Attack any enemy sighted

[con20or]

I don't often use the 'stance' orders - and i don't think Ive ever used them in courier play....but something in my long hunt for the enemy last night made methink of this. Obviously I was the subordinate on that occasion - so i could spot the enemy and attack, but assuming you are ordering numerous brigades around how would you go about the following?

How would you go about ordering a unit from A to B but to engage any enemy sighted enroute? I don't mean any they walk headlong into, obviosuly they will do that, but say the enemy is in battle formation on a hill parralleling the line of march?

Is their already a function to do this or is it something we woud need?

How would you go about telling them to arch from A to b, stop when you see the enemy, and send an enemy sighted report but do not engage? It sounds kind of like scout for cavalry.

Is all of this covered by the aggressiveness of the general? How far out of their way would they go to get at the enemy?

[Little Powell]

There are two things to mention here.

1. It does depend a lot of the aggressiveness of the general. An aggressive general will typically want to attack anything in site, but there are still random factors here that may cause him to be more conservative.

2. If you are a Division commander, your brigades will follow their orders stance and behave accordingly. "All out attack" is the most aggressive stance, "Hold at all costs" is the most conservative. So a brigade on "All out attack" is going to want to attack anything in sight, and once an enemy flees and there's nothing for them to attack, they'll keep moving and looking for more victims. Think of it as a brigade on a killing spree. A brigade on "Hold at all costs" will want to stick around their orders destination (gold eagle, resembles an objective) and fight it out to the death.

So again, to answer your last question; you may have a brigade marching from A to B that will spot an enemy and send you the report, but whether they engage or not depends on their personality and their orders stance.

[con20or]

Ok, ill look into this some more later - thanks LP.

[andonai]

There are two things to mention here.

1. It does depend a lot of the aggressiveness of the general. An aggressive general will typically want to attack anything in site, but there are still random factors here that may cause him to be more conservative.

2. If you are a Division commander, your brigades will follow their orders stance and behave accordingly. "All out attack" is the most aggressive stance, "Hold at all costs" is the most conservative. So a brigade on "All out attack" is going to want to attack anything in sight, and once an enemy flees and there's nothing for them to attack, they'll keep moving and looking for more victims. Think of it as a brigade on a killing spree. A brigade on "Hold at all costs" will want to stick around their orders destination (gold eagle, resembles an objective) and fight it out to the death.

So again, to answer your last question; you may have a brigade marching from A to B that will spot an enemy and send you the report, but whether they engage or not depends on their personality and their orders stance.

What excatly influences the tendency of an officer to ignore or follow orders?
(If you are not a Division Commander)
Depends this all on his personality or his experience (elite/veteran) and abilities too?

In my experience it´s harder to order my men to hold a line or not to advance every single brigade that isn´t a threat. The hardest goal to achieve is to order a Division to disengage from an unwanted/unnecessary fight, somtimes the only way is to order them to resupply. Seems all officers are hungry and tend to follow this order happily.


I miss commands like:

"Ignore the enemy" - Corps/Division/Brigade is marching to a specific destination without engaging enemy units in sight if not under attack. Flanking and encricling maneuvers would be easier.

"Tactical Retreat" - Corps/Division "Fall back" while holding the Division/Corps formation, and marching to a specific location as soon the Division/Corps is out of the enemy engagement zone.

"Take and Hold" - Corps/Division/Brigade advances to a specific location, engaging all enemies on their route to the location and after reaching it, switching stance to "Hold or Hold till last men".
Would be perfect to charge an enemy position you want to hold immediatly to build up a defense line.

[Marching Thru Georgia]

andoni wrote:

What excatly influences the tendency of an officer to ignore or follow orders?
(If you are not a Division Commander)
Depends this all on his personality or his experience (elite/veteran) and abilities too?

