A Stupid Question

[ElGuapo]

Ok, I've been messing around with the program off and on all day long in between study breaks and there's something I just can't figure out. Let's say I have an Army or a Corp in a section and I notice an enemy Army in the adjoining section. Why can't I move my Army there to attack? I can move it into the neighboring province, but not to attack the enemy. My Army will just enter the province. The enemy however, has no trouble at all attacking my units. What am I doing wrong?

[Hard Sarge]

I am confused with this one

if your Army is in the same province as the enemy is, you should have a battle, unless his army is moving out of the province (then it comes down to who wins the init rolls)

[Gil R.]

Did you somehow set your army on "Avoid Battle"? That might explain it.

[ElGuapo]

I though that might be it as well, but I don't have "avoid battle" on. The enemy can attack me whenever it likes, my guys just sit there.

[Gil R.]

I'm mystified, since I've never seen anything like this. Which scenario are you using, and is this the Basic Game, or a more advanced one?

[ElGuapo]

I'm playing the standard campaign on advanced rules, although I have tweaked a few options from those provided as default.

[Gil R.]

And is this still happening?

[ElGuapo]

Yes, on and off. For example I tired 3 times to move my Army into the Annapolis province and it simply refused to move. There was no one there aside from the three or so forts but my Army just sat there. What am I missing here?

[Gil R.]

Is this happening in winter? If so, that would be the winter movement rules restricting movement.

[ElGuapo]

Ahhh...well it was snowing. Ok, I'm officially an idiot. I knew it had to be something obvious.

[ElGuapo]

Hold on. It was snowing, but for the last two turns it's been clear as can be and the Army will still not move. Now there's a large Union Army in that province and still I cannot move into it and attack!

[Gil R.]

Whether or not there's visible snow falling doesn't matter. If it's January or February, movement is restricted -- it's not impossible, but the odds are very much against it, except in the warmer southern states. So my guess is that this was the problem.

[ElGuapo]

Ok, so I started a new game and turned off "slow winter movement" and I'm still unable to move my Army from the Cumberland into Annapolis. The Union seems to have no problem moving elements of its Army all over the region, I however, move my Army and then as soon as I end turn my Army goes right back to where it began regardless of what month it is. I don't mean to be a pain, but I am really frustrated on this.

[Gil R.]

Eureka! I might know what is happening. When you began the game, did you make sure to set CSA (= you) to "Human" control? If you didn't, which is easy to forget to do, then you're not in control and have to start over.

I'll stay up for another five minutes or so to see if this was the problem.

[ElGuapo]

I wish that was it but it's not. I'm able to move other units but some will just not budge. It's like Annapolis has a force field around it keeping out Confederates!

[Gil R.]

Hmm. I'm not sure, then. It might simply be that your army has a very poor initiative base and modifiers (see the manual on this), and therefore fails to move when ordered to do so. Also, I doubt this is the case, but if you're trying to move the army by rail but don't have enough rail movement points it might appear as if it's going to move without actually doing so once the movement phase begins.

Since I've run out of suggestions AND really need to go to sleep, I'm moving this thread into the Support sub-forum to make sure that Eric sees it (most likely in the morning). In the meantime, keep trying different options.

[ElGuapo]

Will do. Thanks for your help so far!

[ericbabe]

Is the enemy in a province with forts?  Forts give you a 90% per movement segment to avoid battle in a province if you're the owner of the province.  The AI definitely does this if it's overpowered.

[ElGuapo]

Actually yes, there are three forts in the province. But shouldn't you be given the option of at least attempting to storm the forts? Forever excluding me from an entire province seems very limiting. It essentially makes certain areas of the map impossible to ever enter!

[ericbabe]

You should still be able to begin sieges against those forts.