questions on Montebello battle in Demo

[nix]

I have played through the Big,and i mean big, ( about 150 controllable units on the battlefield at once! - 84,000 men vs 83,000...well that blasts the 'total war' 20 units per side out the water!) Montebello battle a few times now and am getting the hang of it...

I have few niggling questions though:

Once action commences, a number of mesages are posted on the timer bar of the UI indicating events occuring with some units, but these messages just flash past and are not present long enough to read properly. Can they be retrieved to look at again or paused and toggled through as they have been read?

Once a dispatch has been read on the F2 view is it lost forever? or can they be retrieved? some of them seem to go missing from the -1 , -2 hr etc list.

Where do the corps commanders want to sit within their corps? There are times when the units of the corps begin to engage (under control of the AI) and they gradually get widely dispersed, (especially when some have routed and then rallied, and some escaped and others are taken prisoner). The corp commander remains at a location which looks a bit like  the 'cente of gravity' of the scatter is this the case? is the  the corps commander 'rally' order supposed to bring the units back towards the corps commander location or just attatch any units that have been detached by an individual order issued by the player to the units? Is the only way to concentrate the units back to the commander by issuing individual 'move to location' of the commander orders then issuing a 'rally' order to put the units back under AI control?

It looks wierd when the corps commander and his little retinue go a wandring amongst the enemy units unprotected by any of their own units especially when their corps has been destroyed (strength 0 on the UI card). Can they not escape  like some of the units streaming back  or else rally to the CinC? ( was the idea of leaving them in place to enable units of other corps to be reassigned to the bereft corp commander?)

Sometimes the corps commander issues a retreat order when the corps doesnt seem to be under any pressure and he has been ordered to deploy by the player. All his units start to march backwards as mentioned on other threads. A halt order from the player to the corp commander seems to bring him to his senses and after a while a ' proceed' order then restarts the original deployment. Is this retreat order a random event or a response to some calculation of the likelyhood of sucess of the deployment order that has been issued?

[chops]

These are really good points that I have thought about as well.  I hope they will be addressed in the final version of the game.

[JMM]

I have played through the Big,and i mean big, ( about 150 controllable units on the battlefield at once! - 84,000 men vs 83,000...well that blasts the 'total war' 20 units per side out the water!) Montebello battle a few times now and am getting the hang of it...

I have few niggling questions though:

Once action commences, a number of mesages are posted on the timer bar of the UI indicating events occuring with some units, but these messages just flash past and are not present long enough to read properly. Can they be retrieved to look at again or paused and toggled through as they have been read?

Unit saves the last message you may see within the book of operation (F7)
I am going to modify this display in order to write the message of the selected unit within the central box.
However, in the present version, you can adjust the speed of the message (take a look at the system menu)

Once a dispatch has been read on the F2 view is it lost forever? or can they be retrieved? some of them seem to go missing from the -1 , -2 hr etc list.

Dispatch from corps are saved; take a look at the book (F7)

Where do the corps commanders want to sit within their corps? There are times when the units of the corps begin to engage (under control of the AI) and they gradually get widely dispersed, (especially when some have routed and then rallied, and some escaped and others are taken prisoner). The corp commander remains at a location which looks a bit like  the 'cente of gravity' of the scatter is this the case? is the  the corps commander 'rally' order supposed to bring the units back towards the corps commander location or just attatch any units that have been detached by an individual order issued by the player to the units? Is the only way to concentrate the units back to the commander by issuing individual 'move to location' of the commander orders then issuing a 'rally' order to put the units back under AI control?

About the dispersion.. there is a trouble with this version. After action, each unit must come to the right position in its Corps but the order is lost? and the unit doesn't move?

It looks wierd when the corps commander and his little retinue go a wandring amongst the enemy units unprotected by any of their own units especially when their corps has been destroyed (strength 0 on the UI card). Can they not escape  like some of the units streaming back  or else rally to the CinC? ( was the idea of leaving them in place to enable units of other corps to be reassigned to the bereft corp commander?)

Yes.. wierd.. Theorically, the Corps commander without unit must come behind the CinC. This bug is fixed.

Sometimes the corps commander issues a retreat order when the corps doesnt seem to be under any pressure and he has been ordered to deploy by the player. All his units start to march backwards as mentioned on other threads. A halt order from the player to the corp commander seems to bring him to his senses and after a while a ' proceed' order then restarts the original deployment. Is this retreat order a random event or a response to some calculation of the likelyhood of sucess of the deployment order that has been issued?

No random process.. maybe a bad calcultion, maybe a good reason. I have to improve the quality of the information for the gamer. (maybe an option.. we'll see with the feedback)

Thank you for these remarks.
JMM

[nix]

Thanks for the info, i havent really used the book (F7) as part of my control technique so far,  i'll try to include it in the play now!

[nix]

Concerning the corps information in the F7 view; is there a significance to the game play, of the divisional and brigade structure reported for the Corp? ie does the AI try to keep units in the same division next to each other or can one place them apart while retaining them clustered near their corps commander?

I notice that when the CinC sends an aide de camp to a given corps commander the time quoted for the trip is the same as that for infantry walking the same distance estimated using the distance tool F9. the aides are on horseback so should be much faster. Is the aide de camp time for the round trip to the corps commander and back again?