Re : Patch 02d

[Marquês de Alorna]

BTW, Marquês: HWLG pretends to be a simulation of Napoleonic warfare beginning in 1805 onwards. My question is a result of my ignorance, but in 1805 did the Austrians still used 18th century tactics/doctrines, after having already fought revolutionary/Napoleonic armies for more than 10 years ?

Yes.

Another set of defeats were needed by the Austrians and specially the Prussians to adapt their armies to "Napoleonic" standards. Citing Osprey MAN-AT-ARMS 176 "Austrian Army of the Napoleonic Wars (1)" by Philip Haythornthwaite:

"A detailed assessment of infantry tactics is precluded here by restrictions of space; but, in brief, the Austrian army retained faith in the 18th century, constricted maneuver at the expense of the less formalized movements employed by the French, the Austrian regulations until 1807 being based upon the 1769 system."

From 1807, with the new regulations of Archduke Charles, the battalion column was the preferred formation to maneuvre (a la French army), though the line was still considered the proper attack formation.

[JCM101]

Having opportunity to play '1st fighting' with 2d rc3 I found the view item on menu brings up the dialog away from cursor.

As far as actual combat goes a theoretically ideal rear assault on art led to
a) cavalry deciding to attack more distant infantry instead then to return to the art but not before circling around the battery so they could be fired upon.
b) Inf also decide to go away from art & attack other inf then a 2nd inf unit ordered to attack art from rear decided to wait looking on for hours (pain au chocolat break?) whilst other engagements occurred elsewhere.

This raised a couple of questions, would the enemy art in reality not have changed facing quite quickly?  (After some game time hours of sitting facing away they did attempt to relocate the battery.)
Why are units reluctant to prioritize a rear attack on an essential target?  Personally if I'm attacking artillery on foot I prefer to do it from their rear!   Not so much the case with my troops it seems. 

I like the icon upgrades, some nice little tweaks showing up.  There is a greater feel of tension in the game now, it is giving the impression of a more carefully thinking & determined AI throughout the game on both sides.

Thanks for your efforts JMM.  Not perfect but still fun! 

[Gunner24]

Why are units reluctant to prioritize a rear attack on an essential target?

I have also seen possible flank/rear attacks NOT happen when I would expect them to, but, I assume this is because the guns could be turned around (not modeled in 3d view ????) and the Inf/Cav do not feel brave enough to attack.....or it could be a bug still to be fixed !.

[JCM101]

I have also seen possible flank/rear attacks NOT happen when I would expect them to, but, I assume this is because the guns could be turned around (not modeled in 3d view ????) and the Inf/Cav do not feel brave enough to attack.....or it could be a bug still to be fixed !.

I wondered about this.  In my case the troops were well within musket range but the arty didn't fire until the troops moved in front of the guns - suggesting the guns were not turning or threatening to turn. 
If arty has cavalry sat in its' rear but the arty need not worry or try to fire till it obligingly moves to the front of the battery, I think that an error is present.
The infantry were later also directly behind the guns & somebody should have fired if the fault lies with animation to show facing, but no-one fired & the order to attack was simply put on hold.

I am wondering if this is a variant on the 'out of map' bug I've seen before where artillery were 'undetected' but could fire if they were facing correctly at the oncoming troops with impunity.
The crux seems to be the unit 'perception' of the situation:-
- if we are facing each other we fight;
- as cavalry we move to attack & then because units attack from facing positions, we move to the front...

Not that I claim to know exactly how JMM has set up his AI instruction set, this is just how it seems best explained.

[Gunner24]

- if we are facing each other we fight;
- as cavalry we move to attack & then because units attack from facing positions, we move to the front...

You could be on to something here, I said a long time ago that HWLG was very much a 1v1 unit game, the units select which to attack and those attacks are head on.....

[Franciscus]

Come to think of it, has anybody actually managed or seen a flank/rear attack ?

In fact, I do not recall seeing one, only "oblique front" attacks...

[AJ]

Come to think of it, has anybody actually managed or seen a flank/rear attack ?

A long time ago, in the very first release, I had a Russian Inf Regiment being attacked from Both front and rear by 2 different French Inf Regiments.

[JCM101]

I have seen attacks from rear when arty isn't involved.  The battle I am describing above included inf vs inf where attacks were from the rear of enemy positions.  (I had circled behind the enemy lines.)  The infantry did try to redeploy appropriately & engage.  
I suspect there is something that is specific to arty that is creating these odd moments.
Hopefully JMM will see which bit of code is the offender & give it a trip to Mme Guillotine!  


Added the save file if anyone wants to look at it.

[anvil]

Howdy JMM,,

I have one problem still.  The contrast problem is solved for me... and I now have enough light to see this beautiful game. 

an earlier patch solved my problem with the game going to a blank screen when exiting, and having to do a hard reboot to get my system back.  Your temp solution then was for me to play in windowed mode which worked fine.  However with the latest series of patches, I am back to this problem and cannot play in full screen mode, but must play in windowed mode or i get this same black screen upon exiting the game.

keep up the good work, this is the best game ever,, and all my thanks for your time

Anvil

[Gunner24]

play in windowed mode which worked fine

I have now tried windowed mode, and I like it, but for the first time ever I saw the "gliding" troops others have mentioned, and also I don't see any smoke or hear any gunfire, so I will be going back to full screen mode.