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Having problems understanding orders

Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:37 pm
by Foxendown
At Para. 10.4.1. of the manual it says "In most cases you will be able to choose how many units you wish to affect by an order", but I can't see at the moment how that works. I know how to give orders to individual units and groups, I can set general orders for formations and I'm getting there with the POA system but I don't see a way of for example giving a single order to a whole corps if its units are positioned on more than one hex, or to some units in a stack. The formation orders don't correspond exactly with the unit and group orders so for example there is no formation order to dig in only defend: and if I order the HQ unit in a formation (if there is one) to dig in the rest stay mobile or whatever. If I order the formation to defend, none of the units appear to dig in (or at least no "Ds" appear on the counters). Also I see from the manual that formation orders are only intended to be used to fine-tune the POA so I assume I have to activate that system to make them work-is that right?

As for the POA its a great system but I don't really want to be that hands-off. It's not that the AI makes bad decisions but I want more control, maybe I don't want to move AA to protect artillery for example perhaps I want it to cover my airbase: and sometimes the AI does make strange decisions like moving high level HQs and supply units into the front line.

With the battle planner there is a need IMHO for two buttons: "select all" and "select none", otherwise with every attack I experience a clickfest in the big WW1 scenarios I like especially. But perhaps there are hot keys I've missed.

Finally there are bombardment attacks. With large amounts of artillery I am spending ages making and repeating them. Is there some way I can set up artillery to just keep firing at the same target in a defensive battle? With attacks the battle planner seems to set up automatic artillery support very competently, but as I am interested in defensive battles (e.g. Verdun from the French side) I haven't so far found a way of setting up continuous barrages except by clicking on loads of individual targets over and over.

This is a tough game to learn!

RE: Having problems understanding orders

Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2018 12:48 pm
by Oberst_Klink
ORIGINAL: Foxendown

At Para. 10.4.1. of the manual it says "In most cases you will be able to choose how many units you wish to affect by an order", but I can't see at the moment how that works. I know how to give orders to individual units and groups, I can set general orders for formations and I'm getting there with the POA system but I don't see a way of for example giving a single order to a whole corps if its units are positioned on more than one hex, or to some units in a stack. The formation orders don't correspond exactly with the unit and group orders so for example there is no formation order to dig in only defend: and if I order the HQ unit in a formation (if there is one) to dig in the rest stay mobile or whatever. If I order the formation to defend, none of the units appear to dig in (or at least no "Ds" appear on the counters). Also I see from the manual that formation orders are only intended to be used to fine-tune the POA so I assume I have to activate that system to make them work-is that right?

As for the POA its a great system but I don't really want to be that hands-off. It's not that the AI makes bad decisions but I want more control, maybe I don't want to move AA to protect artillery for example perhaps I want it to cover my airbase: and sometimes the AI does make strange decisions like moving high level HQs and supply units into the front line.

With the battle planner there is a need IMHO for two buttons: "select all" and "select none", otherwise with every attack I experience a clickfest in the big WW1 scenarios I like especially. But perhaps there are hot keys I've missed.

Finally there are bombardment attacks. With large amounts of artillery I am spending ages making and repeating them. Is there some way I can set up artillery to just keep firing at the same target in a defensive battle? With attacks the battle planner seems to set up automatic artillery support very competently, but as I am interested in defensive battles (e.g. Verdun from the French side) I haven't so far found a way of setting up continuous barrages except by clicking on loads of individual targets over and over.

This is a tough game to learn!
No auto-artillery repeat trigger I am afraid. But, you're in luck regarding the other things. I've created the following tutorials, with pictures and the scenario files to make you and others the start into the TOAW IV a helluva lot easier.

Also, make sure you updated to the lastest official patch, too? - tm.asp?m=4416310

Tutorial '41: tm.asp?m=4382552
Tutorial '42: tm.asp?m=4387818
Tutorial '42 - Editor: tm.asp?m=4401098
Tutorial '43: tm.asp?m=4390285
Tutorial '43 - Combat: tm.asp?m=4394374
Tutorial '44: tm.asp?m=4397183
Tutorial '45: tm.asp?m=4412329

Klink, Oberst

RE: Having problems understanding orders

Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2018 5:45 am
by Foxendown
Those look excellent thank you, much appreciated.
Hoping I can get some help with monsters like the amazing Caporetto scenario (attachment shows the scale).