We as generals

[Tamur]

There is a passage in Sun Tzu's The Art of War that describes the problems one can encounter with generals:

"One committed to dying can be slain,
One committed to living can be captured,
One easily angered and hasty to act can be insulted,
One obsessed with being scrupulous and untainted can be shamed,
One who loves the people can be troubled."

It is interesting... with the TW series and us being the generals, are these applicable? Or do we have a sort-of godlike infallability about us because we are at such a distance from the computerised battlefield/campaign?

Obviously we can lose, but not for the reasons Sun Tzu outlines... we lose because we're not tactically good enough or are simply facing insane odds.

I imagine this comes up in MP play, though... some players will have a deathwish and throw everything at the enemy immediately, some will hang back and hope to survive, etc.

[TonkaToys]

Interesting... I suppose I suffered from the "One easily angered and hasty to act can be insulted" line last night.

I had my English forces lined up nicely on a hill with the FSarges at the front, on the left behind them were Billmen, in a line behind the FS were Longbows. On the left flank was a hill, on the right a wood, in which I had two groups of FMAA hidden. At the back were some Hobilars. Behind me a slight slope and the edge of map.

Anyway the Frenchies (who else) have a bunch of Alan Mercenaries, Templars and other Cav. and they charge towards my right flank... some of them going through the wood. Looked like the Templars might outflank my FS through the wood, so I charged my FMAA down onto them and spun the FS to face them... whilst moving my billmen over from the left to bolster the right flank.

Well... I won. But... I think I made a mistake by wheeling my FS to fully face the threat on the right from the wood as the Alans were able to come down and smack into their exposed left. It was only because the billmen arrived in the nick of time, and the FMAA were pretty successful against the templars that my right didn't collapse. PHEW.

As you can see, if I hadn't been so hasty to face the right hand threat, maybe my FS could have been partially wheeled back so that they didn't present an exposed flank to either the front or the right.

I'm learning... slowly.

[katank]

easily angered and hasty describes me too.

I occasionally arrange my troops and maneuver perfectly for attack/defense and then suddenly on an impulse send them all charging at full speed at the enemy without regard to tactics.

I only do this when having vast superiority and definitely get less favorable kill ratios but win regardless

[CherryDanish]

sometimes I'm hasty, if I can't be bothered with a fight I'll send in the cav early. I suffer horrible losses sometimes on my cav. Playing the English lately though is helping me remedy this. All I have to do is wheel my formation of CS spears, longbowmen and billmen and the enemy abandons strong defensive positions and even runs from the field without a fight out of fear. I'm learning patience and the joys of carpal tunnel syndrom as I try to make smooth troop movements.

Sometimes my impatience pays off though. Last night I got tired fighting a re-emerged turkish faction and so I just selected all my units and double clicked on the turks who turned and "marched quickly" off of the battle field. Not a single person died on either side.

[Tamur]

Ha, I have honestly never tried the "select all and attack" tactic, but I suppose that must be rather worrisome for the AI. Will have to try it out one of these days.

I tend toward caginess and caution, maneuvering etc. I suppose I'd fall into the one who clings to life category --- if my general loses, he gets captured every time and ends up with that pesky been-captured vice.

[katank]

what are you talking about? captured is awesome! it gives huge morale boost to the army if you can level it up. titles make up for the loss of command.

morale is what the game is all about and getting +9 morale on your best general is unreal and combined with leader virtues and things like gentle knight can make even peasants stay and fight.

I would sometimes select all and double click on the enemy general.

in some cases, this is actually better than using actual tactics due to large morale hit the enemy get where their general gets sacked.

[Frankymole]

How does one wheel an entire formation of several units? Mine always lose their matched-flanks and get out of line, unless I re-group them. Is there a way to wheel several groups as one?

[PaolinoPaperino]

I don't think it's exatly what the thread was about ....
but try to group them with G, and then ALT + right click on the spot u wanna them to face as described here:
http://shogun-academy.tripod.com/dojo_ch2_pg1.html

[Dimeola]

Do not mistake that this is only a game. And we are no more generals than anything. It is a far different matter when there is a real risk of death and there are real consequences.
D

[katank]

nonsense! contrary to popular belief, there is no life outside MTW. It's only the matrix. set thyself free through MTW. defeat the forces of evil and it's the only chance to reach the real truth.