Historical Difficulty Level

[ktwine]

I am such a newbie. What does "TC'd" mean?

[CoB4thTEXAS]

TC'ed is when you take command of any unit or leader

[RebBugler]

TC'ed is when you take command of any unit or leader

Correct in function, but referred to on the toolbar as 'Take Control'

[ktwine]

Here's what I'm doing now to make the historical (couriers) option work:

I still have to find the best place to see the battlefield, then start giving orders, because I'm stuck at that spot for the rest of the scenario. Then I strip all the trees off, which gives me a much better idea of what's going on. That makes up for the total lack of information via courier to me.

In giving orders, I first make sure that everyone is lined up the way I want them. Then I give each unit leader a series of orders, all in one message, starting with "advance to" a specific spot on the list, as close to the objective as possible, then "attack enemy on your front". Then I sit on my horse and watch, which is probably what most commanders had to do anyway. If your concept of operation is good, then you might succeed. I let the subordinate commanders lead, which the AI is much better at than I am.

However, I'd still like the flexibility to move my horse to different viewing spots so I can enjoy the battle more.

My approach worked fine the other night until Microsoft interrupted the game with a "need to update and restart" message, which crashed the game. But until that point, things were looking pretty good!

[Marching Thru Georgia]

ktwine wrote:

still have to find the best place to see the battlefield, then start giving orders, because I'm stuck at that spot for the rest of the scenario. Then I strip all the trees off, which gives me a much better idea of what's going on. That makes up for the total lack of information via courier to me.

I have no idea why you can't click on a spot on the map and be taken there. That aside, I usually play a modified version of the historical setting. I set the Difficulty Level to 'Custom'. I set AI Agressiveness and Moral to '0', Map Icon Display to 'All in 700 yds', (you could also choose 'Bare Map' here), Max Camera Distance to '0', (so I can move to sub-commanders), Orders by Courier to 'Brigade'. When the game starts, I press the 'F' key twice. Now I am glued to the saddle but a can use the 'Q' & 'E' keys to rotate. I can also use the arrow keys to jump to my sub-commander's saddles and see what they see. This makes up for the lack of couriers coming from them and scouts, feeding me information. That way I can stay in the best spot for overall observation and communication. There is one cheat with this system though. You can telescope up and get a better view of the battle. Until the courier system is improved with two-way couriers, I find this is a reasonable way to simulate the historic setting.

[RebBugler]

"You can telescope up and get a better view of the battle"

Ahha, kinda making it a version of an Arkansas HITS...more of a D-BITS...Deer-Blind In The Saddle
Just funnin' of course...I don't even hunt.:woohoo:

[Marching Thru Georgia]

Just funnin' of course...I don't even hunt

WHAT!!! Isn't that sort of behavior considered high treason in Arkansas?? :ohmy: Don't let it get out. We don't want to have to hunt up another scenario writer.

[mitra76]

Personally in single I always played on historical level, but very frequently the only mode for make obey to a order the AI is to give the order and immediatly after do the TC; next order is necessary off TC, give order and TC again. I can agree (but more frequently is nullified very far from enemy, see confederate artillery in scenario #2) that sometime the order can be nullified by the dangerous situation or change of status, but 1: I will need to have a feedback message which tell me that, 2: the AI must resume my order after and if the situation change, not simply delete him and stop (at least if it is not completly impossible to resume). In general in historical set is impossible control each single brigade so a more tactical concern by the AI will be more useful at this level. Actually the posture options for infantry AI are goods but if AI delete the order without never resume it, is impossible to do planning.

Also I find the skirmish formation too weak in game: in my understanding the skirmish fire is the more lethal and precise starting from the '700 wars, and the skirmishers are a harder target for men in formation. Only in close combat, formation is more useful. In historical level in the game, in my impression they hit less but receive almost the same amount of damage of a "packed" formation.