Played Chotusitz

[siRkid]

Ok I played the full Chotusitz scenario yesterday as and I had a lot of fun. The AI did a decent job but was not that hard to beat. I did have a few heart stopping moments when my Cav on the left flank was immobilized a few turns because of failed leader activation. I had to send the King over to take charge. A few things I would like to see:

1. A list of Leaders Capture/Killed.
2. A way for Leaders to react before being overrun, a slight chance for them to get away. It's too easy to kill them.
3. Bases for the units that can be turned on or off like in the Battleground games.
4. An easy way to identify which units are under what leader. I completely lost track and used whoever activated.

[Sertorius1]

Kid,
 
Reading number four in your post makes me think the commander activated is either the overall or a corps commander. The only thing you can do there is to manually check the unit information to see who the commander is and attempt to keep your units under their respective brigade commanders as much as possible. 
 
You probably are already doing this, so I'll include this additonal information on identifying units for others.
 
On your information bar there is an options pop up that is shaped like an arrow head in the lower right corner. When you click and it pops up, at the top right side there is a button that looks like two bags. When you click it, it will show all the units under the commander. If the leader is a corps commander, only the subordinates will be highlighted. In the case of the former, this can be useful in quickly identifying a unit that has moved and isn't hightlighted anymore and in cases where two different commands are mixed together.

[Sertorius1]

Kid,

I'll throw this in as well. While there isn't a formal dead list of leaders, there is a proposal in the works that may be in a future patch that not only includes what you requested, but possibly wounded leaders as well.

For the time being a player is limited to using the various unit information screens to see who's alive and who is dead and who replaced him. What is good about this game is there is a lot of room for expansion.

Glad you enjoyed the scenario. Here's another one for you. Krechzhorz Hill in the Kolin battle folder.

[jackx]

You can shield your leaders from being overrun through clever use of ZoC. That keeps them safe from enemy movement and enemy attacks (which they would suffer from if you stacked them with a unit). That said, if you're stuck with someone inept, maybe a glorious (or not so glorious) battlefield death may be in order...

Knowing who is in command of which unit (other than the units of the currently active leader) can be tricky, the more so the less familiar you are with the OOB and unit names/appearance. Thankfully, with the larger hexes of FTG, you at least get a clear view of the confusing situation, which makes it that much easier to disentangle already compared to previous games. At the same time, once your units get mixed up (assuming this happens due to combat, not a horribly botched approach march), you're probably better off fighting in one big turn when the OC and maybe CCs are active, and using BCs mostly to "rally up" as the situation demands, as using your brigades in successive waves then isn't really possible anymore.


Krechzhorz is nice, with lots of carnage, and a tendency to deterioate into a bloody free-for-all on the hilltop in its later stages.

[siRkid]

ORIGINAL: jackx

You can shield your leaders from being overrun through clever use of ZoC. That keeps them safe from enemy movement and enemy attacks (which they would suffer from if you stacked them with a unit). That said, if you're stuck with someone inept, maybe a glorious (or not so glorious) battlefield death may be in order...

It's not my leaders I'm worried about, it's the AI's.[;)]

[siRkid]

ORIGINAL: Sertorius1

Kid,


On your information bar there is an options pop up that is shaped like an arrow head in the lower right corner. When you click and it pops up, at the top right side there is a button that looks like two bags. When you click it, it will show all the units under the commander. If the leader is a corps commander, only the subordinates will be highlighted. In the case of the former, this can be useful in quickly identifying a unit that has moved and isn't hightlighted anymore and in cases where two different commands are mixed together.

Thanks!

[jackx]

While sub-highlighting is active, it'll also work via the RMB context menu and can then be used for all leaders, not just the one currently active. Especially helpful for distributing sub-points, as leader placement is not always indicative of what their commands are (Kolin is very hard to figure out for instance, Leuthen's also quite a mess at the start).

As for the AI's leaders - the AI doesn't pay any attention to its leaders possibly being overrun, but I also haven't overrun any AI leaders in a long time, not a single one in FTG so far, and the last one in PG is also a while back. I remember going out of my way to destroy them at one time (which was the direct result of the AI repeatedly grabbing objectives in the last turn with leaders), but unless I do that, they seem to survive well enough - I'm certainly not going out of my way to not overrun them.

[DrewMatrix]

As it happens I'm playing Chotusitz as well (as the Prussians, against the AI). I may be using the Prussian Aritillery in too Napoleonic as opposed to 7 Yrs War fashion (I need to reread Duffy and some other stuff I've been neglecting).

Kid: Try putting your artillery into one Grand Battery and move it forward, right up to the opposing line (with infantry support). It's devastating. May not be what Frederick would have done but it's what Boney would have done <G>

[jackx]

Chotusitz is a bit early for such things, at least on the Prussian side - the Austrians never seemed to shy away from either massing their guns or putting them forward into the infantry line to reinforce that. But then, since moving-and-firing basically cuts yor RoF in half, don't worry about these (slightly) anachronistic tactics being too effective. Besides, with a "short" (canister) range of 1, Prussian artillery is of very limited use offensively, because you can't deploy in canister range of the enemy, but instead must rely on the enemy moving into range. So what may work at Chotusitz will not work in many other battles.

Kolin is a good example for that, you have a decent number of guns, but you can't really use them to hurt the Austrians, as you are attacking, and the terrain doesn't give you a good site for a battery...

My "solution" to that, gamey and cheap as it is, is to use the light artillery offensively on the roads, that way you can get them close, and usually in the flank, of the Austrian positions, and to use the mediums as targets/bait for the Austrian artillery. The AI will almost always bombard your artillery, deployed or non-deployed, so with a bit of clever artillery movement, you can not only save your infantry from long-range bombardment, but also get the Austrian guns to be pointing the wrong way when your infantry assaults their positions.


If you want maximum artillery carnage, go and play Torgau. It's about as close to MAD as you can get in the time period.

[sol_invictus]

During the Seven Years War the Prussians came to use their Artillery in a very aggressive manner and would displace their guns several times as the offensive went in. Leuthen is a classic example of how lethal and active their Artillery could be. They even came to use "light" 12 pdrs as close Infantry support. Frederick also came to rely on the mass battery when it made sense. The Austrians certainly began these wars with an advantage in using Artillery but the Prussians quickly learned from them and adapted; much like they did with Hussars and Light Infantry. I always try to mass my fires and don't feel a bit guilty of gaming the system and you shouldn't either.

[jackx]

Aye, when I said the Prussian guns were of little use offensively I specifically meant running them up to the enemy into canister range and then blasting away - moving them up in support of an attack is of course possible, and viable.

Works best if you "steal a turn" in the process as well. I.e. move up guns (can't fire), launch infantry assault only at the very end of the turn/after the troops you want to attack have been activated. Then, as the next turn comes along, hit the weakened enemy with your guns at close/medium range, then immediately activate your infantry again. That way, you get to hit the enemy 3 times (or even more if you set up your infantry attack in waves)without them having any chance to rally/reorganize. Of course, this requires leaders with high initiative and command rating, but as the Prussians, you should have those available.

[sol_invictus]

Yeah, "stealing a turn" can be devastating.

[Sertorius1]

Jack,

You and Arinvald have a point.

There is a term for this when it comes to the artillery at close range. Fire and maneuver.

As a sidenote, the number of guns for all sides went up in these various wars. Frederick has 20 at Mollwitz. Look at all the guns he had at Torgua.

[Sertorius1]

Kid,
&nbsp;
You're welcome.

[sol_invictus]

Yep, Torgau was a inferno of artillery fire. I don't see how anyone could advance into the mouth of that kind of fire. These must have been truely hard men.