moving troops on the battlefield

[jacobite30]

Can I turn off the commander radius mechanic so I can move troops on the battlefield like in a normal game? Or a way around it?

[crono900]

Are you talking about Order delay? If so, then you need to turn it off when setting up a new campaign or historical battle. You could try editing the save to turn it off, but I am not familiar with save editing.

If it is not the order delay that is bothering you, what is the problem your having with commander radius? May you please elaborate? It seems to work fine to me, so long as you keep your troops inside their CO's command radius to get the boost of not being cut-off from command and better recovery when rallying.

[Didz]

Originally posted by jacobite30:

Can I turn off the commander radius mechanic so I can move troops on the battlefield like in a normal game? Or a way around it?

Since establishing the relationship between the 'Command Radius' and the availability of the battlefield movement commands 'Advance' and 'Fallback' I have been very much more careful about the correct placement of my Army Commander to maximise the area covered.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3398094596
When advancing into contact and scouting I now move my Army Commander close behind the leading element of the march column. This ensures that their command radius extends as far as possible ahead of the march column allowing me to use the 'Advance' command to order my scouting units forward and thus reduce the risk of running into hidden enemy troops by accident.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3398092693
These troops are usually cavalry and so they are ordered to 'Advance' to the edge of the current 'Command Radius', everyone else is ordered then to move up behind them, and the Army Commander is them moved forward to a location just behind the cavalry to extend his command radius further forward.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3398091288
In battle, I try to position the Army Command far enough forward that their Command Radius extends over the enemy positions, or at least the section of the enemy line that I plan to attack first.

This ensures that I can use both the 'Advance' and 'Fallback' commands when ordering my troops to move across the battlefield, ensuring that they act sensibly once they are within range of the enemy. I only use the absolute 'Go There' style movement orders if I really want my units to move to a specific position regardless of what enemies they encounter.

You can always revert to Totalwar Style specific commands like 'Shoot This Enemy', 'Charge This Enemt' and 'Go Here', but such specific commands inhibit your units reaction to enemy and can lead to disaster. I lost an entire Division of infantry in one battle by simply ordering them blindly into a forest which I didn't realise contained a hidden enemy fortified position. If I had used the 'Advance' command than at least they would have halted when they discovered the enemy position and began a fire fight. As it happened they simply marched into the guns and got slaughtered before I even noticed what was happening.

I've been using this approach ever since it was explained how the commands worked and in the last three battles it has worked beautifully.

Skirmishers, Ammunition and Artillery
A couple of other useful tips I've adopted when delaing with skirmishers.

• When faced with enemy artillery keep watch for instances where the AI fails to support its batteries properly and when an unsupported battery is spotted deliberately order your nearest skirmisher detachments to focus their fire on the gunners. They rarely stand their ground under accurate rifle fire and usually abandon their guns pretty quickly.
  
• When you start getting messages from detachments of skirmishers stating that they are running low on ammunition simply got to their Divisional Command and use his Infantry Command Panel to 'Recall Skirmishers;. This will cause all your skirmish detachments to run back to their parent brigades and replenish their cartridge boxes. As soon as they are all back simply click 'Out Skirmishers' again and they will be sent forward with full cartridge boxes to carry on their harassment of the enemy.

[jacobite30]

Originally posted by crono900:

Are you talking about Order delay? If so, then you need to turn it off when setting up a new campaign or historical battle. You could try editing the save to turn it off, but I am not familiar with save editing.

If it is not the order delay that is bothering you, what is the problem your having with commander radius? May you please elaborate? It seems to work fine to me, so long as you keep your troops inside their CO's command radius to get the boost of not being cut-off from command and better recovery when rallying.

Its a combination of that restrictition and the clunky way the game makes you position troops. Its very awkward and they don't line up like you want them too most of the time.
If you want a successful game that people will recommend, then have the players fight the AI and not the interface / game itself. I prefer the total war troop movement style which is pretty close to the way a lot of strategy war games that let you take over a battle do it. The Ultimate general civil war game was pretty good, not fantastic but good and even it had a bit easier system in place than this does. With the UGCW though units would decide "i've had enough of being all the way on the right now I think i'll just run all the way to the left right in front of the enemy" thing going on. This system here though is just so unwieldy you'd swear that if this was real life, none of these troops have ever been instructed in basic drill commands.
It just tells me that the designers think that company commanders have no idea what they are doing and need to be micro managed all the time. I'm guessing the game designers have never spent any time in any western military.

[crono900]

Most of the games that you mentioned, I agree about their troop movement styles, were made by at least 30 programmers working on them. This game had only 3 programmers working on it. I agree that the division HQ and AI does not do very well in keeping its men in formation properly (check the field guide in battle for how to link units, this might help them stay in some kind of formation (to a degree)). Unfortunately, there will always be some feature or ui that annoys us gamers. I wish the AI would build and utilize proper breastwork fortifications to cover the front and flanks so that they don't get flanked as easily or leave the fortifications at first sign of the enemies approach, like IRL (proper fortifications prevented the need to shift all units).

