AARs - post here all after battle comments and replay files

Yes, if the morale is too low, the unit won't fight/shoot. It doesn't matter what formation they are in.

That could be it then, it was near the end of the battle when I was sending Cossacks around in Pac-Man mode gobbling up random scattered cannons. Three guns were within 50 yds of 2 squares and they just stood and watched their comrades get captured.

I have noticed some anomalous behavior both in yesterday's game and through playing several KS scenarios on my own. This mainly consists of units repositioning themselves without specific orders to do so, but has also included some instances of units within weapons range of enemy troops not engaging.

I do recall a moment near the end of the battle when a French battalion behind an artillery battery simply stood in place as my troops approached, and I was able to approach to within 50 yards without taking fire from either the battalion or the artillery. This might just be due to some convergence of circumstances, but seems to be similar to what is being described above.

I have noticed a change in the tendency of the infantry AI to form square; they have become on the whole more cautious, and will form square with cavalry at a greater distance.

units repositioning themselves without specific orders to do so

This is very normal behaviour in both stock WL and the KS Mod. I often TC units that I need to maintain position. In fact due to the game "thinking" too much for me, I TC units a lot.

a French battalion behind an artillery battery simply stood in place as my troops approached, and I was able to approach to within 50 yards without taking fire from either the battalion or the artillery

When units are exhausted or of low morale they can behave like a deer in headlights. Its a sign they are brittle and morale may soon collapse.

I have noticed a change in the tendency of the infantry AI to form square; they have become on the whole more cautious, and will form square with cavalry at a greater distance

That's correct. The way the AI perceives threats has been mostly rewritten in its entirety. You'll see instances of infantry forming squares too late as well. There is a wide range of possible reactions.

When you say “has been mostly rewritten”, you are referring to 1.32 relative to 1.31, correct? Or simply to the KS mod versus the stock game?

The battalion behind the battery is the one assigned by the Ai to guard it. It's a KS mod feature designed to make it more difficult to take out batteries with cab, particularly. The unit will be automatically taken from an inf brigade close by once the battery is deployed for a while, perhaps 5 mins. This inf battalion will stay there and guns will run to it if threatened.
The frequent repositioning is common. You can TC it though, if you want to use it elsewhere. It will form square automatically if not TCd if cab about.

Line 4 should read cav

When you say “has been mostly rewritten”, you are referring to 1.32 relative to 1.31, correct? Or simply to the KS mod versus the stock game?

It is relative to the stock AI. Little of it remains apart from some function names.

Just bumping this up as we used to use this thread for AARs and now it seems we chat about everything in Impromptu Games...
Just two points I wanted to make after the last battle:
1) Vince's scenarios are really good - I'm really curious about the Defensive one as this is extremely difficult to make and to not be walk over for human players. Obviously you can field AI army that's 3 times stronger... but these are reserved for Pat

2) r59 did an excellent job... I wondered if my Corps would have been more effective if I took a cavalry brigade from Ehey's division and provided that r59 would perform to the same level as division commander we could have demolished this western French division in 15 minutes and then strike at the chosen flank (probably the southern/eastern one anyway). With complete rout of this part of French forces, we could have taken Molina much earlier and allow the Prince of Orange to focus on the 4th objective...

I had a very difficult time tactically and was in a poor position in terms of ground. I went NW initially to Aledo behind Ehey and as both of us reported to Miko that there was nothing there, Miko told me to go NE to Molina. I reached a few yards beyond Alcantarilla and simultaneously sighted enemy in three directions - in front of me coming down the main road from Molina, to my left (WNW) where Ehey had spotted a division and was engaging it with his horse artillery, and to my right where a cuirassier brigade was coming from the E along a road out of a wooded valley that joined the main road I was on about 300 yds in front of me. I got my guns and infantry to about face and go back to Alcantarilla asap and tried to deploy to face the biggest threat which turned out to be on my right where a whole enemy division was erupting from some woods and hollows in front of Vince (who was Clinton, on my right). Strangely the enemy from Molina turned out to be a guard artillery battery entirely on its own. I informed Ehey of this and he rode over with the Prince Regent's hussars and wiped it out straight away. I later saw more guns and infantry of this force moving away from me on the Molina road - a rather odd move by the AI. Later I realised that this division was between our corps and the Orange Prince's and probably got distracted by him. At the same time the enemy on my right must have not seen me but did see Clinton as they all turned and went for him.

