ORIGINAL: Garnier
Sorry I replied to phoenix's post but it got lost somehow.
To use waypoints, hold CTRL and give a sequence of double-click movement orders. Then the regiment will follow this sequence exactly, and if each segment is unblocked by other units, they'll not do any unusual pathfinding.
As for pivoting, players can solve this by TCing -- TCed regiments don't wheel on their own. But for the AI, I agree they should avoid wheeling unnecessarily. The problem is deciding what their optimal facing is, and not just that, but how do you get them to face the right way always without wheeling? Perhaps a threshold where they won't change facing until the alternate facing is a certain "amount" better, which is influenced by time. But I can imagine this stuff is really complicated to code without loopholes.
A couple of observations.
1. In reality, infantry don't generally wheel to change their direction of fire within a 45 degree angle left or right of the main axis (i.e. 90 degrees total) - they just swing their muzzles left or right by the required degree. So, any rifle unit should be able to cover three times its front without changing location or facing - use an 'arc of fire' approach and many issues will be fixed.
2. When a unit does wheel it normally does this in relation to a right or left 'marker' (the man in the front rank on the extreme right or left of the file). It wheels around that right or leftmost point, not around its centre - the direction of the threat determines which flank becomes the centre of the wheel. This might seem like a minor thing, but I bet the business of troops running from left to right flank would go away if wheeling was designed this way.
3. A civil war infantry unit should focus on conforming to terrain rather than keeping a straight line. There are many games on the market that have cracked this.
Focus on this and the game will leap ahead by one great big stride.
