Melees

[Marching Thru Georgia]

That's great Davide, well done!

[mitra76]

thanks, I think modders could adapt the various ratios checks in very easy mode according to own preferences (and leave me rest .... not in peace)

[gunship24]

We tested many situations of falling back under morale checks and we think we have a good balance of fun vs realism.

[the reb]

I'm not fully understanding if efforts have been made reducing melees or if there is an adjustment. I just started a Bull Run Sandbox Engagement and all those yankees want to do is to melee.....Far from being close to realistic, it really took the the fun out of this one....but there will be other great engagements ahead....

the reb....

[Saddletank]

Reb, yes, the way I'm reading this is the team has made good efforts to reduce the number of melees. GB had far too many and of course so does the Napoleonic mod (and all other mods) built from it. According to Mitra, not only does the new game have a "fear check" built in before two units close to melee which will help encourage one of them to break before the stabbing starts, but it seems the numbers behind that calculation are moddable so if a player wants more melees he can build them back in.

Question for the NSD team - how does this fear check mechanic work with cav vs cav melees and cav vs inf?

[voltigeur]

Yes I would be keen to see how say light dragoons/hussars feel about counter charging cuirassiers for instance.

Or whether lancers would consider entering a melee if they did not have space to get up to a decent speed to use their lance.

[mitra76]

Cavalry fearcheck is always >3 in the rapport like for the bayonet, but infantry not in square retreat immediatly if the meleing cavalry has a ratio>=1.

For the fearcheck 1 horseman count as 10 footmen.

But a part the fearcheck there're already other retreating factors more immediate which are checked in order to run away before or after a melee like fatigue and morale, all checked inside the cancharge() function. So in general cavalry are very dynamic, if there's space they start to move, after run and charge the latest part of path. ALso the pursuit, if officer permit it, is more fluid, not a continous stop and go.

The differences between the different kind of cavalry has been represented as bonus\malus in the relative determination of their values of experience, edge weapons, close and open orders and horsemanship; there was not a role limit to use light cavalry in battle role like for the light cavalry of XVIII century, the examples of lighter charging against heavier are many, order, speed, directions were more important in the final result ( I remember a phrase of Nolan "The success of a cavalry attack depends not so much on the description of the cavalry or horse employed, as on the determination of the men" ), so try to AIzing what can be given more with a difference of statistics it would have add only more difficulty during the tests of cavalry (the cavalry AI has been in absolute the hardest to do)

[garyknowz]

After watching the videos at Matrix, and reading the comments from the NSD team, I'm extremely excited about the upcoming release.

It is great to hear that melee combat has been addressed. It has been a longstanding frustration for me. My question is: how does the new parameter 'fearcheck' regard defensive position? In SOWGB, a unit being charged would automatically counter-charge the ascending unit when an minimum distance was reached. This would happen whether the unit was in a fortified position or not---something I regarded as highly irrational. In Waterloo, the fortified positions are even larger (as displayed in the "twitch" video), so how has the defender's reaction to a melee assault changed with this new parameter, if at all? Thanks.

[mitra76]

It is great to hear that melee combat has been addressed.

More than be addressed, this is my middle way solution between realism and gameplay. There's to consider that players have different preferences and de gustibus non est disputandum. Make happy someone, make sad someone else. The good point with Waterloo is that now you can find your own way in many cases modding the AI.

My question is: how does the new parameter 'fearcheck' regard defensive position? In SOWGB, a unit being charged would automatically counter-charge the ascending unit when an minimum distance was reached.

Well if a unit is charging me is because is ratio with me is 2 or more, so my ratio with him cannot permit me to charge also. I'll enter in melee when he will reach me, or I will runaway if the ratio are against me of more than 3.