I had a really poor area of ground which was in effect the end of a ridge shaped like the toe of a boot, rounded off in all directions with convex slopes so that despite moving my guns all over the place they wouldn't settle down and get off any meaningful amount of shots. The right flank of the division attacking Clinton threw a handful of battalions at me but my Hanoverian landwehr (!) managed to shoot them away very quickly so these guys must have already been disorganised from combat elsewhere.

Then the enemy facing Ehey became a bit more aggressive, probably because he'd been tasked with moving some of his cavalry from my left to my right to support Clinton. Once again my guns had a horrible slope in front of them that seemed to mostly conceal the enemy as he approached and the battery commanders insisted in piddling about, moving here and there so that one of my batteries got charged by an enemy column, losing 4 of its 6 guns. Then a shed load of cuirassiers turned up and suddenly I had my hands full. I asked for cavalry support and pulled right back to behind Clinton's left flank but found a better ridge to sit on and things stabilised although I lost 1 landwehr battalion to a cavalry charge.

Then Clinton seemed to be going on the offensive on my right and I saw some battalions of Keilmansegg (r59) appear on my left. Everyone was going forward though I'd not had any orders to attack but chose to join in and that led to a complete French collapse all along 2nd Corps' front. I was approaching Gutillas when the game ended.

It looked from the replay like Kevin's boys had little to do but go hide in the Murcia entrenchments and shoot any "pheasants" that flew their way away from us "beaters".

Pheasant hunting

My job as lead division was to find a point to cross Thru the fortifications and hit the primary objective. Also in anticipation of having to breach the defenses, identify a spot where all the corps artillery could focus attention for 15-20 in grand battery style

The river crossing was tough. For starters, lunch service was late. MTG Catering again screwed up the orders. We simply cannot abide having condiments that are not brand name. The roast beef was slightly cold and overdone. So it took a while to sort that out

The crossing was open with French maybe 1000 yards distant. But my whole division got jammed up in one fashion or another, one brigade commander opting to go elsewhere. It was a hard river to cross. So we were slow in crossing. By the time I actually got a brigade across in strength, the French were on top of us. But the squares held and were in a hollow, out of artillery line of sight. Kevin’s cavalry helped clear the way. So Within 30 mins we gained a foothold and could expand the bridgehead. The French only had light resistance left so we could push them aside, get into the fortifications in time to hold off French counterattacks of which there were multiple.

Phil took the right flank. I took the south. Kevin took off for lunch and we saw him later in the game using his troopers to herd sheep for the local farmer. While I doubt the overall combat effectiveness of his cavalry I found the ad hoc sheep herding trials to actually be fascinating and educational. We made sure that each battalion could rotate off the main firing line for a few minutes to watch the affair before being marched off again to engage the French

We heard rumors of another British corps being engaged but did not see anything a d quickly lost interest in their fate per orders of our own corps commander.

I was quite fortunate in that the French seemed to want to practically give me their guns while also deciding to send most of their cavalry off to the battle in the north. The division that attacked in the north of Aledo that I held off was quite small as well and incapable of stretching around my flanks or surviving an attempt to push up in squares. Horse artillery seems to be very adept in handling these hilly situations that make using regular artillery difficult, since the horse guns don't worry as much about being too close to the enemy. I was able to pretty comfortably hold them in check while supporting Clinton (Vince) and Colville (Martin). Once the 4 regiments of heavy cav the French sent were defeated the tides had turned. Between the restarts and the front line starting to move forward so fast I actually was getting a bit lost and failed to keep track of all my units. I was just riding around looking for things to beat up when I spotted another battery out all on its lonesome. I was too busy seeing red at that point to notice the friendly infantry walking up to the guns, comically stealing their glory not 10 yards from the guns themselves. I did feel a little bad when R59 sent me the message. I couldn't see it being in character of a cavalryman to apologize so I taunted him in game and apologized out of character when the gods of polite videogame behavior crashed my game.

