I am greeting you Reader!
This section is for those who are just starting to play this gaem, everyone else can just ignore it or not. Your decision :)

I made the expirience that many new players have a problem to understand the rules or some game contents and I saw that old players got angry because of it ... You know the case with the rockets ^^
So lets start ...


Rules
The Rules are in Napoleon a very important factor to have fun in this game. The host is the absolute sovereign in his game and his rules are like the word of god (if you believe in god ^^).
So respect them and keep the fun for all players in the game.

The most popular rule is: no art and max 5 lights
(There are many different possibilities how you can write it ... )
no art:
This part is very easy. No artillery is allowed. No unit from the section on the right of your army builder.
max 5 lights:
This rule is more specific and it can be missunderstood.
"lights" are in this case: All Light Infantry Units and all Skirmisher Units.
Where you can see what unit type your unit is can you see below: (PICTURE)

Another rule: No fixed art
Fixed art units are those who are not able to move, Rockets and Mortars in detail and they are not allowed.

Another rule: no unicorns
Unicorns are an artillery unit of Russia, so only concerning Russia-players.

Another rule: no 100s or no 125s
These numbers mean the range of a unit. Range of 100 and Range of 125.

The Nations
United Kingdom Infantry:
- strongest line infantry
- no grenadiers, but Highlanders (good assault infantry)
- good guard infantry
- good lights and best skirms
- best ingame unit = 88th Connaught Rangers (Skill/Price)
- do not use the 42nd Black Watch, the unit has very high costs and very bad skills, shooting and melee
Cavalry:
- acceptable light cavalry
- no lancers
- good dragoons
- very good heavy cavalry
Artillery:
- good foot artillery and good howitzers

FranceInfantry:
- acceptable line infantry
-- Swiss - shooting
-- Polish - assault
-- 18e - both
-- fusiliers are weak
- standard grenadiers and elite grenadiers
- best guard infantry
-- Old Guard - best infantry unit ingame
-- Young Guard and Guard Seamen are good Guards
- bad choice of lights and skirmishers
-- Chasseurs have low accuracy
-- Voltigeurs have low man power
Cavalry:
- good light cavalry
- best lancers
- best heavy cavalry
Artillery:
- best artillery, most accuracy and realoading skill

PrussiaInfantry:
- good line infantry
- standard grenadiers and elite grenadiers
- good guard infantry
- very good lights and best skirmishers
Cavalry:
- cheap cavalry
-- lancers
-- lights
- bad heavy cavalry
Artillery:
- standard ~ bad artillery

Austria Infantry:
- melee based infantry
- no guards
- hungarian units are excellent aussault units
- special units are good support ( Archduke Charles Legion, 47th Czech and 1st Regiment)
- bad lights
- standard ~ bad skirmishers
- germans are bad choices
Cavalry:
- cheap lights and lancers
- good heavy cavalry
Artillery:
- standard ~ bad artillery

Russia Infantry:
- bad ranged units
- very good assault and melee units
- strong grenadiers
- good guards
- acceptable lights
Cavalry:
- good lancers and lights
- very good heavy cavalry
Artillery:
- standard ~acceptable foot artillery
- unicorns

Portugal Infantry:
- acceptable line infantry
- good grenadiers
- best lights and good skirmishers
Cavalry:
- worst cavalry
Artillery:
- only good foot artillery

Spain
Infantry:
- acceptable line infantry (bad reloaders)
- bad lights
- standard grenadiers
- acceptable guards
Cavalry: - acceptable lights and lancers
- good heavy cavalry
Artillery:
- acceptable artillery

- Guerillias
-- strong in surprising and ambushing
-- bad fighting skills

Sweden, Danmark and Netherlands
Infantry:
- bad line infantry
- no ~ acceptable guards
- bad ~ acceptable lights and skirms
- standard grenadiers
Cavalry
- standard light cavalry
- acceptable ~ good heavy cavalry
Artillery:
- acceptable foot artillery
- acceptable ~ no howitzers

Infantry:
I am dividing the infantry in two types.
Light Infantry, which are Light Infantry and Skirmishers
and Heavy Infantry, which are Line Infantry, Grenadiers and Guards.

Heavy Infantry
Line Infantry
- heart of every Army
- do not replace them with militia which has EXP
- a core of line infantry is for every tactic helpful
-- cavalry based: you can shoot the enemy infantry carrè or support your cavalry against enemy cavalry
-- light infantry based: you can cover your lights with line agaisnt cavalry or enemy charges
- Guard Infantry =/= Line Infantry
-- Guard based: line infantry could be used as meatshield, if you do not want to waste so much money, use militia they are inspired by the guards

Grenadiers
- low man power
- very good charge
- can support the line at problematic points
- grenades can demoralize, not as effective as in Empire: Total War
- in firefights they often get a problem with enemy line infantry because of the high man power, which is shooting at them

Guards
- expensive units
- high skill in shooting and melee
- should be used where you want to win the battle
- friendly units take advantage of their passiv inspiring skill
- should be hold in reserve to go fast where they are needed

Light Infantry
- always need to be protected by cavalry or/and heavy infantry
- problem against cavalry
- general problem in melee, except Russian Jägers and Cazadores
- Silesian Shuetzen and British Rifles are the bst skirmishers
- Portugese Cazadores are the best light infantry, Prussian Fusiliers 2nd
- light infantry behavior exhausts units (only use it in fight)
- behavior of Light infantry gives cover

Light Infantry:
- useable as line
- when in behavior - superior in direct firefight against line infantry

Skirmishers:
- low man power
- can place stakes
- formation is spread out
-- but they are standing and easy to hit
-- light infantry behavior is very useful
- in direct firefights under same conditions against light infantry they will lose

Cavalry
- should not fight in forrests
- very highbonus when charging downhill
- very effective against light infantry
- goot to annoy the enemy and force him to react
- effective agaisnt artillery
- woulnerable against foot artillery

Light Cavalry:
- very fast
-- good against misplaced units
- good to surround the enemy
- not effective against lancers or heavy cavalry
Mounted Shooters: Good for Hit and Run tactics

Lancers:
- very effective in cahrging every kind of units
- not very good when in melee
- can force a unit to surrender with only one charge

Dragoons:
- sort of heavy cavalry
- slowly
- can dismount and shoot
-- not effective
- acceptable melee skills

Heavy Cavalry:
- high melee skill
- good to enemy cavalry
- excellent when infantry units out of carrè
- high morale to keep them fighting


Artillery
- long ranged heavy support
- can make a lots of damage
- woulnerable agaisnt cavalry
- slowly, except Mounted Artillery
-- especially in forrests
- can be used as support for the line, with cannister shots
-- very good against light infantry too

Foot Artillery:
- my guide for foot artillery is above
- mounted artillery can move very fast and help at critical points
-- when you are playing with smaller unit sizes then ultra, you could have a problem that one cannon has no crew (idk about small and normal unit sizes)

Howitzers:
- can shoot over barriers
- making lots of damage when hitting
-- very good against infantry formations
- lower range
Unicorns: devastating explosions and high range

First of all: I am never playing grassy flatlands.

General Information:
- every map is fair for both sides
-- sadly most players are not able to see it
-- and except Waterloo :D
- use small hilltops or light valleys as cover

- never stand directly on the hilltop, except you have superior light infantry, skirmishers or artillery
- roads are excellent cover for infantry and artillery

- buildings
-- most small building have only a few windows on each side
--- you can shoot the enemy out of it, if you fear high melee causalities
-- buildings with many windows should be guarded and ignored unitl you annihilated the rest of the enemy army
-- every kind of building is a good cover against howitzers

- bridges and river crossings are dangerous and open terrain, do not cross them, when the enemy awaits you

- forrests are good terrain for the use of assault infantry

I am mostly using the same kind of army and the same tactics for the army.
I tried every nation with that kind of army and was succesful with it, except with netherlands :D
I prefer to play with United Kingdom or France, but I like to play with Prussia or Austria too :)
I will show you pictures of my armies.

in general:
- use of many line infantry
- only lights, no skirmishers, but to maximum of 4 lights (I only recommned that for expirienced Players, 5 are always no stupid choice)
- only 2 to 4 cavalry units
- 3 guards minimum
- if I use artillery, I mostly don´t use lights

More in detail:
- outnumbering the enemy by mass and quality (very good with UK, Austria and France)
- my line is mostly superior
- cavalry is only to block enemy cavalry
- my few lights keep the enemy lights and skirms busy
- guards and heavy units stay in reserve
- fight with as few as possible units you can and make as much damage as possible
-- maximise the damage your units can do, use long lines and learn how much your units can bear
- keep your general close to the point where you want to win the battle
- Act! Do not react, don´t give the enemy the chance to take a superior position
-- even if you just run to him and form a new line of defence (only without artillery)
-- if you know the enemy will not do much (no game time) just find a good position to defend and wait ( only without artillery)
- if you have artillery, kill his artillery first, if not possible, his cavalry or general
- most important foot artillery rule:
Your artillery is always superior!
- the best friend on the battlefield are not your units, the battlefield itself is it
- be patient
- ignore attacker or defender side, you can attack or defend when YOU want, what you are doing its called "tactic"
- always think about the statistics, your units cannot do better then their skills are, there are no random actions
- do not leave big gaps between your army or the enemy can easily destroy your army part by part

I am basing my armies on a core of 4 units of infantry who are holding my centre. I am adding the light units or the artillery, depends on what army and for what rules. Then I am adding a strong guard corps which are supporting the centre companies and cav units, depending on what nation and what they have. The rest is spend to more centre companies. These armies are for my style of playing, you can try, but if lose, it is not my fault.

Dresden was one of my favourite maps and with some other mates I played it very very often.
I am not playing it anymore to be precise not often and then I like the challange to get someone out of his defence position :)

The main characteristic of the map is the river and the city.
You have four ways to cross the river, two river crossings in the west and east and two bridges in the city. Most players just go to these ways and block it with a strong defence, udnerstandable, but a game which is not moving, is boring and the players will start to complain about "Wah! You are attackers! Attack!" - yes, Everybody who believes that can do it ... some people believe that there is a flying spaghetti monster too ...
I show you some with nice positions to defend on the northern river side now:

The Eastern River Crossing:





Here you can use the street and the little increase of the ground to perfectly defend the river crossing. You can spread the formation and use more units to defend there. Do not fear cavalry, as long as you have a strong line of fire.
If the enemy attacks with long ranged skirmishers, just hide behind the "hilltop" and move forward when they try to cross, this needs a good feeling of the range of your units.
Artillery Positions for the East:



Hidden howitzers, very difficult to hit wit foot artillery.


Nice example for using a road to cover units.


The Eastern Bridge:



This bridge is the easier one, you have this increase of ground to hide for longer ranged units, or hide your counter-assault infantry. Same as above, move your units in line of fire when the time comes and give the enemy hell.

The Western Bridge:



This one is a little bit tricky. You can see in the picture that you can hide your one or two units in the forrest, if these are lights or skirms they can shoot the end of the bridge. Most time the enemy will charge these units with cav and send his infantry along the river on your side in cover of the houses. There they have not much space to line up, but assault infantr could brake your line.
You can surround and build a zone of death between some units, especially the little plaza, the space between Church and lonely building and from that building to river.




