Matrix Games Forums

I purchased TOAW 3 and have begun playing again for the first time in many years..... I am amazed at how the engine has progressed and is still very intertaining. I have a question that I hope someone here can answer.
How are formation orders executed? The Help file shows many type formatrion orders such as attack, defend, delay, wait etc..but I can't see how to give a formation (including all it's units) an order to defend for example. I sence that this all ties into the PO which I am also trying to figure out how best to use. I hope someone can help.

As an aside, I really wish Norm Koger would get back to this type game.

ORIGINAL: GBS

I purchased TOAW 3 and have begun playing again for the first time in many years..... I am amazed at how the engine has progressed and is still very intertaining. I have a question that I hope someone here can answer.
How are formation orders executed? The Help file shows many type formatrion orders such as attack, defend, delay, wait etc..but I can't see how to give a formation (including all it's units) an order to defend for example. I sence that this all ties into the PO which I am also trying to figure out how best to use. I hope someone can help.

As an aside, I really wish Norm Koger would get back to this type game.

Only Garrison & the various reserve orders affect a human player. And he is at the mercy of the designer as to when they expire - although reserve orders can be canceled by enemy action. If you are using the new PO Assist feature, you can change the other formation orders for the benefit of any formations you want the PO to control, though. (There may still be a bug in that code that lets you kick a formation out of reserve (I don't remember if the last of that was fixed in 3.5 or 3.4) - but you are honor-bound not to use it.)

OK, if I am playing the Korea scenario and want the PO to control the 2nd amd 3rd Div., how do I give those formations a "attack" order lets say? I just can't see where its done.

GBS,

The first thing is to make sure that you have the Show PO Assist Buttons turned on. If you have they will be the four bottom buttons on the button pane. Hold the mouse over the buttons and read the information at the bottom of the screen. The PO Assist buttons look like two arrows, a magnifying glass, and a large E.

If you do not have the PO Assist buttons shown, then you will need to activate them. Go to the Play menu, Player Options and then make sure to turn on the Show PO Assist.

To change formation orders you need to press the button that looks like a magnifying glass - the information at bottom of the screen says, "Click here to view PO mode". The stars will disappear. Now you can bring up the Formation report. From there you can give orders to your formations. You can also delete and add objectives for you formations.

Please note: For those formations that you wish to control yourself, you must set them to manual control.

When you want the PO Assistant to make it moves, click the magnifying glass to exit PO mode and click the large E button.

You might like to look in the manuals folder for the document Elmer Assist Primer.

It will take a little while to get use to how the PO does things and it is worth just playing around with it for a while.

Best wishes,
Steve