Better Brigade Behavior In 1.4

[Marching Thru Georgia]

I played an army vs army sandbox game last night as a corps commander. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the brigade commanders fight better than they had in previous versions. The brigades now seem to take much greater pains to stay out of each others way. There was much less of the usual regiments trampling each other while trying to deploy.

Also the commanders themselves fought their brigades in a smarter fashion. They seem to be aware that they have a flank and that it's a bad thing for the enemy to turn it. I saw many instances of the end regiment refusing the flank, something that almost never happened previously. The commanders also seemed to manage their regiments better on the line. They spread them out a bit more and used their reserves more effectively.

This was a very nice discovery. Keep up the good work.

[achilles]

I noticed this too almost right away and its a wonderful improvement. Really improves the realism of the game.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

I fought an interesting battle as division commander this weekend. I was the tactical reserve and was cooling my heels outside of Sharpsburg while my two fellow commanders were being pummeled on the other side of town. There seemed to be a lull in the fighting when my commander finally ordered me in. I guess the enemy AI general had the same idea as his reserves crested the ridge and began descending towards town. The two forces met just at the town's outskirts. Normally, I detest these sort of meeting engagements. The regiments stack up in town and can never deploy properly. Everyone is trying to force their way to the front. Not anymore. My first brigade took a few minutes to get beyond the houses and fixed the enemy in place. My next brigade then circled BEHIND the first to begin flanking the enemy. That's not what I had originally intended, but the brigade commander seemed to know what he was doing. My third brigade waited patiently in the middle of town and then chose a completely different route to get to it's assigned location! No more trampling over each other to get into position. Within 20 minutes my brigades were well deployed and with a double envelopment soon after had the gray men fleeing.

The new AI brigade management is very impressive. I would consider these circumstances to be the acid test for AI maneuvering.

[Jack ONeill]

MTG,

Can only say "WOW"!

Jack B)

[Marching Thru Georgia]

Jack,
Yes, this is a very significant patch with respect to game play. I haven't used it with Gunship's Napoleon mod, but I would expect the fighting to look much more napoleonic. NSD billed it as a minor patch, but that is quite an understatement. They must all be British.