Naval bombardment against anchorage

[biddrafter2]

I'm still slowly playing a hot-seat of the US Civil War. As the north has progressed I've tried many times to get their naval units involved more heavily. They work great protecting roads along the major rivers because I can use them as very mobile artillery. However, they are awful against anchorages. Since I'm very much a rookie TOAW player despite owing the game for 7+ years, it took me a couple of attempts before I realized that the naval units were attacking instead of bombarding. This seems to cause instant destruction of my naval units every time.

What I wanted to do was:
1. Bombard Vicksburg on the north's turn to soften up the defensive units
2. Withstand the expected barrage from the bluff on the south's turn (respecting the house rule that one must pause at certain defensible river locations)
3. Move south of Vicksburg with any surviving naval units

Instead, I "bombarded" and lost 100% of four strong naval units. There must be a way around this right? Thanks!

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: jakobscalpel

I'm still slowly playing a hot-seat of the US Civil War. As the north has progressed I've tried many times to get their naval units involved more heavily. They work great protecting roads along the major rivers because I can use them as very mobile artillery. However, they are awful against anchorages. Since I'm very much a rookie TOAW player despite owing the game for 7+ years, it took me a couple of attempts before I realized that the naval units were attacking instead of bombarding. This seems to cause instant destruction of my naval units every time.

What I wanted to do was:
1. Bombard Vicksburg on the north's turn to soften up the defensive units
2. Withstand the expected barrage from the bluff on the south's turn (respecting the house rule that one must pause at certain defensible river locations)
3. Move south of Vicksburg with any surviving naval units

Instead, I "bombarded" and lost 100% of four strong naval units. There must be a way around this right? Thanks!

Be sure you've upgraded to TOAW III version 3.4. Adjacent ranged units, including naval units, bombard instead of assault in that version.

[biddrafter2]

Thanks for the quick reply Curtis. I verified that I'm using 3.4.0.202. Is this perhaps caused by my naval units being ranged, but only having a range of 1? No matter what I try, I just can't bombard from 1 hex away from an anchorage. It always says attack and the naval units are decimated. I'm happy to try any tests you suggest or examine any logs that might be produced for clues....

[Curtis Lemay]

ORIGINAL: jakobscalpel

Thanks for the quick reply Curtis. I verified that I'm using 3.4.0.202. Is this perhaps caused by my naval units being ranged, but only having a range of 1? No matter what I try, I just can't bombard from 1 hex away from an anchorage. It always says attack and the naval units are decimated. I'm happy to try any tests you suggest or examine any logs that might be produced for clues....

Then there must be something in the target hex that's doing counterbattery. Are there ranged units in the target hex?

Edit: Note that there is a way to tell if an adjacent unit is assaulting or bombarding. With the unit selected, move the cursor over the target hex. Then examine the movement path (not the cursor). Movement Paths have to be set to "Floating" to see this. If the path is an "Arrow", then the unit will assault. But if it is a "Crosshair" then the unit will bombard.

Thisi is explained in section IV, item 2 of the 3.4 "What's New".