How real are courier battles?

[MikeCK]

I always play courier only /HITS. It is difficult but games like SoW are too rare not to get the most out of them. If I want to manually direct units, then I can play Total war (not really but you get the point). Ok, so that aside, how well do you think the AI handles its units in combat? For example, when I order a division commander to attack the enemy to his front, he will rarely attack along the line....units bunch up, march off into the distance, etc. Sometimes I can see why, other times I cannot. I guess my question is, do you guys think this is a realistic depiction of the confusion of battle? Should I expect a division to attack in line? I get frustrated when only half the divisioon is attackling and the rest are aimlessly wandering (maybe they are flanking????)but I have a feeling that this really isnt entriely unrealistic regardless if it is game design or not.

Anyway, fantastic game eitehr way and - can I say- MikeSLA's sounds for arty are awesome.

[Little Powell]

Well if you order a division to attack the enemy to his front (un TC'd), it's natural that one or more of the brigades are going to stray away and pretty much do what they want. I've heard Norb state that order commands are essentially only meant for brigades (the AI works the same way). Divisions can have orders, but they basically affect how the division will make decisions as a whole and can produce some unwanted results when ordering an entire division to attack a certain area.

So for best and most realistic results, you would want to order the individual brigades to attack the enemy line and then give them each their own orders.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

MikeCK wrote:

when I order a division commander to attack the enemy to his front, he will rarely attack along the line....units bunch up, march off into the distance, etc.

This random walk effect became much more frequent in this patch. I think, (hope), it is related to a bug that shows up in the comand map movement feature. Often the player will see a brigade advancing towards combat, only to turn around a few moments later and march back to it's starting point. Hopefully, fixing that will also fix the random wandering. The previous version of the game gave a more realistic deployment on the division level.

One area that does need attention is brigade coherence. The regiments of a brigade don't take into account the positioning or movement of their fellow regiments. They tend to act more like group of individuals, only loosely controlled by the brigade commander. They don't seem to concern themselves about their position relative to that of their neighbors', something actual 19th century regiments took pains to do. Of course European observers of the war referred to the ACW armies as little better than armed mobs, so maybe this behavior isn't that far off the mark.

[Little Powell]

This random walk effect became much more frequent in this patch. I think, (hope), it is related to a bug that shows up in the comand map movement feature.

Has this bug been reported?

[Davinci]

One area that does need attention is brigade coherence. The regiments of a brigade don't take into account the positioning or movement of their fellow regiments. They tend to act more like group of individuals, only loosely controlled by the brigade commander.

The positioning of the Brigades are a lot better since the release of the beta patch, but if I could make a suggestion it would be that they are almost always within musket range before they start maneuvering .

It would be a lot better if the AI would calculate the weapon range – stayed outside of it, and then started to deploy their lines before attacking.

But, then again – I could be the cause of some of this considering that I have altered my weapon range for the infantry units.

But, over-all – it’s still the greatest Civil War game in history!

That is quite remarkable considering that one person pretty much wrote all of the coding for this game!

davinci

[Marching Thru Georgia]

LittlePowell queried:

Has this bug been reported?

But of course.

[MikeCK]

Ok guys, so are you saying that I should- as Corps commander- be giving orders to my Brigades instead of Division commnaders? to do that, should I TC my Division commanders so they dont counter my orders...or should I TC my Brigade commanders? If I TC brigade commanders, will they still maneuver their brigades once engaged?

Basically, what is teh best mechanism for directly ordering my brigade commander to act without having my division commanders screing it up?

[Little Powell]

LittlePowell queried:

Has this bug been reported?

But of course.

Yeah, I figured it was reported I just didn't see anything in the system after a quick look.. I'll take your word for it though.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

LittlePowell wrote:

I just didn't see anything in the system after a quick look.. I'll take your word for it though.

I gave it to Jim along with a save. If it didn't make it into mantis, let me know and I'll resend it. It is a nasty bug.

MikeCK wrote:

Ok guys, so are you saying that I should- as Corps commander- be giving orders to my Brigades instead of Division commnaders? to do that, should I TC my Division commanders so they dont counter my orders...or should I TC my Brigade commanders? If I TC brigade commanders, will they still maneuver their brigades once engaged?

With this particular patch patch, yes, I would only order the brigades around. However, with the previous version, I almost always just gave my orders to the division commander. He usually did a good job of carrying them out, based on his characteristics, of course.

[MikeCK]

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