Explanation of Arty splitting off?

[balto]

Ugly Guy's AAR says something like.., "Over time, the attacking force will get so large my artillery won't be drawn into combat unless I split off a corp."

I do not understand what this saying.

Thank you.

[etsadler]

When you are doing quick combat the computer picks the units to be included in the battle in some fashion that is not clear. What is clear is that if you have more units than will fit on the battle sheet then Artillery is more likely to be left out of the battle. If he splits off a corp and so reduces the number of units the Artillery will now be eligible to be included.

[balto]

Rick,

Thank you. I have some more questions about that I would like to ask in a couple of days.

[balto]

Rick,

I examined the manual and all of the updates. I think you are referring to QUICK COMBAT where the AI picks everything, which is Instant Combat.

If we are talking about Instant Combat, the manual says that if there are too many units that cannot fit on the QC grid (like reinforcements and big formations), the excess get shoved into the Rout area until things happen and there is room for them on the QC grid. It does not state that anything is EXCLUDED from QC, and it also never mentions anything about ARTY being treated differently in an overload situation.

So I am not saying you are wrong and I thank you for your help, I am asking where did you get that information and are you sure that is correct because that is HUGE. By 'Huge' I mean that would change the way you structure your forces and fight battles, and this would sort of reduce the usefulness of ARTY in big units AND big battles with small units.

Any input is really appreciated.

[Gil R.]

I don't know the details, but the exclusion of units is arbitrary (or semi-random), rather than always being artillery. I'll ask Eric to chime in, but that might not be for a week.

[balto]

Hi Gil.

Are you saying that when you have big battles, some units are excluded? If that is correct, do you have a feel for the maximim units that is? There is nothing in the manual on that, but I believe you.

[Gil R.]

I'll have to ask Eric to respond when he's back from his camping trip, since I do not remember, and he's the one who programmed it. Stay tuned...

[ericbabe]

The actual units that are excluded are chosen arbitrarily.  They are not quite randomly excluded, but imagining them as randomly determined would be a good approximation.

The formula for the number of units allowed to participate in a combat is fairly complicated and something we tweaked extensively during development and in patches after release.  I cannot recall offhand whether it was documented anywhere.