Routed Regiments

[Wetworth]

I am used to playing Sid Meier's Antietam, so I'm a little thrown when a regiment is routed and seems to run for home, say, Vermont. Are they just taken out of the game, or will they reform and return?

[KG_Soldier]

If they route, they're done for the battle. As long as they do not route, you can put an officer close to them and their morale will recover.

[con20or]

Some reform after they break once, but if their morale drops too far theyll just dissappear off the edge of the map.

If you have an officer nearby he can sometimes rally them.

[Saddletank]

I think it would be more realistic if units routed off the map less than they do. Units should rally and be able to be used again but with more brittle morale each time they rally until they finally do become useless.

[con20or]

I like the way the routing works - if a unit breaks and it still has some morale you have a good chance of it reforming, more so if you can get an officer over.

Its up to you when to try and call it to a halt. If you try too soon it will lose even more morale and rout for good.

[Saddletank]

I find the rallying thing to be too much of a game-within-a-game. Having to send an officer to help rally a retreating unit is out of the question when you play HITS and couriers since you lose all control of the main fight. With a helicopter command position and no couriers its easy to do, and so one play style gets penalised by a game mechanic. That to me makes it a poor game mechanic and it should be removed from the game. A unit will either rally or it won't and adding a general at moment X or Y should not affect things.

[KG_Soldier]

I find the rallying thing to be too much of a game-within-a-game. Having to send an officer to help rally a retreating unit is out of the question when you play HITS and couriers since you lose all control of the main fight. With a helicopter command position and no couriers its easy to do, and so one play style gets penalised by a game mechanic. That to me makes it a poor game mechanic and it should be removed from the game. A unit will either rally or it won't and adding a general at moment X or Y should not affect things.

A unit will rally without an officer nearby, depending on experience (I'm pretty sure, anyway). An officer simply increases the rate at which they rally. And really, units which retreat because of low morale don't run that far away (usually), so even playing hits, it shouldn't be that difficult to send a brigade commander to help rally a wavering regiment. Officers did rally shook up troops, so I have no problem with that "game mechanic."

I'm not sure about your comment about getting penalized because of play style though. If you're playing hits, everyone in that game is playing hits, so. . . .

Also, officers who are not tc'd will go rally troops on their own.

[Wetworth]

I feel, in my limited experence, that the fall back command dosn't ammount to much. Is there a way to pull a unit out before I have to wave goodbye?

[KG_Soldier]

The fall back command works, but you need to tc the unit before using it. If a regiment isn't tc'd, when it gets out of rifle range, it retreats. But if it is tc'd, it just stops when it gets to its fall back position.

[NY Cavalry]

The hardest thing to do in combat is to withdraw (fall back). That is represented in this game. It is one of the most important tactics to learn and pull off. It is a lot easier if you can have reserves at hand because a unit losing moral has a hard time pulling off a proper fall back command. Put a reserve regiment behind the regiment that you want to pull out. If your entire line is falling back try to set up a second line 50 to 80 to 100 yards behind your firing line. Tc and tell them to fall back and at a run if need be.

I just always TC my guys and give them the command then I tell them to run and that gets them back pretty quick.

If you are pursued closely this will be really tough without reserves. Against a human opponent it can be very difficult.

Best thing is not to get too engaged in a fight where you do not have the best ground or where you don't have the numbers. Key is to be careful just where you fight.