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Hi all, just bought SoW and am trying to figure out what is going on. I just had a few queries I hoped someone could help with.

Let's say you're a Corps commander and your order are to take Ligny. Your divisional commander and his unit are facing Ligny, about 1000 yards away. How do you order him to attack? I'm trying to use courier only to control my units as I don't want to micromanage, but I can't figure out how to give an order to an entire division. Typically I just keep ordering "Move your unit forwards 300 yards" etc. but that seems a bit silly. Can I give my divisional commanders orders to secure certain towns or buildings?

Also, in one game my men often stood 50 yards away from the enemy, were apparently 'engaged', but never fired. They suffered no casualties and caused none. Is this normal or could it be a bug from using mods or something?

Hi Countrboy, to order a unit to attack a specific location using the couriers try to do like this:

1. Select the unit's commander you want to move. Check if some of his subordinates units are in Take Command (check this especially when you play scenarios) because this prevent them from obey order from his superior.

2. Give him a Move to this location order and select Ligny from possible location list

3. You can also select a facing direction for your units giving Face to this direction upon your arrival order and select a cardinal point from the list

4. Order Change your unit to this formation and select a formation from the list

5. Give your officer a stance if you want to give him a specific one or miss this point and let him decide what to do when he spot the enemy

6. If your officer is far from the point you want him to go give him Have your units use roads order

7. Send the courier

About your second question, if you want to play battles scenario not use any mod because you could notice crash or weird behaviours unless you play those scenarios via the user scenario menu. Grog toolbar have all the scenarios placed in that menu so you can play them using that toolbar mod. Anyway I think your problem could be a LOS problem which happens especially when you are close to obstacles like bridges or houses. What the game check to determine LOS, but also the terrain on which your entire unit is fighting, is the unit's flag position. So if the flags of two unit have an obstacle between them, they won't fire

Thanks Biondo. so typically, ordering a unit commander a move to location order is sufficient to qualify as a "move to this place and take it" order?

Yep, that will be his destination point and he'll try to take it. Once is taken you should put his stance in Hold to the Last to prevent his troops to move away from the objective you set or leave an aggressive stance to order him to pursuit the enemy

If it was a line of sight issue the unit would not have been "engaged". In fact one of the best ways to check if a line of sight issue is occurring is to check the unit status. If a unit is within range of the enemy and is not firing and the unit is "resting" it is definitely a line of sight issue. If it says they are engaged but you don't see any casualties, it is most likely that the unit is out of ammo. If they are engaged and also not taking any casualties, then either the enemy unit is also out of ammo, or is firing at some other unit. But it will still say engaged because your unit is engaged, even though they are out of ammo. Again, if this was a line of sight issue it would not say "engaged"

Also I advise getting over your dislike of micromanaging. Micromanaging is one of the single most effective abilities when it comes to defeating the AI. When you leave your officers and troops under AI control and order them to attack via stances/command map/couriers what you're essentially doing is ordering the AI to fight itself, as its controlling your troops as well as its own. Thats a lot like watching a computer play itself in tic tac toe. Its fun to watch them try to carry out your orders, but you yourself aren't really doing anything but watching.

Also most scenario's require the capture and holding of objectives for the majority of the points needed to achieve a major victory. These objectives, once captured, require a certain number of troops and an officer to remain within range of the objective to continue receiving points from it. If the officer, or troops move to far away from the objective you will lose control of it and have to reaquire it, which resets the timer on the objective. This can be annoying if your dealing with an objective with a long duration(Some are as long as 20 minutes.) The AI is notoriously bad at maintaining objectives because officers are constantly running around the battlefield like a chicken without a head and they never order their troops to just hold the objective. Also, being plain honest, there are scenario's in the game that are just plain unwinnable if you just let the AI do the fighting for you. It isn't aggressive enough, it doesn't particularly care about holding objectives(the heart and soul of winning most scenario's)and its tactics can often be downright stupid.

Also there are a number of strategies and tactics that give you a distinct advantage over the AI once you understand its weaknesses and tactical deficiencies. But almost all of them require heavily TC'ing your troops and micro managing because if left under AI control, your troops will never exploit these weaknesses because you are letting the AI control them, and the AI obviously doesn't know its own weaknesses.

Ive been playing this game for nearly 3 years. There is virtually nothing I do not know when it comes to the gameplay of this game. Ive discovered all of the best strategies and tactics for beating every scenario in the game. There are very few people alive who know this game like I do. Some of my tactics are cheap, some are abusive of the game mechanics, and many of them are downright ahistorical, but above all, I can teach you how to win.

I can teach you everything about this game if you're willing to put in some time to learn. Everything Ive learned about this game in nearly 3 years of playing, every mechanic, every exploit, every formation, every loophole and the best tactics and strategies for beating every scenario in the game I have poured into my Scourge of War series on youtube. There is nothing else like it on youtube because no one else on youtube knows the game like I do. I invite you to watch it. It is long. Its many hours of footage and will take a long time to get through. Ive held nothing back, ive left nothing out. All my knowledge is there for the taking.

