A Question on Group Formations.

[+DOC+]

Ok, it's late on in a battle and my units are basically spread over the map chasing routing troops. The enemy is about tio bring on reinforcements....

so what i want to do is bring all of my remining scattered units to a selected point under a useful formation (say one of the numbered ones for instance).

Is it possible?

What i've been resorting to so far is grouping them and then stretching them out in a long line, however, this isn't very practical and not very useful.

If i group them and then press a number like 2 they form the group fromation but not at the point in the map i want. In fact i have no idea where they'll form that grouop formation?!

So, is there a way of re-organising scattered troops quickly and effectively in a useful formation at a location set by a mouse click?

Thanks for any help.

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=MizuDoc=

[Magraev]

Easy.

Pause the game, group them all, choose the formation you want and then redraw the formation in the place you've selected. Unpause the game.

Often I pull back units from a chase piecemeal. Spearmen don't do much good chasing so once they break contact I put them back one by one behind the reformed archer line. Then fast infantry, slow cav and finally fast cav. This way I don't redraw the entire formation at once.

[+DOC+]

Ok, thanks, i'll try that. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

But when you redraw after selecting a new group formation doesn't it just revert back to stringing them out in a long line again?



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=MizuDoc=

[Magraev]

In short: no.

If you include extra units in the group or some have been excluded and rechosen the group formation defaults to the line. If you hit "5" before you redraw you should be fine - at least it usually works for me.

[+DOC+]

Great, thanks mate. http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[aX1s]

umm how do you pause the game.....

YES IAM N00b IAM SO ASHAME WAHHH

[Veiny Eyeball]

Press 'P' for penguin.

[clansman]

Or P for pleb

[Rnold]

what does "5" do? change to a specific formation? having your units spread out all over the map can make you lose your battle!

[Alrowan]

i just drag them in a line, then selelct one of the attack fromations as a whole group when the get there.. but i usually redeploy about midfeild

[pdoan8]

Look for a "Pause" key on the keyboard. It does the same thing as "P".

Also, I believe that there is a key marked as "Break". Don't worry, it won't break anything (or may be it does). What it does is it gives you a little break.

http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif-------------------------------------------

I have never use group formation since the demo. I have to try it again.

[longjohn2]

There's a nifty feature to do with dragging out groups, and I'm a bit annoyed it didn't make it into the manual.

That is that while you are holding the mouse button down to drag out the units, you can press any of the number keys to select the formation you want. The ghost units will immediately change accordingly, so you can try out different formations unitl you get one you like.

Also if the ghost units are in different numbers of ranks ( for the same unit type ) you can click the right mouse button while still holding the left down, and all units will be put in their default number of ranks, before being stretched out.

[dagdriver]

That is a great tip, Longjohn.
.. and Yes that really SHOULD have been in the manual....

[Cheetah]

Also, if you hit the spacebar you will see the "ghost formation" of your entire army.

BTW, the formation short-cuts are as follows:

1) Single line
2) Sorted line
3) Double line
4) Sorted double line
5) missiles-infantry-cavalry (from front to back)
6) infantry-missiles-cavalry
7) cavalry-missiles-infantry
8) cavalry screen
9) column