Battle Reports

[nick dyer-witheford]

First, thanks for an excellent, elegant game: what a pleasure! (and I do hope
you go on to do something on the European theatres of the Seven Years War).
Second: I must admit to not entirely understanding the Battle Reports. In particular, in the "killed" there are regularly very small numbers--usually 1 or so. Are these individual soldiers, or units? And if units, approximately how many actual casualties do these represent?
Again, congratulations on a unique and stylish wargame,
Best,
Nick D/W

[Pocus]

the NATO symbols that you see each represents a company, and generally a counter is a regiment with 4 companies. A company at this time amounted from 50 to 250 men, and some regiments were not even organized in companies. See this as an abstraction to model into a game the complex reality ... For example indians warbands are composed of 2 smaller combat units, these are not really companies as you can doubt.

The small hearts each represents 10 hits inflicted or suffered, with companies having from 5 to 10 hits each. For a regular regiment, you can roughly say that a heart = 25 men killed.

[toddtreadway]

One thing I don't understand is how to see the total hits taken/received. It seems as if there can be company icons as casualties, but no hearts. I guess this means that the company units that are eliminated at separate from the hearts received--is that correct?

So when I look at the combat results screen and I see three hearts in the fire combat section and two company icons, plus no hearts in the melee section and one company icon, it means that two companies were killed in fire combat and three hearts were received in fire combat, AND also a company was killed in the melee phase, right?

Is there any difference between losses in the fire phase and melee phase? If not, why not just have a total losses display instead of or in addition to the other information?

[Frost716]

That's all very confusing..seems like there should be a better way to show actual men dead numbers...I just want to be able to pull it up and see this many men died without figuring out what means what..can't it be more straight forward if even just estimates?..much more fun to see your handy work after battles/skirmishes

[Pocus]

One thing I don't understand is how to see the total hits taken/received. It seems as if there can be company icons as casualties, but no hearts. I guess this means that the company units that are eliminated at separate from the hearts received--is that correct?

So when I look at the combat results screen and I see three hearts in the fire combat section and two company icons, plus no hearts in the melee section and one company icon, it means that two companies were killed in fire combat and three hearts were received in fire combat, AND also a company was killed in the melee phase, right?

Is there any difference between losses in the fire phase and melee phase? If not, why not just have a total losses display instead of or in addition to the other information?

each heart represents 10 hits inflicted or suffered. If you pass the mouse over the hearts, you will get the total hits suffered of both sides. This is the closest you can get from the actual casuaties figures. Companies health are expressed in hits, so the report give you a number in hits.

Its possible to have the loss of one company without having an heart showed, but its rare. For example you deal 7 hits to a regular in the fire phase, and one hit in melee, killing it (in melee). The NATO symbol would show in melee, but no heart, as you only inflicted one hit in this phase.

The difference is just to give some details, and to add flavor too... Some units are really nasty in melee (indians and to a lesser extend the disciplined Brits lines regiments), so it serves also an educational purpose to separate both phases. As an american, you should learn that if the english close with bayonnets, it can be ugly for your militias

[toddtreadway]

So when a company icon is shown, it actually counts as a hit, correct? In other words, if a hit causes the destruction of a company it will not show up as a heart--it will show up as the company icon?

Also, what would you think about adding in a line somewhere that shows the total estimated losses in a number figure without having to mouse over the hearts?

[Robin]

Perhaps we should take the time to show here a battle report screen with some explanations around it ? If pocus wants some help to make this board to help our players...

[Chief Rudiger]

Hi,

I posted this in another thread and thought it might be more relevant here.

One things I would really like though would be a list in the after action summary screen which shows your individual unit strengths before and after, like the list the appears when you hover the cursor over a stack:

33rd Foot: 28/32
1st Art: 16/16

to

33rd Foot 4/32
1st Art: Lost

Particularly with the AWI, I tend to forget how many Militia Rgts from each state I really had at the beginning and particularly after a battle, where they take a whooping, its sad not to know if you've lost a whole Regiment.

[Frost716]

It really would be allot more satisfying to see numbers and more detail as to what actually happened..hearts and hits just arn't doing it for me ...why not just take it one step further and show outright estimates of men killed, injured..force size..much more satisfying I think.

just read above...I like that..that's what I mean..show what was lost, what's left..more in depth..makes you feel more connected to everything going on..It's just natural to want to know these things in more detail..

[toddtreadway]

Yes, seeing the state of your units both prior to and after the battle would be a great feature.

[Ardie]

The empty battle report seems to back with the latest patch. Also I've lost some whole regiments as destroyed after a battle even if the battle report hasn't shown it.

[Pocus]

the empty battle report bug is still there, but no more than before. It is a random, non reproductible, rare bug. Quite annoying I must say. I had save of players telling me that they could reproduce it, but no chance, it was not reproductible for me.

For the 2nd point, I would like to get the save. Its abnormal.

[Ardie]

For the 2nd point, I would like to get the save. Its abnormal.

Sorry, it happened during my test games and I deleted the files as I was a bit unhappy about the AI.

It was a "battle" in Crown Point were my Mountain Boys (+ Col. Warner) were scouting for Burgoyne's army. The Brit/Brunswicker army (without Burgoyne) thundered down from Montreal (I guess) and pushed my guerillas out of the province. The battle report showed no hits/losses and declared "an American victory". Next turn the guerilla unit had vanished.