Tactical Guidance and UI tutorials

[Didz]

Has anyone come across any decent video's or guides that discuss tactical issues, or provide guidance on how to use the Expanded Toolbar?

I've watched loads of video's going over the same boring rubbish about how the interface works and HITS and stuff, but nothing seems to go further into how to use these things to actually achieve success.

As a long term Napoleonic Wargamer I'm aware of the tactical dynamic's of the period, but actually how reproduce them in the game is a mystery. Whenever I choose a balanced sandbox scenario I always find myself commanding an imbalanced force against a balanced one.

Last night its was six infantry battalions and two artillery batteries against a mixed force of horse, foot and guns, and not surprisingly I found myself trapped in square being punded by artillery. Not a good scenario even in a tabletop wargame, but at least in tabletop rules squares can move and so there is a means to acheive a painful solution.

Grogs toolbar doesn;t even seem to have an option to target artillery at enemy cavalry, so I'm sitting their getting blasted whilst my guns are wasting their time firing at the enemy artillery or infantry.

I've looked everywhere and I can;t find any explanation of how to use the UI to actually get your troops to do something you need them to do.

Rapidly losing patience with this game, the UI could be so much simpler and work, rather than this complicated mess that doesn't.

[xposethedarkside]

Hi Didz. I believe I am who you are looking for. While I don't play on steam I believe the game itself is the same whether its the matrix or steam version. Ive been playing Scourge of War Waterloo since the game was originally released and before that I played the civil war SOW games since about 2012.
Ive beaten every single scenario in SOW Waterloo as well as all the expansions, multiple times.
Ive started a youtube series geared towards helping new players learn to get a grasp of the games mechanics, as well as learning to apply them to beat the games various scenarios.
The series starts with all the brigade scenarios and then moves into the division scenarios. Currently Im about halfway through the division series. However Ive recently gone back and redone the brigade series as I wasn't happy with the way they originally came out. I should have all the brigade scenarios done within the next two days. The series is meant to be watched from the beginning, as each episode builds upon the next as more of the games mechanics are introduced.
Scourge of War is a great game. The biggest barrier to getting into the game is simply that as a new player that knows nothing about the game, it can have a steep learning curve at first. That's the reason Ive started this series. To help new players overcome that learning curve. I suggest starting with episode 1 and proceeding from there.(The brigade series is temporarily incomplete. As I said Im redoing them and they will once again be complete within the next few days)

Not sure if my playlists will hyperlink here, but if not, simply copy and paste them into your browser.

SOW Waterloo Brigade series playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFZdiSNAc51E-mIRLj5SRywNHeghO9XR5

SOW Waterloo Division series playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFZdiSNAc51FaZWckYhO7PF62TjfkoQZ2

PS. If you have any questions or don't understand something, by all means ask in the comments of the video's and I will 100% reply to you. You are exactly the type of player I am trying to reach with this series and Im happy to help in anyway I can to get a new player to stick with this great game.
Also I suggest subscribing to the channel, as then each time I upload a new scenario tutorial you will get a notification through YouTube.

[Didz]

Hi Darkside,

Thanks for the reply.

I've just finished watching your introductory video and as you say it sounds like this is just what I'm looking for. I agree with you that the biggest problem I've had is that when trying to find video guides what I've tended to find are lots of people who are also new to the game or fixated with its novelty and features rather than provding informative guidance on how to make things happen using the tools available.

I was also pleased to note that you are using Grog's Toolbar as that was one of the first mods I installed. And if you look in the Community Guides section you will see that I've also done a series of guides myself on 'How to Install Mods for Steam Users' ; 'How to set-up and use the KS Mod.' Which i notice you have installed in your Mod list, and 'How to Unlock Scenario's' which was something I was asked about.

I've also done a couple of AAR's just to give new or prospective players a feel for the game.

So, like you I've done my best to help new Steam players get to grips with the game. But at the same time I'm struggling to master the interface and understand how commands given through it affect the movement and behaviour of the units. I'm looking forward to watch more of your video's and hopefully getting a better understand of the command interface and how it works.

BTW: The hyperlinks your posted were sufficient to navigate me to your YouTube Channel and get me started. But if you wanted to increase the visibility of your channel to other members of the Steam Community it might be worth considering the creation of a Community Guide as this is where steam members usually go to find help on specific games, and you can link YouTube video's directly into the guide as you can see I've done at the end of the KS Mod Setup guide.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=966193902
I think it would just make your video's easier for new steam players to find, than searching through all the dross on YouTube. I mean I've been looking for something like you're offering for weeks without coming across them once.

