So far I prefer the Grog V toolbar, but I realize the other one is new and being worked on. Also it's possible that what I was 'missing' were things that a divisional commander would normally be missing compared to brigade (the way I've played in the past). There isn't much point for a divisional commander to have his brigades strung out in three columns behind him I suppose for example.
As for the battle itself: our task was to take a fortified city (Dungheap or something like that
) at the map's north edge, slightly east of center. But my division spawned in at near the bottom right corner of the map, so it took me a good hour or more to get where I could even hear the fighting, and some time after that to get the divisions in line to sweep a hill free of Netherland regiments and arty -- and to do that I was moving west south of the target city, not north toward the city! On casualties I gave almost as good as I got, losing around 960 to their 1100+ if I recall correctly, but I consider it a win since the Nether troops were steadily broken and pushed off the hill southward, well away from the group and city they were supposed to be supporting. But I never did get closer to the city than to see it on its hill in the distance (occasionally). The enemy deployed in depth in front of the city, and we basically needed more than three hours to clear them away sufficiently to mount an assault -- and in the SoW engine (as with the TC engine) I'm not sure that would have ever been feasible, since scattered regiments would always be reforming to harass and counter-attack. A fight for a city that size would have needed at least a good day dedicated to it, I expect!
Also, I can't for the life of me imagine how anyone can play this system at the corps level, much less the army level -- not from HITS. There wasn't enough feedback to me from the game system about the general position of my brigades at the divisional level, that I could expect in real life. Example, my arty parked on a hill across a valley to the east from the hill with the Nethers I was going to sweep -- fine. (I gave orders for them to go to a counter-arty mission as we were about to get danger-close and the Nether arty was harassing Asid, but who knows if that happened.) As we got ready to clear the hill I gave orders (by courier) to the arty captain to bring his groups up closer off to the south side for support and to get them ready to move up onto the vacated hill to start work on the deployed enemy to the north and northwest, and eventually the city target. I knew that would take some time and things might go a little different but if we got pushed off the hill we could retreat behind the arty and rally there while they shotgunned tired regiments at close distance coming over the brow; or if the enemy ran south (what happened) the arty might be there in time to take some pot-shots and keep them going.
Fifteen minutes later we push the hill top enough to securely position the arty in a grove per the plan. Can't see them, can't find them, they don't seem to be where I ordered them or on the way there, but I figure they may have taken a road route oddly (I did ask for that). I send out a courier telling them to leg it double-time to the edge of the grove, ignore roads.
Fifteen minutes later, the hill is totally secure, some divisional elements are pushing in waves south pursuing the Nether regiments. I go to check the arty -- no arty. I ride around various places. No arty. I can't ask anyone "Where is the arty?" -- they can't even point in vague directions from which I could build up an idea! I can bring up the OOB for the arty captain and "go to arty", which turns my head, but I spend another quarter hour riding around like that getting different phantom directions. No arty. I eventually figure toward the end of the battle that they've deployed on the south slope like I asked and are shelling the Nether troops (somewhat according to that plan), because I happen to catch a glimpse of them (much farther south than I was expecting) -- and then the scenario stops.
Now of course in a full multiplayer compliment, someone (or multiple someones) would have been running that artillery group, and I could have sent a courier asking their location and they could have told me, and/or explained why they couldn't or wouldn't deploy. The AI has no way of giving that feedback.
I was able to keep my two infantry brigades on rough wings left and right of me as an axis, and that wasn't too bad -- I didn't do much direct command there, just sent orders to the brigadiers to bring of the line here or there and let them deploy as they saw fit. The AI did a good job, and of course I know from experience the AI also simulates commander proclivities down to the regiment or company level (not sure what the minimum is). But blimey if a corps commander would be able to "wing it" like that! -- I can get
some positional feedback by looking around nearby within "divisional" distance, but corps and above would need positional reports that the computer just can't give. Norbsoft should consider granting occasional "pings" on the map from generals giving a position and placement.
(Relatedly, I tried to keep Asid up to date on where my division was and what we were doing, as we passed various checkpoints. :
)
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Topic: SOW Waterloo Multiplayer 04/02/17 (Read 5229 times)
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April 08, 2018, 11:40:21 AM
