Micromanaging armies and commanders

[Elmo]

Sounds bewildering. Excellent!

Leaving now to go camp by the mailbox. Is there a spell for turning the mailman into a hamster if he doesn't deliver?

[HJ]

Originally posted by Elmo:
Sounds bewildering. Excellent!

Leaving now to go camp by the mailbox. Is there a spell for turning the mailman into a hamster if he doesn't deliver?

No, but the spell "Iron pigs" comes to mind.

[Argitoth]

Originally posted by HJ:
The more I play, the more I find this to be a really big problem. Right now, I am starting to become too terrified to use any missile troops in my armies, because of the butchering of the pursuers they might do when the fight is nearing an end.

HJ, stop whining. I always use light troops and archers in the same army. You need to know how to setup your army. It's virtually problemless when I play Dominions 2.

Only commanders can use the Hold and Fire command. It really sucks there isn't a Hold and Fire for units. I'd like my javelin units to Hold and Fire so they don't rush to the enemy and forget to fire their javelins before engaging in melee combat. I always hated my archers running up closer to the enemy if they were too far away.

[HJ]

Originally posted by Argitoth:
HJ, stop whining.

I would suggest that you refrain to responding to my Posts if you cannot do it in a civilized manner. If you have a problem with me personally, please feel free to PM me. Or even better, just don't bother and skip my Posts. I'd do the same for yours.

[Elmo]

Originally posted by Argitoth:
...I always use light troops and archers in the same army. You need to know how to setup your army. It's virtually problemless when I play Dominions 2...

Can you provide some details on your setup please?

[Gandalf Parker]

Originally posted by Elmo:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Argitoth:
...I always use light troops and archers in the same army. You need to know how to setup your army. It's virtually problemless when I play Dominions 2...

Can you provide some details on your setup please?

---

I dont keep very good notes but things I remember trying effectively were settings archers on the flanks.

For javelins/slingers/crossbows I think I had interesting results when I put a commander near the front for the moral boost. I had him on hold-and-fire or hold-and-attack, one of those. The low-range shooting units were set on guard-commander. The result was amazingly effective in that particular fight.

I often use guard commander for more control on units so that I can use the commanders instructions to decide at what point in the battle to do certain things. Such as holding cavalry or flyers around long enough to get blessed before attacking.

-- WARNING: Flu symptoms have been detected. My Posts will begin to ramble and may result in garbage. Or feverish genius. Let me know which after I fully recover.
- Gandalf Parker

[Elmo]

Putting some units on Guard Commander did make them an effective reserve when I then used the commander orders to indirectly control them.

One disappointment though was when I put a mounted commander on the flank with my cavalry. He had a Stay Behind Troops order and I assumed he would stay behind the closest troops, i.e. the cavalry directly in front of him. Nope, he immediately moved away toward the larger force in the middle. Guess I should have given the cavalry group a Guard Commander order and then told the mounted commander to attack. Will have to see if that works.

Take care Gandalf, there is a lot of flu going around already this year.

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:

For javelins/slingers/crossbows I think I had interesting results when I put a commander near the front for the moral boost. I had him on hold-and-fire or hold-and-attack, one of those. The low-range shooting units were set on guard-commander. The result was amazingly effective in that particular fight.

I often use guard commander for more control on units so that I can use the commanders instructions to decide at what point in the battle to do certain things. Such as holding cavalry or flyers around long enough to get blessed before attacking.

-- WARNING: Flu symptoms have been detected. My Posts will begin to ramble and may result in garbage. Or feverish genius. Let me know which after I fully recover.
- Gandalf Parker

OK Gandalf, this flu seems to be rather effective. I seemed to remember Pocus complaining about missile troops on "Guard Commander" not using their missile weapons, so your suggestion surprised me. I tried setting up such a fight, and indeed, "Guard Commanders" prevents them from firing; I tried with light missile troops (Peltats) to see if it made a difference, and no, it doesn't.

So, when you recover, I'd still be interested in hearing about your missile tactics...

(Me, I'm happy with archers and heavily armored shock troops on Hold and Attack when against non-missile happy AIs; but then, this probably won't work too well against human opponents)

[Argitoth]

ARCHERS ARCHERS------------MELEE MELEE
ARCHERS ARCHERS------------MELEE MELEE
ARCHERS ARCHERS--LIGHT LIGHT
ARCHERS ARCHERS--LIGHT LIGHT


That's my setup. I put the archers behind the light infantry, and the melee units infront and to the side of the light infantry.

Enemy archers (especially in neutral provinces) fire at the closest thing to them. The archers will fire at the melee (more protected) units.

I set the archers to fire at none so they don't fire at retreating units.

Enemy melee moves in, light infantry fire javelins from the side, melee units take the hits, VUALA!!! You have yourself an army setup which takes the least casualties from friendly and foe.

Not only that, the light infantry don't usually get in melee contact so the friendly-fire arrows will usually not hit your light units.

[ December 01, 2003, 18:38: Message edited by: Argitoth ]

[Gandalf Parker]

Sorry about guard thing. Must be a memory of how I WISH it worked.

What about the fire-and-flee? Something about using fast light archers set up front to draw enemy hvy units back thru a gauntlet of your own hvy troops. Force his to run and pile up fatigue instead of yours. That might be where I remember having flanking archers being really effective.

Battle Simulation map available at...
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion...ions2/Mini.map
http://www.techno-mage.com/~dominion...ions2/Mini.tga

[ December 01, 2003, 19:11: Message edited by: Gandalf Parker ]