SoW Waterloo - Artillery

Artillery

I just can't get the artillery to work properly in the SOWWL game. I never had problems using artillery in SOWGB game.

I have tried every thing suggested, yet they never work properly.

I give up.

Let me know if the problem is ever resolved.

I made a new topic for this SJ so it's not lost in the Calatayud battle thread.

I think you are right. I think there is a bit of a problem to do with how the new game calculates LoS. The maps are shaped differently in WL vs GB with more subtle changes of elevation and I suspect the LoS calculations get broken by this. In GB, if you notice, the map elevation changes are more abrupt and its easier to site guns on good ground.

However this does not explain two things:

Garnier's random maps are very smooth and artillery in GB has no problem on them.

In WL I've had batteries score over 2,000 points. Probably this was a lot of canister fire as well as roundshot but guns can do a lot of damage sometimes.

All I can say is that artillery does work, it simply takes a good bit more effort to site in correctly and I do not know what the magic answer is to that. Some days my guns massacre the enemy, other days they are crewed by one armed drunken retards.

I respectfully bow out.

Because:
There is no answer to the why.
All the advice given has not solved my problem.
I can't get the artillery to work properly.
Despite having a clear field of fire, guns sometimes show the target is blocked.
Calvary running through squares, causing guns to auto-route.

Apart from the part about cavalry going through squares to make guns rout, these are questions you should address to NSD. I don't think any of these issues have been introduced by the KS mod, those are features of the basic game.

However I am with you on our guns routing thing. I do wonder if the guns rout away at too long a range and if we can reduce this. However if the range can't be altered I'd rather have our guns rout away than go back to the captured-and-used-on-their-previous-owners mechanic which was just idiocy of the first order to have included in the game (and GB) in the first place.

To prevent your guns being routed its also an option to deploy them further back. I'm guilty of placing them too far forwards because I like to see them canister my enemy - and consequently I lose them sometimes - but parking them 200-300 yards back is an option.

I believe the Calvary running though squares problem is related to the SOWWL and not a MOD problem.

The problem is similar to the old enemy infantry walking right on through friendly infantry.

It does appear this issue is rare.

I have tried putting squares out further and putting the guns back more.

Nevertheless, From over 700 yds. from my guns, I had an enemy charging Calvary unit pursue my Calvary, that I ordered to run away, go through two squares then run for over 500 yards in pursuit and cause the guns to auto route.

If I put the guns back even further they will be out of range for any targets.

Alas solving a problem created another problem.

On the other hand I have been able to "TC" a Calvary unit, give it a zig zag route though enemy lines and back, that was able to route the enemy guns and returned successfully with a few casualties. Of course some times it doesn't always work.

The LOS problem with artillery is part of the stock game. As Martin pointed out, this really shows up on the GB maps which are much more hilly than the WL maps. It's not something we can fix. Since NSD will look at no problem that involves anything except the stock game and maps, it will likely never be fixed.

The cavalry pursuit through squares is also in the stock game.

The auto-routing of guns is set so that charging cavalry will rout the guns rather than capture them. Even at the selected distance, 100 yd, the cavalry will occasionally still capture one. The problem is that the cavalry can be on top of the guns before the arty has time to check the distance. This is the result of trying to fix a game design which used a Hollywood movie as the basis for its historic behavior. Since the movie Gettysburg is holy scripture in NSD-land, this too is unlikely to be fixed.

What I have noticed a few times recently Kevin is that on the odd occasion cavalry do capture a gun, it routs away anyway. At least we don't get the ludicrous friendly vs enemy cannon duels we used to. Maybe we could reduce the 100yds to 50yds and see what happens. A test game maybe?

My view is that losing 30 cavalry to a captured gun that routs at once is a preferable situation to a line of guns that rout away from an enemy charge even when a friendly unit is in front of the guns trying to cover them. That's a very unhappy situation. Reducing the rout-away distance to 50yds should help to fix those instances.

Just my two cents, but couldn't the "Artillery Panic" setting distance be tweaked as well? Say maybe by 10 yrds and the auto route by 10 yrds.

If it is set to less than 100 yd, charging cavalry will capture several guns before the artillery notices how close they are and rout. I tested this quite a bit and 100 yd is the minimum distance that is needed.