Military Affairs and War

In Austerlitz, the richness of the combined arms military systems of the Napoleonic Era is manifest.  A player does not simply build armies of generic infantry, cavalry, and artillery, but rather forms battalions of Cuirassiers, Hussars, Grenadiers, Fusiliers, Dragoons and many more.  Troops must be trained, and ships built and repaired.  Small battles are resolved by a mathematical algorithm; large battles are resolved in Simulated Battles, which match the combined arms of each army, and the wits of their commander.

Battles
There are two types of battles in Austerlitz: mathematical and simulated, which will be described below.  Regardless, of the battle, trained troops performed better than untrained troops.  In mathematical battles all troops must pass a morale check between hand-to-hand combat rounds, so untrained troops will typically flee before the last rounds of combat.  In simulated battles troops will flee the field if they fail a morale check due to combat.

Troop Types
As a general rule Cavalry perform poorly in mathematical battles, even with the extra cavalry-only hand-to-hand combat round.  However, because of their shock value and mobility, cavalry, particularly heavy cavalry, rule the battlefield in simulated battles.  Light cavalry such as Hussars prove useful only for harassing the flanks of the enemy, and pursuing fleeing troops, whereas Lancers in line formation prove deadly against infantry, but are vulnerable against other cavalry.  The different infantry formations are also important in Simulated Battles, as skirmish formation and ability to form square critical in different terrain and against different types of armies.  The Simulated Battle does well at recreating the richness of Napoleonic warfare, and each type of unit has its own unique role on the battlefield.  Thus, an well trained army with well proportioned combined arms, is most effective.