How real are courier battles?

[Marching Thru Georgia]

MikeCK wrote:

Ok...should I TC my division commnader then so they dont send out contradictory orders?

Try it both ways and see if there is an effect. In my experience, once a brigade is engaged in combat, neither the player nor AI commander has much immediate influence on it. Once there are no enemy units within musket range, will the brigade follow move orders.

[oho]

will this be addressed in the next patch because it affects SP a lot when fighting against Divisons that are unorganized?

[Little Powell]

A bug has been found with this and will be fixed in the final version of the patch.

Note: It's a courier bug. It only happens when you issue command map orders via the courier. As a work around, when you setup your orders, give them a "No Orders" orders first and they will not try and move back to their starting point.

[MikeCK]

Just for feedback: I tried commanding brigades and that worked a little better. I also used the "no orders" commnad prior to issuing orders. I still had a briagde or two that would simply ignore orders and remain staitionary but not bad. I like the new "move to this point on the map"!

[Little Powell]

Just for feedback: I tried commanding brigades and that worked a little better. I also used the "no orders" commnad prior to issuing orders. I still had a briagde or two that would simply ignore orders and remain staitionary but not bad. I like the new "move to this point on the map"!

Yes next time that happens, check their style. The bold brigade commanders will sometimes attack without you even ordering them to. The not so bold guys will do the opposite. :
)

[Martin James]

This is my first post on the forum, so I would like to start with congratulations to Norb & the team on a terrific game. I play a lot of umpired horse & musket games, and this is the first PC game I've played that recreates the fog-of-war and communication lags that real commanders experienced in battles.

I haven't had the game long, but have been using the latest beta patch. The following more specific comments are based on that.

Because of my particular interests, I've been playing all of my battles using the courier system. It's an excellent feature, and in general works well, but I do have some problems with it:

(a) Reports back from PC-commanded leaders seem to be limited to 'enemy sighted', 'enemy engaged' and 'I need reinforcements', and in small scenarios you receive very few reports. As examples: when you send cavalry of to patrol, this does not seem to generate any 'no contact' reports. When you order a formation to a specific place, you do not get a report that they have arrived. I think it would be helpful & more flavoursome if all the available reporting options in the menu were used.

(b) It would also be helpful if reports contained an approximate position of the guy sending it, which I think they would normally have done historically

(c) I tried an army level scenario yesterday, and notwithstanding (a) above, was almost overwhelmed by the number of reports coming in. This seems to be because every battery and brigade commander appeared to be reporting directly to me. At times I turned around and could see over a dozen couriers heading for me, which was a bit disconcerting as it looked like a cavalry charge:) In reality, I think these relatively junior officers would have been reporting 'up the line' and they I would have received less frequent reports from the various corps commanders.

I can only imagine the program challenges the above might cause you, but hope the feedback's useful. Best of luck with the future development of the game in any event.

Martin

[con20or]

the number of reports has definetly increased. It used to happen when you had TC'd generals, you received your own orders, but now it seems to happen for evry order. Have not played army since the patch, but if its like the lower levels, then thats quite something.