Reading The Field

[Puzz3D]

56K should work fine. IIRC it depends a bit on the quality of the line and overall ping between players.

The typical ping time for 56k dial-up is about 450 ms, and that will work ok for a joiner. Trying to host 3v3 or 4v4 games over 56k dial-up does lag. If your ping is up around 900 ms or higher, that won't work well.

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Lately I have been able to keep one eye on the enemy back field shifts, and as possible (and as quietly as possible), made compensating balances. Most of the time this works to some advantage, and occasionally provides critical support in place “before” it is needed (the only way to fly).

This is critical to success when defending. Each defender is responsible for countering the enemy units in the army that's opposite him in the battle line. He's "your guy" to cover unless your team agrees to switch to different opponents. If "your guy" moves units to some other part of the battleline, you should cover that move if you can. Since the two sides are essentially equal in combat power, the Oblique Order will often be used by attackers to create a local superiority on one flank. The proper defense against this attack is to refuse the flank (to bend or curve back the flank units of a military force so that they face generally to the flank rather than the front). Allied units should be arriving to help with the defense of the refused flank. Sometimes the defenders decide to stage a counter offensive on the attacker's weak flank instead of defending their own weak flank. Success then becomes a race to see which side can break the other's weak flank first.

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..9. Always keep some units ready to help a team mate if needed.
Be ready and looking for the need long before it happens. It will take you time to get there.

Don't anticipate enemy moves because that can lead to wasted movement, and you might actually strip yourself of units that you need to hold your position. Definitely react to enemy moves. The gameplay is designed to allow enough time to react to enemy threats within a certain limit of distance. That distance depends upon the specific kind of threat.

And I guess that in all observations of the battlefield beyond unit identification and counting when possible, is the judging of distance, and understanding the relative time to maneuver involved.

Right. And, the enemy may make feints designed to draw out some of your units beyond the distance from which those units can be effectively supported. They may also position their entire army in what they hope appears to you to be an untenable position when, in fact, their position is still defensible.

One example is the in-range distance required for bows and guns to begin firing. To me it seems difficult on relatively flat plains to judge how close I am to the enemy. I think I’m there, but am not and have to move up a bit, then a bit more, etc., etc..

I raise the camera as high as possible and point it downward to help with estimating distance. When moving my teppo line up to engage the enemy ranged units, my first move is close to but intentionally outside of open fire range. That makes it easier to estimate the next move which will be to get the whole unit just inside open fire range.

Sometimes, with a range group in motion, I will monitor my mouse-over of the enemy units, watching for the green arrow to signal when to halt my advance. Not often needed but I do use it.

I use the red/green arrow to measure how far to move forward on the second move. Since I'm not trying to stop right at the edge of the open fire range, I can have a margin of error and still end up within open fire range after the second move. Usually, I don't have to make a third move. You can use the ranges-2 map which has a checkerboard tile pattern to get a better idea of how large enemy units appear at 100 meters (2.5 tiles), and this should help in visually estimating that distance.

Counting squares, if you can see them on a particular map, might be useful to determine more exact relationships. Does anyone have any rules-of-thumb that they employ to whatever degree of success, in prejudging time/distance relationship?

I don't try to count tiles because they are too difficult to see. I estimate visually by looking at the size of the men or the size of the unit. If a unit needs support, I would say ideally that support should arrive in not more than about 30 seconds after the unit needing support is engaged. In some cases a unit that is loosing may survive considerably longer than 30 seconds, but it's still loosing men all the time so the sooner the support arrives the more useful the unit will be subsequently.

NA runs at 2.2 m/s. It can cover 66 meters in 30 seconds.
YS runs at 2.8 m/s. It can cover 84 meters in 30 seconds.
YA runs at 3.4 m/s. It can cover 102 meters in 30 seconds.
NC runs at 5.6 m/s. It can cover 168 meters in 30 seconds.
YC runs at 6.7 m/s. It can cover 201 meters in 30 seconds.

1 tile = 40 meters.