Help me with combat orders, please

[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.

[Argitoth]

I WANT THERE TO BE HOLD AND FIRE COMMAND FOR TROOPS!!

FOR GOODNESS SAKES, I HATE MY ARCHERS RUNNING UP TO THE ENEMY!!

I HATE MY LIGHT INFANTRY RUNNING UP TO THE ENEMY TOO. I WANT THEM TO JUST WAIT FOR THE ENEMY.

[Gandalf Parker]

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.

One nice thing about using this tactic is that if the fight is over before the flee, then they dont flee.

I often use flee as the final action on important people such as my prophet or my god since it will only happen IF the fight goes long. If the fight goes for more than 5 rounds then I think they SHOULD start considering pulling back into a neighboring safe province. Leave the rest of the army fighting to the end.

Don't use slingers Arigtoth, also don't use caps lock.