Detailed Battle Mystery

[cdbeck]

Not sure what might have caused this, but I thought I would report it. I was fighting a detailed battle in Paducah against a modest sized rebel force. I have about 19k and he has about 12k. At any rate, I only found one reb unit in a garrison and dealt with him quickly upon arrival. Afterwards, I marched a bit, never encountering any rebel forces. I decided to put it on Quick Battle, to speed things up a bit (and observe the computer). After doing this, my supply caisson moved to the middle of my line of troops and then all movement abrutly stopped. The computer then went (quickly) turn after turn with constant "pass turn" movements. I can only assue that the computer controlled rebs were doing this too, as they never appeared on screen. I was forced to alt-tab out, as the battle was not ending (since no unit was moving).

Any way we can either make sure that computer controlled units have their "aggressiveness" set high enough or have the proper priorities set? This was my first detailed battle, so it is hard to say if this is a consistent problem. Any other people see this?

Son of Montfort

P.S. sorry about posting this in Wish List, didn't see this forum.

[Gil R.]

Thanks. I just responded there, pointing out the existence of this sub-forum. I've deleted that message. Here's the rest of my response:

It sounds like you used the "Quick Resolve" function that has the computer finish up a detailed battle quickly by playing both sides. ("Quick Combat" is quite different, taking place on a single screen divided into columns and rows.) As for what happened, I've never tried hitting Quick Resolve when the two sides hadn't yet engaged, so I haven't seen this before. My guess is that if given enough time one of the armies would have attacked the other.

[ericbabe]

Thanks for the report.  That is unfortunate behavior.  What I might be able to do is check to see whether the AI (as attacker) is passing with all its units each turn... if it's doing this, then I can either have the AI just retreat from battle or else charge on in with a reckless assault.  I have just added this to my list (it's the first item on the list!)

[regularbird]

No reckless charges please, that was a drawback with COG, even when outnumbered the AI often came at you a little to agressively.  which was always an easy victory.

[Hard Sarge]

Well one thing, if there were CSA Garrison, it sounds like you were on the attack

so the CSA would of/should of stayed in place

you may want to wait until you find the enemy before handing the battle over

the times I have used this, I was already in battle and the AI was able to handle it

the game already has code in, that if there is no enemy troops left on the map, the battle ends, or the battle ends at the end of the 3rd day

you may of just been in a hurry and ended the battle early

ahhh, 12000 men, that could be 2 or 3 Bdes (dpending on how many Garrison troops are there)

3 troops, if they don't want to be found, can be HARD to hunt down

so, it sounds like it was a meeting engagement, the enemy can be placed anywhere, if there were VP hexes, you just need to move towards them, you also need to watch the movement hexes, you see yellow hexes, you may be close, you also can look for enemy dugouts

(well, you find a full dugout, you don't need to look any more

small battle can be a pain

[cdbeck]

I was on the offensive, and I think that all of the things you said were right on Hard Sarge. I understand that I got a bit impatient and that may be what created the problem. Still, shouldn't my units, when placed on auto, try to search the map (that was my biggest problem). And the fact that I got a bit impatient does point to a problem game-wise, a battle should lead to a quicker engagement. I felt a little like I was playing minesweeper, clearing hexes away to no avail.

Not to be overly harsh, so far, with what little time I have put in, I am really liking what I see. The production values are very high for a wargame and the strategical elements are quite extensive.

Just a bit of a suggestion.

Son of Montfort

[Gil R.]

Quick-resolve wasn't intended to play battles from the very start, before the two forces have engaged, so this was never tested (to my knowledge). But you're right, if the AI is running both sides it should have the attackers try to attack, so Eric might be able to tweak something.

FYI, many detailed battle maps will have a lone garrison in a fort many hexes away from where the rest of the force first appears. So you stumbled upon one of these, but not the main enemy force.