Sub Unit formations

[Richard]

As I type this Im waitng for STW to arrive from Amazon, have only just realised it will work with W2K. Have been looking over screenshots of MTW and am a bit worried about the formations sub units form into.

Can you order diff formations ie infantry into square or line, cav into troops etc, or do they just blob together?

If the postie dosent arrive today hes getting a kicking tomorrow http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif

[Puzz3D]

In STW and WE/MI, you can order close, loose and wedge unit formations. In addition, the unit can be set to engage-at-will or hold formation. Ranged units have the additional mode of skirmish which will make them automatically fall back when an enemy unit gets close. The shape of a wedge formation is fixed, but rectangular formations can be draw to any width x depth that you want.

The melee blob that you see in the pictures is the result of a unit fighting in engage-at-will mode. If the unit wins the fight, it will automatically reform into it's original formation. Before doing that, it will pursue the routing enemy unit unless it has been given the hold position command, in which case, pursuit is cancelled, and the unit forms up and returns to the spot from which it started fighting.

MizuYuuki ~~~
Clan Takiyama ~~~

[This message has been edited by Puzz3D (edited 04-25-2002).]

[Vanya]

And... you can click-and-drag to create your OWN formations!

No round ones, of course. But you can customize the number of ranks easily that way.

Or, just put everything in wedgie formation. After all, you want your men to kill, kill, kill without being encumbered by such silly things as survival... http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/eek.gif

[Richard]

Sweet - can you sub divide individual units into echelons - Im thinking of cavalry here - best way to use them was in troops or lines hitting the enemy one after another.

[Puzz3D]

Richard,

You cannot subdivide a unit, but, when in hold formation, basically only the front rank fights with men from back ranks filling in for those who are killed. You can engage in one formation, and quickly switch to a different formation to achive enhanced combat results. For instance, if you are attacking a standing unit, charge in wedge to maximize initial kills, but quickly switch to engage-at-will to minimize subsequent losses due to 3 compat points being shifted from defend to attack by the wedge formation. Also, use hold formation to minimize losses to a unit being charged by shifting 2 combat points from attack to defend, and switch to engage-at-will once the charge is broken if you want to accelerate the combat resolution. True echelon attack can be achieved using more than one unit set up in an echelon formation that you create. Unfortunately, these created army formations cannot be saved, and have to be draw each time you go into battle.

MizuYuuki ~~~
Clan Takiyama ~~~

[Gan Ning]

You can group your units in a wedge formation which is mainly for breaking through enemy lines (and you know the computer always lines up its armys.) the loose formation is mainly for when you are marching and are getting bombarded by arrows and dont want to loose alot of men. and the tight formation is the main battle formation, when your units are fighting keep your yaris in the tight formation. if they are in the loose formation there long spears wont work to there true advantage. But with stronger units it doesnt matter which form. there in,thats if u dont care loosing a few good men. a okay stratigy for a battle is keep your heavy hitters in front (yari calvary, heavy calvary, yari samuri(with good morale ratings). next you want to have your yuri's there main job is protecting your archers. then the next line should be archers and musketeers. The front line should be in a wedge formation, for best results, then after you engage the enemy there are too many stratagies for me to name. IMPORTANT!!! PLZ RESPOND TO MY TOPIC: HEAVY CALVARY WORTH IT OR NOT!(something like that)okay peace out!

[Richard]

Shite - sounds complicated, thanks folks.

[InsaneFox]

wtf hey everytime i post a message do u check it first if so how long does the bloody thing take to show up ????????????

[Papewaio]

InsaneFox hit refresh. Your browser is probably defaulting to cache.

Or like me you forgot to put your password in http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/rolleyes.gif