The Western River Crossing:



That pics are not directly at the river crossing. some people prefer to defend the river crossing itselft, like i showed at the other three, but here my favourite is to stay on the hill behind the wood. Sure the enemy can bring many units across the river, but your hill and use of terrain will defeat them, the range of lights on the hilltop ends at the end of the wood, so when he wants to come out, send him greetings with a volley, very important is your left flank, where he could easily come behind your units in the city, be carefully there. Your right flank is open. It would be too much space to defend everything and if you see his moving more and more units to that flank, just follow him and send more and more units against him, very easy.

Why I love this map:
On the map you have some locations only on the northern side, which are ... annoying for the enemy.


This position is 100 m behind the hilltop behind my western river crossing defence. You can hide units there and surprise the enemy, with fast support.



Hiding infantry? Sure, but hiding artillery is much funnier. You can hide a unit artillery directly in the forest at the river. Keep them hidden as long as possible and only shoot if you have a worthy target.
Careful! Enemy skirms can go to the island and shoot them.
(In the background on the left of the 2nd picture you can see the hidden unit I was talking about above.)


This position can hide many units, artillery, cavalry or infantry and from there you can send them to every point on the western defence, very fast. If your western river crossing defence fails and you have´nt send units. You can use your hidden units from here to suprise the marching enemy.
(In the 2nd picture from above you can see where it is)


Everywhere in the city you can protect your units from enemy howitzers like that.


Here you have a copy of the big hidden position, just on the eastern side.


Sadly I have to say, that I cannot post the whole Pyramids thing here, because not enough space, so lets go to a new topic :D

My current favourite.
On this map you have the two main characteristics, the hills in the north and the village on the hill in the west. I am ignoring these two hills.
The map shows you how wonderful you can use the terrain to your advantage, the dunes are a good cover.
My personal favourite position on the map:


There you have the dunes to cover your units from enemy skirms or lights.


The attacker position in the North:
The hill is useable for many good things.

You can place reserves behind the hill to cover them against artillery.


You have a very good howitzer position in front of the little valley.


Your artillery on the hill has a very good view on the whole battlesfield (advantages and disadvantages of artillery on a hill in "2nd best firend")
The "circled" position is the best place.


Cavalry can charge the village very fast to annoy and stop the enemy.


On your right flank there is the road, where you have a very good position to cover infantry in case of a battle there.


Directly in front of the village you have another very good position to cover your units.



A little bit right, at the end of the map, there is a little hill too, where you can excellent hide your infantry if the enemy has higher ranged units


This position is useable for both sides.

Infantry wins gunfights.
Tanks win battles.
Artillery wins wars.

Artillery is the mother of warfare in the napoleonic age, I love to use it, howitzers are the easy way, but to use foot artillery is the highest form. If you know how to use it, you can defeat every other artillery with your unit.
6 pounder, 8/9 pounder and 12(18 pounder are the diffrent types of artillery.
When the pound grows the accuracy gets lower.
I prefer the 8/9 pounder, good balance between accuracy and range.
Of course the french artillery is superior. Higher reloading skill and higher accuracy, especially the Artillerie a Piéd, with the high range and high shooting skill is extremly dangerous, but very expensive too.

How to use foot artillery:
- cover is important, but your cover should not influence the shooting, that less cannons can shoot
- like everybody would think, put them on higher positions, I don´t agree
-- example: Austerlitz: if you have your cannons on that high ground it is impossible to shoot over their range, because the shots go down, right into earth
-- always place you cannons with the gun carriage points to the sky or as high as possible
-- you don´t need to be in range to kill cavalry, guns or generals, just shoot where the enemy unit you want to hit stands (IMPORTANT: don´t click on the unit, click on the ground in front or behind the unit)
That is why I think even the wors foot artillery is superior to better enemy artillery.
Another point is that you can use the ricochets, when they hit the ground to hit targets far away, this needs much practice and a good feeling, but it is possible.


The four different types of foot artillery

Range of the 12pounders (Artillrie a Piéd)

The ricochets which happen if you aim within the range.

The ricochets which happen if you aim with the 6 pounder to the ground where the 12pounder shot

The real range of the 6 pounders