Charge forward

[amoebe]

Hello all.


One thing I greatly desire in m2tw battles is a 'charge forward button'; as of right now I do not know a way to make a long line of infantry (more than 1 unit) charge toward the enemy lines while retaining their formation. The best option I know of is to group them and click drag behind the enemy lines and make them run. This way they don't charge however, they just run into the enemy. And if you attack with each unit the opposing enemy unit they will cramp together and break up formation.

Thoughts or tips about this?

Thanks!

[Foz]

Hello all.


One thing I greatly desire in m2tw battles is a 'charge forward button'; as of right now I do not know a way to make a long line of infantry (more than 1 unit) charge toward the enemy lines while retaining their formation. The best option I know of is to group them and click drag behind the enemy lines and make them run. This way they don't charge however, they just run into the enemy. And if you attack with each unit the opposing enemy unit they will cramp together and break up formation.

Thoughts or tips about this?

Thanks!
Personally, I think the best way is probably to select each unit individually and give it a target enemy unit to attack - then they go after the center of that given unit, which is usually pretty ordered.

Interestingly enough, I always find myself wishing my infantry units did what archers do, and archers did what infantry do. Archers, when group-fired, will select the closest enemy unit (in each archer unit's case) as their targets. Often in a battle situation this means each one fires at a different target. Usually what I want is for the archers to concentrate their fire on the target I picked, though. With infantry, though, mostly I'd prefer them to pick their own best targets, which would achieve the target selection in a natural line vs. line fashion. Instead they just all attack whichever target I happen to click on. The end result is that none of the targeting behavior for groups is actually useful to me at all, which marginalizes the usefulness of groups on the whole. Some sort of smart attacking for infantry is clearly needed.

Perhaps that could be the reversal of the function for melee and missiles as I mentioned earlier, but even better would be a RTS classic, the attack-move command, or possibly an auto-attack mode where units would attack automatically while on the move. Then you could issue a group an attack-move command to some point near the enemy line, and be assured that they would automatically pick the most natural targets and charge in at them.

Anyway, it would sure help battles go more smoothly if the targeting was smart enough that I didn't have to pause all the time and issue an order to every single unit in my command.

While I'm thinking about it, it also wouldn't hurt if a single unit was allowed to have a group hotkey. Many units (general's bodyguards come to mind) have special usefulness on the battlefield, and would benefit greatly from being allowed to have a hotkey even if only a single unit. I am forever calling on my general's BG for special missions, and that sort of thing is far easier in the heat of battle if you can assign the special unit a hotkey.

[Agent Smith]

Perhaps that could be the reversal of the function for melee and missiles as I mentioned earlier, but even better would be a RTS classic, the attack-move command, or possibly an auto-attack mode where units would attack automatically while on the move. Then you could issue a group an attack-move command to some point near the enemy line, and be assured that they would automatically pick the most natural targets and charge in at them.

Wasn't there an "Engage at Will" button in MTW? It's been so long since I've played it that I forget how it worked...

[Kobal2fr]

Hello all.


One thing I greatly desire in m2tw battles is a 'charge forward button'; as of right now I do not know a way to make a long line of infantry (more than 1 unit) charge toward the enemy lines while retaining their formation. The best option I know of is to group them and click drag behind the enemy lines and make them run. This way they don't charge however, they just run into the enemy. And if you attack with each unit the opposing enemy unit they will cramp together and break up formation.

Thoughts or tips about this?

Thanks!

There's already an automated way to do this in M2TW (which, by the way, plays hell with people using archers) : just form one group with as many units as there are units in the enemy's battleline, no more, no less. Then line them up outside of min charge range, doubleclick on the unit at the center of the line, and your whole group will be assigned one target each, and charge together in sync.

If you have more units in your group things start to get messy, as multiple units of yours are given the same targets, and they bungle up each other's charge.

This mechanism is the reason why when you group archers and tell them to target one single unit to utterly pincushion them, they'll sometimes spread their fire over the whole army sometimes.

[Foz]

There's already an automated way to do this in M2TW (which, by the way, plays hell with people using archers) : just form one group with as many units as there are units in the enemy's battleline, no more, no less. Then line them up outside of min charge range, doubleclick on the unit at the center of the line, and your whole group will be assigned one target each, and charge together in sync.

If you have more units in your group things start to get messy, as multiple units of yours are given the same targets, and they bungle up each other's charge.

This mechanism is the reason why when you group archers and tell them to target one single unit to utterly pincushion them, they'll sometimes spread their fire over the whole army sometimes.

Oh so it does work for melee? Maybe I've just had more guys than the enemy battle line and noted the bungled up charges that you mentioned. I'll give it a shot with groups of equal size to the enemy line and hope for the best.

[Kobal2fr]

Well it's a bit fickle, admitedly, and I'm at a loss to tell you what factors you have to watch for to get that perfect, Braveheart charge. But when it does work, it's a thing of beauty.

[Marius Dynamite]

You could pause the game and select each units target and then unpause and it should work, but thats no good really.

I usually march forward and while they march straight at the enemy (or tell them to march behind as you said), I click them to attack the unit I want. Then, when they all have targets, I click run or whatever.

[crpcarrot]

hey cool tip kobal thanks i'll try it out tonight