[xposethedarkside]

Hey Didz, glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully as you work your way through each subsequent video and scenario you will begin to grow with the game and your understanding of its mechanics.Take it slow and practice the things I show you in the videos. You do not need to master everything about the game in one shot, and in fact will only drive yourself crazy trying to. Small steps turn into big steps over time. Im hoping to have the redone brigade series finished by no later than Wednesday, and then Il get back to where I left off in the division series. From there I will continue on through the rest of the division scenarios, the corps scenarios and finally the series will finish up with the army scenarios. By the end of the series you should be able to hand the AI a stinging defeat in every one of the games scenarios.
Later tonight I will be uploading Episode 7 where we will look at the French brigade scenario from the Wavre expansion "Hulot Attacks" and how best to beat it.

[Didz]

Ah! Yes Hulot Attacks is one of the scenario's I've tried repeatedly and has real problems with due mainly to the odd pathing behaviour caused by the river. I haven't beaten it yet, although i have managed to take the objective on the far bank.

[xposethedarkside]

Yep. Its actually a pretty straight ahead scenario and not all that difficult to beat once you understand how to get around the pathing issues. And Il explain in great detail how to do so. The main rule you have to remember is this: The AI does not know that it cant cross the river, until it actually tries to cross it.
That may not make sense now, but I promise it will after I upload the video.

[Didz]

The confusion I found was that sometimes it can cross the river and sometimes it can't. For example I discovered that the AI's troops can walk on water provided their unit is wheeling and throwing its flank over the river. My generaI died on one occassion to just such a sneaky manouvre. I also discovered that there seems to be a hidden ford at the very far end of the island, which one of my battalions used to wade the river after I'd taken the bridge. Though it may just have been a pathing glitch.

For a scenario with a 'Green' difficulty status I found it quite tricky.

[xposethedarkside]

Well, you're half right, and you're half wrong. The first thing you have to know is that the troop sprites themselves are merely a visual abstraction. As far as the game is concerned the unit is the flag,(the unit flag that is) so even though it may look like some of your troops are in the water, or even across the river, they actually aren't. The game only counts the unit flag as the true location of the unit. Thus your unit wouldn't actually be across the river, unless the unit flag was.
That being said, there is a bug in the coding of the game that been there since SOW Gettysburg, and it goes something like this:
When a unit is forced to retreat, it ignores any restricted terrain(such as the river) and once that unit has retreated it will no longer recognize restricted terrain at all. In other words if one of your units has previously been forced to retreat, at that point it can simply walk right across the river. Ive heard unsubstantiated reports that this bug has been fixed, but I haven't had a chance to actually test it out and see for myself, so its just hearsay for now.

[Didz]

Ok! Followed your advice for The Empereurs Plan and secured a Major Victory.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1089763305
Not quite as impressive as your example, but good enough for me.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1089766288
I was playing on HITS, and with a 1:1 sprite ratio, so a bit more awkward to control and more enemy sprites in the wood.

WL11 Hunters Scenario - Major Victory
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1090010542
Again followed your advice and managed to secure a Major Victory, but I am noticing a difference between my game and your video's. In that, I'm not really seeing the domination of the skirmishers in my game. In fact, they seemed to be suffering quite badly and ended up losing more men than the French.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1090018392
Part of this might be theat I'm using a sprite ratio of 1:1 which means that the units are much bigger than in your game, and I did notice a few of them werre having trouble staying in the woods. Also the French seemed to be deploying more skirmishers themsevles, which may have reduced their losses. HITS also made it harder to place and control units especially in a wood, but generally your tactic worked and the French failed to challenge my control of the objective in the wood.

[xposethedarkside]

Wow Didz awesome stuff man! Congrats on your glorious victories! Even more impressive that you are doing it from the saddle. Youre on your way to becoming a great Marshal of France. The sprite ratio has nothing to do with taking more or fewer casualties. The sprite ratio only changes the amount of men represented by each sprite, but whether 6 sprites drop on 1:1 or 1 sprite drops on 1:6, the amount of casualties are the same.
Its more likely skirmishers don't seem as powerful to you, both because you don't yet have my experience in using them, and also because you're playing HITS, which itself makes controlling everything about 10 times harder. Distance management is an important part of using skirmishers. If you let an enemy unit get to close to them, the massed fire from a line infantry unit can start to cause them trouble. I cover this more in episode 5: The Sunken Lane.
However, in all cases I would expect the management of skirmishers to be far more difficult playing from the saddle, because, well everything is far more difficult playing from the saddle. Which makes your victories here all that much more impressive. Again congrats man. You did really well.

