Morale and Unit Depth

[Lord Rom]

What are the pluses and the negatives to a unit's depth?
It seems to my observances that the default unit depth performs better than stretching your line thinner. Morale wise anyway.

[Puzz3D]

Unit depth has no direct effect on morale. It can indirectly affect morale by altering the casualty rate of the unit. There is a morale penalty of short duration for the percentage casualties suffered in each combat cycle, and a permanent morale penalty for overall unit decimation.

Unit depth can directly affect unit fatigue which is the average of the fatigue of each man in the unit. A unit that is fighting on a narrow front in hold formation will have many men in the back not fighting as long as the enemy is not flanking the unit. Only the men in front who are fighting will incur the fatigue associated with that, so the unit's average fatigue will maintain itself better than if all the men are fighting as they mostly do when in engage-at-will.

Pikes and spears get combat bonuses for supporting ranks. Pikes get bonues for each supporting rank up to 4, and spears for each supporting rank up to 2.

Wide formations are harder to maneuver, but they can be useful if your objective is to sweep the enemy in front of you giving the enemy minimal chance of flanking your units.

[CBR]

Yes more ranks means less men fighting and therefore less men that can die. That is the main morale "bonus" compared to a wide line.

When recieving a cavalry charge you can really see the difference. For example pavs in wide line while in missile fight are very fragile compared to when they are in 4 ranks.


CBR

[ichi]

Sometimes with a unit stretched out wide it will wrap around the enemy unit.

With missile units that only let the first two rows shoot the rate of fire goes down for units in deeper formation.

ichi

[1dread1lahll]

http://dreadmastersclan.com/Hidden%20files/deadppl_eO_12301kind.gif

[KyodaiSteeleye]

My experience is that there are negatives to having a wide formation - from having your unit split during fighting. I find that heavy infantry in 3 ranks do better than those in 2 - maybe because there are more men to replace those killed in the centre - so survivors in this part of the unit are less likely to be doubled? - i'm not sure what the reason is, but i don't generally use infantry in 2 lines anymore. Also, as said before, manouvering 2 rank units and getting a clean charge is quite hard in the heat of battle.

[ichi]

I agree completely Kyodai. I use swords like CMAA or FMAA at 3.5 deep (17-18 wide @ default unit size). This the best balance I have found after starting at 4 and thinning out to 2.5 now back at 3+.

Heavy Cav at 2+.

ichi

[Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe]

And then you got the infamous tchou tchou rank system, with 40 or 60 ranks (depending on unit size).

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif

Very devastating for your opponent morale

I was once accused of being a cheater while using the tchou tchou formation

Louis,

[alioven]

Chu-chuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[Degtyarev14.5]

Okay, ignorant n00b request here:

Please tell me about the tchou tchou formation. I gather that it is one or two men wide and forty or even sixty ranks deep... How does one use it? Why does one use it? Why is it so effective re: morale? How does it work with regard to the game mechanics?

A.

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-balloon.gif Whoa Post Number 200 Go me http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-balloon.gif

[Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe]

Yep, that's right, it's 1 man wide and 40/60/100 men deep.

Re; 'how to use it'. Drink a lot, eat mushroom. Take your mouse and draw your formation with only 1 rank. Then get it to move, if possible turnig around a bit, or using waypoint. At the same time press T, and write down "tchou tchou"

Re; 'why one does it?'. There are several reasons to do it, most of them having to deal with complete inhebriation, a unbalanced diet with too much mushroom and playing with crazy Spaniards http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif .

Re; 'Why is it so effective regarding morale?'; most of the time it does not affect much the MTW morale system... It attacks directly your opponent morale Your opponent will cry in despair at the sight of the tchou tchou formation, even though his units will be unaffected.

Re; 'How does it work with regard to the game mechanics?'. Well in a pre patch past it has some real use as a game mechanism.... Now, well, you got to try it by yourself http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

I hope this helps http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Louis,

[alioven]

Don't forget you can draw nice train lines in the battlefield if your drunk status allow you, that is...

[Degtyarev14.5]

Quote[/b] (Louis de la Ferte Ste Colombe @ June 23 2004,23:28)]Re; 'How does it work with regard to the game mechanics?'. Well in a pre patch past it has some real use as a game mechanism.... Now, well, you got to try it by yourself http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif
So it's just another alcohol-induced way to exploit the now-defunct swipe bug? Jeez, I thought we had the makings of a revolutionary new method of warfare going here... http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

A.

[Skomatth]

Lol Alio Chuuuuuuuuuuuuu Chuuuuuuuuu

[alioven]

Heh, it could be used as a swipe-column, but the real usage when it was "invented" was to drawn with the lines across the battlefield, moving the "trains" (chu-chuuuuuu) in the best beatiful way one can manage when drunk.

Plus the face of your opponent is priceless :P

[Lord Rom]

I've noticed on the unit stats that there is a setting called "prefered rows". Cmma for example would be at 4 while militia sereants would be 5. I'm curious if that is a factor in morale or not.

[CBR]

In most cases the low quality units have more ranks. But all it really does is to set the number of ranks a unit starts in when deploying. You can always change it anyway. AFAIK its just a factor CA has put in for each unit and has no other effect.


CBR