Micromanaging armies and commanders

[Elmo]

Thanks Treebeard. You don't see any morale indicator then?

I know some of the answers are in the manual and mine is on the way so feel free to reply with RTFM. Hopefully I'll have one to read on Monday.

[Elmo]

I've tried several times in the demo to get my cavalry to flank my opponent and attack his rear units. Inevitably they turn too early and attack the closest units instead. Anyone know if this works correctly in the full game (which I hope to have tomorrow)?

The game has a hard time differentiating what is rear, and it attacks the 'front' of the rear squad/units. Something I have found that works is putting my flankers further on the grid to the south or north (Example shown below where I'd put something I wanted to flank and attack rear, of course this doesn't work if he has something on his flank attacking)

________
X


________


I think that units or squads have a "if something gets within XYZ amount of squares, attack it" type of behavior. So if you keep them as far away from other units as possible they will get a better shot at going what you are hoping for (Archers, Rearmost).

[Elmo]

Thanks Zen. I did have my flankers about as far out as they could go althoug not toward the back as your pic implies (if I follow you). If they do end up attacking the "rear" of the closest group is there a morale hit to the defenders or bonus to the attakcers? IOW does facing make any difference in the game?

[ November 30, 2003, 22:56: Message edited by: Elmo ]

[johan osterman]

Attack rearmost does not automatrically attack the rearmost, intentionally so. There is a chance that a unit with "attack rearmost" will try to attack the very rearmost, if that chance 'fails' it will try for the second rearmost and so on. This means that if the opponent only has a single unit in the rear and all the rest in the front there is a very real possibility that he will be ignored. On the other hand if they do choose the single unit hiding in the rear he will be without bodyguard or other units helping him out. This means that it might also be a good idea to put a few units on hold behind important commanders as a sort of rearguard.

[ November 30, 2003, 23:00: Message edited by: johan osterman ]

The board doesn't put in spaces. It was supposed to be near the front The diagram is slightly askew. But as Johan said it's good that you can't always have something attack the rearmost. And a common tactic is to put a reserve slightly behind, atop or in front of your Commander pile to distract any squads/fliers from killing your commanders and causing an automatic rout.

I consider it being akin to an actual General. You can tell your soliders where you want them and what they are to do; but how they react is based on the men (Or in this case the AI). You just have to learn the ins and outs.

I don't know if having a unit rear or flank a squad causes a morale check; but I know it does allow more attacks vs a squad thus more attrition thus more morale failure. It also doesn't allow a larger squad to sweep around the ends and engulf a smaller squad, as the computer will have extra units that are not allowed an attack to go around the edges to try to get in the mix.

[Elmo]

Thanks johan. Sorry if my earlier post made it sound like there was a bug. The docs for the demo are pretty sparse so it looked like a problem since I have yet to see my flankers go after the rear most unit(s).