Commander on hold

[JimMorrison]

Actually no, the units will not follow the commander into battle, and I'll tell you why because it's a frustrating mechanic.

By the 4th round of combat, when that commander starts to think about moving, he will in fact be completely surrounded by his men. He will have no empty square to move into, and so will not move - and neither will they.

If you want the commander to lead the charge, then you need to understand some things. First, there are 8 squares that a unit can move into at any given point (unless it flies, if he can fly you are good to go). If the troops are human size 2, then that is 24 men that can crowd into the squares adjacent to the commander. Thus, you can make this work most of the time by having the Guard Commander squad consist of 23 or less men (so he has somewhere to move), and having them start just behind him (so they will move forward to get close, and you maximize the odds of his open spot being in front, as he may not move if it's behind him). The trick is to get the other squads to come with. If you aren't worried of getting blitzed in the first few turns of combat, then you can gauge based on the units' movement speed, how far back to set them so as to be in a line when they all start to move forward. So say it is a heavy infantry with 6 AP. They will start to move 2 turns before the commander, so at 2 AP per square, you want those squads to be placed ~6 squares further back from the commander. Then, you tell then to Hold + Attack Rear, and they should advance straight forward, maintaining a bit of a formation.

Hope that helps.

[GrudgeBringer]

Thanks Jim, that is closer to what I was looking for.

Max, what I was trying to say was that if I had a 40 man inf unit (with a seperate commander) set on hold and attack somewhat back from the front grids, he will take off on round 3 of the battle and move forward.

I was hoping that I could have some archers in another formation raining arrows down on the opponent as he was approching.

The Hold and attack unit would block the opposing units and the archers would still keep firing.

On turn 5 the 40 man Inf unit (with commander set on Hold,hold,hold,hold, attack closest) would slam into what was left of the opposing forces and rout them.

It was just an idea...

There just HAS to be more tactical strategy here than just fighting on a level plain with no hills, trees, ect. and everyone runs at each other (or doesn't).

But i have only watched about 30 battles so I am in no way sure of what to do.

So I thought I would pick your brains.

Thanks BTW!!!

[MaxWilson]

Good point, Jim, it gets trickier when you're dealing with 40-man squads. You've mentioned this before but I didn't think of it as it applies to this example.

-Max