How do you make formations?

[kawligia]

I don't like how you can't place your units when on offense. And the premade formations, I don't like. They do stupid stuff like place ALL your spearmen on one side.

So anyway I want to make my own and I have no clue where to start.

Also I would like some input on my formation idea:

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Ha Sp In In Sp In In Sp Ha

-- -- -- -- --
Hc Lc In Lc Hc

--
Ar

--
Gn


Ha = horse archers
Sp = spears
In = infantry
Lc = light cavalry
Hc = heavy cavalry
Ar = archers/naptha
Gn = general

-Spears on flanks for protection, and center to protect from frontal charge
-Infantry making up front lines
-Horse archers in front to draw attack and harass strong units, possibly drawing them away from battle
-Heavy cavalry ready to flank
-Light cavalry ready to chase routers, but protected by front line troops
-One infantry in rear to take place of spears if no cavalry frontal charge
-Archers or naptha to dwindle strong, high valor enemy troops
-General to the rear

What do you think? How do I make it?

[The Last Emperor]

Guess the only reasonable assumption on this is that as an attacker u r marching into an enemy waiting for u in t field...so ur troops are usually in the "marching formation" therefore not in those battle-ready formations.

[Beirut]

Someone else clued me onto this a ways back. Start the fight, then pause right away. While in pause, place your troops in the postions you'll want them (hit spacebar to see the future postion, and you can see where unit one is going to be while placing unit two. Veeeeery handy.)

Once they are all placed, put the whole army on double time and hold postion, and within a very short time, you will have your postion on the field exactly the way you want it with no loss of "real time".

[Aelwyn]

Yes this is what I always do. One advantage MTW has over STW is when you order a unit to go somewhere while paused, the game advances one frame so the order is input, and you can see what the result will be without having to unpause. It will only take 30 seconds to a minute to make your formation usually. I like it better in MP where you can make your formation how you want on both sides, but its not gonna happen in SP.

[Cid]

What bothers me is that the attackers are almost always set up with units on the left being shown on the right of the unit panel and visa versa. It gets a little dyslexic.

How do you double time the whole army?? I lost my manual and that would definitely come in handy.

[Jeff]

Quote[/b] ]How do you double time the whole army?? I lost my manual and that would definitely come in handy

Well if your all set with settin gup your formations you can right click on one unit and then hit the Select All choice. You then see all our units highlighted and after that you can double click on a spot and your Army will double time or charge to that spot. The only drawback is that it tires your Army rather quickly.

[RZST]

or press "CTRL+R" to run/double time.
to select whole army press "CTRL+A"

keyboard shortcuts pwn.

[Aelwyn]

hmm....I thought it was "Ctrl+T". I could be wrong since I play SP about twice a week (and thats much more than normal).

[kawligia]

I know I can do it manually each battle but that would be, and is, a huge pain. I would rather just be able to select it from a list like the other formations.

Anyone know how to do that and/or have any input on the formation itself?

[Vanya]

GAH

To make formations, the FIRST and FOREMOST step is to learn to talk like R. Lee Ermey.

(If you don't know who he is, he hosts show called Mail Call.)

Then, youz must...

1) Refer to your warriors as "ladies".
2) Order them to move it, move it, move it Left Left Da left Right Left
3) Bounce a coin off their hammock. If it not bounce, give 'em latrine duty.
4) Make fire and see who in your army sings "kumbaya". Make soup of their heads. Pronto
5) Tell your son to dress up like a girl and pretend to be the Emperor. If he delivers oscar-worthy performance, he might just inspire your men enough to get them to give a shit for a second.
6) Tell them to line up, single file... as in skool.
7) If they fail, shoot them in back of head and go back to #1 with fresh batch of recruits. Loop until successful or you die of boredom.

GAH

[kawligia]

Amusing http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif but not much help http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif .