AARs - post here all after battle comments and replay files

Thanks, Pat, for a Great game and a tough fight.

Considering you were Commanding a whole Corps, your attacks were brilliantly coordinated and well placed. Your artillery had a nice position and they were churning up my squares whilst your cavalry and infantry kept me pinned down. It really was a 'Clear Run Thing'!

It was very fun. A bit furstrating though, since if I had better managed my coordination, Martin would have been routed and the western objectives taken, since I had twice more men and a lot a artillery left.

But I never experienced such troubles to make my regiments obey my command . You can click the button 10 times to order a move, they never will do so.

At the very beginning I sent my three divisions on 3 different roads to attack the Western objective from different sides. But I had three division stuck in place because of a two stupid scout units. This is a real problem, I thought that scouts will just run away when ennemy advances. That time they just prevented 20 000 men to move forward and I have no clue that it was happening (you can see that on the replay). In addition, the division commander keeps moving alone and get separated to his men while this happen. Then any direct order is very long to be executed or even useless.

Then I attacked the plateau where Phil was positionned. I had 6 guns batteries, but I never managed to make all of them fire, they only inflicted a few casualties. Don't know why, Phil regiments should have been seriously damaged since he only had 2 batteries left.

After that, I turned towards the west since I saw that Martin forces were dangerously exposed on their East flank and the way to West objective was within hand range. But again, among the 3 brigades almost fresh ordered to go there, only 4 regiments moved wery reluctantly.

I think I should have to TC my division commanders during the moving phase. I guess that their stats realy affects the way they attack or move compared to brigade commanders that seems more obedient, what do you think ?

I can't say what happens at the division level with the AI as I have never used it, division level with me always has a human player in that slot with brigade AI being the highest level I use. I don't think I'd even enjoy being a corps commander of a corps comprised of AI-led divisions; the lack of control would simply mess with me too much

My battle comprised about 2 1/2 hours of peace and quiet (we enjoyed a long leisurely lunch in the Haschendorf Gasthaus) followed by 60 minutes of trouser-soiling mayhem. I too saw the threat to my left (east) flank too late having assumed since Phil's command was on the ridge not too far away that the British wouldn't risk pushing between us, but since Vincent is a Frenchman he clearly had no qualms about throwing lots of little pixel Englishmen to their doom! Had that final attack been a bit stronger in both infantry and cavalry I'd have been in a mess; I was fortunate that of my 4 brigades, one was Jeune Garde and one was Vielle Garde so they had good staying power. One Young Garde battalion even counter charged some hussars

I haven't played too much with controlling corps, but a few games I've taken the corps commander and controlled my division from there for a while.  Unfortunately I don't think I have much advice for how to get the division AI to do what you want.  TCing the division commander may be the issue.  My guess is what happened is he saw the scouts as an enemy unit and halted to bring up his cavalry to chase them off.  The AI being occasionally a little slow in such things and the cavalry having been in the back I think made it take a while for them to try and deal with those scouts.  If this is the case, perhaps there's something that can be done in the game code so that scouts don't stop a whole division as easily.  If you haven't been, I also tend to put my stance as the furthest on the right, Hold At All Costs, when I am maneuvering around the flanks of an enemy.  That shortens their reaction range a lot while still allowing the AI commander to react on a very short leash.  I find it keeps them out of trouble and keeps the brigade together and moving smoothly pretty well.

In the first half of the game I was over fighting an epically big cavalry battle.  Grog's division had no cavalry at all and he'd spotted a British officer far south sending lots of messages.  We had both agreed the east was a possible and likely flanking route as well.  For this reason I decided to bring my whole division over to support Grog.  I also had intel about some forces moving towards us in the SW so I informed Phil and told him we should probably have the corps closer together and that he should just come north since I was going to support Grog anyway, but that he could stay if he wanted. Then there was a giant cavalry fight.  Pat had double my number, even with all my reinforcements arriving.  He probably could have defeated my division if he'd stayed to manually fight it

The bigger maps really open up the big fields that much more for some awesome cavalry fights I've noticed.  Or at least I've been deployed in areas with big fields a lot recently.

It was a fun game, and was very close right down to the end.  The British were very close to having 2 objectives.  You had my corps pinned down completely even if we weren't destroyed, we weren't winning the fight either.

I gave orders to division commanders only to get the troops on the road or in cases where I chose to trust the division to make a fight. Otherwise I always gave orders at brigade level.

In retrospect if I do that again I should probably TC the division commanders lest they override the orders I am giving to brigades

Ehey I like the hold at all costs option. Good idea. I purposely chose to let my cavalry AI commander fight it out since in general I seem to get better results with cav AI than infantry AI. I put the cav division on my left flank just so I could focus on my right flank where the objective was. It allowed me to spend additional time placing batteries better. I even commandeered the batteries from the other infantry division so I could focus 5 batteries on the fight for the objective. There was some good ground upon which to place them. I actually made a note of that in my notebook to remind myself to focus the batteries, a checklist of that and other tasks that I knew i would otherwise forget once the game started.

The only time I really paid attention to my left flank was when I got killed and respawned in that area. At same time I got a request from Vince to support his flank so I sent a light cav brigade there. It didn’t seem like there was a lot of cav facing me there, and it seemed odd that i was taking cav losses so heavily when I put them in a defensive posture to screen my flank. But the battle on my right was so tenuous at times that I paid no attention to the left other than to observe the oddity in high casualties. By the time I pulled division elements over to the right I could only count on one brigade and it was not very effective.

Mikos arrival on my right flank stopped my flanking division cold. And caused some weird and timid behavior in the brigade commanders.

