Help me with combat orders, please

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Daynarr:
That is why you have fire and retreat order for archers. They fire for 3 rounds then run.

Only 2 rounds. For XBows, that's 1 shot at max range... I'd prefer a "Shoot til the enemy is under 2 rounds of movement away, then run". Of course, that still makes you vulnerable to javelins. A variable or queueable setting would be best, though.

[Saxon]

Daynarr and Saber,

Can you help me out with the fire two shots then run option? Is this the fire and flee option? I thought it has the archers fire until someone gets close, then they run. My understanding, which I will have to check tonight at home, is quite different than yours.

Also, when they flee, do they go to neighboring provinces, even if you win the battle?

Linked to this, any good suggestions on how to target those pesky enemy magic Users at the back?

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Saxon:
Daynarr and Saber,

Can you help me out with the fire two shots then run option? Is this the fire and flee option? I thought it has the archers fire until someone gets close, then they run. My understanding, which I will have to check tonight at home, is quite different than yours.

Also, when they flee, do they go to neighboring provinces, even if you win the battle?

Linked to this, any good suggestions on how to target those pesky enemy magic Users at the back?

Fire and flee is fire for two rounds, then flee. To make them fire more... and this is VERY RISKY... have them fire closest. Have only one commander. Tell him to hold-hold-hold-retreat. Then the archers will fire 3 or 4 rounds, and autorout when the commander leaves.

With fire and flee, yes, they go to random places even on a win. I understand this will be patched soon.

Pesky mages... I have not found a solution yet. Try putting cheap archers near the front, with orders to "fire" with no specific target. Tramplers can get to them, cavalry get mobbed part way there.

The Fire and Flee Behavior (for Units only) is near the bottom of the Battle Orders menu. It fires for 2 rounds then runs to the back of the battlefield, when they get off the field they retreat to a friendly province (without their commander).

Another way to fire and flee is to set a group of archers with 1 particular commander. Set them to fire and the commander to "Hold, hold, hold, hold, hold, Retreat". They will fire 5 or 6 rounds (sometimes the archers fire even when the commander is in the act of retreating) when the commander is retreating or off the field his units will retreat. If both the commander and units mak it off the field, they will appear together in a nearby friendly province.

Edit: Ignore above; Cherrypie already answered it.

Try splitting your archers into Groups of 10, have the squads all "Fire Rearmost" if that is where your enemy places their mages. Each squad has a chance every time they fire to actually target the rearmost. So multiple squads (4 or 5) have more and more often a chance to target the actual rear instead of 'near' the rear.

I don't have hard numbers; but usually 1 out of 5 squads will actually fire on the rearmost.

[ December 11, 2003, 08:17: Message edited by: Zen ]

[Arralen]

Originally posted by Wendigo:
I would love to have a fire + attack order option.

It would make light infantry & light cavalry much more usable on the battlefield.

This works (partly) with Light Inf using Javelins. Set them to "fire nearest".
They'll charge forward and fire until

A) their ammo (3 rounds) is expended
b) the nearing enemy forces them into close combat

Using a different target may result in very unfavourable results.

A.

[Teleolurian]

Some great troop-scripting options for me would be:

Skirmish (fire/attack nearest, depending on how near; the goal being to keep enemies in one place).

Fire and Draw (retreat when engaged in combat; fire when not engaged in combat. This still works like Flee once the troop is up against the exit zone).

Guard Zone (attack anything that gets relatively close, maybe within 3 grids; otherwise, just stand there, fire if possible).

I think this might go a long way to mitigate some of the issues with light inf/cav archers.

[Saxon]

Cherry and Zen,

Thanks for the advice, this is going to add a much more useful dimension to the archers. It will make them less harmful to my own troops (my main concern) as well as more potentially dangerous to my mage foes. I was starting to despair with about getting anywhere useful with the bird race, now I can see some good options.