[xposethedarkside]

Also remember that in my videos I take charge of every single unit so I can place them exactly where I want and have them stay there without wandering around. That's fine for me because my camera can zip back and forth along the line at will, but its far more risky from the saddle because obviously, you cant be everywhere at once, and so you have to delegate some of the work to the AI, which wont always do what you want it to.
Playing from the saddle is really a whole different animal, and I cant guarantee that every one of my tactics will work without some adapting and creativity on your part. However as I said in the video, in my book, a win is a win. And so far it looks like you're doing great.

[Didz]

WLO3 Papelotte - Victory
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1090142178
This one definately was harder to do from the saddle. Not least because when you enter a building you literally can't see anything beyond the walls. So, I had to keep popping out to see what was happening elsewhere. Also, despite the assurances otherwise, just clicking on the wall of a building does not guarantee a unit will actually go inside. It's a bit hit and miss, but when playing HITS it's virtually impossible to get the height to click in the central courtyard of a building.

Nevertheless managed a victory on my second attempt. The first attempt I tried to avoid masking the artillery by taking my brigade in a wide sweep to the right using road movement. It worked in that my whole brigade descended on that Orange-Nassau Battalion east of the farm and put it to flight, but it took too long and I ran out of time before getting enough victory points.

Second time round i just went for it bullheaded and managed to get into the main building at 12:20 with 10 minutes to spare.

[xposethedarkside]

Wow I never even thought of that. Yea without being able to get your camera high enough to see over the walls and actually click inside the fort I can imagine it being a nightmare to get units into the fort from the saddle. That really should be addressed by Norbsoft and possibly find a better way to do it. Because for a lot of people, playing from the saddle is a big part of the allure of the game.
However I still have a possible solution for you. The objective itself is actually not the fort. Its actually just outside the main building, kind of to the left of it. After driving out the Dutch troops, you should be able to occupy it without having to actually enter the fort. The only problem is being outside the fort now leaves you much more vulnerable to the huge allied counterattack that can come your way. And you still have to at least occupy the main building in order to keep the enemy from retaking it and then being in range to contest the objective.
Still there are many other scenarios that do require you to occupy buildings as objectives(such as the various Plancenoit scenarios where the big church is the objective) and in those situations the buildings themselves are the objectives. There should be a better way to do it from the saddle without gambling on walking through walls and hoping you end up in the right spot.

[xposethedarkside]

Another possible option is to just increase the distance the camera can move away from the officer, just for those types of scenarios. I know that's not a great solution as its probably killing some of the immersion for you. But its probably better than struggling to get your units into a fort, and not being able to see anything at all once you're in there.
The game isn't perfect and does have some issues, so sometimes you have to use some less than stellar solutions to get around them.

[Biondo]

Hi guys. To enter into a fort in HITS mode I can suggest two way. First is to use command map selecting the unit and clicking in the middle of the star representing the fort. A second way is to use order by courier, orders tab, move to, move to this location on map, select the fort. Also TC unit in a fort to avoid them inadvertently came out if you give order to his superior.

I also change my keyboard keys in order to have the command map to move only the selected unit (which could be also me or an officer) without moving all his subordinate.

It will be good if when you enter into a fort the visual is automatically raised at the highest point of the fort to simulate that you are looking out from a bell tower, a roof or a windmill.

And congrats both for the video and for the results playing scenarios in HITS mode :)

[Didz]

@Biondo: Good idea's. I never thought of using the command map, and I'm sure your right and those forts must be listed as a specific location to move to in the courier menu. I'll try that the next time.

I remember walking around Papelotte when i visited the battlefield and in reality its a lot different to the way its depicted in the game. In many ways I found it more impressive as a defensive location than Hougoumont, and a lot more formidable than La Haie Sainte. The whole village area is a maze of narrow sunken lanes overlooked by small farm complexes surrounded by hedged or walled enclosures. Just getting into the place would have been a nightmare, and getting out of the lanes and into the buildings would have required scrambling up an earthen bank under fire from above, a bit like attacking an old iron age hill fort. Add to that the fact that the area to the south was bordered by a muddy stream and area of marshy ground that prevented the movement of artillery and it was quite impressive to walk around.

Anyway, next on the video list is 'The Sunken Lane' scenario, which isn't really sunken at all, in the game or in real life. I've already played the scenario once and got beaten by the AI. though in fairness my brigade held its ground, it was the British brigade to our left that folded and the French then rolled up my line. Interested to see what Darksides tactic's are for this one.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/369390/discussions/0/1456202946275950982/