Bombardment of ships?

[ETF]

Ok my PBEM opponent/friend is stating that his cannons are not firing at my passing fleet. He has guns entrenched at least to level 3 at Norfolk and Richmond. I sailed in last turn just outside Richmond. He did not get a shot off. He says all his "bombardment" buttons are clicked on. Any idea what is up? It is the 1861 w/Kentucky full campaign scenario and it is July 1861. v. 1.14

Thanks

[soloswolf]

It's unlikely, but maybe you are sneaking by him?

[ETF]

hmmm not sure. I noticed I have the necessary ships to blockade Richmond. I only though see the block port symbol in the county to the south..Petersburg? Is it not possible to brown water Richmond?

Thanks

[MrT]

You can brown water Richmond, but for some god unknown reason until you have a fort in Richmond it appears to be nearly impossible to hit those ships in the James.
Personally thats quite annoying. On a serious scale.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Gray_Lensman]

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[MrT]

Yep, i understand gray, its just peeving when they park there whole fleet in the james blockading Richmond and there aint a tuppence worth of fight you can give them.

But as long as its fixed for ACW2

[Gray_Lensman]

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[MrT]

Okay then.. im preety sure I should have level 5 at the moment... how can i be sure because as far as i can tell.. its all done by pictures which doesnt actual say im level blah blah at the moment.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[MrT]

Thanks gray.. well im still with lvl4...that explains that then. Thanks for the tip about the entrechment levels.. played this game for a year now and never noticed that before, thats really what i love about it, Everyday you learn something new.

[Jim-NC]

hmmm not sure. I noticed I have the necessary ships to blockade Richmond. I only though see the black port symbol in the county to the south. Is it not possible to brown water Richmond?

Thanks

The blockade symbol may be hidden under units. As the Union, you can't move CSA units to see the blockade icon clearly, nor can you move them to see the harbor clearly (you have to get lucky). This particular problem is very noticable in Richmond as there are usually a lot of units there (something about being a capital). But can happen anywhere.

[enf91]

Note: The tooltip should probably more accurately state "The current Entrench level of your stack." not army... Different stacks in the same region can have different entrenchment levels.... Obviously, you will want "firing" artillery units to be in a stack that has a Level 5 or greater entrenchment icon.

Because of the new rules restricting entrenchment to level 3 before 1862, artillery can now bombard at that level. At least, that's what I've seen.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[MrT]

Then in that case the feature doesnt work. Unless there is only a tiny percentage chance to actually bombard. I and doubtless every other rebel lover out there, has the same problem in the James, you cant bombard the ships from Richmond or Nolfok. So im in agreement with the first poster.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[cptcav]

I have also noticed that after it does bombard, the unit reverts back to a no bombard status; otherwise, it will stay selected until the unit bombards an enemy fleet.

This can be frustrating if you are trying to protect a river and forget to check your batteries guarding them every turn.

Regards,
CptCav

[W.Barksdale]

Yep, i understand gray, its just peeving when they park there whole fleet in the james blockading Richmond and there aint a tuppence worth of fight you can give them.

But as long as its fixed for ACW2

Doesn't need to be fixed IMHO...Playing the CSA there are ways to prevent Union ships from holding, keeping at the least, the James River

Given the scale of the game you can be sure the ships are parked beyond the range of the shore batteries on the Richmond area.

[Big Ideas]

I have also noticed that after it does bombard, the unit reverts back to a no bombard status; otherwise, it will stay selected until the unit bombards an enemy fleet.

This can be frustrating if you are trying to protect a river and forget to check your batteries guarding them every turn.

Regards,
CptCav

I think what you are seeing is that any unit not activated will have it's special orders cancelled after you change posture. So if you give a special order -which includes bombardment of ships- to an unactivated stack and then change posture your special order gets cancelled and the icon "pops out". Before 1.14 bombard ships was the default order so it didn't matter as much before that. What you need to do is change postures first (only two choices for unactivated units) and then give special orders and you won't have any problems bombarding ships.
Other special orders include:
move by rail
move by river
synchronised move
seek shelter
promote leader
repair/destroy rails
build depot
bombard moving ships
the other special orders would be affected too but you can not issue these orders while not activated:
forced march
sortie
create division
destroy depot
evade fight

So remember to change your postures first and then issue any special orders and you shouldn't have a problem. (of unactivated units)

BI

PS I forgot to mention corps and army HQs. creating/retiring corps and army HQs doesn't matter which order you give your commands as these are instant and can not be cancelled by changing posture, as you can only do one click at a time.

[W.Barksdale]

Before 1.14 bombard ships was the default order so it didn't matter as much before that.

Not it wasn't. You've always had to press the special order button to bombard ships. The images were all messed up though this is most likely what confused you.

[Brochgale]

Probably sneaking by him although I have never found art in Norfolk ever firing at anything? A few of the Atlanyic coastal forts do and to great effect as my nephew found out when he tried a go for jugular attacks on Charleston and Wilmington - his frigates went glug! glug! glug!.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[W.Barksdale]

Actually, prior to v1.14 that's not really correct... Previously, the tooltip stated something to the effect "Press to NOT bombard passing ships...", meaning it was actually defaulted to bombard ships without being pressed. There were some threads on this subject in regard to how counter-intuitive it was in the way the image and tooltip read, that we arranged to reverse the game engine logic, along with rewording the tooltip and changing the icon. All this was supposed to be included together in the first v1.14 patch. What actually happened is the logic change made it into the game engine. but due to the swapping back and forth of a "shared" common file (one of the few that gets passed between many parties frequently), the tooltip work which was initially in place did not make it into the final v1.14 "official" patch necessitating the first v1.14 QuickFix.

Okay...

Ever since I've played you have had to press the button to bombard ships. The graphics were always mixed up until recently...

Anyway...this isn't worth arguing over...I just thought I'd point out my experience with the special order...and the graphics are now fixed!

[Gray_Lensman]

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[W.Barksdale]

Ahh yes thats right the tooltips were wrong too! I remember that..took me a while to remember to click the special order.

I agree the new v1.14 is the correct picture and the tooltips are definately accurate. Much better!

[Gray_Lensman]

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[ETF]

Ok so if he has the bombardment clicked on AND he has an activated stack >= 3 he should be able to bombard my ships?

If not what other techniques could he use to prevent this. Could a fort be built to the east or place units to the east with lv 3 and bombard as the ships move from east to west (Richmond)?
Was Richmond effectively blockaded in the war. Is this move gamey to brown water the area. Could ships not just stay a few miles off shore. This is a large waterway no?

Thanks Guys for all the help!!

[Gray_Lensman]

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[W.Barksdale]

Ok so if he has the bombardment clicked on AND he has an activated stack >= 3 he should be able to bombard my ships?

Activation has little to do with this. Units can still bombard if led by an inactive leader or no leader. Now, the units moving along the river can successfully bypass the river defences. I imagine its worked out using some kind of die roll with appropriate modifiers (CPs, forts, number of units, leader active(maybe) etc...)

[Gray_Lensman]

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