Quote Originally Posted by oaty
If you catch your skirmishers while they are less than ~ 20 percent reloaded they will execute your new order.

So this was a new feature of RTW, a nice one but not implemented to its fullest potential, wich to a degree makes it worse than the old system.

Hopefully this will be working better in the next release where missiles will aquire a new target (on orders) on the next reload cycle but on orders to move or auto skirmish will execute them right away.
I couldn't call it "nice." This sort of behaviour is a serious impediment to proper skirmish fighting. It probably also encourages the AI's headlong rush at skirmishers backed by infantry/cavalry. I can understand why it would take a short time for troops to respond to a charge. But skirmish units should fall back easily, rather than taking so much work.