troop selection and placement questions

[sandoval]

1. when attacking a bandit camp, the game doesn't give me the troops I put on top of the list. Is this a bug or intended? And if intended, wtf and can I change it back to native?

2. When spawning in a battle, my archers place themselves in front of my infantry. This is suicidal when getting rushed by cavalry. On top of that, I often find my infantry not responding to my commands for a while at the start. Any way to change the initial placement? I want my archers always to spawn behind my infantry.

any  insights welcome.

 

[Articulo34]

2. When spawning in a battle, my archers place themselves in front of my infantry. This is suicidal when getting rushed by cavalry. On top of that, I often find my infantry not responding to my commands for a while at the start. Any way to change the initial placement? I want my archers always to spawn behind my infantry.

You can break formations by ordering your troops to charge or by pressing "U", that should make them more docile. About changing the spawning positions I have no idea if it can be done, but you can use TweakMB to increase the size of the battlefield, thus getting more time for your deployments.

 

[SCV Arius]

1. when attacking a bandit camp, the game doesn't give me the troops I put on top of the list. Is this a bug or intended? And if intended, wtf and can I change it back to native?

It depends on how many different unit types are available in your party. In a theoretical scenario, having 10 different units during the bandit lair attack would result in most of the units on top showing up, but not all. It doesn't really matter in the merchant rescue quest but it would if the battle-hardened companion you placed on top gets replaced by an expendable unit.

 

[Brew]

For bandit hideouts you are only allowed bring 6 troops, so it selects 6 from the top of the list, now if you have lets say 10 RR and 10 EAC and they are 1st and 2nd place in the list it will typically select 4-5 RR and 1-2 EAC.

You can break formations as was suggest using "everyone" and then pressing "u", or you can quickly issue the command "2(archers)" followed by "F2" +"F2", this will get them to fall back 10 paces and allow your infantry to assume their desired position.
When you break formation remember to issue the "stand closer" command, it can be used 5-6 times on infantry and 2 times works best with archers.
Its also a very good idea to break formation on cavalry in all battles as it will spread them out allowing for wider charges, it can also reduce the amount of dismounting that can sometimes occur.

 

[Madame de Pompadour]

For bandit hideouts you are only allowed bring 6 troops, so it selects 6 from the top of the list, now if you have lets say 10 RR and 10 EAC and they are 1st and 2nd place in the list it will typically select 4-5 RR and 1-2 EAC.

You can break formations as was suggest using "everyone" and then pressing "u", or you can quickly issue the command "2(archers)" followed by "F2" +"F2", this will get them to fall back 10 paces and allow your infantry to assume their desired position.
When you break formation remember to issue the "stand closer" command, it can be used 5-6 times on infantry and 2 times works best with archers.
Its also a very good idea to break formation on cavalry in all battles as it will spread them out allowing for wider charges, it can also reduce the amount of dismounting that can sometimes occur.

F2-F5 to make them stay mounted.

 

[Brew]

F2-F5 to make them stay mounted.

Agreed but if they have being issued a hold position command and they are even a small distance from the horses that they dismounted they will not remount unless you move the hold position command near to the horses.
The hold position command forces them to stay within a certain range of the location and you can often see dismounted cav that have being issued the remount command moving back and forth towards the nearest horse that can be mounted

 

[sandoval]

Thanks for the answers.

1. bandit camp: I put my best units at the top of the list (in this case: 3 npc, then two groups of elite infantry, then two groups of elite archers), but then I spawn with maybe 2 weak units from way down (who die almost instantly). It doesn't seem to work properly.

2. It would relieve some of the initial stress if my archers would spawn behind the infantry. I would prefer not to break their formation, because their shieldwall is perfect against an early cavalry rush. If only it wouldn't leave my archers so exposed.
Btw. cavalry F2 F5 if usually my first command because of their annoying habit of dismounting. They will no longer dismount and even try to catch a free horse when their own horse gets killed. A very usefull command.


Unrelated: my kidnapped girl has no hair and I get an error message. It bothers me. Would a reinstall fix this?

 

[Brew]

Thanks for the answers.

1. bandit camp: I put my best units at the top of the list (in this case: 3 npc, then two groups of elite infantry, then two groups of elite archers), but then I spawn with maybe 2 weak units from way down (who die almost instantly). It doesn't seem to work properly.

2. It would relieve some of the initial stress if my archers would spawn behind the infantry. I would prefer not to break their formation, because their shieldwall is perfect against an early cavalry rush. If only it wouldn't leave my archers so exposed.
Btw. cavalry F2 F5 if usually my first command because of their annoying habit of dismounting. They will no longer dismount and even try to catch a free horse when their own horse gets killed. A very usefull command.


