Why to not use fire and advance - Napoleon Total War

[@brainwasher9876]

Delighted to see that people are still posting videos about this criminally underrated total war entry.

[@Kasro_Z]

Its very effective if a flanking line inf is on F&A. In my campaigns I noticed that if you put your inf in F&A and they are close enough to the enemy, they eventually charge in melee when all their ranks have fired which is devestating if this is happening to the flanks. Maybe it works better with grenadiers if you take it that way. But yeah its clunky and slow overall

[@MattGraves121]

My problem with this in my battles its usually more effective to just charge in or have the other unit run around the flank and charge. Every campaign I always fee outnumbered even against the minor nations so I feel I have to make every soldier count. If Im defending I usually want to keep the enemy at a distance and prolong the time before the lines get in contact so I avoid the fire and advance. If I want to play agressively against the enemy I just run my infantry around and charge.

[@TalonAshlar]

Fire and advance has afew uses. Its good for charging skirmishers or arty in melee and it is very useful for when using basic line for factions such as spanish, austrian and russian (their reload is so bad they don;t lose any firepower) so long as those units aren't under fire. But yeah a highly bugged and very situational ability.

[@facethemoosikrts6527]

It's so idiotic that they run back to the same position after they completed one cycle. Even the name 'fire and advance' doesn't make sense at that point let alone it being a questionable manoeuvre. I would have just cut this feature before release.

[@Kozicamp]

Fire and advance in NTW has a niche role that is not well explained in the game. For guards and infantry units with high melee stats they can route line infantry and militia pretty easily if you use right clicking. The opportunity to use F&A is very small in multiplayer though since everybody tends to micro and kite.

[@thetotalwarsmaster]

I would say its less micro and kiting, and more that melee is less efficient, a;; the time to get there, fight, route, etc, while the whole time you are weak to cavalry.

[@pyry1948]

Does it have any use whatsoever?

[@100manhuff]

It seems like if there was less less ranks in his formation it could possibly be slightly better in a 1 on 1 fight. Other than that, it could possibly be useful as the fire rate is higher for a short time until they do the janky thing of having to re-form and reload. Besides these two niche situations, sadly the function has no actual use.

[@thetotalwarsmaster]

In my opinion not really. Since using it an enemy player can just pull back his line to shoot you while staying outside of range of your men. On top of that against a real player they spread their men out. Which means about any benefit gained from firing extra shots from your rear line is nullified largely by getting shot at first.

[@BasedStruggler]

Ive found fire & advance is better for siege offenses