Attack rearmost - how does it really work?

[Gandalf Parker]

I appreciate the testing.

There used to be a command for "attack commanders" in the game but it was too powerful so it got removed from our options. Since that was a separate command, I would not be surprised if the command that was left in was specifically something other than that.

[JimMorrison]

This highlights something interesting, though.

If you use assassins, to force your opponent to put bodyguards on important commanders, there will be squads of 5 units completely in the rear that your flankers can target, conveniently adjacent to those expensive mages you wanted to kill all along.

[analytic_kernel]

Originally Posted by JimMorrison

This highlights something interesting, though.

If you use assassins, to force your opponent to put bodyguards on important commanders, there will be squads of 5 units completely in the rear that your flankers can target, conveniently adjacent to those expensive mages you wanted to kill all along.

Well, Jim, my thoughts were much in the same direction. But, then I tested....

Setup
(1) Defender army given two squads of Mechanical Men.
(1a) One squad co-located with commander and set to "Guard Commander" orders.
(1b) One squad either at front or at rear of defender's side of the field. Set to "Hold and Attack Rear" orders.
(2) Attacker army given a squad of Air Elementals at rear of attacker's side of the field. Set to "Attack Rear".
(3) Sizes of defender squads varied.

Results
(1) Squads guarding commanders are ignored during squad targeting.
(2) Non-guardian squad always chosen no matter its size or position on battlefield.

I know the above assessment is probably going to be questioned. Maybe I'm overlooking something, but it seems to be a fairly clean experimental setup. I would certainly welcome independent verification of this.

My guess is that units with "Guard Commander" orders are specially flagged as guardians (for the purposes of assassination attempt resolution), and this flag must be getting considered by the squad targeting logic. (I've noticed that there is a #bodyguards map mod command which is distinct from #units, so this might lend further credibility to the hypothesis.)

Perhaps this isn't new to anyone, but another interesting observation is that there appears to be two kinds of targeting: squad targeting and individual targeting. A squad will attack another squad with all units initially, but after a round of combat, any non-engaged units of that squad will individually look for other nearby targets, including members of other squads. I think one sees this when flankers are trotting down the field and some get peeled off into nearby scrums, but it is very obvious in the experiments with fliers.