Command & Control

Let's talk about the issues in converting the SOW engine to handle Waterloo. Ideas, suggestions, feature requests, comments.
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massena
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Command & Control

Post by massena »

Hello DarkRob:

You have a video on command & control for Scourge of War: Waterloo. Which one is it, and when does it start?

The manual is useless, and I have yet to figure it out.

Many thanks.
DarkRob
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Re: Command & Control

Post by DarkRob »

Hello DarkRob:

You have a video on command & control for Scourge of War: Waterloo. Which one is it, and when does it start?
I do? I don't know that Ive ever done a single video dedicated to how command and control works. In a way, every video Ive done comes down to command and control in some way.

Can you be more specific about what aspect you're referring to? I can probably answer any specific question here without actually having to refer back to a video. All this stuff is just rattling around in my head anyway, there isn't really a table of contents to it lol.
massena
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Re: Command & Control

Post by massena »

I'm playing King of Westphalia scenario. What is the procedure to retained control of every unit subordinate to the brigade commander. I'm trying to get battalions to ignore the AI whenever they come within engagement distance of the enemy.

Thanks.
DarkRob
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Re: Command & Control

Post by DarkRob »

I'm playing King of Westphalia scenario. What is the procedure to retained control of every unit subordinate to the brigade commander. I'm trying to get battalions to ignore the AI whenever they come within engagement distance of the enemy.

Thanks.
Ahh ok. So one of the differences between the civil war SOW games and Waterloo is that certain commands at the brigade level work even if the subordinate units are under TC. That is to say that you can control an entire brigade from the brigade commander even if all his units are on TC. This only works for certain commands though. This may not be every single one, as Im just riffing off the top of my head, but its all the important ones.

Double Quick
Advance while engaged
Fall back while engaged
Charge
Retreat

This quirk of the interface is one I use repeatedly to control larger numbers of troops that I want to take specific actions quickly and cohesively but without having to rely on AI control at all.

So since you mentioned King of Westphalia, lets use that one to illustrate how this works.

One of my main strategies on the attack is to hit smaller enemy forces with overwhelming numbers in a bayonet charge in order to quickly drive them off a position I want to gain a hold of.

In this scenario I normally use Soye's brigade, which is a big brigade, to hit the 3 small British battalions guarding the extreme right flank west of Hougomont.

Now as long as the brigade remains outside of engage distance of any enemy troops, it doesn't really matter whether you have them under AI control or not. The AI only takes over once your units come within engage distance. So the first thing I do is usually just move Soyes brigade over to the left, kind of around where my cavalry is hanging out.

I form them up in assault column and once assembled I can begin the advance.

So since at this point we will be advancing to inside engage distance, we now have to remove the AI from the equation. The earlier quirk of the interface I mentioned, as well as the TC functions of the Grog Toolbar make this extremely easy to do

So the first thing I do is make sure the brigade commander Soye is on TC, and all his battalions are off TC(They have to be off TC to respond to move commands) Then Il place the brigade commander up very close to the enemy units and select the column by division formation for the brigade. They should all start moving forward. At this point I want to remove the AI's ability to interfere so while still being clicked on Soye, Il hit "TC on all subordinates" on the Toolbar. This will place all the battalions back on TC so the AI cannot interfere. But they will continue to follow the last move order you gave them.

Then I just walk right up to the enemy. Once I come within musket range(150 yards) I will hit double quick from the brigade commander and the whole brigade will begin moving at the double quick because double quick is one of the commands that will still work from the brigade commander, even though the battalions are on TC.

Once my units are about right on top of the enemy I will start mashing the charge button from the brigade commander. Charge is also one of the commands that works this way, and so the entire brigade will begin charging. Soye's brigade and the British battalions are of roughly the same troop quality, but Soye has many more men, and so its usually a clean sweep for Soye.

The reason you want to spam the charge button while the charge is going on is because if you don't do this, your units will stop after each charge in order to reform. Mashing the charge button stops this from happening and your units will just keep on charging and clearing the field until they are either forced to retreat, rout, surrecnder or their fatigue falls to winded, none of which is likely to happen here because the numbers are so lopsided in Soye's favor.

Another key part of this scenario is extracting Baudin's brigade from a very bad situation they've found themselves in front of Hougomont. Baudin having heroically died before the walls of Hougomont, a new brigade commander is coming up from behind the lines. You can find him easily by just clicking on one of Baudins units and then hitting the up arrow on your keyboard and it will bring you to the new leader.

TC him and assign him a destination back in the woods away from Hougomont. Then select a formation for the brigade, it doesn't matter what formation, whatever you like. The important thing is that as soon as you select the formation you immediately click on TC all subordinates quickly to place all the leader's battalions on TC and prevent the AI from interfering, which it surely will because all these battalions are up at Hougomont slugging it out with the farmhouse defenders.

The idea here is that you're selecting a formation far away from Hougomont to get Baudins brigade out of a bad situation, and then immediately clicking on TC all subordinates to prevent the AI from overriding your commands, which it will always do if given the chance because while units are under AI control, any commands you give them are really more like suggestions, suggestions that the AI will almost always faithfully ignore.

But since you have to have units under AI control in order for them to follow a brigade level move/formation command. You have to quickly hit the TC on all subordinates button after doing so to prevent this.

The AI can be pretty quick to override you to, so once you TC everyone, count the green markers at the destination to make sure all the battalions are accounted for. If one is missing just find the offending unit that isn't moving and move it manually.

There are so many other options that open up to you as a player once you get comfortable with these mechanics, because they work all the way up the chain of command, you can weave in and out of the chain of command. Assign an entire corps to move to a location, Grab a division and TC the division commander and assign his division a location, grab one of his brigades and TC that officer and do something else. And so on and so on. Once you're comfortable and understand how everything works and you know it like the back of your hand, you realize that this is the best system for controlling huge, enormous numbers of men easily and confidently, all from a couple of clicks on the Grog Toolbar.

You don't have to memorize all this at once. It takes some practice, and it took me a long time to get to the point where the Grog Toolbar is just an extension of myself and is basically the interface to my brain.

Start small with the attack of Soye's brigade like illustrated here, and the rest will open itself up to you with time, practice, and experience. Good Luck, and let me know if I can be of any further help.
Last edited by DarkRob on Thu Feb 06, 2020 1:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
massena
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Re: Command & Control

Post by massena »

Thank You! You've gone above and beyond the call of duty! :)
DarkRob
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Re: Command & Control

Post by DarkRob »

Thank You! You've gone above and beyond the call of duty! :)
That's what Im here for. Half the fun of having discovered all this stuff is being able to share it with other players.
Last edited by DarkRob on Thu Feb 06, 2020 1:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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