Is control improved over Gettysburg?

[Nats]

I have played the Gettysburg demo quite a bit because I genuinely am interested in this game and was wondering what it was like. Whereas the smaller battles of Gettysberg are doable and enjoyable there is no way you could fight a whole war as Robert E Lee in that game - the whole game is just too micromanaged for that. I had a look at it and quickly left. The units are in full army game are overwhelming.

Compared to TW Napoleon I find the whole aspect of setting up groups in Gettysburg is very unintuitive and clumsy. It reminds me a bit of HOI3 and Ageods American Civil War where you have to arrange troops by actual army heirarchy. That is just a pain in the backside to be honest.

So I was wondering if this game has the same type of control where you have to tell a general where to go and then set the formation for the troops to follow him. I dont know why you have to do this everytime and why the game doesnt remember the formation until you change it. But that one aspect is just ruining the game for me. It just makes it too much about micromanagement. there is no way you will want to do that in the heat of a battle. You should be able to set a group, set its formation and then have it remain in that setting for the whole battle unless you change it. TW Napoleon does this quite well.

I mean it might work in a turn based game but in real time game forget it! I can imagine that you can control a Brigade, Division or Corps quite well like that but who would want to just control a single Brigade or Division? The least you would want to control is a Corps surely? Which means you either have a Corps or an Army and the Army is completely unwieldy. So that means its just a Corps or nothing.

Of course this is based on Gettysburg I dont know if this new game improves matters.

[con20or]

The movement theory is the same in Waterloo, but the UI is completely different, which should help with this issue, as you we have context-sensitive menus that pop up and let you give queued orders.

However - this game can be quite overwhelming, it is not as simple as others to pick up and play - the Gettysburg demo is designed at Brigade, Artillery and Corps level, but this is because you need to learn how to command the different levels.

You should try it again - you do not need formations at larger levels, you will use stances at that level and let your AI general scontrol their troops for you. That is how the game should be played.

[Nats]

Ah right so at Army level you tend to use stances not direct control? That may be something I have missed from the demo. I will have to look into that. Although chances are I would play this game with Corps level ie multiple divisions. I cant imagine wanting to control the entire battle.

[X-the Unknown]

Play a brigade and take orders from higher up. It's quite interesting sometimes to see what the AI general wants you to do.

[Nats]

I've just purchased it so I will no doubt find out! Just have to fit it around Fallout 4 and Elite: Dangerous now lol!

[con20or]

Originally posted by Tropicalrain:

Play a brigade and take orders from higher up. It's quite interesting sometimes to see what the AI general wants you to do.

I love playing this way too - although occasionally you will get assigned to the strategic reserve division - which is boring :)

Originally posted by Nats:

Ah right so at Army level you tend to use stances not direct control? That may be something I have missed from the demo. I will have to look into that. Although chances are I would play this game with Corps level ie multiple divisions. I cant imagine wanting to control the entire battle.

Yes - there is too much to do, so you as Army commander just get your corps to the right spot and then trust your subordinates to carry out the overall orders (i.e. the stance). You can intervene at your current location on the field but thats about it unless you have lightning fast click reflexes. Playing as Corps commander I would alternate between giving direct orders to division commanders and stances. Some good info here in this video put together by Mitra

http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/waterloo-media-section/71178-ai-tutorial