Artillery movements

[Jack ONeill]

Norb/Team/Brother Commanders,

I have come to love this game as much as TC2M. The MP section is just great.
I am still being driven crazy by the AIs continual placing of either sides artillery AT THE FRONT OF THE COLUMN. No commander in their right mind would ever place thier guns at the head of the column. Have any of you, my fellow Commanders, ever done that? Artillery is not a scouting force, nor should it be the advance guard. I was just using Hancocks new Kernstown OOB.(way cool, btw).Snt out Ashby Turners Horse in front, to scout ahead of the main column. (thats another AI fuss for another day). At point of contact, Ashbys Horse ran into the Federal column, artillery leading the way. I overran and captured ALL the federal guns before they could fire a shot. As fun as that is, it should not happen.
Norb/Team, is there any way the AI could be coded a bit to change this? I know enough to know I don't know enough about coding, but maybe?

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Jack O'Neill B)

[norb]

It is certainly something that can be done. That sort of thing would take a lot of coding and testing, so it's not something that could be done soon. But if the test team feels it's a big enough issue, they'll add it to the bug database and it will eventually end up on my hit list

[Little Powell]

Jack ONeill wrote:

Norb/Team/Brother Commanders,

I have come to love this game as much as TC2M. The MP section is just great.
I am still being driven crazy by the AIs continual placing of either sides artillery AT THE FRONT OF THE COLUMN. No commander in their right mind would ever place thier guns at the head of the column. Have any of you, my fellow Commanders, ever done that? Artillery is not a scouting force, nor should it be the advance guard. I was just using Hancocks new Kernstown OOB.(way cool, btw).Snt out Ashby Turners Horse in front, to scout ahead of the main column. (thats another AI fuss for another day). At point of contact, Ashbys Horse ran into the Federal column, artillery leading the way. I overran and captured ALL the federal guns before they could fire a shot. As fun as that is, it should not happen.
Norb/Team, is there any way the AI could be coded a bit to change this? I know enough to know I don't know enough about coding, but maybe?

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Jack O'Neill B)

A lot of it has to do with the faster movement speed of the artillery. They often beat the infantry when ordered to move by road, hence arriving at the head of the column. I actually have a bug report in which would give them a smarter plan of attack. For example, as soon as the enemy comes into sight, they move off the road and deploy for attack etc.

In the interim, if really bugs you you can create a simple mod that will make their walk speed the same as infantry so they won't always be ahead. All you would have to do is edit the unitglobal.csv and set all of the arty run speed to 4 instead of 5.

[Kerflumoxed]

Jack ONeill wrote:

Norb/Team/Brother Commanders,

I have come to love this game as much as TC2M. The MP section is just great.
I am still being driven crazy by the AIs continual placing of either sides artillery AT THE FRONT OF THE COLUMN. No commander in their right mind would ever place thier guns at the head of the column. Have any of you, my fellow Commanders, ever done that? Artillery is not a scouting force, nor should it be the advance guard. I was just using Hancocks new Kernstown OOB.(way cool, btw).Snt out Ashby Turners Horse in front, to scout ahead of the main column. (thats another AI fuss for another day). At point of contact, Ashbys Horse ran into the Federal column, artillery leading the way. I overran and captured ALL the federal guns before they could fire a shot. As fun as that is, it should not happen.
Norb/Team, is there any way the AI could be coded a bit to change this? I know enough to know I don't know enough about coding, but maybe?

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Jack O'Neill B)

Been arguing the same point since I was introduced to the game on Day One! I must confess that when playing cavalry in the old game, I would frequently "attach" a light gun battery to accompany them, a la Pelham.

J

[Kerflumoxed]

Little Powell wrote:

Jack ONeill wrote:

Norb/Team/Brother Commanders,

I have come to love this game as much as TC2M. The MP section is just great.
I am still being driven crazy by the AIs continual placing of either sides artillery AT THE FRONT OF THE COLUMN. No commander in their right mind would ever place thier guns at the head of the column. Have any of you, my fellow Commanders, ever done that? Artillery is not a scouting force, nor should it be the advance guard. I was just using Hancocks new Kernstown OOB.(way cool, btw).Snt out Ashby Turners Horse in front, to scout ahead of the main column. (thats another AI fuss for another day). At point of contact, Ashbys Horse ran into the Federal column, artillery leading the way. I overran and captured ALL the federal guns before they could fire a shot. As fun as that is, it should not happen.
Norb/Team, is there any way the AI could be coded a bit to change this? I know enough to know I don't know enough about coding, but maybe?

Sic Semper Tyrannis

Jack O'Neill B)

A lot of it has to do with the faster movement speed of the artillery. They often beat the infantry when ordered to move by road, hence arriving at the head of the column. I actually have a bug report in which would give them a smarter plan of attack. For example, as soon as the enemy comes into sight, they move off the road and deploy for attack etc.

In the interim, if really bugs you you can create a simple mod that will make their walk speed the same as infantry so they won't always be ahead. All you would have to do is edit the unitglobal.csv and set all of the arty run speed to 4 instead of 5.

Thanks, LP. Even I might be able to give that a try! In my case, it strikes me as historically incorrect to have the artillery in front. Will see what I can do.

J

[RebBugler]

Yeah, this is an issue, have seen it many times. I'm thinking the fix here will be a couple of new formations slowing the artillery walk pace when moving with infantry, and set as the default division and corps marching formation in the unitcommon file. This should be a game fix, not just a mod, as it really is messing up large scale sandbox play.

[JMayer]

Reb I personally feel that cannons should not be as slow as men walking they have horses to make them faster. I don't find cannons arriving ahead because I make them stop and wait if needed for soldiers are coming. To have them slowed in game would be a mistake to me sir. Just my thoughts . But for AI controlled cannons they should stop and fix guns so as not to be captured that is for sure.

Your Humble Servant,
JMayer

[Jack ONeill]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for the well reasoned replys. As to attaching a battery to the cav, I do that to. That was pretty much standard procedure in real life. Give the Cav some real punch, as it were.
JM, I am well aware of the marching speed difference of the Guns. I am talking here specifically about the AI, not Human Commanders. My standard tactics are to move an advance guard forward, then get the guns on the move. When the enemy is spotted, I detach the cuns from the division and race them forward into position. I detach them so they will move faster, and not get stuck behind the infantry. NOTE - I am talking here about modded divisions, not the stock OOBs, with seperate arty divisions. My modded Divs have arty attached, like TC2M.

Sic Semper Fidelis

Jack B)

[Sweeney]

That is funny. I always am frustrated because the artillery in my games lags so far behind the infantry that the infantry is engaged way before the artillery is unlimbered.

[RebBugler]

JMayer wrote:

Reb I personally feel that cannons should not be as slow as men walking they have horses to make them faster. I don't find cannons arriving ahead because I make them stop and wait if needed for soldiers are coming. To have them slowed in game would be a mistake to me sir. Just my thoughts . But for AI controlled cannons they should stop and fix guns so as not to be captured that is for sure.

Your Humble Servant,
JMayer

This proposal is to primarily fix sandbox, to use a default formation to prevent artillery from getting ahead of infantry. It should not affect player controlled play, or should be easy to compensate for, at least that's how I submitted it. Regardless, this is an issue with sandbox that obviously needs to be addressed.