Unrelated: my kidnapped girl has no hair and I get an error message. It bothers me. Would a reinstall fix this?

Think of the bandit hideouts like a battle where it can pick any troops to join battle with you, I use companions only and the top 6 always spawn, its also an excellent opportunity to train your companions as bandit hideouts are easy with the exception of the snake cult shrine which can be hard

Breaking formation is preferred as it stops some weirdness from happening, when you break formation select infantry and then use "f2+f4" 5 times and they will form a shield wall it can also be used once more to increase depth at the loss of width

make sure you have the latest update as bald kidnapped girl was an issue in the previous update

 

[sandoval]

I have 3.7063, downloaded last weekend.

 

[Brew]

I have 3.7063, downloaded last weekend.

Well thats the latest, Maybe it was just a once off with the bald kidnapped girl and its a minor issue anyway

 

[Krozzy]

1. when attacking a bandit camp, the game doesn't give me the troops I put on top of the list. Is this a bug or intended? And if intended, wtf and can I change it back to native?

2. When spawning in a battle, my archers place themselves in front of my infantry. This is suicidal when getting rushed by cavalry. On top of that, I often find my infantry not responding to my commands for a while at the start. Any way to change the initial placement? I want my archers always to spawn behind my infantry.

any  insights welcome.

for 1; I'm not sure. It generally will pick from  the top of your list, but sometimes it doesn't, and I am not sure why. Something in the code that I think is intended.

for 2; hotkeys, hotkeys, hotkeys. I was pretty frustrated when I first started playing for this very same reason. But like all great games, you will soon be pressing hotkeys without even having to think about it. Then you will be like me; when I read your post I thought, "that's strange", but then I remembered that archers do indeed start in a forward position. My fingers are just so used to pressing hotkeys and moving my troops around from the second the battle loads, I have forgotten all about the archer thing.

 

[Madame de Pompadour]

My usual battle:
LeftAlt (reassigned from Backspace)
U
F2 F5
F2 F4 F2 F4 F2 F4 F2 F4
1 Click
2 Click
F3 F1
3 Shift+4 Click
F1 F2
F1 F1
F3 F2
F1 F2
F1 F2
Click
1 F2 F1
1 Shift+2 F2 F4 F2 F4
3 Shift+4 F1 F3
0 F1 F3
0 F1 F1 3
Shift+4 F2 F2 F2 F2
1 F2 F2
3 Shift+4 F1 F3
...
Very exciting, eh?

 

[thermocline]

Is there a guide or sticky that explains the new formations? Like staggered line, square, etc?

 

[Lord Irontoe]

Is there a guide or sticky that explains the new formations? Like staggered line, square, etc?

There's a section explaining them in the PDF guide that comes with the download

 

[bakters]

I turned formations OFF in camp menu.  It means that I have more or less Native behavior now, not?

 

[T.L.S.]

My usual battle:
LeftAlt (reassigned from Backspace)
U
F2 F5
F2 F4 F2 F4 F2 F4 F2 F4
1 Click
2 Click
F3 F1
3 Shift+4 Click
F1 F2
F1 F1
F3 F2
F1 F2
F1 F2
Click
1 F2 F1
1 Shift+2 F2 F4 F2 F4
3 Shift+4 F1 F3
0 F1 F3
0 F1 F1 3
Shift+4 F2 F2 F2 F2
1 F2 F2
3 Shift+4 F1 F3
...
Very exciting, eh?

Too much clicking...
1 ; or K F1 F2 F4
2 J F1 F2 F4 F2 F4 F2 F4 F2 F4
1 F1 F1 F1 (n-times)
1 F1 F3
1 K F1 F2 F4
0 F1 F3
Except some specific battles or battles with cav only or >80% cav armies (when spear/glave/halberd using troops are moved into separate division) its all the same...

 

[Krozzy]

My usual battle:
LeftAlt (reassigned from Backspace)
U
F2 F5
F2 F4 F2 F4 F2 F4 F2 F4
1 Click
2 Click
F3 F1
3 Shift+4 Click
F1 F2
F1 F1
F3 F2
F1 F2
F1 F2
Click
1 F2 F1
1 Shift+2 F2 F4 F2 F4
3 Shift+4 F1 F3
0 F1 F3
0 F1 F1 3
Shift+4 F2 F2 F2 F2
1 F2 F2
3 Shift+4 F1 F3
...
Very exciting, eh?