their
speed, and they are utterly unsuited for siege
warfare. They will, if absolutely essential, par-
ticipate in the assault of a city, but you should
anticipate heavy casualties and rapidly falling
morale if you press them into this service.
Western knights in shining armour and
mounted Mongol cavalry archers will slow-
ly give way to a new breed of cavalry as land
technology levels increase. Like infantry, they
will trade in their weapons and armour for
gunpowder-based weapons, but their distinct
advantage over infantry in the open field will
slowly diminish until they are only slightly
more effective by the end of the game.
Cavalry regiments take much longer to re-
cruit than infantry regiments and are often as
much as triple the cost. Their single greatest
advantage throughout the game is their speed
of movement. If you need to get a regiment
rapidly from one place to another, cavalry is
the regiment to select. While large cavalry ar-
mies might seem appealing, be sure that your
economy is strong enough to support the high
monthly maintenance cost of keeping the regi-
ments ready to do battle.
Artillery Regiments
Artillery regiments will not be available to most
countries at the onset of the game, but will
start to make their appearance towards the end
of the 15
th
century when nations begin to reach
the necessary land technology level (level 4 in
most cases). Although each regiment is shown
as being composed of 1000 men, this is not to
suggest that there are that many pieces of artil-
lery in the field. Instead, the regiment repre-
sents a smaller infantry regiment with artillery
support (along with the men required to oper-
ate, load, and transport these fearsome pieces
of machinery).
Early forms of artillery were heavy and un-
wieldy, making them highly unsuited to field
combat. For the most part, this weapon’s func-
tion was limited to siege work where the con-
stant bombardment of an enemy’s walls would
eventually create a large enough breach for the
infantry to pour through. By the beginning of
the Napoleonic era, artillery had undergone a
drastic technological change and was becom-
ing devastating on the field of combat. This
is reflected in the game by the ever-increasing
damage caused by these regiments.
Until the later stages of the game, artil-
lery’s most effective use is to greatly reduce
the length of time required to conclude a siege.
Used in concert with regiments of regular in-
fantry, you will be able to breach the walls and
assault a city much more rapidly than would
otherwise be the case. You will gradually want
to increase the number of artillery regiments in
your armies as the years go by, but brace your-
self for the high cost to purchase and maintain
them. They aren’t cheap. They also move very
slowly, so don’t expect an army that has a regi-
ment or more of artillery to get anywhere very
quickly.
Ship Types
Turning our attention to the sea, your naval
forces will be made up of ships that are usu-
ally assembled into fleets, each of which will
be commanded by an admiral. As was the case
with regiments, ships come in a variety of dif-
ferent primary classifications:
Transports
This is the most basic form of ship. As the
name suggests, a transport ship is used to trans-
port land forces across the seas, allowing you
to conduct military operations far away from
home. Transports have no armaments and are
quite easily sunk during naval combat. This
is the only ship type capable of carrying land