This is must-know information for sandbox game hosts.
It's a little complicated, so bear with me. I'm not absolutely certain that this is how it works, but it fits my experimenting...
There are four factors that go into the exact selection of units available in your sandbox setup:
1. Selected Army or Side
2. Selected Battle Size
3. Selected Order Of Battle (OOB)
4. Selected Commander
Definition: In this post, the word "available" means the units in the list that the players can choose from after you click "Set Sandbox", which finalizes your settings.
1. Selected Army or Side
First thing to note. The host only really gets to choose the units for ONE of the sides, which is the side he has selected in the upper left of the screen where it says "Select Your Army." The host does not have to actually play on this side. When the host clicks the "Set sandbox" button, the game figures out what units this side will get based on the settings, and then tries to find an evenly matched set of units from the opposing side.
2. Selected Battle Size
Brigade - This setting means there will only be one "brigade" available on each side. The brigade could be infantry, cavalry or artillery!
Division - This setting means that this side will have only one division.
Corps - This setting means that this side will have only one corps
Army - This setting means that this side will have the entire army from the selected OOB.
3. Selected Order Of Battle (OOB)
In the middle of the sandbox screen under "Select your order of battle" all the available OOBs are listed. The units you can select a commander from will be only those from the OOB you select.
4. Selected Commander
As the host, you also get to choose a single commander from the order of battle and side you selected above. You will not be forced to play as this commander in the battle! However, the commander you select WILL be available once you "Set Sandbox".
The game will make available to the selected side one organization of the selected battle size, that includes the selected commander. For some examples:
* If you choose a brigade commander, and have the brigade battle size selected, the available units for your side will be ONLY the brigade you selected.
* If you choose a brigade commander and have the division battle size selected, the available units for your side will be the DIVISION that your brigade is part of.
* If you choose the army commander, with corps battle size, the game will select a random corps that is below the army commander.
If you want to be certain which units your selected side will have available, choose a battle size that matches the rank of the commander you select. For instance, picking corps battle size and selecting a corps commander will guarrantee this side gets the corps of the selected corps commander.
Remember that the available troops for the opposing side are selected randomly, but the game tries to match their strength with the units chosen for your side.
There is no guarantee that the available opposing force will have similar strength to the force on your selected side. If the available units are not satisfactory, you can click the "Create a sandbox game" again, and immediately click "Set sandbox" to let the game randomly pick new units to match your selected force.