How to put your artillery batteries on Rest.

[Jean Lafitte]

I TC my batteries, send them to the rear, order them into Column formation -- and they still unlimber and Engage, no matter how Tired they are.

I can order them to Rest if I TC each individual gun and order Limber.

There must be a better way! Right?

Thanks.

[Hook]

First of all, artillery works best if their stance is set to None. A superior officer might change this to something else, just change it back if you want to order artillery to do anything.

I don't worry about my artillery getting exhausted as they don't seem to care much themselves. If you move them behind something that blocks their line of sight to an enemy, they will not unlimber. The reverse slope of a hill works best as artillery can fire through woods. Put them in a valley somewhere.

Hook

[Biondo]

Hi Lafitte,

if you're using vanilla toolbar you can order your artillery to stop firing sending a courier order to battery commander. The order is "Artillery to Hold fire" (you'll find it in the Orders tab).

In the Grog toolbar there's a specific button to do this.

To have your battery fire again, simply give to the battery commander "AI choose target" (or "Target Infantry" or "Target Artillery") order; there's a button in the context menu in the vanilla toolbar and a specific button in the Grog toolbar.

Cheers

[Jean Lafitte]

I'm using Reb Bugler's Toolbar V, so, I'd better look again for that button!

[Jean Lafitte]

First of all, artillery works best if their stance is set to None. A superior officer might change this to something else, just change it back if you want to order artillery to do anything.

I don't worry about my artillery getting exhausted as they don't seem to care much themselves. If you move them behind something that blocks their line of sight to an enemy, they will not unlimber. The reverse slope of a hill works best as artillery can fire through woods. Put them in a valley somewhere.

Hook

Set to None? Interesting indeed! I'll have to explore that, Hook, thanks.

[Hook]

I learned about the None stance for artillery from the Kriegsspiel documentation. I had already tried every other stance for artillery and I couldn't tell it made any difference. I wouldn't have tried None but that's what the KS docs say. It turns out that with a None stance artillery will actually do what you order. I can even get artillery to advance to canister range. Sometimes.

Oddly enough I've had the most success with None stance for infantry as well, at least for higher commanders. Lower commanders will be assigned a stance other than None, but this may not reflect what they are actually doing on the battlefield, such as a unit with All Out Attack stance when obviously in reserve and not fighting nearby enemy. I am guessing that None stance gives them the most freedom to optimize everyone. Cavalry will usually be too aggressive with None, so I have been giving them Hold instead, even on the attack. With None, it appears that the first sub-unit to make enemy contact is given an All Out Attack stance which is often too costly.

The KS docs are adamant about not using the None stance, but I'm using the Grog V toolbar which may make a difference.

They recommend None for artillery, however, and I've found it very useful.

Hook

[Jean Lafitte]

Hi Lafitte,

if you're using vanilla toolbar you can order your artillery to stop firing sending a courier order to battery commander. The order is "Artillery to Hold fire" (you'll find it in the Orders tab).

In the Grog toolbar there's a specific button to do this.

To have your battery fire again, simply give to the battery commander "AI choose target" (or "Target Infantry" or "Target Artillery") order; there's a button in the context menu in the vanilla toolbar and a specific button in the Grog toolbar.

Cheers

I found the "Hold Fire" button but this is not a guarantee that the battery will rest. I guess that there is no "Rest" button. All that can be done is to Limber up, move them to the rear and order the battery to Hold Fire.

The problem is that while attacking with Ney in the whole QB battle, there is no place that the battery can hide out of sight of any enemy. It's flat ground and there are Allied battalions scattered on both flanks, so my batteries are always tempted to stop Resting!

:huh:

[roy64]

The KS docs are adamant about not using the None stance, but I'm using the Grog V toolbar which may make a difference.

Have you got the Grog toolbar working with the KS mod?

[Biondo]

I found the "Hold Fire" button but this is not a guarantee that the battery will rest. I guess that there is no "Rest" button. All that can be done is to Limber up, move them to the rear and order the battery to Hold Fire.

The problem is that while attacking with Ney in the whole QB battle, there is no place that the battery can hide out of sight of any enemy. It's flat ground and there are Allied battalions scattered on both flanks, so my batteries are always tempted to stop Resting!

:huh:

I checked better. Yes, you also need to limber up your guns in order to have them to recover from fatigue but it's not necessary to pull them back. Unless you have enemies closer than 200 yards, in that case your guns ignored the Hold fire order and start firing to protect themselves.

[Hook]

Have you got the Grog toolbar working with the KS mod?

I don't have the KS mod, only the manual. The Grog toolbar will not work with the KS mod, and the actual KS toolbar looks like it might be pretty good.