Make M&B a more tactical game?

[Russel]

Well I just wanted to comment on some things that are ingame that remove from the game experience.
First of all even when I sellect 100% battle size It does not allow me to use my full force, It usually takes a great number of a certain troup type
for example: 8 Swadian Man at Arms and 2 Swadian Militia
Something around those numbers,
This is neccesarily a bad settup but when I recieve these troops against a band of Bandits or Sea Raiders they group around my valuable horses and cut the down one by one which ends in victory but with much greater losses then I would suffer with 10 militia.
I suggest the game allow us to select our force and perhaps even call out the reinforcements by ourselves,
This could work well with a MAP overview before entering combat and perhaps characters with the "tactics" skill would have an advantage in selecting start position and such.
Secondly whilst in combat I think that giving the player more control over the units would give the game another aspect of combat tactics.
Just a few examples:
Being able to tell your horsemen to not enter that river full of enemies,
Placing your footsoldiers (shields) infront of your archers and so on.
This could be achieved by creating unit control groups?
Well any ideas/comments would be appreciated

 

[nightrunn3r]

it won't let you use your full force because of engine limitations.

 

[Tera_Dragon]

it won't let you use your full force because of engine limitations.

He means being able to choose which troops you do have on the battle field. So if you can only have ten troops you can choose how many of each troop to take.

I think that this thread belongs in the suggestion topic.

 

[JohnathanStrange]

First of all even when I sellect 100% battle size ...I suggest the game allow us to select our force and perhaps even call out the reinforcements by ourselves,

Engine limitations right now seem to preclude using all your men if your party is large. Right now, we can only adjust the troop slot order on our party menu to make it more probable that certain troops will be on the field.

I suggest the game allow us to select our force and perhaps even call out the reinforcements by ourselves,
This could work well with a MAP overview before entering combat and perhaps characters with the "tactics" skill would have an advantage in selecting start position and such.

I like that, it would make the start of a good post in the suggestions forum. I believe it's been suggested before but still a good idea.

Secondly whilst in combat I think that giving the player more control over the units would give the game another aspect of combat tactics.
Just a few examples:
Being able to tell your horsemen to not enter that river full of enemies,
Placing your footsoldiers (shields) infront of your archers and so on.
This could be achieved by creating unit control groups?

Much requested by many, especially the idea of separate commands for cavalry, infantry, archers. Or for at least an initial battle deployment with archers behind footmen (although there is a friendly fire problem with that!). Some even go so far as to recommend formations which I feel is a little unrealistic for 12 man war bands, but some very loose formations are not so unlikely, IMO.

Armagan has said that he's against too much micromanagement of combat but how much is too much is up to him, he's the boss.

IMO, your suggestions reflect many ideas currently ciculating.

 

[Invictus]

The simpliest way is to make a possibility to divide your troops into groups and then give them such orders as they are now.

 

[Kniggit]

10? i usually have about 20 or 30 men on the field, 10 if they are on horseback

IAn

 

[Ingolifs]

I'm currently experimenting with a beserker who only fights on foot. My goal is to have half vaegir knights and half vaegir guards. Knights tend to be more heavily armoured and carry a shield, so if you're up against a bunch of projectile throwing bastards, your men will have some protection before they close in.
The thing i didn't mention is that i order my knights to dismount. I find the best thing to do is lead my forces to some small hill and get everyone to dismount and hold ground. That way any infantry and cavalry is slaughtered as soon as it decides to attack. If i'm fighting khergits, who have about half cavalry half cavalry archers, i'll want to weather the first cavalry charge, and then order my units to mount their horses so they can hunt down the horse archers. Of course that isn't going to happen until the pach fixxes the bug.