Sandbox - Historical - Courier only

[con20or]

Been playing sandbox alot of late, hunt them down, no objective. I LOVE IT. Its exactly what ive been looking for for years in a game.

A few questions.

1. Is there a way to make the sides uneven? Ie infantry brigade against brigade, but one side gets an artillery unit, or a troop of cavalry (my side obviously)

2. How do you move your brigade? run somewhere, then order them to move to where you are? Edit - I know how to move, but whats the best way.

3. If you order cavalry to probe or scout, will they inform you if they find something? likewise if you order an infantry unit to probe towards a certain location, then you go elsewhere, will that be the last you hear of them?

4. How do you stay hidden? I went miles out of my way, through the trees at little round top, then on to the enemies rear. They saw, me, turned around and charged me. I lost.

5. Wandering generals - if they see me, does the AI then know where i am?

[Armistead]

I can only answer the first two questions.

1. A: Yes. Use the OOB editor to create your own OOBs that will have varring amount of troops. You can also download Garnier's OOBs which does the same thing.

2. A: TC the Brigade Commander then click a spot near you. You should see an yellow arrow on the ground next to you. That is the Brigade Commander marching to you. Then click on one of the unit formation buttons so that the regiments will follow the brigade commander.

If you want to move yourself around and have "x" amount of divisions/brigades follow you around. Just be sure to have them on TC. move your guy where ever you want to go then click on the unit formation button. Once done any subordinate command that you have previously TCed will follow your commander.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

Hi con20or:
It's nice to see someone else plays in historic mode besides my self. I'm very glad to know I'm not the only crazy around here. :laugh:

1. Is there a way to make the sides uneven? Ie infantry brigade against brigade, but one side gets an artillery unit, or a troop of cavalry (my side obviously)

You have to make a custom OOB to have these kind of specific arangements.

2. How do you move your brigade? run somewhere, then order them to move to where you are? Edit - I know how to move, but whats the best way.

This is the tough part. We can't just put a mark on the map and say go here. As you point out, you either have to move to a specific location and then courier back to the troops to come. Or you can give them the "move your unit to this location" order and pick the nearest location that's on the list. I've been adding more locations to this list for a mod I'm working on. I still have to finish the PPT map and then I'll release it for others to use. On the other three maps that I've completed, I've found that my expanded list allows me to almost always get my men close to where I really want them. After they arrive, I then move to the exact spots I want the units and move them a 2nd time.

3. If you order cavalry to probe or scout, will they inform you if they find something? likewise if you order an infantry unit to probe towards a certain location, then you go elsewhere, will that be the last you hear of them?

They are gone and forgotten. This is the weakness of the courier system. It's very good for giving orders to subordinate troops, but no information flows the other way. Your troops are mute. Norb is going to work on this after the official bug patch is released.

. How do you stay hidden? I went miles out of my way, through the trees at little round top, then on to the enemies rear. They saw, me, turned around and charged me. I lost.

Yup, it sucks. The AI is very good. By playing in historic mode, you find that the AI makes very few mistakes, and will severely punish yours. There have been times when I would not have been able to tell I was not playing a human. IMHO, it passes the Turing Test.

5. Wandering generals - if they see me, does the AI then know where i am?

Yes, they scout, just like you.

I find historic play extremely challenging. I probably only win 25% of my games this way. On second thought, that's probably being generous. The biggest drawback to playing this way is the lack of information coming to me from my subordinates. If they see the enemy approaching in the distance, they should send a courier informing me of this. As I said, though, this issue is on Norb's plate.

As a compromise, I play all my non-historic mode games, by pressing the 'F' key twice. This glues me to the saddle, but I can turn and rise up and down if I choose. Also, if I select a subordinate with the arrow keys, I jump to his saddle for a different perspective. I justify this as being equivalent to that commander sending me a report of what's going on in his sector.

[con20or]

I tried playing as a division commander last night, i used the 'move to' to send me division down two divergin roads. its very hard when you cant see the map. It would be great if you could have the map on that screen too.


I managed it somehow, got my division sort of together looking out into the large empty part of the map looking for the enemy, when the arty behind me stared firing, and the rebs burst through, cavalry followed by infantry.

How do mounted cavalry hold up in melee against infantry?

[Little Powell]

con20or wrote:

How do mounted cavalry hold up in melee against infantry?

Not so good, but a lot depends on the morale and fatigue of the infantry regiment they are facing of course. Cavalry is mostly good for recon and those powerful repeating rifles.

[Armistead]

It should be easier if at the first moment you jump in a game to hit the coloum formation button while you are playing the division commander. It will mover all the brigades closer to you with their troops into coloums.

Another thing that depends on the outcome of infantry /melee battle is the Edge wpn stat of your regiments and of course the same ting of the cavalry.

Finally, troop formation and terrain. I have actually formed my division into either a horse shoe or square formation depending on location/terrain. The square was popular with Neopolan but rarely used during the civil war, but i have found it to be useful in defending against cavalry, or superior forces.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

con20or wrote:

its very hard when you cant see the map. It would be great if you could have the map on that screen too.

Indeed it is. I made a mod which allows you to see the map while you are in the courier screen. You can find it in this thread. http://www.norbsoftdev.com/index.php?op ... 4&id=19535