Brace yourself, here's a truly stupid question (Can't move units)

[WeekOldPotatoSalad]

Hi All,
Having looked through your boards here, I see this game has a very friendly, helpful community, with so many of you being incredibly patient and willing to help out people new to this game, or this style of games in general. I think that is really admirable, but I am about to test that patience.
I just bought the game yesterday. I have gone through the tutorials without major issue. Now, I want to cut my teeth on one of the battle scenarios to practice before I take on the full war. So here is my issue: I can't move any of my mother effing units. Like none of them. My efforts to click/drag/etc have failed, and my armies and corps just sit there waiting to be attacked. I have tried different scenarios, different units, and it is the same everywhere. Nobody can move. I presume this is either a game bug, or I have missed something incredibly basic and one of you good people can set me straight in about 3 sentence.
As a huge civil war buff, I was excited to kill some time playing this game but I am already on the verge of walking away. Someone guide me.
Thank you in advance.

[Captain_Orso]

Welcome to the forum WeekOldPotatoSalad

Hmmm... right off the bat, if this is a bug, it's one I don't recall ever having seen, nor heard of. So let's start with some basic information, like which patch level you are on, which scenario you have started to play, and which side you are playing.

If you are playing the Union, you will always have the US flags draped in the upper-left corner. If you are playing the Confederacy, it will be the Confederate Jacks in the upper-left corner. Of course, if you have the wrong side (faction) loaded, you will not be able to plot any moves for the faction you actually want to be playing.

In this case, simply return to the Main menu (from the 3 icons in the upper-right corner, the middle one) then => Load, and select the scenario you have started from the list. then click on either Lincoln to select the Union, or Davis to select the South, and click 'Play !'.

If you already have the correct faction loaded, are the stacks you want to plot actually free to move? If when you look at them on the map, they have a dark stripe going across the upper-right corner and a padlock in the upper left corner, the stack (or at least one unit in the stack) cannot be moved to outside it's current region.

If you select such a stack, its constituent units will be displayed in the Unit Panel at the bottom center. Hovering your mouse pointer over such a unit will display a tool-tip with various information. About in the middle of the tool-tip text you will find a line telling you that that unit is "fixed in the region for x turns" or "permanently", in some cases, eg fort or city garrisons.

BTW I would strongly suggest starting with the 3 tutorials first.

So, check the information above, and see if that doesn't solve you issue. If not, please post the requested information, and some more specifics, like which stacks you cannot give moving orders to.

[WeekOldPotatoSalad]

Good Morning and thanks for the response. I will try to clarify what is going on (again, I did complete the tutorials, which is why I find it so odd that I’m having this issue). I am not sure which patch I am using; I downloaded the game off steam over the weekend so I assume it was patched already. If this is not the case, by all means let me know how to correct it!
1. I am trying to play as the Union, and double checked to make sure I wasn’t accidentally trying to move Confederate units
2. I figured out the “Unit X can’t move for Y turns” thing right away; the units I am talking about do not have that stripe over them.
An example:
I have loaded the Shiloh scenario, as the Federal side. I know this because (well, I selected it of course) at the initiation of turn one, I can only see Union forces. So I click on Grant to attempt to move him, either by clicking and dragging from his icon on the map at Fort Henry to an adjacent territory (Gibson, TN), or by clicking and dragging him from the stack counter thingy at the bottom of the screen. Nothing happens. The same occurs when I try to make that move with one of the other units in Grant’s stack, or one of the other units at Fort Henry, Sherman for example. I attempt the same with Buell’s forces at Clarksville, and again, there is no line on the map indicating a travel order. I can repeat this same attempt with all my units, without anyone ever actually moving. Looking to the east, I see the KY Reserve at bowling green. They have the red slash through the icon, indicating they are tied to that area. But all my units are essentially tied, as best I can tell. I have tried to let the game run for a few turns to see if my lazy armies would unglue themselves, but nothing seems to happen.
Any advice?

[DrPostman]

Feel free to ask any question you have. The only stupid question is the one not asked. Lots of folks
are always willing to help here.

[WeekOldPotatoSalad]

I'm back again. I seem to have resolved the issue. I was playing around with the options, and changed the "activation rule" from the extreme left to the extreme right option. I can't claim to know exactly what is at play here, but it worked and upon reloading a scenario, I can move my dudes around without issue now.
Thank you again for the quick responses; its really cool to see that there is still a dark corner of the universe where people are grown ups and don't act like complete asses because of their online anonymity. I imagine I will be using this forum as a resource when I find time to play this cool but complex game.
Have a good one, all!