A new mystery

[Inside686]

I have set Lee in Fairfax with two corps in assault posture for three turns and he still not engage McDowell's force (far inferior). He doesn't get any control of land as well (100% USA).
Can someone explain ?

[arsan]

Hi!
My bet is that you have not given offensive orders to the two corps stacks under Lee.
Could this be the case??
Army stacks cannot initiate combat unless they are the only friendly stack in the region. When they are in a region with one or several of his corps they act like an "army reserve" stack. They wont initiate combat but will support his corps when they start combat.
Put you corps on offensive/assault posture and all three stack should engage the enemy.
When alone, an army stack will start combat normally. For example, with the latest beta patches you cannot form corps until 62 (i think) so in this early war period your main armies will be probably formed only by Army HQ stacks that will fight normally, like any stack.

Regarding ZOC, a big army like your cannot easily push forward before destroying or defeating the USA army ha has in front blocking his way.
Your's its a big and lumbering army. But if you try it with a cavalry force i bet you will be able to elude the enemy ZOC and push to the other side of the Potomac as they have high evasion values.
Also, if i remember right Alexandria has a fort which also exert a ZOC that help the union army in keeping you pinned.

Hope it helps

[Inside686]

Unfortunately not, I tried every combination (setting everyone in assault mode and setting only the corps) and the result is always the same: no action is taken. I enclose the turn file if you want to try.

[arsan]

Ops!, then i'm out of ideas...
For AGEOD guys who can look this up woudl be good to know which patch version you are using.
Regards

[Inside686]

version 1.12 (last official)

[Coregonas]

I have no idea why you cant attack...

but tried some math values to find the answer to the ZOC problem.

Your 898 ZOC points is an 86% (not exactly the 88 showed, but nearly the same) of the total ZOC in the area.

898 / (898 + 147) = 86%

Perhaps some math rule based on this disallows you to advance into the enemy areas, 100% controlled.

Seems you must kick the enemy corps in Alexandria to reduce the enemy ZOC in the area.

[Manstein]

I think that the 1.12 patch has some bug about the retreat before the combat.
I´m playing a game as CSA. Grant is at Menphis which is USA controlled. Three CSA corps attacks to Grant at Menphis (without control any adjacent zone), so, I think that I go to destroy the Grant force. My surprise is see that I earn 6 morale points after win two battles at Menphis (with assault attitude), but at next round (day 9), Grant retreat of combat (but not from Menphis, because he doesn´t control any adjacent zone) and I cannot destroy the Grant force and I cannot reconquer Menphis (???).
Al next turn, both players with his forces with less cohesion, I repeat my assault attitude for regain Menphis and try to destroy Grant and there isn´t any battle at Menphis and I still withour reconquer Menphis and I have more than 50% of military control of Shelby.

Grant can be very good and hide from my army, but Menphis hides too????

[Inside686]

Seems you must kick the enemy corps in Alexandria to reduce the enemy ZOC in the area.

If only I could attack... Please Mister Lee and please Ageod team, this is important.
Yea Manstein, this is strange.

[Mangudai]

I've seen similar things. There might be a flaw involving the red zones.

I had 1 army with 0 corp under J Johnston in Chicago. I gave orders to assault Milwaukee three turns in a row and nothing happened.

[Inside686]

It's a good assumption.

[Inside686]

I tried another two turns and it doesn't attack. To me there's definitely a big bug there, I prefer to break of my PBEM as it doesn't make any sense to carry on with an army that can't fight.
No more AACW for me until this issue is resolved

[highpocrisy]

use RC5
so far it seems the most playble patch yet...

[Manstein]

Here is the proof that I said above is right
(sorry by the messages, which are at spanish)

[Clovis]

I have set Lee in Fairfax with two corps in assault posture for three turns and he still not engage McDowell's force (far inferior). He doesn't get any control of land as well (100% USA).
Can someone explain ?





An other thing, can you explain why Lee and its corps can't penetrate neighboring areas if they generate 898 ZOC point and the enemy 147? Does it mean CSA can't reach Washington even with the biggest army?

How are the cohesion values of the units composing your Lee's army?

[Redeemer]

I've seen it many times before. I have no idea the cause, but if it continues for more than one turn, I back to forces out and try again later or try another route. I had just always assumed it was part of the game.

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Inside686]

How are the cohesion values of the units composing your Lee's army?

Full.

I certainly forgot it Gray, I enclose the complete archive again.
Ok for the ZOC.

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Inside686]

Looking at the files now.

I'm pretty sure, Lee cannot move into the Washington D.C. region due to McDowell's forces already being present in the region that Lee currently occupies. The areas in red are a result of this. You are attempting to move from one enemy occupied area into another enemy occupied area with too low a mobility (not strength) being measured against the enemy force.

Ok, this is OK but the question is: why Lee doesn't attack McDowell in this region, even in assault posture ?

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Rafiki]

Armies don't attack on their own when they have other corps alongside (or something)? Gray, did you try by getting one of the corps to engage?

[Manstein]

I still without understand this situation.

This is the fourth turn that my forces are trying to assault Menphis. Grant is laughing at my face.
In theese 4 turns, the rest of USA forces are controlling the adjacent zones of Menphis, but at the beginning USA didn´t control any zone surrounding Menphis (as I said above, if somebody read my posts).

[Inside686]

Armies don't attack on their own when they have other corps alongside (or something)? Gray, did you try by getting one of the corps to engage?

I tried (see post #3)

[Rafiki]

Yup, I saw; I was wondering if Gray duplicated that as well

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Pocus]

Bug fixed. I now tend to think that, as complexity increases linearly, the bugs are inflating exponentially! This one could only happen because of how intricate are the conditions to trigger a battle. There was two Union stacks in the region, one being an army stack and the second a lone leader. The CSA corps were thus prevented to engage the Army stack, as it was not alone and tried to kill the lone leader first ... problem, he was with a Hide value of 5 and the corps had only 4 in Detect Land!

I fined tuned the conditions, and now you can engage an Army stack if he is alone or if only with the company of retreating, all-leaders, supports or passive stacks. Reprocessing the turn I saw that the Union retreat at day 1 skillfully on the other side of the Potomac.

For the next patch.

[Inside686]

Thank you Pocus

[77NY]

Hi, I ran into an unexpected result in my current PBEM. I ordered two CSA corps under Longstreet and Jackson with 2000 power each (~5000 combined) to attack Alexandria, both set to assault/assault (red/red) posture and both corps set to coordinate time of arrival. Clear weather, 3-day march for each force to Alexandria. Both corps were supplied and fully rested.

The Union had a very strong (~3000 power estimated) force entrenched 4 or 5 outside of Alexandria, so I knew I was gambling with the attack.

What surprised me was that Jackson retreated successfully in hour 2 of day 8 before the battle was joined, taking 20 hits. His corps changed to green posture and remained in Alexandria. So instead of combining with a 3:2 power advantage, Longstreet's corps attacked alone... with predictable results.

I am a new player so I can't really gauge whether this is an odd result, but it surprised me because I thought red/red is a "no retreat" mode and Jackson is one of the best leaders in the game.

Is it worth asking my PBEM opponent to post the turn files here for a post mortem or can a more experienced player let me know whether this is a common result? Any thoughts?