Austrians at ULM problem: 1st game.

[Didz]

Ok! First stupid question.

My first attempt to play this game I chose the Extended Campaign, Coalition.

I ended up with the problem of Gen.Mack sitting in Ulm with the French moving to cut off his retreat. So, I ordered his army to move to Donauworth pursuant to a possible retreat along the south bank of the Danube.

Mack moved but his army didn't. Oops! Realised I probably had to order his Corps to move seperately. So, I did.

Nothing happened.

Thought perhaps the problem was that the messengers were falling into the Rhine somewhere between Donauworth and Ulm so I galloped Mack back to Ulm to deliver the ordered personally.

Nothing happened.

The French attack Ulm. I won the battle. But still ordered all my Corps to march on Donauworth. They didn't move.

The French cross the Danube between Ulm and Donauworth. And surprise surprise my cavalry suddenly move at last. In fact they move right through the French and out the other side, weird. Another battle another Austrian Victory. But still my army refuses to move from Ulm.

Gave up at this point. Having inflicted two defeats and a draw on the French but having failed to get my men to move from their starting positions.

Question: Are the Austrian's at ULM stuckies?

In other words does the program insist that I allow the French to encircle and defeat them, or an I just not pushing the right buttons?

On a similar though less critical note: Kutusov's troops were moving albiet slowly towards Regensburg but Buxhowden didn't move an inch.

Ok! Panic over (I hope). Just had another go and this time I am getting the little yellow arrows appearing showing the route of march when I set the objective, I am also getting an acknowledgement telling the order has been delivered and units are moving. Not sure why this didn't happen last time but as long as it keeps working the problem seems to be be solved.

[Hanal]

Did you attach Mack to a Corp so he would move with them?

[Didz]

ORIGINAL: J P Falcon
Did you attach Mack to a Corp so he would move with them?

Ah! is that the trick. I'm still trying to get the hang of the controls.

However, I managed to Get Mack and his troops out of Ulm. Gave the French a bit of a bloody nose as they crossed the Danube and then when Napoleon turned up with the rest of his mob extracted the army again and fell back on Augsburg.

Made another stand there until French forces crossing the Danube at Donauworth threatened to cut me off, then fell back on Munich. Kutusov meanwhile has been marching west along the south bank of the Danube and has just joined Mack whilst Buxhowden is marching post haste to add his forces.

Really missing a decent overall map and its a shame one was not included with the game. As it is I'm hoping to obtain one from another member of the forum or discover one amongst my books somewhere.

Still learning the ropes but quite pleased to have avoided the total disaster that really befell Mack.

[Brady]

"Ok! Panic over (I hope). Just had another go and this time I am getting the little yellow arrows appearing showing the route of march when I set the objective, I am also getting an acknowledgement telling the order has been delivered and units are moving. Not sure why this didn't happen last time but as long as it keeps working the problem seems to be be solved. "

Realy I have yet to see the arows, or the message showing they received the orders, though I can get my units to move ok, thought typicaly with some delay.

[Didz]

ORIGINAL: Brady

Really I have yet to see the arows, or the message showing they received the orders, though I can get my units to move ok, thought typicaly with some delay.

Interesting, I just assumed it was some sort of gliche that I didn't get these in the first game and that it was somehow linked to that fact that nobody was getting their orders.

Strange that you should be missing these indicators and yet still able to control your troops.

[Bis]

Play hint, Forget Donauworth and move all but one Austrian corps back to Augsburg. Have the one remaining corps at Ulm bother the French LoC. Burn all front line depots.

[Didz]

ORIGINAL: Bis
Play hint, Forget Donauworth and move all but one Austrian corps back to Augsburg. Have the one remaining corps at Ulm bother the French LoC. Burn all front line depots.

Yes. I think thats a given. I soon realised that there was no way the Austrian's could beat the French to Donauworth even if they responded promptly to orders. More importantly when I checked to see if a Cavalry Division could dash over and destroy the bridge I realised that to reach the town they would have to cross the Danube and advance along the North bank under the noses of the French advance. Not clever, so I cancelled the orders and instead fell back on Augsberg.

Kutosov's Corps managed to cause some panic amongst the French outflanking forces by moving against their left flank and LOS as they marched south from Donauworth but apart from that it was a hopeless quest to try and stop the French crossing the Danube at that point.

[Spartan07]

The arrors will appear or not depending on the FOW set. At full FOW you get nothing.

[Didz]

ORIGINAL: Nego

The arrors will appear or not depending on the FOW set. At full FOW you get nothing.

Thats seems a bit excessive. Why would FOW stop you dictating the route you order you own troops to march along?

I can understand why you might not be able to check what route your tropps are actually marching along but thats a completely different thing.

[FrankHunter]

Its because your units are probably not where they are reported as being when you are setting the objective. So I couldn't draw the arrows from where they actually are or that would defeat the fog and I wasn't sure about creating a pseudo-set of arrows based on the last reported position (as opposed to the actual).

[Brady]

I see, since I have only played in full FOW, that explains it.

[Didz]

I always begin playing a game like this with the FOW off so I can see how good the AI is and spot any 'bugs'.

In practice I find it makes little difference anyway because winning CotD is all about choosing a strategy and sticking to it, the units don't respond quickly enough to allow players to react to enemy movements. In fact I would say that so far the deciding factor in both my victories was actually the delpoyment of supply depots rather than troops. I basically starved then to death.