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This is a strange battle result, firstly an overwhelming victory for NAPOLEON and SOULT, over WERNECK II Corps, secondly an apparent anomaly in the overall casualty figures. I am playing NAPOLEON with the AI Coalition.

It would be good to be able to review the battle screen again after the previous turn has ended, but you can only see it during turn resolution and once the battle screen has been closed to continue the resolution phase, the battle information is gone for good. I take screen shots of these information panels to keep an archive for reference.

The initial battle odds looked good for NAPOLEON, with a slight advantage in numbers and NAPOLEON's own bonus for the French units, but the victory is spectacular. Chose the most aggressive battle strategy option given in this case, which is 'Counter Attack' and find that the Austrians have chosen 'Probe'. In previous battles this combination has resulted in an inconclusive result, with low casualties on both sides.

The Austrians are on a low intensity with 'Probe' and NAPOLEON has a rising intensity with 'Counter Attack', whilst this battle goes into 3 rounds, with the French ending at an intensity of 4 against the Austrian intensity of 1.

The terrain is 'Woods', which reduces the effect of artillery ( -40%), but the French have powerful artillery and the Austrians have none, so the French IV Corps guns have still been effective.

French losses are 2, which is correct with the unit counter and Corps information panel data, but Austrian losses look unexpectedly high for this type of engagement.

I switched with that turn's game save to see the result from the Austrian side and note that WERNECK has 25 losses in stragglers and wounded, whilst the Austrian WERNECK II Corps 'View Units' shows that his units need 7 replacements, which must represent his permanent losses, for a total of 32.

However, the Battle Screen shows total losses of 45, which must be an anomaly as WERNECK only started the battle with a strength of 44 and the units involved have a remaining strength of 6 on the map, so it is not the wipe-out the figures show, although it is a crushing victory for NAPOLEON.

The good side is that the game throws up varied results, which can be unpredictable, but these particular results don't add up unless I am missing something.

Is this FOW, are my generals exaggerating about their success, maybe, but I haven't seen an anomaly as big as this before. It may be WAD and the game is using the correct data, as shown on the unit counters and corps info panels, but you won't normally see the correct data with FOW, so use the battle screen data with caution.

I had thought that the battle screen was one place that you could get accurate information on enemy units, but now suspect that FOW is working here also and that the battle results may not be fully accurate.

None of this detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game, but does add to the uncertainty.

Then I thought to check the Victory screen to see what losses had been recorded there.





My French losses from the battle were only 2, shown on the battle screen and confirmed on the unit counters, 1 lost and 1 wounded, so where does the Victory screen get 3 for the French. No other battles, or skirmishes reported, but a search of the units finds Dumonceau in MARMONT's II Corps has 1 straggler already (the scenario just started).

So the Victory screen is correct and shows actual losses, although stragglers and wounded which are included, may only be temporary losses, as they might re-join their units.

The Victory screen shows 36 losses for the Austrians and I know, from a quick peek at the Austrian side, that the actual losses in the battle were 32, so the others must be stragglers in the other corps.

Result, Victory screen figures are correct, but may change as temporary losses (stragglers and wounded) return to their units.

Battle screen enemy losses seem to have FOW applied and are not necessarily correct, battle reports can be realistically exaggerated, or distorted, so my doubt about the game data is probably unfounded, as the game does know what is going on, but doesn't always share this information with the you, the player. [:)]