Corps Movement

[KennyM]

Can I play and issue orders at Corps level?

At the moment I cannot seem to do that. I start in normal difficulty, select Waterloo Battles and play as French using WL-10 Army level start at 11:30.

When the game loads I think if I open the OOB and select General Drouot and give him an order to move forward using the context menu, I should see all 18,000 men do as I requested. What actually happens is Drouot moves on his own and as good as he is he just cannot take the Allied army on on his own.

I also tried giving order to other commanders at that level, on both sides, and same result. Even if I select a Divisional Commander like Duhesme, below Drouot, and ask him to move his lads to a new position, he wanders off on his own. Only when I tell a Brigade Commander to do something does anyone move. Philippe Guye etal at his level are happy to obey me.

So, are my expectations wrong or have I set the game up wrong for Corps and/or Divisional commands?

I have noticed that if I use the keyboard command '4' (advance 300yds) on any of the above commanders, they and their subordinates all obey that command.

[con20or]

It is probably a combination of two things

1. I think I remember in the message intro that it specifies all of your generals are under AI control at the outset? So they will not follow a large formation order. The brigadiers have no Ai generals under them and that is why they do what you tell them. We had to turn the AI off or else they would have moved/attacked before you got around to them.
2. Corps commanders do not have preset formations - it would be too unwieldy. You can specify a stance, ie attack/hold, specify a target location and Drouot will move his corps then. Otherwise you will need to move the divisions yourself.

[RebBugler]

In the opening message it tells you that all your officers are TC on. When they are TC on (standard practice of scenario design to keep troops from moving on their own) they won't respond to upper level commands. To get division level control select the division commander and click the 'TC all off' button, or (if it's the Grog toolbar) do this with the Corps commander and all the Corps troops will TC off. Still you will have to control by division as there are no Corps level formations. The Grog Toolbar doesn't include them either, but I plan to add them once things settle down and we patch things up...we're scrambling right now to address 'initial release' issues with the first patch due out in a few weeks.

Hopefully to clarify, the stock toolbar has 'TC all off' whereas the Grog Toolbar (my baby) uses 'TC all subordinates off'. I prefer the latter obviously for better player control by keeping some units at bay (TC on) while you're maneuvering others (TC off, except you'll have better control with the lead officer TC on).

Please check me on this, I'm just not sure at the moment what the stock toolbar provides, my development time was spent on the Grog one. Just remember, 'TC all off' does what it says selecting any unit, 'TC all subordinates off' does exactly that selecting the highest officer in the chain of command you wish to control.

Just call me 'da Ramblin Reb' with this post.[8|]

[Gunfreak]

How will this work if you play HITS? Can you still move through your commanders, with movement arrow?
If I'm napoleon, can i simply find ney,(with arrow keys ) un ct him and send a currier order for his corps to move?(i read there is no map in the currier system anymore?)

[LittlePowell_NSD]

ORIGINAL: Gunfreak

How will this work if you play HITS? Can you still move through your commanders, with movement arrow?
If I'm napoleon, can i simply find ney,(with arrow keys ) un ct him and send a currier order for his corps to move?(i read there is no map in the currier system anymore?)

Yes you can still cycle through the chain of command with the arrow keys to TC or un-TC units. The map in the courier screen should return, but we just ran out of time to include it in the initial release (GUI issue).

Edit - Or even better, you can select units with the new OOB tree menu on the toolbar.

[scottishsoldier]

The "n" map gives you a quick deployment of each Division etc, and seems to show the entire deployment as ordered to date, so you can see where everyone is going.

[con20or]

Yes - depending on your map settings, 'm' shows where everyone is and lets you jump to points on the map with the camera whereas, 'n' lets you order movements and shows you where everyone will be.

[e_barkmann]

'm' shows where everyone is and lets you jump to points on the map with the camera whereas, 'n' lets you order movements and shows you where everyone will be.

Do not underestimate the importance of these two keyboard shortcuts, nor the differences between them. They are very powerful command and info tools.

[scottishsoldier]

Indeed! The "n" map has been a pleasant surprise and a fine addition. Great command and control tool.

[jomni]

Now if only you can do the right click context menu in the n map.

[scottishsoldier]

ORIGINAL: jomni

Now if only you can do the right click context menu in the n map.

Now that would be an ideal from the point of view of commanding a very large formation, Corps or Army. You could give facing and formation orders at the end of a long march, and forget about that unit until it deployed. You could also see your planned position build up as you set more Divisions etc in place.
But maybe that's only if you play by micro management. I think some of us who are veterans of TC2M and SOWG probably do play that way.

[nijis]

Thanks to all for the answers. Where is the TC all-off button, however?

I'm playing the full battle at custom difficulty (mostly normal, but couriers for everyone) and I can change TC status for commanders individually, by sending a courier, but it's a little cumbersome. It's also not clear to me if I need to toggle off Detach by courier as well. (All units seem to be Detached at the beginning of the game.)

In other words, if I want to stage a division-level attack, do I need to go through and Attach/de-TC all the brigades individually?

Also, if a unit is TC-on, but not detached, does it follow the orders of its immediate AI commander?