Waypoints n thins

[Fallback]

Couple questions:

Waypoints: Sometimes they are just god awful. I once had a brigade do a figure 8 to move an inch. Is this normal?

Morale: I had a brigade with 20% casualties, but confident, move back into line (hole) but immediatly break without flanking fire being taken. Normal?

Casualties: Sometimes I can have a brigade in the open withstand withering fire from multiple targets, and sometimes I can have a brigade in cover (wall) break against fire from a target in the open. Is this normal?

First post. Thanks for reading.

[con20or]

Welcome

Waypoints - If you have alot of regiments clumped together they will take some complicated routes to get to their destination without crossing infront of/through another unit.

Morale - They might have been exhausted?

Casualties - Make sure you are gettin the defensive bonus of the terrain you are on. So if you are at a wall, make sure the unit flag is at the wall and the little picture by the compass says 'Wall'. Be aware as well that different units have different markmanship ratings, and different weapons..

[Saddletank]

Hi Fallback. I too got exasperated at the pirouetting of my units. I have recently begun a conscious tactic of placing my units further apart and not crowding them. An ACW battlefield had big gaps in it where there were no units. I have found since doing this that my regiments tend to get confused far less, so as Con20or says, spaace your regiments out more.

Also when manouvering them about use road column or column of divisions and only order them into line when they are in the location you intend them to fight.

Yes, a line that is shaky and looking over its shoulder can collapse and retreat when it is ordered to fall back. I find this feature one of the most realistic in the game as a number of accounts of men in battle from various wars will support this. Men tend to stay put for a long time but any uncertainly by their officers, confused orders or a sudden order to fall back can make shaken units collapse. You should try to rotate your units out of the firing line and replace them with fresh ones when you get the opportunity. My method is always to keep a reserve, often just 1 unit in a brigade but 2 unengaged regts if I can.

I rarely see the extremes of response to fire that you describe. The AI routines for calculating morale and combat effectiveness seem reasonably subtle in the game but I suppose you can get extreme results as you describe but I should think what you are seeing there is the far ends of the spectrum. I once saw the 20th Maine stand in the open and get bravely (but idiotically) shredded by two enemy brigades but such foolhardy performances are rare. I don't ever recall seeing a unit defending a wall run so easily, unless they were low quality troops (conscripts).

[Fallback]

Thanks for the reply. I'll try the things you've said.

I took command of the iron brigade in a sandbox game today (on wisconsin!), and just about punched my computer lol. We were defending a position behind a wall (i use the keyboard shortcuts to move units in cover I think it's button 7 for 1 reg to move). Anyhoo I thought I had a great position with an open field to my north and other brigades on my flanks. So we waited and sure enough the rebs come piecemeal across the field, I thought it would be a slaughterfest. Until I started checking individual regs. I was getting murdered. I made sure I had the def bonus. I think the 6th Wis before it broke was at a 70 loss 15 kill ratio. Made me wish the there was a white flag button lol.

I'm not very good at the game but I get basic tactics a little. In the open, flanked = bad. In cover, flanking = good. Seems reversed on my PC for some reason. I'm just venting. Maybe I just suck lol. Thanks again. I'll keep trying till wisconsin's bled dry.

[con20or]

Thats strange alright - had you TC'd your troops? If you had, maybe they hadn't wheeled properly to face the enemy and werent inflicting the proper casualties.

How many units were firing at the 6th? Was it one-on-one?