guide on how to beat licorne spam
Hi everyone.
To introduce myself, my ingame name is Imdumbfr and my discord name is the same if you want to contact or just talk to me.
Anyways, as I scroll through Reddit I saw a Licorne spam meme
I immediately thought to myself "Wait ppl still spam licorne? thought it got nerfed". Anyways, as I am probably the best active player in this sub and has also used licornes before, I thought I should have a say in this matter.
Without further ado, let's jump straight to the main point, that is, how to deal with Licorne spam
(This is the result of a guy yapping about a rather trash meta instead of doing useful things and there will be mistakes so enjoy)
I. Strength and weakness
Licorne's strength:
-Deadlier canister (than their normal arty counter part, that being 6lb and 12lb)
-Longer range (than their normal arty counter part, that being 6lb and 12lb)
-Explosive shells at long range (more dmg in forest/city, elevation and circular AOE
-Fatter AOE (for a lack of a better word)
Licorne's weakness:
-Shorter canister range
-Shorter cannonball effective range (or medium range)
-Weaker medium range damage
-Shorter AOE
-Explosive shells at long range (Cannonball don't extend outside medium range, meaning enfilade fire is a lot less viable with Licorne)
II. Exploiting normal arty's main strengths
Normally this wouldn't be related to dealing with licorne (because it kinda is), however one tactic that do though is enfilade fire. Basically, enfilade fire means an arty can deal damage to many units at once, preferably from a flank
What make normal arty much better than licornes at enfilade fire is that not only they have longer AOE but their cannonball also extend their range to long range, unlike Licornes which use explosive shells instead
A demonstration of enfilade fire
A real game demonstration of enfilade fire between me (Imdumbfr) and MadCraver
III. Avoiding Licorne' main strengths
A unquestionably great advantage of Licorne (and howitzer too) over normal arty is the ability to punish dense clumps of units. Because of this, if your army gets into licorne long range, it's important that you spread your army (or try to stay out of range)
With the same amount of infantry, the right licornes deal more dmg than the left ones
Another two less important upsides of licornes is that they deal more damage at long range, and since longe range licornes are explosive shells, they also perform better at terrain. So fight in medium range (where your normal arty will deal more damage than licorne) and try to fight in open ground
One very underrated tactic of licornes however is anchoring (I think that's the name), which is damaging reinforcements of the enemy before they even arrives, and leaving the enemy a softened army against your attacking force. And to be honest, there aren't really any ways you can deal with this except counter battery and trying to threaten the licornes
A real game demonstration between me (Imdumbfr) and LiamCrawford
What you can take advantage of licornes though, is the fact that licornes prefers to use their overhead fire, that meaning their heavier cannons are behind the lines on a hill and not near the front. This means aggressive playstyle really benefits the non-licorne spammers and it should be the core of dealing with licornes spammer
IV. Specific Arty vs Arty counterbattery situation
(this assumes it is a 1v1 situation, meaning you have 1 arty and enemy have 1 licorne)
- 10lb licorne vs 6lb foot
6lb deals more mid range dmg than licornes so you should try to fight in mid range (and especially not long range). Also, 6lb has longer canister range so you can force a situation which the 6lb can canister the 10lb freely
Also, since 10lb licornes medium range is slightly shorter than 6lb's, you can dmg 10lb in medium range while the 10lb would dmg the 6lb in long range, making the 6lb deal more dmg
- 10lb licorne vs 4lb foot/horty
The same, but 10lb licorne actually deals more dmg in mid range than 4lb/ horty so you are forced to use longer range canister
- 18lb licorne vs 8lb foot
Similar to above, but about heavy arty
- 18lb licorne vs 12lb foot
similar to 10lb licorne vs 6lb, but about heavy arty
- 18lb licorne vs 6lb foot/ horty
Interestingly, 6lb foot/horty has longer canister range than 18lb licorne so you can have 6lb/horty dmg the licorne in canister, while 18lb would dmg the 6lb in medium range
Conclusion
-Spread troops evenly
-Be aggressive
-Don't cluster troops
-Use enfilade, and don't fear if you walk into enfilade
-Fight in open ground
This is the end of the guide How to beat licorne spammer by Imdumbfr. See you later!
anyways im gonna crash out if i see another licorne spam meme after this