Cavalry and Square behavior

[RALB]

Firstly may I say what a superb simulator SOW Waterloo is, I was one of the original Histwar guys and for playability and the AI, SOW beats it hands down. I mainly fight single player against the AI and I have noticed an annoying problem involving Cavalry, Square and Skirmishers. I routinely put Skirmishers out in front of my squares, when enemy Cavalry starts poking around I will put my Skirmishers into the square or even retire them behind the square, here's the problem, often even though my Skirmishers reach a safe haven either inside or behind the square, enemy Cavalry will charge right into or through the square which will melee and cause significant loss to the square. I feel that this behavior is incorrect and I hope it can be addressed in an upcoming patch. I welcome any thoughts on this. Thanks in advance.

[DarkRob]

Firstly may I say what a superb simulator SOW Waterloo is, I was one of the original Histwar guys and for playability and the AI, SOW beats it hands down. I mainly fight single player against the AI and I have noticed an annoying problem involving Cavalry, Square and Skirmishers. I routinely put Skirmishers out in front of my squares, when enemy Cavalry starts poking around I will put my Skirmishers into the square or even retire them behind the square, here's the problem, often even though my Skirmishers reach a safe haven either inside or behind the square, enemy Cavalry will charge right into or through the square which will melee and cause significant loss to the square. I feel that this behavior is incorrect and I hope it can be addressed in an upcoming patch. I welcome any thoughts on this. Thanks in advance.

Interesting. I've never seen this happen unless the square was already significantly shot up and on it's last legs morale wise. Normally a square will murder cavalry in a melee, but most of the time cavalry won't even try to charge a square.

Do you have any of the difficulty parameters like morale or aggressiveness bumped up to really high, unrealistic levels? Because normally this shouldn't happen. Squares should crush cavalry in a melee

[RALB]

DarkRob I am an avid follower of yours and most of what I've learned about SOW is from watching your videos, they are excellent. The last couple of times it happened was in Quatre Bras scenario the French attack with difficulty set by the scenario. I was set up exactly per your video and had skirmishers in front of the square just to the left of my Cavalry and to the right of the artillery in the center, I retired them through the square and the cavalry came into the square and all hell broke loose, the square was High and Energetic. On close inspection the Cavalry don't try and engage the square they just try to run through to get the skirmishers but the square engages the cavalry when they are half way through.
On another note i'd like to talk to you about the second half of that battle. I do well in the 1st half and indeed even after Bonaparte's division takes the south woods, I usually am around 13,000 points but the last third of the battle always falls apart and I end up with a minor victory around 11,000 points

[RALB]

here's a screenshot, Skirmishers are retired into a Square that is "High and Energetic". Cavalry runs into the Square and the Square attacks the Cavalry, the Square gets the better of it and the Cavalry retreats but not without inflicting losses on the Square. Historically Skirmishers would withdraw to Squares and the fact that they were in the Square would not make the Square vulnerable to attack.

[DarkRob]

here's a screenshot, Skirmishers are retired into a Square that is "High and Energetic". Cavalry runs into the Square and the Square attacks the Cavalry, the Square gets the better of it and the Cavalry retreats but not without inflicting losses on the Square. Historically Skirmishers would withdraw to Squares and the fact that they were in the Square would not make the Square vulnerable to attack.

Ok, screenshots always help. Your skirmishers are not actually inside the square, they are in front of it. I know it looks like they are in the square to you, but not to the game. Because the sprite ratio's in this game are variable, what you see on the screen is only an abstraction, or maybe approximation is a better word here. The game sees a units location as being where the unit flag is. That is to say the square is located where the unit flag is, not where the troop sprites are. If you look closely, the unit flag of the skirmisher unit is in front of the unit flag of the infantry square, therefore the skirmisher unit is front of the square, and thus can be charged by the cavalry.

Skirmishers can walk right through a square, so just bring them back behind the square to make sure the skirmishers flag is in fact behind the squares flag. Then the cavalry will not be able to charge them, and they wont charge the square either.

Bonus Protip: You can also use skirmishers to bait cavalry into charging them, and then recall the skirmishers right before the charging cavalry makes contact with them. When you recall skirmishers, as far as the game is concerned, they are instantly made a part of their parent unit again(despite the fact the sprites themselves are still on the screen) and they immediately become invalid targets. The enemy cavalry will lose their target and halt the charge to stop and reform, giving your squares(and hopefully your artillery) a chance to give them some parting gifts for their trouble.

[RALB]

Thanks mate, great explanation