Taking a chateau requires a bit of planning.
First, what do I gain from taking it? Second, what does my opponent gain from holding it? Third, is it worth the cost of taking it?
Assuming you have decided to take the chateau, heed the following advice:-
1. Only fire at units in a chateau if it is a battalion in line formation and you have an enfilade shot. Even then, only fire with a battery from range 1-2 hexes, or a battalion in line formation from 1 hex, anything else has precious little chance of hitting the target. Conserve ammunition by firing only in the offensive phase, this is what will get the battalion to rout.
By the way, if your opponent has done you the service of leaving a battalion in line formation in a chateau, you have probably already won the battle so taking the chateau is academic [:)]
2. Assuming your opponent is smart enough to have manned the chateau with skirmish company(ies), forget about artillery and musketry; you are going to have to get in their and mix it up with them - and that needs planning. Anyone can take a chateau, but without planning you can easily blow a brigade in the process.
Phase 1:
Isolate the units in the chateau. In other words, surround it so that there is no route from the enemy unit to the edge of the map that is not blocked by either one of your units or it's zone of control.
Sounds easy enough, but, isolation does not occur until after the unit has been surrounded for a full turn so the enemy may counter-attack your surrounding units beforehand, so they need to be prepared for this. In other words - secure the area before worrying about surrounding the chateau. If you secure a large enough area, it is possible to leave a path for the occupants to rout out of the chateau (as mentioned in another post), and not leave a route for the enemy to re-occupy it on his move. For now though, just go for the surrounding to isolate.
Phase 2:
Choose your route(s) of entry. Find the easiest (least costly) routes into the chateau. Best is an open side, then a wall, then a gate, each is made worse if you have to cross a stream or go uphill as well. Find the two cheapest routes into the chateau, that do not mean attacking from adjacent hexes.
Phase 3:
Once the chateau has been surrounded and isolated, make your first attack. Some players use exclusively skirmishers for this, I find it can be cheaper to use a battalion and skirmisher, each attacking simultaneously from one of the non-adjacent hexes selected. The battalion must be in column and neither should have fired that phase. Also, stick a brigade leader with one of the attacking units for his bonus.
This is all about numbers. You must get odds of 6:1. You must minimise the negative modifiers for hexside features, and you must maximise your bonuses, leader, flank attack, no fire in previous phase etc.
You will lose the first couple of melees but chances are you will still inflict at least as many casualties as you suffer. After about 3 turns you will have the chateau at a cost of about the same number of men as were holding it, and probably two battalions on 2-3 fatigue points, which if it is early enough in the game can be recovered in time.
Finally:
If you can not get a flank attack bonus, because your opponent is a smart cookie (like me [:0]) and has manned the chateau with more than one skirmisher, so that you can not get the flank attack bonus. Pass it up, it's probably not worth the effort or cost of getting in there. Look to win the battle elsewhere by defeating the enemy army instead of chasing objective hexes!
I can probably knock up a quick 'Storming the chateaux' scenario to demonstrate the above techniques if you are interested
Regards
Mark
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