HOW,WHAT and WHY...

[nilam]

Hi all me again,

Been trying to analyse the loss of Bonham"s corp (see screen shots).

To give you some background of events i had moved the corp to support
(outside the city) B"gard who is in the city.
Cohesion was good,supply train,probably only level 1 trench.

HOW did i lose the first engagement (stalemate) at worse.

WHAT is out of command units (not seen that before).

Why didnt the corp (or part of it) attempt to retreat.

I have control of area"s south of Winchester,though the Yanks had moved
1 brigade there during the turn.

I would also like to get a discussion going on the ammount of Art deployed
and as all the casualties where to forces outside Winchester
there is benefits to being inside a city when cannon balls are flying past your ears.



ears wouldnt yous ay

[Jarkko]

Which troops were present initially? If I would have to guess, I would say Union side had a horrible edge in artillery before reinforcements marched to the guns. Looking at the ranged casualties in the first battle, I would say you got totally outgunned. Which led to not only lots of casualties in the first fight, also prolly meant your other troops were low on cohesion too.

Out of command means you had troops present without enough command. Perhaps an independent detachment or division?

What orders did you have for your commanding general? Looks like he had fight to death?

[Jarkko]

Also, I don't see any entrechments in effect. Did you have any troops outside the city dug in?

It appears to me Beuregard indeed had the fight to death command. In the little experience I have, I have found it generally to be a bad idea to have Army leaders sit inside cities, because they choose automatically fight to death stance, and if they then happen to march to the sound of guns... :shiver:

[nilam]

Hi Jarkko,

I didnt have any loose units they were all in divs,i did see messages concerning this,perhaps they had"nt been paid or something.
i ignored it basically because i did"nt know how to put it right.

The point i"m trying to make about the art is i thought there was a limitation
(by frontage) to how many guns could be brought to bare.

Bonham (Corp commander) was in passive (blue mode) as he was low on general supply.

B"gard was in Winchester having an early lunch (blue again)
and i was"nt aware of a "fight to the death" button anyway.

thanks for the reply>

[Jarkko]

Uh oh... passive mode when entering battle is *bad*.

Well, correct me if I am wrong, but isn't Winchester clear terrain (can't open the game now ). Which would mean the frontage is 45 elements wide, right? Which gives well enough space for the 25 Union artillery elements to line up and nuke away...


EDIT: Btw, when trying to get a grip of this game (not that I still am even close to understanding even half the things in the game) I found these two discussions very enlightening regarding field battles:
http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=11074
http://www.ageod-forum.com/showthread.php?t=10849
Reading those two I came to the conclusion massed artillery is indeed the King of Battle in clear or wooded terrain, and not too shabby elsewhere either.

[johnnycai]

I would check the battle log txt file. Its very possible that Beauregard didnt help Bonham. Was Beaury' command relatively untouched? The numbers of hits suffered in ranged combat indicates the US had a cannon advantage on your troops.
I have had similar happen to me...the corps fights to the death to shield the Army stack. Did you have Bonham on 'hold at all costs'?

[nilam]

hi again,

I did"nt know he was going to attack (pbem game).

I think you have knocked the nail on head -Yanks attacked Winchester
(level 6 trench) and no casualties ,Bonham marches to the sound of the guns
and gets an eyefull........DOH!!!!
Won"t make that mistake again.

NEWS FLASH>>>>Yanks retreat from Siege of Winchester!!(low cohesion)
Should have attacked outopportunity missed....

[nilam]

HI JONNYCAI,

Sorry just got your message-B"gard not a scratch inside W"ter,
Bonham was totalled.
Whats this fight at all cost (to the death) thingy.?

They were definately blue (passive)

[ohms_law]

Blue is defensive posture. Green is passive.

[nilam]

Quite right Ohms,i stand corrected.

Certainly NOT "fight to the death" mode.

Thanks

[ohms_law]

If you're using a defensive posture (blue) coupled with the red ROE button though, that is "fight to the death" mode. It's actually named "Hold at all Cost", but same difference.

If you select a Passive (green) posture though then the unit is automatically set to "Retreat if Engaged" (green) ROE as well, though.

[Jarkko]

Certainly NOT "fight to the death" mode.

A garrison in a city with defensive posture automatically selects "Hold at all costs". Now, if you have an Army commander garrisoning a city (like in your case) and he marches to the sound of guns, then *he* takes command of his troops. And as he has orders to hold at all costs, then he will relay that order to his troops.

Solution: Don't place Army commanders inside a city.

[nilam]

Thanks for that Ohms and Jarkko,

I learn something new about this game every day.

Now the Yanks have called off the siege i will move B"gard out of Winchester
next turn (hope my oponent is" reading this).

Thanks again

[Pocus]

Clever minds over there I would say

[Gray_Lensman]

deleted

[Jarkko]

I'm curious. Learning something new everyday about AACW and other games with this game engine. In what file is the information concerning terrain and frontage found?

Ummm... was this question for me? I don't what file the information is from. The information I have regarding frontage is from this thread. Notice that in 1st post of the thread Jabberwok describe frontage for wheeled units (ie artillery for example) and in post 12 for standard infantry.

[Captain]

[quote="Jarkko"]Uh oh... passive mode when entering battle is *bad*.

Jarkko,

What about moving into an enemy occupied area on blue/blue ?

[Jarkko]

What about moving into an enemy occupied area on blue/blue ?

If you move in defensive posture to an area controlled by your opponent, then your troops automatically take an offensive posture. If your commander is inactive (and thus was not able to choose offensive posture), then you'll fight possible combats with the inactive penalty despite automatically being in offensive posture.

Did I understand your question right?