User manual – questions

[Taal]

Hello,
I have a few questions concerning some rules of the game.

* 7.2.4
Engage/Screen orders the unit to enter enemy occupied hexes, even if it means leaving its desired route of march and engaging the enemy in battle.
The unit will move to contact enemy forces, but will retreat

Is it possible that there is a missing part of the sentence in the end?

* 16.0
If one side has an advantage in Confidence, that side gains two Victory Points.

How is the „Confidence” determined by the computer? Where do these points come from?

* I have the 3.04 version of the game. There are orders „Feint Attack, Quick Assault” I can not find them in the User manual tables.


I would be very grateful for answering the following questions.

Kind regards,
Taal

[Rasputitsa]

ORIGINAL: Taal
Hello,
I have a few questions concerning some rules of the game.

* 7.2.4
Engage/Screen orders the unit to enter enemy occupied hexes, even if it means leaving its desired route of march and engaging the enemy in battle.
The unit will move to contact enemy forces, but will retreat

Is it possible that there is a missing part of the sentence in the end?

* 16.0
If one side has an advantage in Confidence, that side gains two Victory Points.

How is the „Confidence” determined by the computer? Where do these points come from?

* I have the 3.04 version of the game. There are orders „Feint Attack, Quick Assault” I can not find them in the User manual tables.


I would be very grateful for answering the following questions.

Kind regards,
Taal

7.2.4 - Yes it looks like the sentence is not complete, there is no 'full-stop', I am guessing that the intention with this order is to engage, or block enemy units, but allow retreat if your unit is outnumbered.

16.0 - 'Confidence' is a measure of morale (Confident is the highest level), which is shown in the information box whenever you select a unit, or commander. Lack of confidence (lower morale) is shown when units suffer and reduces to 'Steady', or 'Brittle', to 'Broken'.

Commanders have ratings for 'Administration' and 'Inspiration', which is the ability to maintain 'Morale' (confidence) in lower commanders and units, or to restore morale after it has been reduced.

How does it work - don't know how the computer is dealing with this, but I expect that all commanders and units are being subjected to stress in battle, hard marching, bad weather, low supply, balanced with the elements reducing that stress, like inspirational leaders, good weather, rest days and not losing battles. All of this affects the level of confidence in leaders and units and is shown as the Morale indicator in the unit information panel and used in calculating battle odds.

When you select a commander, in the information panel there is a button 'View Units', here you can see at a glance and scroll through all this commander's units to see strength, morale and reinforcement required figures.

Army commanders (Napoleon and Charles) are important here, as they can reduce stress by adding their attributes to the lower units.

You have to balance as you need to achieve your objectives, without breaking the morale of your army in the process. Set another way, chose objectives which are attainable within the ability of your forces, how do you do that when some units lose morale (confidence) quicker than others, whilst everything keeps changing, that's what makes a great commander. [:)]

Another indicator is 'Stragglers', shown in the lower of the two small boxes on the unit counter. Stragglers are men who cannot keep up the march, or have dropped out looking for food, etc.. The number of stragglers shows that a unit is suffering and needs to rest, to allow the stragglers to catch up. A veteran, or elite unit with an inspirational commander will maintain morale better and have fewer stragglers. You will need the Chemkid counter mod to fully show stragglers, as the stock game red box hides red text.

I have tried to cover some of this in the v3.04 AAR - tm.asp?m=3989463

This game is a revision of an earlier version to bring it up-to-date with newer computer systems and some terms and procedures have changed, which is not always reflected in the manual. However, in the battle orders you have 4 defensive orders and 4 attacking orders, the choices you get depend on the stance you issued to units before the battle was joined. If you gave your units defend orders, you will not get a 'frontal assault' option if it comes to a battle, because your units are not in attacking formation, they are moving defensively. The 'feint' and 'quick assault' seem to be tools to fight the battle, used by the computer, when you have left the computer to resolve the battle

[Taal]

Hello,

I have also noticed a lacking dot at the end of the sentence. That's why an explanation of the 7.2.4 seems to be simple. In my opinion an important reference was omitted. -
- 8.2 RULES GOVERNING SELECTION OF ACTIONS :

If the enemy is adjacent to the unit, the unit may assume a Withdrawal stance if:
• the unit is on Withdraw orders or is Routing,
•the total of its Wounded and Stragglers is more than twice its remaining strength,
•its Fatigue has reached the maximum level of exhaustion, and/or
• the friendly strength with the unit is less than a third of the enemy strength.

The same goes for the 6.2.5. The French generals wished to fight for the Emperor, but not to die for him...

Greetings,
Taal

[Rasputitsa]

Bumping this to note that this game is a revision of an earlier version to bring it up-to-date with newer computer systems and some terms and procedures have changed, which is not always reflected in the manual.

The main game folder contains 'readme' and 'WhatsNew' files, which show some of the version changes, but parts of the manual are simply out of date.