controlling order of reinforcements

[desdichado]

I am still waiting for my strategy guide turn up so may seem like a silly question but is there any way to choose which units come on as reinforcements.

I have had to walk away from a few battles because my second wave consisted of nothing but crossbowmen when the AI seems able to pick more balanced force.

Also, is it better for units of spearmen to receive a charge to maintain its formation or to countercharge an enemy unit to get bonus from stong charge modifier?

[Azrael]

Hey Desdichado,

Okies, as far as reinforcements go, you can tell if you have any available before you click begin battle. Look at the top right of your screen. The reinforcements icon will be in colour if it is selectable.

To cycle through what reinforements are available, click on a Unit you may want to substitute. This unit will be highlighted. When you click on the Reinforcement icon, the highlighted unit dissapears, and a reinforcement unit appears at the far left of your army icons, and is available to use as part of your starting force.

Keep clicking on the reinforcement icon and you will cycle through all availiable troops.

So, if you are attacking, and you have a ballista, you may want to substitute it for some foot troops. If you have too many missle troops, you may want to substitute them.

Pay attention to what reinforcements you have.

Unfortunately, as far as I know, there is no way to select the order they will appear when they come on the field.

However, if it's the 100 chivalric seargents you want, but you get a reinforcement troop of archers marching on, select them and hit CTRL W straight away.

This will make them withdraw. Then call for more reinforcements. Another Unit will come on.

If it's not the one you want, CTRL W and repeat process.

Be careful, because once a Unit withdraws, it's not coming back. But when you need 100 Chivalric Seargents, you need 100 Chivalric Seargents, not 400 flippin Longbowmen.

I hope you find this helpful.

Azrael

[KukriKhan]

You may find this hard to believe, but I never 'got' how to summon/use reinforcements, 'til now. Thanks Azrael

And welcome to theOrg, desdichado

[Gregoshi]

I have yet to fight a MTW battle where I had reinforcements. I know how to swap out before the battle, but that summon reinforcements button is still a mystery to me.

I can't answer part 2 of your question either desdichado. I always try to counter charge but I vaguely recall reading somewhere it might be best to receive the charge,. so I'm confused as well.

[HopAlongBunny]

Cycling through your reinforcements is good to see what you have available; I am pretty sure that the order used stays the same too.

Say you exchange a catapult for a FMAA; select another unit and hit the reinforcement button_the unit that comes up will be next reinforcement you will receive, if you cycle all the way back to the unit you replaced-the sequence will stay the same as well.

Whole stacks of a unit type will mean that you will have to cycle through all those units to get anything else, if that is where your reinforcement pool begins.

I hope that makes sense http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/dizzy.gif

[Azrael]

Hey Guys,

I've got to say at first I found the reinforcement button to be a bit confusing.

It's worth noting that whenever you have reinforcements waiting, there is a rally flag. That is that white flag that will be just behind your army when the battle starts.

You have to be careful because as you push the enemy back, only to find that as his troops route, he's marching on 5 units of Nubian Spearmen, and you suddenly finding yourself needing reinforcements, the New Unit will march to that flag.

Not always ideal when you are on the other side of the map.

Your New Unit will march to the flag and stop. You will have to instruct it to move again.

If you're really clever (and I'm not), you can move the flag, so if you are making a slow and steady advance, if you move the flag up with your army, so if the flag is always by you, the reinforcements will always come to you.

It's worth mentioning that you don't necessarily have to wait for a Unit to be destroyed or routed to get reinforcements on. Say your 100 Spearmen have been reduced down to 5. You know you've got another 100 Spearmen in reserve. CTRL W the 5 Spearmen to order this Unit to withdraw. Call for reinforcements (and after 6 units of Longbowmen march on and you march them back off - Sod's Law that), you get a fresh batch of 100 Spearmen.

Finally, at any time during the battle, if you push the F1 key, you get a breakdown of your forces along with their morale, attack strength and defense strength.

From what I've seen of this, Spearmen do seem to have a larger Defensive bonus rather than attacking bonus.

At the beginning of any battle, I personally recommend pushing CTRL A (this selects your entire army) then F. The F tells them to Hold Formation, meaning when they attack or defend, they will try very hard to maintain their shape.

As many Units gain a bonus for being in certain formations (i.e. 3-4 ranks deep) this can be a very clever thing to do.

Sorry to go on for as long as I have, but hopefully you've got all the information you were after.

If you see me in MP, please be gentle. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

Azrael

[LadyAnn]

The assembly point flag must be placed with care. That's where the reinforcement will arrive.

Don't put the assembly point in the center. I find put it near the edge allows me to order them to come to the place I want, instead of always march straightline to the flag. Also, it may not be advantageous to always bring troops behind you. For instance, if I see cav comes to the rescue, I want it placed at the enemy's flank, not having it march to my center and then march them to the flank to charge back to center.

I believe the troops will arrive to the flag from the side nearest to the flag, but it is yet to be confirmed.

It is not possible to control the order of arrival of your reinforcement. But it seems the order of reinforcement is the one you cycle through, so you may have an idea of what is coming. Although it is tedious to substitute in and out the units until you get the right reinforcement order, it is possible. I find that it is particularly useful to have the reinforcement mix up with different troops than says 5 archers in a row. Having to send away 5 archers to get to your infantry, then find that you need arrows later...

Annie

[desdichado]

Thanks for the replies.

I have seen reinforcements march in from the side of the map after I moved the assembly flag so I guess its possible to control where they come in from.

I wonder if its possible to move it to the enemy's edge and have them march in from there right in to the rear of his army?