Turning an army

[Vork]

Hi, it's me again, the Newbie from Hell.

More often than not, when I line up a defensive army in MTW/VI, the enemy will try to engage it from another direction than I anticipated. Is it possible to turn the facing of the entire army without breaking the formation?

I've tried with Ctrl-a and then Alt+RMB, but then each unit will turn around its own axis. What I want is for everybody to turn around a common axis, e.g. with the general in the center.

Vork

[ezrider]

the comma and full-stop keys on your keybord turn all selected units on thier own axis. (RTW)

you can try it in MTW

[doc_bean]

I usually just drag out the army to its new position, it's indeed not very practical...

[CBR]

You can rotate the army but it would have to in one group. Just selecting them all is not enough. If you have your army in several groups (like one center group for inf and two cavalry wings) then it can still work but they will be slightly misaligned.


CBR

[Raz]

When defending, I just move my entire army as close as possible. Then place missile units out in front for a quick few strikes before dashing behind my ranks. This seems to get the enemy to go straight towards me due to how close I am, and how the missile units fire at them. Seems to get their attention to me and not to that shiny coin that they're chasing.

I made this picture to help you understand.

Note: See how my archers have a space to retreat to just behind the spearmen.

The way I use this is, the missile units right out the front rain the enemy until they come close, they take cover behind the Defensive Infantry and then continue their job of firing their arrows and javilins at the enemy. Afterwards, while my Defensive Infantry are engaged, I can send my cavalry behind the enemy and charge straight at their General. The Heavy Infantry behind the engaged frontline charge at the enemy just before my frontline falls.

It's almost un-beatable. Do you love it? I think it's pretty good.

[Ciaran]

Hi, it's me again, the Newbie from Hell.

More often than not, when I line up a defensive army in MTW/VI, the enemy will try to engage it from another direction than I anticipated. Is it possible to turn the facing of the entire army without breaking the formation?

I've tried with Ctrl-a and then Alt+RMB, but then each unit will turn around its own axis. What I want is for everybody to turn around a common axis, e.g. with the general in the center.

Vork

It took me a while, but I came to the solution. You have to group your army, simply add hitting "G" between CTRL-A and Alt-RMB, and there you are, your whole army rotaes as one. However, it´s a bit unpredictable precisely where it will rotate around, so if your setup is somewhat asysmmetrical, you´ll end up having it moving into places where you don´t want them. The same goes for moving a grouped army, basically, it´s the same as rotating, the units keep their formation, but it´s a bit unpredictable where the whole thing will go, as the engine calculates a center for the whole army which is used as a reference point for the positioning of the individual units.

Another side effect is, of course, that any groups you had defined previously will be overwritten, so if you had your spears neatly lined up, you´ll have to do that again after you ungroup your whole army.

[gunslinger]

Yup, just group your whole army, and then hold down alt and your right mouse button. As you're holding them move the cursor around a bit in front of your army. You will be able to see a "ghost army" showing you exactly where they will end up. The only things that mess this up are the edge of the map and impassable terrain.

You can also use this to control your attacking army. Group them, alt + right click to face them in the direction you want, and then alt + left click to move them to a new spot and they will face the same direction when they get there. Just be sure to use short movements, because they will be all out of order while they are moving, and it sucks to get rushed during the movement.

[Vork]

Thanks, guys. That's all very useful to me.

Vork

[Ciaran]

That´s what we´re here for.

Oh, another tip: When you gave the move order, don´t correct it, at least not with all units selected. That would royally mess up things, because if you issue an order to a grouped unit, they will deploy at their destination in the setup they were in when the order was issued. Any movement will disrupt the order you deployed your men in temporarily, so while you see the "move" icon on the unit cards, don´t give them another order. That goes along with gunslinger´s recommendation to use short movement intervalls.

[Sir Boo]

I agree

[antipope]

That is extremely handy to know. Excellent question. Got my butt kicked last night trying click and drag everyone into a new position as the enemy was rotating around my entire army.