Close Order Drill

[LHeggland]

One of the few complaints that I have had with both STW and MTW is the lack of basic close order drill commands like Wheel Right, Wheel Left, About Face, etc... I find it annoying to have to redraw the unit just to wheel into flanking cavalry attack. Instead of wheeling in formation the formation breaks up momentary. This can put you at a disadvantage when you need a quick change in facing.

[AcePylut]

Use ALT - RIGHT click to change unit facing.

Use ALT - Left click to move a unit without changing facing.

It helps immensely.

[Yagyu Jubei]

Ouch!!!!!!!!
Brother,,, how did you make it through the years without the ALT key? I would have lost my mind trying to deal without it!
The Alt is essential to wheeling and changing the way you face without taking wastefull time and movement!
Have fun! Bet it's a whole new game for ya now.

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Watashiwa Yagyu Jubei desu! Ganbate!

[LHeggland]

STW battles were slow enough that it was just an annoyance. Plus the AI didn’t do much flanking. Thanks for the tip.
Does it work with groups or just units?

[Yagyu Jubei]

You can use it for groups as well.. sometimes I have noticed that they will spin in differant directions though,,,,,so I usually do it for each unit....

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Watashiwa Yagyu Jubei desu! Ganbate!

[Dionysus9]

You can use it for groups that are grouped with the "G" command, but if you ty to do it with informal groups (CTRL-SHIFT 1) it results in each unit turning to face the click individually--which is almost never what you want.

Also, there are some quirks to the ALT command that take some getting used to-especially with groups. First, if you use ALT-RIGHT to wheel facing of a group, you can then IMMEDIATELY ALT-LEFT to move the group and retain the NEW facing--without having to wait for them to make the wheel. I.e. they will "wheel on the fly" and when they get to the ALT-LEFT CLICK spot they will be facing the direction you told them to wheel to with your ALT-RIGHT CLICK. Its a bit confusing until you get used to it out in the field.

Ok, now for more confusion-- if you ALT LEFT CLICK to a spot they will march there and retain their facing. If you ALT LEFT CLICK again, before any of the units in that group have come to a complete stop, you will get strange results. You must wait for at least one unit to come to a complete stop before you can issue another ALT LEFT CLICK command. You can order one unit to stop and that should allow you to issue the next ALT-LEFT command.

One more thing-- It never seems to work when I ALT-LEFT CLICK and then ALT-RIGHT CLICK. I think it might work if I let at least one unit come to a complete stop from the alt-left command....I forget though. I always wheel them before I move them...that works like a charm.

Once you get adept at these commands your level of play will increase dramatically.

Quote Originally posted by Yagyu Jubei:
You can use it for groups as well.. sometimes I have noticed that they will spin in differant directions though,,,,,so I usually do it for each unit....

[/QUOTE]

[theBlind]

Quote Originally posted by Dionysus9:
You can use it for groups that are grouped with the "G" command, but if you ty to do it with informal groups (CTRL-SHIFT 1) it results in each unit turning to face the click individually--which is almost never what you want.
[/QUOTE]

Thats a very convienient way to enclose the enemy if you have a longer *cough* line than him (of course we do http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif ) It works with the pre defined formations, and btw. just to bring it up again: I want my own pre defined formations...

theBlind

[Arcsim]

So let me get this straight. If I CTRL A to select my entire army, then group them all with G, and THEN alt right click, it will change the facing of the entire army, retaining the formation?

[King Crimson]

No need to group your army once you CTRL-A. They'll be in a "temporary" group while you ALT-R and change facing while retaining the formation.

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http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/b3df3682/bc/1776/__tn_KingCrim.jpg?bc9Lki9AGMAt4i2d

[Swoosh So]

yes arcsim thats right

[longjohn2]

The Blind

The formations are all defined in text files in the directory formationData.

They are in four files, one for the historucal formations, one for the group formations, and two for use by the a.i.

You can edit these to make whatever formations you like. Theoretically your revised formations should work ok online too, but I haven't tested this.

The formation template language is quite powerful, and will let you make formations that automatically adopt to a wide variety of units. You might even improve the a.i. by giving it some better formations.

[Cheetah]

Listed in the TC