First Impressions?!?!

[BloodyBill76]

Movement in different formations was according to military manuals of the time and official reports from the officers at different speeds. Line took a more organized trained body of troops to stay together and for the most part was a lot slower. A long line of troops were easily bogged by terrain and had to reform and organize even in relatively open terrain. The column could more easily pick and choose its move path and keep more of a constant speed and took less skilled troops to move. By 1809 and later more and more armies moved and a lot fought in the column formation. A column of divisions was a preferred formation for the French from 1809 on. A full strength battalion of 840 men would form all six companies up two companies wide three ranks deep giving it nine total ranks of infantry. This formation gave the French a front rank of around 180 muskets to fire with and some volts supporting it. It could form square very rapidly and could as long as morale help punch a hole in the enemy line.

According to Gen. Jomini if you moved within enemy musket range in column you pretty much stayed in column because changing into line under British musketry would break the morale of the men. If line was to be formed you formed at max range than marched into the enemy, it was very rare to change under heavy fire because of the difficulty being under such chaos.

SOW does not seem to take this into account as changing formation is a very simple thing to do even if your being murdered.

[ulsterandy]

OK! at 1st I did not like it. But I have played a lot of games so willing to give it a try. there are some things I do not like that is the 95th did not have flags then then you need something to click on, British cav did not have flags they had Gideon's but again you need to click on something.
Still do not like the ides off troops not doing what you tell them, send them to one area they form line then bug out and go to somewhere else. I can see that there has been a lot of hard work put into the Flags etc etc.
But I like the way the Makers are on line to answer questions and give good replies, some games you get no feed back well done on this point.

[gunship24]

Thank you for your comments. The 'units not doing as you tell them' is what is so unique about this game. As a commander in real life you order your men, however commanding officer of that unit will use their initiative to work out what they need to do given their orders and the situation they are currently in or faced with and the AI is coded that way. This is normal battlefield behaviour as we have gone some way to simulating this for this era. This does take a little getting used if coming from games where units have no initiative what so ever.

However, we give the players tools that they can use in order for the troops to do exactly as you want, imagine if you are riding over there personally to take charge. And we have such a feature on the toolbar "Take Charge" if this is on then that unit will do exactly as you tell it .. including staying in he face of overwhelming odds until annihilated. In smaller scenarios the take charge feature will be very useful, in larger ones you will want to delegate responsibility to your subordinates and see how they do . We also have the order system for officers so they can set a stance (attack, probe, defend, hold to the last) which will affect the allowed movement of your units.

So give those a go and see if that helps.

[Pawsy]

<Still do not like the ides off troops not doing what you tell them, send them to one area they form line then bug out and go to somewhere else. I can see that there has been a lot of hard work put into the Flags etc etc. >

plus 1 what gunship said

[Thumaz]

My first impression -

Well I bought it yesterday...

And I hope the game engine - In all aspects, will be improved as time goes by.

So - I support this game - by buying it - even though atm - Im unable to enjoy it much.
In hope that the inspiration and creativity will flurish in your effort.


I somhow like the game - And yet - I dont.

but I support it.
[:)]

[con20or]

Hi Thumaz,

The game has quite a steep learning curve. If you are not familiar with the series I would recommend practicing a bit more to get to grips with how to play it. Don't be afraid to ask questions, here or on our own forums.

http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum

[Thumaz]

I will figure it out - taking my time.
looking through videos and trying the detach attach buttons..and stuff.

Thanks for the link con20or.

[gdpesq]

They say the best compliment is imitation. So, when is the Russian campaign coming out with Borodino? Very well done. Although the Scenario mod could be a little more accommodating respecting unit quality and attributes - some of the 'seasoned' should have been 'veteran', and all senior regiments of both Grenadiers and Chasseurs a pied should have been rated 'veteran elite' to mention just a few. Again, well done! [:)]

[con20or]

Glad you like it! The next DLC will most likely be finishing off the other battles of the 100 Days to complete the campaign map but don't quote me on that.

We put alot of thought into the unit rating calculations, we have a formula we use along with history of the unit to work it out. We do the same for commanders. Here is a post if you are interested:

http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/modifi ... tics#66294

If you think they need to be upped you can make your case there and we will consider it[8D]

[Enigma6584]

Love the game. I really enjoy the fact this game makes you think ahead about how you want to position troops with respect to Chain of Command feature.

[ReinerAllen]

This may have been addressed already, but why is the cavalry running as if they are running on ice (slipping) and why is the infantry is not firing using volley fire?

[con20or]

ORIGINAL: RedCharlie65

Love the game. I really enjoy the fact this game makes you think ahead about how you want to position troops with respect to Chain of Command feature.

Glad you like it Welcome to the forums

[con20or]

ORIGINAL: RickEAllen

This may have been addressed already, but why is the cavalry running as if they are running on ice (slipping) and why is the infantry is not firing using volley fire?

- I can't provide a definitive answer for the cavalry question without a savedgame - it could be because one part of the unit is crossing terrain with a high movement penalty.

- The infantry do use volley fire, but they switch to individual fire after the first volley. There is also a button on the taskbar for you to order a unit to volley fire.

[aaatoysandmore]

Excellent game as 'all" Norbsoft games are. I look forward to his ancients version someday. [:)]

It got an excellent review at Armchair General and even Metacritic. I think it's like the #2 wargame over there or very close. Those are the only two that really count.

[con20or]

Glad you like it

I saw the ArmChair general one but not the Metacritic review - I'll have to try and find that, thanks for the info.

[Mr Digby]

ORIGINAL: BloodyBill76

Napoleonic combat was about maneuver morale and shock. In some ways SOW Waterloo feels like a civil war battle with Napoleonic uniforms. Columns were the main maneuver formation. The British according to reports loved to fire a close volley and then break the enemy with a charge that more often broke the enemy before contact than actually going in to melee. Fire fights and heavy skirmish usually took place in areas of broken terrain, place that fast moving columns couldn't be used effectively. Column was used a lot as it was a fast formation that gave a morale boost. SOW Waterloo I do not notice a speed difference between column and line formations. Maneuver by line was slow cumbersome and took good officers to make work correctly.

By 1809 it is reported that artillery was so effective that it caused up to 70% of all battlefield losses. One example would be at Friedland in which a mobile battery of 30 French guns tore a 4,000 man swath out of the Russian center in less than forty minutes.

Napoleonic combat was not long drawn out fire fights in open terrain, it was maneuver deliver a volley and go in for the kill.

Bill

Have you tried the KS Mod? We created it because the game played like ACW with funny hats and not like a Napoleonic battle. The KS Mod delivers a more Napoleonic feel, especially in terms of artillery's power and skirmisher nuisance value.

BTW - columns and lines moved at the same speed, the regulation pace of whatever that army used in its drill book. However because a column had a narrower frontage it was easier to wheel and could negotiate broken terrain more easily. For lines the officers and NCOS had to halt the unit more frequently to dress ranks. If you watch SoW units moving the exact same thing happens - columns and lines move at the same pace but a column can alter direction more rapidly than a line and a line takes ages to form up into a position to open fire, so even though it may look a little weird the end result the game delivers is about right (all the units move too fast BTW).