I personally, like the movements and tactical battles that TW:E give (including, but not limited to, sea battles and fort assaults along with artillery detail), and wish they were done here. SW:EAW, may be a different genre of game (sci-fi vs historic), but it has a good tactical battles (remembers map alterations (when you build a turret it remains on the map until it is destroyed no matter how many battles take place there)) and conquest campaign map (Fleets move from key location to key location seamlessly, here it could be from strategic location to strategic location, each with their own battle map) that I wish was also mimicked for this game. Also, some map altering features like in AoE (cutting trees to increase line of sight (with an added feature of slowing movement added would be perfect)). These are some things I was hoping to see on this game. Overall this game does feed those who, like me, enjoy the idea of raising their armies and fighting the Civil War their own way, though it still feels somewhat like a rough gem in need of further polishing.

That aside, I tend to micromanage my units to were I want them and only moving the HQs with the ALT-key held, so that I don't rely on receiving orders from above to move or move their subordinates. Turning off the AI initiative at the start of the battles helps as well, as it keeps my men from rotating in a fashion that can pull them out of cover or position. The units may be able to be controlled by division or higher HQ levels, but that is still to clunky to be relied upon for contact in battle ,IMHO. Maybe just while approaching the engagement zone, while staying out of enemy fire range. Then, start giving orders to the individual units themselves to fight the battle.

[A_P_Hill]

Well one thing for sure, GTCW is not "a lot of strategy war games" It is in a class all it's own!

[Didz]

I can't say that I've ever noticed an issue with troops not lining up properly, although the ACW itself was not renowned for it's rigid adherence to straight battle lines anyway.

I find that divisions are usually pretty good at staying in the formations chosen and only really become distorted if I leave commander initiative on and there is a distraction that causes them to change face or react.

The Totalwar and Ultimate General system is obviously more micro-managed as you literally get to drag and drop each unit exactly where you want them to go, but its hardly realistic and personally I prefer the more imprecise version of command and control provided by GTAC.

One thing I've noticed is that formation changes override everything else, and I've learned to time formation changes carefully to give my Disivions a chance to make the transition and settle before trying to complicate matters by ordering the Division to move.

e.g.
The 2nd Division is approaching the battle area in Road Column following the turnpike.

As it reaches the battle area it halts and I send it an order to transition into a Double Line Formation,

I let it complete that transition and then order it to 'Advance' into action.

Finally as it makes contact with the enemy I order 'Out Skirmishers'

This is obviously a lot more involved than the Totalwar instantaneous drag and drop style command system but also a lot more realistic so I'm happy to tolerate the frustration of not having complete control.
[
And battle lines are not that hard to organise if you follow the right process.

The Battle of Chillicothe

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3403782858
Above you can see a screenshot of the closing stages of my recent battle at Chillocothe.

The original Union battle line of the Army Of the Mississippi was in line with Thomas's 2nd Division on the right, with Heintzelman's 1st Division in line to its left and the artillery in the centre.

However, the AI chose to launch a massive multi-wave attack on the armies right flank, which as you can see has become slightly buckled and disorganised under the pressure and as it's various brigades have reacted to local attacks.

Nevertheless, Thomas's Division was holding its ground supported by the artillery on its left flank. The problem however arose that his division began to run low on ammunition, and so to relieve some of the pressure on his division I ordered Heintzelman's 1st Division to 'Advance' left shoulder forward in a single line to envelop the right flank of the Confederate attack.

As you can see he has done that with remarkable precision and is now in a single battle line threatening the right flank of the enemy assault on Thomas's Division and has just issued the order 'Out Skirmishers' to begin his attack.

Meanwhile. if you look further right you will see the first units of the Army of the Potomac arriving to envelop the enemies left flank. These units are just in the process of transitioning from their road columns into battle formations. So you can see from their pathing lines that their movement are somewhat chaotic as they make that transition and I won't order them forward until they have settled.

However, eventually the Army of the Potomac did 'Advance' into the left and rear of the enemy assault and the entire enemy army panicked and routed being chased by the combine cavalry divisions of both my armies to secure another major victory.

I do occasionally micro-manage units, particularly skirmisher detachments and cavalry brigades. I find it useful to order skirmisher units to focus fire on any exposed enemy artillery batteries to force the gunners to abandon their guns, and cavalry brigades usually end up being ordered individually to charge specific enemy units that are routing or disorganised. But generally I find it best to use the command system at Divisional Level and let the AI deal with the detail.

[A_P_Hill]

use the shift key while doing the unit movement, this will help you realign your organization at the end of the movement point.
I have a tendency to micromanage, I move the units individually, the holding the shift/alt keys (I don't remember which right now,) I move the commander of the unit. By doing this, I kind of alleviate what I think you're trying to complain about. Good Luck.