Heroic Death my @#~*!

[Flavius Gonzo]

Arg. Haven't lost a general this way, but I did loose an entire, full strength, 3 chevronned unit of missle cav last night the same way anweRU did. Just like he described, I'd caught it happening pretty quickly, but even after ordering the unit to halt, they tried to group together between two lines of pointy sticks, which impalled more of them, and then routed, which impalled the remaining ones.

It is times like these that make you realize you are definitely playing a game and not commanding real units of men. Because some times you wish you could be explicit in your orders, e.g:

"Chase that unit of infantry off the battlefield. But make sure you go around those huge point sticks."

or

"Yes, you may fire canister shot at will. But it goes without saying that you should not fire cannister shot directly down the axis of our own lines if a unit of enemy cav attacks at one of our flanks."

[Marquis of Roland]

"Yes, you may fire canister shot at will. But it goes without saying that you should not fire cannister shot directly down the axis of our own lines if a unit of enemy cav attacks at one of our flanks."

I figured that one out. It happens when you have selected a unit and for whatever reason are unable to target it anymore (i.e. destroyed, out of range, stealthed, etc.). If fire-at-will is on, the artillery will switch to another target (which may or may not be good, depending on how close said unit is to your men); however if it has no unit to select, it will methodically make a 90 degree turn to the side and unload whatever ammunition you were firing down your line.

To avoid this, limber up or click on a spot on the ground far away from your own men for the artillery to have something to aim at.

[Veho Nex]

Yeah reminds me of a fight I just had. Charged with my general but told him to slam on the breaks when I noticed he was running into a wall of death... He stopped, long enough for one of my cannons to come down and take him out, soon after the entire unit stricken with grief over the lost general decided they needed to end it all. They calmly walked to the stakes, and plunged head first into them... Why my cannon was firing at my general I dont think I will ever know..

[Ishmael]

Don't forget guys, AI stupidity (and big pointy sticks) can also work in your favour-in the midst of the vicious melee in Goa, the elephant-mounted Maratha general marched his troops in single file into the only cheveaux-de-frise in the city, where they walked forwards against it for a few seconds and then keeled over. The death of the general and the routing of his bodyguard unit won me the battle in the end.

[dulsin]

I had a puckle gun sitting in my line once and I left it on autofire.

When I came back to the unit I found a large pile of dead sitting just to it's left. It was engaging a unit to the far left and clipping the line infantry next to it. The amazing thing was that as each of the line infantry died to friendly fire the unit would dress the lines placing another victim in front of the puckle guns targets.

I was so amazed that I just sat there and watched 2/3 of the unit take it's turn in the meat grinder.