The scenario, as many people already know, see you quite outnumbered by the Catholic army, with your entire left flank held by the useless Saxons, that will do ABSOLUTELY LITERALLY NOTHING ALL GAME. Seriously, they will never move or shoot on their own, and you won't ever be able to give them orders. Catholic cavalry is concentrated on the two flanks and it's made up of Arkebusiers and most of all heavy Kuirassiers. Your cavalry is more mobile, but significantly lighter. The enemy has plenty of later Tercios that could be minced up by your Salvo troops, but also several Veteran Early Tercios that would absolutely wreck you both in shooting and melee.
Luckily, the Catholics decide to send their cavalry first, unsupported. I immediately set up a nice trap on the right flank, try to cover for the Saxons on the left, and decide to use several of my Salvo troops must help my cavalry on both flanks. I leave around five units in the center, alone: after all, if the Catholic infantry decides to advance early, it's over. They can outshoot and outmelee me, so my best chance is to avoid them until I somehow win on both flanks. I have plenty of Commanded Shots with my cavalry, that I have to keep protected at all costs.
The tactic seems to work: my infantry makes a wall of muskets and pike the enemy cavalry can't deal with, and the commanded shots whittle the enemy down. My own horses can outmaneuver the lanky Kuirassier columns, so I can deliver some nasty charges. I lose almost every non-flanking melee, but slowly I start chewing away the enemy's left flank.
On the Saxon flank, things go south fast: as I said, the Saxon units are completely immobile and just facetank the Catholic charges, getting routed one after the other. I manage to get some charges and use my infantry to crack some Catholic troops, but after a while I catch several Catholic reinforcements coming about. I don't have much time.
Turn 9: shit gets real. Three Veteran Early Tercios advance on my center-left. Soon enough, the rest of the Catholic infantry follows. The three advancing Veteran Tercios completely shut down my idea of sending four Salvo units on the left flank: they won't make it, so I start a slow withdrawal toward my end of the map luring them forward. The rest of my infantry advances, trying to engage enemy Later Tercios in melee as soon as possible. The battle on the right flank is almost over, so I can start mixing my right flank's cavalry to the mounting offensive in the center. My left flank is left to its own: the advancing Veteran Tercios will effectively cut my entire left flank off from the rest of my army and there's nothing I can do about it. I have two Salvo units there, I will try to set up my defense around them and get some outflanking on the Catholic reinforcements that are converging on me.
In turns 14 and 15 the battle turns in my favor: the Salvo offensive on the center is shattering the enemy Late Tercios with the help of the commanded shot and cavalry from my former right flank, while I succesfully stall the Veteran Tercios advance. The left flank is slowly losing, thanks to an enemy Veteran Tercio that swung that way and I have no way of dealing with. Kuirassier reinforcements start charging my horse and it won't end well. In Turn 16 I manage to charge enemy Arkebusiers, but an unfortunate route+pursuit places my best Horsemen with their backs right in front of a Kuirassier so that's it: I'm gonna lose at least one, maybe two units next turn.
Turn 16, however, is decisive on the center: one of the Veteran Tercios that tried to save its fellow Late Tercios from my Salvo onslaught is Fragmented by artillery and musket fire before he can deliver a deadly flank charge. Shortly after, a chain of routs shatter the whole enemy line, and another Veteran Tercio finds itself surrounded in Turn 18. Next turn, despite the annihilation of my left flank, the battle is won 61%-48%.
Of course I can't leave the battle now: it's too close, so I refuse to acknowledge victory and carry on. Predictably, I mop up the enemy in the center, but the three Veteran Tercios have cornered the Salvo troops stalling them, and one by one they rout them. It's a race between the Tercios and my entire center and right flank to converge on them before they crush all I have. Catholic artillery is destroyed, but the lumbering Veteran Tercios are still around and kicking. My brave Commanded Shot on the left flank keep fighting till the end, tying up another Veteran Tercio and two Kuirassiers.
It takes a while, but I manage to roll the enemy over from the right flank to the left, routing EVERY catholic unit.
Neat battle, but I feel if the AI moved his infantry from the start, there would be little the player could do to win this battle: the Veteran Tercios are a nightmare: they can outshoot and outmelee any Swedish unit and they can't be flanked. On the flanks, you need infantry to win, so you can't concentrate all your Salvo units against the Tercios. The Saxons are just useless, maybe it would be better to actually let the Catholic steamroll them and just set up some flanking charge against pursuing Kuirassiers.
