Morale and Fatique

[Amish John]

My regiments' morale and fatigue are both good, but they still seem to run away too often. Not being flanked. Playing in normal difficulty. Anyone else seeing this?

[bedbug]

How is their ammo holding up?
Are they seperated?

[solinvictus88]

Amish John wrote:

My regiments' morale and fatigue are both good, but they still seem to run away too often. Not being flanked. Playing in normal difficulty. Anyone else seeing this?

actually, I think this has been improved very much: Regiments tend to retreat when under pressure, but rally quickly and come back...when they run out of ammo they retreat as well...I only saw 3 units leaving the field entirely, which was more than justified - they had lost more than half their men and were being shot at from 3 sides...
the "retreat" and the "fall back" option are much better, IMHO, because you can issue a "fall back" order more than once, to get them to move further or use the retreat order - which in turn won't get them running over a too long a distance like in TC2M...
correct me if I'm wrong please, but I think it's much better the way it is now...I like seeing my regiments reform and try again after they were forced to retire... B)

SolInvictus

[Little Powell]

Amish John wrote:

My regiments' morale and fatigue are both good, but they still seem to run away too often. Not being flanked. Playing in normal difficulty. Anyone else seeing this?

Like solinvictus88 said, this area has been improved over TC2M, but you also have to factor in the leadership of a units commander, as well as the randomness. There are so many factors in the code that determine how a regiment reacts. If the leader is a wuss, his regiments will be a little more "skittish". Also, another really cool improvement over TC2M is if a regiment see's another friendly regiment retreat nearby, there's a chance it will retreat too!

[Little Powell]

Amish John wrote:

My regiments' morale and fatigue are both good, but they still seem to run away too often. Not being flanked. Playing in normal difficulty. Anyone else seeing this?

Like solinvictus88 said, this area has been improved over TC2M, but you also have to factor in the leadership of a units commander, as well as the randomness. There are so many factors in the code that determine how a regiment reacts. If the leader is a wuss, his regiments will be a little more "skittish". Also, another really cool improvement over TC2M is if a regiment see's another friendly regiment retreat nearby, there's a slight chance it will retreat too!

[Gunfreak]

As long as the fight is fare they seem to be able to take a pounding.

But as soon as they are separated or faced with massive enemy forces they run quite easly.

But it does take ALOT to get them to outright rout.

When I got run over, it took atleast 4 attacks by the enemy before my zoaves ran for home, and just to show how long they all stayed in the fight, I lost 55% of my brigade.
Thats ALOT, they fought like lions.

[Amish John]

Thanks for the replies, guys. I hadn't thought to check the ammo. But from your replies it sounds like it's working like it's supposed to, so back I go into the maelstrom to get my butt kicked once again. I'll be glad when the full game is available so I can be thrashed by different rebs.

[Little Powell]

Yeah, the demo tutorial is a tough one! I can remember testing it and getting my butt kicked, and I've been playing the game for a year and a half. It does take some strategy. Use the woods, walls, and flank as much as you can. Try to get the rebs sandwiched between you and the Iron brigade when they come to support you.

[UglyElmo]

I had the same thing happen to me, where a unit would retreat even with a high morale value. When I checked the unit, it showed it to be in "retreat" mode, so it probably isn't a bug, but the unit not being directly under my control and the AI deciding it needed to move the unit back.

I did notice a message a couple of times, which said a unit of mine was being flanked, but when I looked the unit in question was not. This rarely happened though.

I have found moving your commander unit near the flanks of your line, helps keep them from retreating while not directly under your command.

To me a lot of the fun of a game, is figuring out how to work-around some of the randomness and movement/command problems. :laugh:

[Rich Mac]

I found last night that I was using the retreat command in MP alot. I'd keep a regiment in reserve and if a unit seemed to be wavering, I would move my reserve up to the line just behind it. Then hit retreat. After my reserve took its place on the line, I would gather up the retreated regiment and put them in reserve, hoping they would regain their composure. This seemed to work rather well.

As for being out of ammo, I had a very interesting MP experience. I had managed to flank the enemy's line and then wrapped around their flank regiment to attack it from the rear. The unit that moved in to do this was only about 30 yards away from the enemy and when it reached its destination it stopped and did absolutely nothing! After a few moments of screaming at the computer, I realized they had 0 ammo! So, without ammo, I ordered them to charge. They promptly captured the enemy regiment - without any ammo

Needless to say, they didn't retreat when being out of ammo.