how do i get my men to skirmish

[Cornelis]

is there a way i can get my ranged troops to skirmish like the AI does for their troops as in the ranged won't engage in close combat but they will advance and retreat if they need to i have just been going along with hold position and moving them or follow command i hope someone knows something about it thanks

 

[King Yngvar]

is there a way i can get my ranged troops to skirmish like the AI does for their troops as in the ranged won't engage in close combat but they will advance and retreat if they need to i have just been going along with hold position and moving them or follow command i hope someone knows something about it thanks

Advance command. I hate that the advance command causes skirmish because any infantry with javelins suddenly becomes "ranged" and starts behaving that way. There needs to be a separate skirmish command.

 

[Cornelis]

Advance command. I hate that the advance command causes skirmish because any infantry with javelins suddenly becomes "ranged" and starts behaving that way. There needs to be a separate skirmish command.

thanks for letting me know but just wondering why are you using advance on infantry why not just use charge i agree though it probably would be better to add a separate skirmish command

 

[Theofilos]

If you charge with infantry they go all around the place chasing whatever causing them to get shot by archers and seperate while advance they stay as a grp and more likely fight together.

 

[Cornelis]

If you charge with infantry they go all around the place chasing whatever causing them to get shot by archers and seperate while advance they stay as a grp and more likely fight together.

thanks for the clarification figured that one out just earlier starting to advance my shield walls seems to be working well but i noticed when i get my archers to advance they stay quite far back maybe a bit too far to be effective but i suppose that is necessary to keep them alive

 

[Theofilos]

Archers in advance will go forward 'till they can shoot and after that they will always keep max shooting distance so you can either use advance and then relocate manually or place them from beginning.What i usually do is place them behind shieldwall and when inf clash i relocate them usually on left flank so they continue shooting and at left is better cuz at right although they flank inf has shields hanging while they hit so left is better and ofc i guide cav through enemy archers flanks and inf or horse archers depends the priority on numbers.Also take some skirmish cav they distract enemy archers/cav very effectively,preferably horse archers with 2 quivers.

 

[King of Limes]

Advance command. I hate that the advance command causes skirmish because any infantry with javelins suddenly becomes "ranged" and starts behaving that way. There needs to be a separate skirmish command.

You can tell your infantry to hold fire and they wont throw javs

 

[King Yngvar]

You can tell your infantry to hold fire and they wont throw javs

No one is getting the point. This causes ai controlled infantry to run back and forth like idiots because some of them have javs.

 

[Badcritter]

No one is getting the point. This causes ai controlled infantry to run back and forth like idiots because some of them have javs.

Wasn't his point that if you tell your infantry to hold fire, the ones which have javelins will effectively act as if they don't, thus solving the problem of them running back and forth and breaking formation?

I just tested, and I now understand what @King Yngvar was getting at. Looks like the ones with javelins will hold back at javelin distance and do nothing if they are told to hold fire. Obviously this is ridiculous and needs to be fixed.

A skirmish behaviour and/or a skirmish unit group category would help in a lot of situations. There is already a group category for it, but troops are never automatically sorted into it. But then should we have a mounted skirmisher group category as well? Mostly they could just go with mounted archers, but some troops that are really mounted skirmishers get categorised as cavalry. It's complicated.

Devs have mentioned that there is an overhaul of orders and combat behaviours in the works, but the scope wasn't made clear.

 

[Cornelis]

Wasn't his point that if you tell your infantry to hold fire, the ones which have javelins will effectively act as if they don't, thus solving the problem of them running back and forth and breaking formation?

I just tested, and I now understand what @King Yngvar was getting at. Looks like the ones with javelins will hold back at javelin distance and do nothing if they are told to hold fire. Obviously this is ridiculous and needs to be fixed.

A skirmish behaviour and/or a skirmish unit group category would help in a lot of situations. There is already a group category for it, but troops are never automatically sorted into it. But then should we have a mounted skirmisher group category as well? Mostly they could just go with mounted archers, but some troops that are really mounted skirmishers get categorised as cavalry. It's complicated.

Devs have mentioned that there is an overhaul of orders and combat behaviours in the works, but the scope wasn't made clear.

thanks for the testing and clearing it all up i really hope they do overhaul orders and combat behaviors soon it needs to be fixed when they can get around to it but thanks for letting us know that the devs mentioned it i think everyone is down for the idea of a skirmish unit group category it's just something that's yet to be implemented

 

[Cornelis]

Archers in advance will go forward 'till they can shoot and after that they will always keep max shooting distance so you can either use advance and then relocate manually or place them from beginning.What i usually do is place them behind shieldwall and when inf clash i relocate them usually on left flank so they continue shooting and at left is better cuz at right although they flank inf has shields hanging while they hit so left is better and ofc i guide cav through enemy archers flanks and inf or horse archers depends the priority on numbers.Also take some skirmish cav they distract enemy archers/cav very effectively,preferably horse archers with 2 quivers.

thanks for the tips i'll try out shield wall tactic you mentioned seems like a good one i'm gonna start trying to implement cav into my armies i usually just have a basic inf/rang combo no depth