It was a good game, and I can't help but appreciate the irony of Vince getting struck in the flank by his own planned scenario

Once again, my Corps was tasked with all the heavy lifting.
The first order of business was to storm a fortified city. Fortunately, the French garrison was having lunch at its camp and the breastworks were mostly undefended. Believe it or not, Stedman, Pat, and Alten, Phil, quickly crossed a wide stream and entered via two roads. The French seemed surprised to see us and after a brief fight, fled through the northern gates.
Gutillas, which was in the NW sector of the fortress was our first objective and was secured quickly by Stedman, shocking but true. Alten was ordered north to secure the road between Cuetio and the fortress. He arrived just in time as French Old Guard were
approaching. Another division appeared in front of Gutillas and the entrance south of it. It was a heated affair and apart from the usual hysterical shrieks for cavalry support by Stedman, he handled the defense competently enough.
As this attack was winding down, the French division in the north was making it's first serious assault. There would be three in total, heavily supported by cavalry. It appeared to be a coordinated attack as still another division attacked the southern end of our line at nearly the same time. It appeared that all the enemy forces in the region were determined to retake Murcia. As I confided to Stedman, Hill must have lost his compass and was marching his units south, out of theater. I wondered if Hill's men had engaged the enemy at all that day. The replay is sadly inconclusive on that point. His commanders say otherwise, but they are well known as braggarts and liars.
As the day ended, the attacks against Alten had stopped and he would have been able to push north towards Cuetio. The fighting in the south was still heated and going on but the French had no chance for success there either. In total, I Corps faced and defeated 48,000 of the enemy. Hill, I believe it is fair to say, saw off three savage baggage train masters and camp followers in company strength.
-William, Prinz von Orange

That division that initially hit you Ehey, when it got its act together had a 12pdr battery because it gave me grief with canister whenever I tried to send units off the hill to flank its infantry's advance on my own guns.

On my side, it was just an easy defense I would say. I didn't expect the French to hit our corps first since when simulating the battle it always hit 1st corps in the east.

In contrary to Martin, I had a strong defensive position, top of the hill with a stream at his foot. Then I could defend it against a French division with only 3 regiments and guns. 

I guess that if cavalry on my side was controlled by human we could have destroyed that division earlier and then turn the central French army from the south to relieve Martin. But finally, ennemy lines cracked on every points allowing us to reach Molina. 

According to the replay I would say that 90% of the French regiments were routed, but this doesn't appear in the casualties, am I correct ? The battle report said 15 000 casualties on French side only.

Routed troops do not count as casualties. According to my outcome calculator, the French suffered 17616 casualties and the British: 5794. It was declared a decisive allied victory.

Some thoughts about last battle...
1. I'm very curious of Kevin's take on it and can't wait to read explanation how his Corps did the heavy lifting again
2. Scenario - it was very well designed, however there is a problem with AI on these "restricted movement" maps... as I don't think there is really  any AI's "plan" to attack through the non-fordable river or sophisticated "fight for the bridgehead"... the other problem is couriers, but I think these were not a huge problem this time (like on Smolensk map).
3. My battle could have been very boring (but probably not as much as Kevin's) if I just stayed behind the river and laughed at Austrian AI trying to cross the bridge. Instead I decided to confuse AI by engaging further north, if possible at the 2 crossroads... there was a bit of high ground suitable for deploying defence... my plan was to get the most cavalry on the left flank and assist Ehey's infantry from there... unfortunately the Austrian Vanguard was quite active and moved to meet Ehey before he could reach the favourable ground also soon the big chunk of Austrian Army joined and pushed along 2 roads on what appears as narrow frontage on the map, but we must remember it's 10 or 7.5? mile map so the "feel of distance" from standard 5 mile map is sometimes misleading. I was in desperate need of infantry on my right, as Austrian infantry marched happily towards my guns despite receiving a lot of canister shots... then after I lost most of my guns the Emperor sent eventually help of his whole division and part of Phil's elite "the brave snails" division... with combined artillery/infantry fire and charging/counter charging of my cavalry we inflicted heavy losses on Austrian clumsy juggernaut...

4. I'm looking forward to see similar scenario but for PvP?

Indeed no AI can think about crossing only where bridges are. But since they started in the North, they could only cross on bridge roads located on the NW part of the river and with so many of them, it doesn't matter if they don't cross on a bridge. The only bridge that actually matters was the one already controlled.  

I tested AI vs AI before playing and it behaves on a pretty good way. But when playing I was very surprised of their very low agressivity level even on the end. I expected more a situation Phil and I faced at Montebello. I also think that the cavalry of Seras division should be removed, as it make it to easy to defend the area.