Like humans, the personality of your sub-commanders is critical. At the start of every game, the first thing I do is look at the stats of my subordinates. If he is aggressive by nature, I keep a close eye on him. He will tend to march out on his own and engage the enemy. For him the stance order of hold or hold at all costs is given until I need him to attack. For a timid commander, I'll give him the attack stance just so he will move forward and probe the enemy position. It's the people in between these two extremes that are the most trouble. :ohmy: At times they will act agressively. At other times you need dynamite to pry him out of his position. All I can do is give him an order along with my best guess as to what stance to take and hope. Many times I guess wrong and he marches off and does exactly what I don't want him to do. By then it is too late to issue new orders. He'll already be engaged and your orders will not be followed. At that point all you can do is try to support him. I've felt like Meade confronting Sickles many, many times.

It's this very human like behavior that makes the game so enjoyable and so frustrating, all at the same time. The rules governing the actual fighting are only mediocre. But the AI behavior is fascinating to watch. Even as my position crumbles, I always find it remarkable how both the enemy AI and my own commanders conspired to thwart my perfect battle plan.

con20or wrote:

I don't often use the 'stance' orders - and i don't think Ive ever used them in courier play

This is a stain on your generalship. :laugh: You need to remedy that as soon as possible. I'm not even sure how to fight a battle without using stances. I would think it would just end up being one giant scrum. I use stances with every set of orders I give. It's the only hope of managing the tempo of the battle.

[con20or]

I oversimplified

So far I generally use them when ordering an attack (attack, all out attack).

The artillery and their irritating 'hold to the last' glitch (feature?) drives me nuts. A movement order should always overwrite a stance otherwise why would you be ordering them to move. If i tell you hold this position, and then i say move out later, just because i told you to hold two hours ago doesnt mean you disobey the newest order.

[RebBugler]

I miss commands like:

"Ignore the enemy" - Corps/Division/Brigade is marching to a specific destination without engaging enemy units in sight if not under attack. Flanking and encricling maneuvers would be easier.

"Tactical Retreat" - Corps/Division "Fall back" while holding the Division/Corps formation, and marching to a specific location as soon the Division/Corps is out of the enemy engagement zone.

"Take and Hold" - Corps/Division/Brigade advances to a specific location, engaging all enemies on their route to the location and after reaching it, switching stance to "Hold or Hold till last men".
Would be perfect to charge an enemy position you want to hold immediatly to build up a defense line.

AMEN

[con20or]

Yeh - these are the type of orders I have in mind. But also to include one like 'dont ignore the enemy' for when your searching for them. If they are spotted ANYWHERE, even on the far side of the map, go after them. Agressive commanders wont do that.

The stances are good, but they only seem to work for a specific location? Or am I wrong. At present when you give an attack or all out attack order by courier, it says to attack the enemy to your front. What if there is no enemy to your front? Do they attack any enemy at their destination?

[Little Powell]

AMEN

Get those in the system!

[RebBugler]

I miss commands like:

"Ignore the enemy" - Corps/Division/Brigade is marching to a specific destination without engaging enemy units in sight if not under attack. Flanking and encricling maneuvers would be easier.

"Tactical Retreat" - Corps/Division "Fall back" while holding the Division/Corps formation, and marching to a specific location as soon the Division/Corps is out of the enemy engagement zone.

"Take and Hold" - Corps/Division/Brigade advances to a specific location, engaging all enemies on their route to the location and after reaching it, switching stance to "Hold or Hold till last men".
Would be perfect to charge an enemy position you want to hold immediatly to build up a defense line.

AMEN

Get those in the system!

If we could get the first one, ignore the enemy..., that would address many of my player control concerns with SOW. The best we have now is TCofficers, but the officers turn to TCzombies and then must be watched after. Then, to say redirect a division, Atcommoff must be applied, then a quick TCofficers again...to get the officers to obey again.

Tactical Retreat would be great, but also needs destination possibilities.

Attack and Hold...yes indeed!

Yeh - these are the type of orders I have in mind. But also to include one like 'dont ignore the enemy' for when your searching for them. If they are spotted ANYWHERE, even on the far side of the map, go after them. Agressive commanders wont do that.

Maybe...Search and Destroy