Help for a Total Noob with Divisions and Over

[NatetheReb]

OK, so I have went through the tutorial on divisions several times, and I do fine on the tutorial and I have the situation under control, but when I actually go into a scenario or create a sandbox situation, all hell breaks loose, specifically concerning suicide charges, and random marches to unknown objectives, all despite I give the order to hold.

Let me give you examples from two times I've played McPherson's Ridge:

I always have a regiment from Davis's brigade that stop in front of the cannons and sit there and get blasted with canister shots. It gets really annoying to have a hundred or so men to just wasted because one regiment is too impatient to wait until I have taken care of the regiment that's guarding the right flank of the cannons, so I can bring the whole brigade to bear.

Another time, I had Pettigrew engaged with the Iron Brigade, and the stupid second line of the brigade in double line formation would constantly go up in front of the first line, then get into a "T" formation with the front line regiment, despite the fact I gave the order to "hold to the last" (it wasn't needed, but hold didn't seem to be working very well).

While the last one was going on, I realized that Davis's Brigade had totally abandoned McPherson's Ridge and began to fall back, despite the fact that they weren't under any attack at all, and were near full strength. I had given them the order to hold as well. At that point, after about half the men I had lost being due to these crazy moves that make no rational sense whatsoever, I decided to quit because I didn't want to have to retake McPherson's Ridge after that bungle. Not to mention, half of Pettigrew's brigade was routing because they had their flanks to the Iron Brigade and refused to leave that position.

What is the most funny about the McPherson's Ridge scenario is that Archer's Brigade had the least problems with this kind of nonsense, despite it being led by a Lieutenant with 0 skills the whole time. Brigade commanded by a Lieutenant, that is not good news. LOL. Next thing you know, a corporal will be leading the division.

[Little Powell]

The TC button is your friend in this situation.

If units have their own orders, they may do what they please.. Even if you tell them to hold to the last, there's still a chance they will want to move around especially if an enemy is nearby.

I very rarely give units an order unless it's a really big scenario like GB06 when you pretty much have to leave a division or two on AI control (too much to manage).

I also put arty units on Hold To the last quite often because they will normally stay put.

But in some cases, I will also put a brigade on "All out attack" if I need to concentrate on another area of the battle. You can be sure that this brigade will attack very aggressively! "All Out Attack" is the blood thirsty order.

[NatetheReb]

Little Powell wrote:

The TC button is your friend in this situation.

If units have their own orders, they may do what they please.. Even if you tell them to hold to the last, there's still a chance they will want to move around especially if an enemy is nearby.

I very rarely give units an order unless it's a really big scenario like GB06 when you pretty much have to leave a division or two on AI control (too much to manage).

I also put arty units on Hold To the last quite often because they will normally stay put.

But in some cases, I will also put a brigade on "All out attack" if I need to concentrate on another area of the battle. You can be sure that this brigade will attack very aggressively! "All Out Attack" is the blood thirsty order.

Thanks for the advice. I chose not to go with taking command from the AI too much because the tutorials make it sound like an extremely rare event and might lead to bad consequences if used too much. I think I probably did use the TC button quite a bit in the tutorial, come to think of it.

As far as Arty goes, that was the hardest to learn the basics, but now they are the most reliable units.