Brigade series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... NHeghO9XR5

Division series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 62TjfkoQZ2

Corps series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... v-cRiWTtlQ

Full battle series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... SFtSRagqF2
(This is still in progress, however, Quatre Bras, Ligny, and Wavre are all complete. Only Waterloo remains, and Il be starting it later this week.)

The Grog Toolbar Demystified series - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... LGXBt9GRHx
(I highly recommend dumping the stock toolbar for the Grog toolbar. The stock toolbar is terrible and no one who plays SOW with any kind of seriousness uses it. The Grog toolbar is superior in everyway)

Here is the download link for the grog toolbar:
http://www.norbsoftdev.net/forum/waterl ... olbar-grog

The rest is up to you if you really want to learn everything about this game.

Thanks 1annoyedgamer. I did check their ammo and it was fine, so I am putting down to a bug from clashing mods.

I appreciate your points about micromanagement. I guess I wanted to 'experience' what it's like to have only very little control over your soldiers, much like in a real war. That said, I can see that a certain level of micro management is needed.

Thanks for the tip re your youtube videos, I'll check them out.

ORIGINAL: countrboy

Thanks 1annoyedgamer. I did check their ammo and it was fine, so I am putting down to a bug from clashing mods.

I appreciate your points about micromanagement. I guess I wanted to 'experience' what it's like to have only very little control over your soldiers, much like in a real war. That said, I can see that a certain level of micro management is needed.

Thanks for the tip re your youtube videos, I'll check them out.

Yes, there are kind of two ways to play this game, playing to win, and playing for fun. Headquarters in the saddle(HITS) with couriers is fun, damn fun, when it comes to experiencing what its like to be a commander on a Napoleonic battlefield. I play HITS all the time, and so long as you aren't much concerned about actually winning, its definitely cool, and I feel it really does capture the feeling and immersion of what it was really like.
But if your goal is to win, there are just to many instances when the AI isn't up to snuff, and as I said there are scenario's that are unwinnable if you just let the AI handle your troops. The Ligny scenario you mentioned(Gerards attack) is one of them. The AI will never make it to the objective with enough time left to extract 4,000 points from it. Only by controlling your troops yourself can it be done.

ORIGINAL: 1annoyedgamer

I can teach you everything about this game if you're willing to put in some time to learn. Everything Ive learned about this game in nearly 3 years of playing, every mechanic, every exploit, every formation, every loophole and the best tactics and strategies for beating every scenario in the game I have poured into my Scourge of War series on youtube.

Why would you use or promote the use of an "exploit" or "loophole"?

ORIGINAL: Asid

ORIGINAL: 1annoyedgamer

I can teach you everything about this game if you're willing to put in some time to learn. Everything Ive learned about this game in nearly 3 years of playing, every mechanic, every exploit, every formation, every loophole and the best tactics and strategies for beating every scenario in the game I have poured into my Scourge of War series on youtube.

Why would you use or promote the use of an "exploit" or "loophole"?

Promote is perhaps the wrong word, I would use the word educate instead. My job isn't to pass moral judgement on how someone plays the game. I consider my job to be to arm players with all the tools and everything I know about the game. What they do with it is up to them. As to the question of why? Because knowledge is power. Wouldn't you rather know everything possible about the game and then be able to choose what you do and don't use, rather than not know and not have the choice? Like I said earlier, there are very few players who know the game like I do, precisely because I don't play the game the way everyone else does. I actively hunt for new tactics, new strategies, new loopholes and yes, new exploits. Because I play the game like a video game and not as some historical simulation(which it really isn't) I find the things no other player will, because most other players are trying to play the game in "the spirit of the game". That's cool if you want to pretend the game is something it's not. I show the game for what it really is, warts and all.

Hi 1annoyedgamer

It is your prerogative to play the game as you wish. I play the game 2 times a week with a group of friends and we play the game the way the developer intended.

It is always a personal choice.

The important thing is that you enjoy the game you purchased.

Regards

ORIGINAL: Asid

Hi 1annoyedgamer

It is your prerogative to play the game as you wish. I play the game 2 times a week with a group of friends and we play the game the way the developer intended.

It is always a personal choice.

The important thing is that you enjoy the game you purchased.

Regards

Well, I should point out that all the things I teach are in regard to defeating the AI and the game's stock scenarios. Most of these things are stuff that wouldn't work in a multiplayer game because real people aren't stupid. Also I would never abuse the things I know in a multiplayer game because that would be just a straight up dick thing to do.

In all honesty I'm a fan of you dogs of war guys. I link mitras channel on my youtube channel and Ive done videos where I promoted his videos. And when someone asks me about multiplayer groups I always point them to you guys first.

My video series is different. It isn't about multiplayer at all. It's about the most efficient, most dependable and repeatable strategies for beating every scenario in the game. The AI isn't going to get mad if you abuse some cheap shit on it. But to do it in a multiplayer game against real people, even I'l say that would be a pretty low thing to do.