Marching.....Spacing

[Saddletank]

Haha yeah... Since we started putting in objectives we tend to no longer have those infamous two-hour hikes any more. A couple of nights ago my Austrian division was bulldozed flat about 20 mins after the game started by a French column that was 4x my numbers and came steaming up the road I was blocking on its way to the objective.

So yeah, I know just what you mean but those non-games are a thing of the past now. Pity, I used to enjoy all those nice nature walks and fresh air.

[Davinci]

Wagons are beyond redemption.

Why does everybody hate the wagons, yes they have a FEW bad quirks, but I think that the biggest problem is caused by them being chained to the Divisional Commander.

So going from the initial line formation to road column can mean a fair amount of chaos as they sort themselves into proper order. It's not impossible to achieve the desired effect, it will just eat up time during the start of the game.

Hey, MTG you are aware that the Brigades can start the game in Column Formation , with a few edits of the csv files?

davinci

[Xreos1]

I made this suggestion in the Waterloo section;
Disconnect the supply wagon from the division commander and attach it instead to a 'Commissary Officer'; said officer could be programmed to keep 'close' to the troops, but behind it's own lines.

One of the problems I have found in SOW, and similar games like Sid Myers Gettysburg, Strategy Firsts Waterloo, Napoleon's Last Battle and Austerlitz Napoleon's Greatest Victory has been this;

Your division is deployed in line or double line with 1st brigade on left and second brigade on right; your division commander orders it to advance (using standard GUI) and you wind up with the two brigades crossing each other and ending with the brigades on opposite flanks.

Was this SOP for the time?

[Martin James]

Wagons are beyond redemption.

Why does everybody hate the wagons, yes they have a FEW bad quirks, but I think that the biggest problem is caused by them being chained to the Divisional Commander.davinci

I agree. And you can get over the chain problem, by deciding on somewhere safe to put the wagons before you engage, and TCing them. That, after all, is what historical commanders did. It maybe your chosen site turns-out to be not so safe, but that's war.

Martin

[Marching Thru Georgia]

Davinci wrote:

Hey, MTG you are aware that the Brigades can start the game in Column Formation , with a few edits of the csv files?

Yes, but that has been set to a specific formation to help the AI avoid bunching up its men when deploying for battle. So that avenue isn't open to us. This technique does work at the brigade level fairly well. However, at the division level, it takes ~20 minutes for the units to rearrange themselves and occupy a line over a mile long. So it not practical unless the oob formations are changed as you suggested.

Xreos1 wrote:

Your division is deployed in line or double line with 1st brigade on left and second brigade on right; your division commander orders it to advance (using standard GUI) and you wind up with the two brigades crossing each other and ending with the brigades on opposite flanks.

Was this SOP for the time?

That is a cause of many problems. The KSNapoleonMod has largely fixed that problem. Units flow much more smoothly when deploying. However the remaining problem of regiments insisting on moving in line formation when near the enemy is something that can't be modded out without having the unit do the actual fighting in, say, maneuver column.

[Garnier]

Hey, MTG you are aware that the Brigades can start the game in Column Formation , with a few edits of the csv files?

I've been meaning to figure out how to do that. Where do you set this?

[Marching Thru Georgia]

The initial deployment formation is taken from the OOB, column R. That information is then taken by the game and placed in scenario.csv column U.

[Garnier]

Do you know if that works if you use sandbox deployment for the scenario? As in, I set the starting locations per division and it puts the divisions where I want them in line formation as they appear in sandbox. I'd like them to appear in column without having to specify a specific location for each regiment or brigade.

I thought I had tried changing the division formation in the OOB but it was a while ago.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

Yes. Once you set the location of each division you can decide what formation to place them in depending on the space you have available. If you want the brigades in column, you can use the stock formation DRIL_Lvl4_Inf_Column. That will place one brigade behind the other with the arty at the back of the column. DRIL_Lvl4_Inf_Reserves will place the brigades next to each other in column formation with arty in the rear again. Or you can make your own formation and use that as the default deployment. It doesn't need to be added to the toolbar if the players don't have a need for it.

I'm don't know how you generate the scenario.csv file for GCM games. If you use the sandbox feature, then just place the formation you want to use in the master OOB file.

[Garnier]

Cool, I'll try this when I get the chance. I thought I had done exactly that in the past with no success. If it fails I'll bug you for an example scenario.

If it works I could let each player choose their own preferred starting formation.

I generate a scenario.csv like any other scenario, it has locations entered for every unit. But in scenario.ini I have these lines:

sandbox=5
sandboxsize=1

This seems to make the game place divisions in formation rather than using each unit's coordinates in the scenario.csv.