Napoleon Total War advice

Play Rome.

Also I don't really know. What I try to do is to overwhelm them with lanes of fusiliers shooting at them and try to flank them with dragons or some kind of close combat infantry. Also cannons and that are most of the time not worth their money IMO.

I've next to not played Napoleon though. This is more like from my experience with Empire. Anyways, play Rome or Medieval.

Typically since I am more of a Rome guy myself I do terribly at gun battles.
What I tend to do is try and flank infantrymen with saber wielding cavalry and then rush in my infantry from hilled positions so as to have a little leverage followed by easier shooting. Whether or not this technique works effectively relies on the general in command.

You can try to read some articles about Napoleon strategy, it should work for the game as well.

If I might say, I think that Empire:Total war is better in terms of battle mechanics etc. than Napoleon Total war + they are bringing back the MP campaign which Napoleon does not have.

In Napoleon, Rocket Arty is OP.

empire is better than napoleon, but rome is always a good game :) my advice is knowing the range of the gun or at least have the appropriate formation (a line/ rectangular as wide as the enemy but be careful of the gaps in between units so that you can get cavalry run through them without messing the formation)

well i havent played napoleon so i cant tell, but i hope my coh skills can help

try looking who is good vs who, try putting the bullet sponge soldiers in the front line to battle, then bring in those who can flank better like cannons or snipers or rifleman i dont know what units you have but you get it, also (if the game allows) get in cover all the time

another thing you can do if you cant flank, is preety much put the peons in the front line, while more sluggish, important and/or weak but hard hitting units stay behind avoiding bullets (a typical chess trategy which applies well to the battlefield)

edit: one last thing you can do is lure in the enemie, try sending a unit to attack them then run, they will probably follow you and you can then attack them in an ambush

Shogun 2 RULES them all, give it a shot :D

cannon spam does wonders. For the campaigns I didnt want to wait for the cannons so I went with line infantry and cav,cav concentrated on one flank. When the AI made its move and was about halfway to my positions the cav started to circle around the enemy and go for their arty(melee) and then charge in the enemy back or went after their general. Staggered lines (---_-)also help sometimes when you expect a massive enemy charge,it allowes to be a bit more flexible as not every unit has to fight melee. Always watch the enemy cav,they usually try to flank you,just reposition your flank,dont attack them with your riflemen. Light infantry is excellent in cover or as sharpshooter in combination with line infantry.

my basic tactic is positioning all my troops in a single line. The center will have the squads with more troops and are reletevely expendable. at the flanks i'll have my best troops and/or those with longer ranges then most units. the general will stay behind the vanguardto make sure my center doesn't retreat. my cavalry stays at the flanks. my army normally consist of 14 squads of lineman, 1 general, 3 cavalry and 2 skimershers/elite squads.
My tactic is normally to do 2 things:
1)open a hole in the enemy formation
2)kill the enemy general
To do these objectives i have to know if the opponet's army is stronger or weaker then mine.
if it's weaker i target the center or flanks (basecaly the weakest part of their army).
if they are stronger, i try to hold the upper ground while hurting their numbers. try to use the cavalry to cause some confusion amongst their ranks and stopped them from flanking me. to win i order my elite squads to focus fire on one of their flanks. once that flank falls, i either target their general or keep focusing fire on weaker enemies.
that's what i normally do in SP. in a nutshell you have to try and keep most of your lineman in a line and focus their fire on only a few places on the enemy formation. once it breaks you just need to exploit the holes and make the more isolated squad retreat before they can destroy your lineman.

Well you should have played Medieval 2 after Rome. It has gun battles with the late period guys.

Just wanted to let you guys know that the advice helped a lot! Played a bit just now and won a battle where the odds were pretty heavily against me :D