There is something quite unrealistic in final casualties of western area. Oudinot corps only got 1000 casualties when facing 32 000 austrians (5 divisions), very strange. The inflicted casualties are close to 10000. In addition they were very good troops of elite grenadiers in these western divisions. Even in the Auerstedt battle Davout got 30% casualties facing a force twice his size   . 

The only battle of Napoleonic area I could think with high casualties ratio such this are Iéna, Austerlitz and the French campaign but the army were more or less balanced and sometimes to the advantage of the French.

On the eastern part it was something like 2500 casualties against 7000, a bit more normal I would say. 

Is it linked to the fact that they were stacked on the same road ? Could it be linked to the fact that there were only 1 corps commander among Austrians ? More generally, is it better to split the AI army into 2 corps or keep just one ?

Indeed a player vs player would be interesting to play I guess.

Vince, I meant tactically - we, humans know that the river is only fordable at the bridges, AI doesn't (but even if it knew it doesn't have tactics implemented to attack through the bridge)... this makes defending the crossing against AI non-challenge at all... I could place a battalion at the bridge and deploy my guns properly and that's job done...

it doesn't matter if they don't cross on a bridge

- they CAN'T cross anywhere else on movement restricted map, that's what I'm pointing out

There is something quite unrealistic in final casualties of western area. Oudinot corps only got 800 casualties when facing 32 000 austrians (4 divisions), very strange. In addition they were very good troops of elite grenadiers in these western divisions. Even in the Auerstedt battle Davout got 30% casualties facing a force twice his size

AI is stupid as f... and in order to make it dangerous in offensive you need to give it a lot of cavalry - they need pronounced advantage in cavalry over human player... Grenadiers would just march and if they are good quality (as they were) they could get to the guns and maybe charge some infantry... but they won't do sophisticated fire/advance things... artillery advantage is also advised for AI, but if AI is to attack then it's more matter of chance if they deploy well against human player (so more batteries = more chance to do so)...

Could it be linked to the fact that there were only 1 corps commander among Austrians ? More generally, is it better to split the AI army into 2 corps or keep just one ?

that could have played some role... as Corps commander would send orders to divisions according to some plan... if nothing else the couriers would get quicker if the corps commander is closer to his divisions...

 they CAN'T cross anywhere else on movement restricted map, that's what I'm pointing out 

Indeed, but that river wasn't restrictive. I didn't intend to compel the AI to cross on bridges. The only idea was to restric movement for players at the beginning and offer the choice:
- attack the bridge and cross there to go west os quick as possible
- take the second bridge 

After the crossing, everybody is south of the river, then it is a normal game. The thing I didn't knew was the fact that this river was so hard to cross for regiments and would allow such easy defense for human players.

Other improvements would be to allow Austrians to take several roads, as you suggested. I tried the concentrating option, but not conclusive I would say  . 

Only conclusive to allow Martin and Kevin to have a sightseeing in Kelheim sponsored by Grog.

As discussed in the after battle chat I would try using the French as the AI in a player vs AI-attacking-the-players scenario, or you could increase the values in the commanders stats in the scenario file after it is generated.

You could also give the player team an 1806 Prussian, 1808 Spanish or 1800s Austrian army to command.

It may be best to avoid all obstacles for the AI to negotiate such as forests, large cities or rivers, even if these are crossable.

Your scenarios are extremely well thought out Vince and I look forward to enjoying more of them.

Even though I spent a lot of time yesterday just marching and then sitting in a pub garden drinking a rather fine Burgundy while my men relaxed in the sun, it wasn't a boring game for me at all. In fact I thought the events where we had several "corps" on the battlefield and a whole corps could be held in reserve for an hour in readiness for an enemy breakthrough was wonderful, even though that breakthrough didn't happen.

Indeed, but that river wasn't restrictive.

Oh sorry Vince, I was convinced that it was RM map... but if not then penalty multiplier for walking through water was quite extreme so it felt like it's RM map...

You could also give the player team an 1806 Prussian, 1808 Spanish or 1800s Austrian army to command.

or give AI 1812 Russians if you want to play French... would be definitely easier to make it hard for human players than Austrians...

but all in all.. we love your scenarios... we play defensive vs AI quite rarely as these are the hardest to compose with sense... I'd say yours was way better than some we've played in the past...

The 1812 Russians I left off the list because they do not have dynamic enough commanders, by all means add them to the list of AI sides that need their stats increasing to make them a suitably aggressive opponent.

Which stats in particular are needed to be increased ?