I will create a couple more of these types. They are extremely fun and challenging to play. Something to do every once in a while.

Yes, If it was crucial for you that division march on road, then you should have TCd division commander... I would only unTC them if I'm hoping for them doing some fighting... but that's again better done with brigade level commanders and using division commander to set stance I guess...

Welcome back to Kevin and thanks for securing decisive victory for AI opponents - we were getting bored with winning

That made me giggle.

No thanks necessary, I'm happy to oblige. Today's might be a bit more challenging.

You plan to sit in a forest for three hours this time, blowing raspberries at the enemy cavalry?

And to think I am missing all that mayhem of raspberries and unusually aggressive AI actions.

The AI wasn't unusually aggressive, it was just that Kevin was unusually submissive. Something about all his cavalry only having 2 legs and wearing shakos.

Hello. I am new to KS mod and am learning to play it.

After reading the manual, I saw that you can deploy skirmishers by pressing the screen button or by pressing the skirmish formation button. When I do so, couriers are dispatched to my battalions and the skirmishers are broken off and start to move forward, but shortly afterwards they return to the parent unit right away. I then cannot deploy them again for 10 minutes after which, the immediate return happens again. I have tried to use both the skirmish button and the screen button. Same result. The French brigade I was using did not have Voltigeurs, but the manual says that "a company from a line battalion or grenadier battalion would fill that role". Is this a bug or for the French, do I need a Voltigeur battalion? I was playing the French scenario 130, I believe, which I read was an up-to-date scenario with the new skirmisher update.

Thank you for the help.

Warrior of Truth

Edit: I was just practicing to use it at the location where my Division officer sent me. I was a Brigade Officer and there were no enemies where I was if that is a factor.

If there are no enemies present the skirmishes will do a short patrol and return to their battalions. The skirmishers operate correctly once enemies are close.

Thank you for the help. I was trying to setup a skirmish line defence before I moved to the rest of my brigade, but if they would do it automatically, then there is not much to worry about.

The AI sends them out and in fact in wooded country or other close terrain your battalion majors sending forwards parties of skirmishers is the indication you need that the enemy is not far off. If you disable the "range to enemy" radar device the immersion increases too.

Another defeat suffered due to errors committed by 1st Corps... Digby left the sinking ship just in time... we thought we have won anyway without our Cavalry commander, only to discover that the most southern objective was hardly sniffed by Ehey's Horse patrol and never secured or approached by our infantrymen....

I begrudge your defeatism, sir. By my calculations there were two times we had to play forward to the next save witch means we have 6 minutes left on that scenario. Plenty of time to occupy the southern objective in as much force as necessary.

I likewise will rush to the defense of 1st corps honor

I explicitly gave orders to my 2 stellar division commanders Ehey and Grog to occupy those objectives. And to revert to fake news in replay viewers that seem to suggest we never got there with a brigade is simply untrue.

Just about the time that my own division arrived to rout the French from their positions in front of the Reserve Corps in the North near Wavre (all it took was one or two shots from my battery to send the foe fleeing), I received a message from the townspeople of the southernmost objective that not only did they already consider themselves occupied but in fact had all volunteered to enlist in the British Army, seeing that there were no French for miles and having been impressed with the demeanor of Eheys levitating cavalry scouts. I immediately accepted their enlistments sight unseen, created a provisional brigade in writing, attached that brigade to my division and thus declared the town occupied.

To think we were lax in our duties, Miko, is simply a falsehood that must be squashed like a bug.

Sunday's battle was another minor defeat. This time an earned one. I'll take the blame for cramming too many men into too small an area, though the French ended up doing the same. There was intense infantry fighting and it got very bloody. In the end we needed another few minutes.

I did notice the new moral update taking effect towards the end as I pushed a brigade to its limit. There seemed to be some kind of chain reaction going on as well when right at the end Pat's men on my left retired seemed to prompt my own men to decide it was time to take a break. I look forward to seeing the true effects of this system next time where I can fight with more than 3 battalions at a time.

My brigades got chewed up.

Yet another self inflicted defeat. Will the misery never end? Will someone, anyone, lead us into the the light and victory? I guess in the next battle, we will have to fight the Spanish.

Kevin, regarding our post-battle chat about retreating brigades that rout... I thought would it be possible then to do it without un-tcing a brigade commander just detaching him?
that way we would know that the brigade is battered and we would be able to move it further back (Ehey's question).
so to be clear what I suggest:
Brigade commander - forced TC and detach (from a division)
Units in the brigade - forced un-TC and attach (to this brigade)

it would be up for the players to not send this brigade straight back into the battle and we would know if that happened by looking at the attach/detach status of a brigade commander.

Could there be some kind of status showing as well for collapsed units and brigades? I struggled yesterday for a long time to get a grenadier battalion that was hiding way back in the woods to return to its parent brigade but it refused to do so for a very long time. It was mildly frustrating not knowing why this was when the rest of the brigade's five battalions were behaving well. Could there be a toolbar marker added perhaps within or adjacent to the cohesion bar that indicates a problem? Maybe a red star or a red outline around the cohesion bar? For a whole brigade it could be added to each unit whether that unit is individually wrecked or not.

I don't want to give players the option of deciding if their disorganized troops should fight or not. That would be like giving a player the freedom to decide if routed units can be forced to fight or not. If you order a disorganized unit to move towards the enemy, he will do so. When he gets within 350 yd., he will retreat, becoming even more disorganized. You can always move the btn. away from the enemy.

There is no way to put a notice on the toolbar that a unit is disorganized and has withdrawn. The interface is part of the game engine. I can put an icon on the toolbar that tells whether a unit is detached. That would at least give some information.