Tactics! - Share your Tactical Genius with lesser mortals!

[englishoo7]

Well, we have had the demo for long enough - what tactics have we learnt so far?  

  Short defence lines 'close-ish' to your enemy keep your own Corps from going off headstrong and attacking. Once the enemy artillery has been 'outgunned' these short defence lines make ideal 'jumping off points' for a concentrated attack of your own.

Note: I have found that if these defence lines are rushed and not given time to organise before a deployment line order is given then forces become spread in the attack and the assault dilutes.

[Cpl Steiner]

Here's one. Don't be afraid to give your artillery direct orders to fire on specific enemy units. I find that the AI tends to concentrate on enemy artillery but sometimes you need them to blast the enemy infantry out of the way so your forces can attack, or to break up an enemy attack against you. Massed artillery given target orders against spotted enemy can cause mayhem.

[lodi57]

I find that the AI tends to concentrate on enemy artillery

You can designate a prior target (art, cav or inf) in the doctrine editor but whatever the target chosen in prior a unit always fired at the most dangerous threat for it.

[Malaspina]

Short defence lines 'close-ish' to your enemy keep your own Corps from going off headstrong and attacking. Once the enemy artillery has been 'outgunned' these short defence lines make ideal 'jumping off points' for a concentrated attack of your own.

This is what I have noticed as a winning tactic, too. Contrary to theory, an attack using a series of ever closer "defense lines" is much more effective (at least in the demo) than drawing a deploy line beyond enemy lines. In my experience every time I do the latter my corps is soon in total "disarray" and suffers horrendous casualties!

[Malaspina]

By the way, has anyone noticed any effect when a "rally" order is given to a corps commander?

"Halt progression", "resume progression" and "tactical bombardment" work perfectly, but what about "rally untis"?

[JMM]

The units are either attached or detached to a Corps.
Order Rally sends order to each unit to join its corps again, so AI can use these units.

JMM

[Malaspina]

Ah, now I understand! So it's not a sort of encouragement to the troops to reform the battle line, but just recalling detached units.

I guess this is yet another case for me of RTFM! (read the f... manual!)

Thanks as ever JMM! Hope to preorder next week!

[lodi57]

I guess this is yet another case for me of RTFM! (read the f... manual!)

Yes, page 28 .

[rbbane]

I too have discovered that setting all or most units to "DEFEND ON LINE" is a successful way of inflicting many casualties on the enemy, without many of your own army routing, (except the inevitable cavalry units that go charging off all over the place).

But the problem I'm finding with this is that after all of the nearer enemy units have been decimated and have routed I wish to move my "DEFENCE LINES" nearer to the remaining enemy.
But when left clicking on any corps commander the only order options that remain are "TACTICAL BOMBING", "HALT PROGRESSION", and "RALLY ALL UNITS".
The original orders of "DEPLOY ON LINE", "DIVERSION ON LINE", DEFEND ON LINE", and "MARCH TO AREA" have all disappeared, and don't come back again.  So the only thing I have been able to do, in these circumstanses, is to End Game.

Am I missing something, or have I done something wrong.  Any help would be much appreciated.

[Hook]

But when left clicking on any corps commander the only order options that remain are "TACTICAL BOMBING", "HALT PROGRESSION", and "RALLY ALL UNITS".
The original orders of "DEPLOY ON LINE", "DIVERSION ON LINE", DEFEND ON LINE", and "MARCH TO AREA" have all disappeared

It sounds like all your infantry and cavalry for that corps commander have been detached or possibly transferred to another commander.  Or maybe even killed, which has happened to me.  Try Rally All Units and see if it helps.  If the corps commander's strength is zero, you won't have many order options.

Hook

[Hook]

Some of you may have played Peter Turcan's Waterloo.  This game from 1989 had Napoleon or Wellington giving orders to his corp commanders, who would carry them out as they saw fit.  Riders took the orders to the commanders, and could be lost.  When the corps commanders got the orders, there were often delays in carrying them out, and orders could be refused.

This information from the Waterloo manual is just as pertinent to Histwar as to the original game.

All commanders interpret their orders. <snip> A commander will attempt to use the terrain features to his advantage and he may not obey an order if he considers it suicidal, out of date, or irrelevant to the local situation.  Corps commanders have a high degree of flexibility and can advance, retreat, support each other, and make similar decisions without consulting the commander-in-chief.

One very important aspect when issuing orders is to be aware of the time delay that ensues while riders carry your messages to the relevant commanders, and those commanders attempt to carry them out.  If you see a crisis develop on the battlefield, think twice before acting upon it.  Be sure that what you are attempting can be achieved in time to be of some use.  Perhaps the general in command will be able to sort it out anyway.  Don't waste good troops sending them off on hopeless mercy dashes that will weaken your army's cohesion.

Don't try to do too much at once.  It's ery easy to get in a muddle.  Set yourself an objective and an overall strategy, and try not to let unexpected events distract you from your purpose.

Hook

[crazy canuck]

I have just set my corps to defend a line and let the allies smash into my defensive lines.

So far it has worked pretty well, but then there is the odd time that allied cavalry will outflank me and wreak havoc on my lines.

Then I will send in my reserves and clean them out.


Notthing fancy or pretty, but it works.

 

[Duke of Earl]

Some of you may have played Peter Turcan's Waterloo.  This game from 1989 had Napoleon or Wellington giving orders to his corp commanders, who would carry them out as they saw fit.  Riders took the orders to the commanders, and could be lost.  When the corps commanders got the orders, there were often delays in carrying them out, and orders could be refused.

This information from the Waterloo manual is just as pertinent to Histwar as to the original game.

Hook

Bonjour Messiurs,

Alas..... poor Turcan.... I remember him well..... a gallant effort - but a forlone hope in the end....

Cordialement, DoE

[Hook]

Alas..... poor Turcan.... I remember him well..... a gallant effort - but a forlone hope in the end....

I've played it a lot over the years and enjoyed it.  I got used to order delays and difficult camera controls. The game didn't even have a 2D map in the game (there was as paper one in the box), so I wrote a program to display the map and unit locations.  After every 15 minute turn I could save the game, Alt-Tab out of the game and look at the map.  It was interesting to see how the battle played out when you knew everything.

Hook

[Uxbridge]

Peter Turcan wrote the alogorithm used for a Scrabble game published by Virgin Games on the Leisure Genius label around 1985 and I (in my capacity as financial controller) used to pay him royalties. But sadly I never met him.