Problem with the Skirmish button in V132

I am experiencing a problem with tool bar buttons in V1.32 - some no longer seem to work as they did in V1.31

The skirmish button in particular is an issue, it is not functioning in either the Move or Combat options. Previously this button could be used to deploy a Brigade with its skirmish units to its front, now it does nothing. This is the case when using OOBs which have to original skirmish formations, not the new company units. There is now no way in which a Brigade can be ordered to deploy with it's skirmishers to the front.

I reloaded V1.31 and the button works as intended, so it does seem to be an issue with V1.32?

Pop1

That is correct. With the old style skirmishers that button only works at the battalion level. However, as long as the brigade commander is not TC'd, he will deploy skirmishers when the enemy gets close enough. If you are the brigade commander, then you will have to find which battalion has the skirmish button visible, press it and order the battalion forward.

Thanks for the reply. Could I just confirm that in V132 even using the OOBs that do not use company skirmish units only those units with a 1 in the Skirmish column of the OOB csv file will have the skirmish button available to them? I have only just noticed this column exists in these OOBs as well as the 'SK' designated ones.

May I also confirm that units that do not have a 1 in this column will not be able to skirmish at all? This may explain why I have seen some light bns not deploying into skirmish formation.

I understand you have limited this capability so the battlefield is not covered with skirmishers.

Pop1

Uncle Billy has the definitive answer but that is my understanding, yes. We were finding in our games that skirmisher battalions were too numerous and too powerful. The new SK line introduces a new, less overwhelming style of skirmishers, which is less within the overall command of the player but if you go with the old style arrangement of whole battalions, you'll find fewer can now skirmish.

In my OOBs and scenarios I now limit all brigades to just 1 skirmish capable full battalion unless the units are very weak. The British may have two units but these are usually just the flank companies and a company or two of rifles. Some extremely big French brigades (6 btns or bigger) get two. Several Spanish brigades have several skirmisher units but these are usually very small and not very competent.

You can set up your own SK system by going into any OOB, making a copy and adjusting the values in the final column. A '1' gets you a full SK battalion, any other number gets you that proportion of SK troops out of each unit.

Brigade commander stance may also affect things as well remember. In some cases an un-TC'd brigade commander can deploy up to two units of SK but not both of them can be accessed from the OOB by the player as skirmishers.

Mr Digby,

thanks for posting a reply. I'm still getting used to the new skirmish company style of play, on the whole I like it better than the previous version where another unit was added to most brigades. I do make my own OOBs for Sandbox games and I will have to think how I deal with the new skirmish column options.

I almost always play at the Division commander level, often as part of larger force which I no overall control over. I used the Skirmish button a lot to place my Brigades in fighting formation before contact. My style of play also includes, at times, detaching a battalion or so for specific tasks, often a flank screen, as advance post or to occupy a farm building, so I just need to ensure these have the ability to skirmish if needed when I select what I think is a light unit. I agree too many battalions swarmed about in skirmish order under previous versions, I spent half my time TC French light Bns to keep them in close formation.

By the by, I saw your post about the morale and firing effectiveness of the British Guard units vs Old Guard. I agree with you, elan and national characteristics gave some British and other units a steadfastness which was not necessarily related to experience. I have not found a way to replicate that steadfastness in the game.

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High combat values will do that, though the game can throw a lot of wide-ranging variables about and unexpected results happen often. I have found our Foot Guards to be less dependable than Wellington was able to assume.

When you say high combat values, do you mean the experience column in the OOB? I have thought of changing that, but as you say, there will lots of unintended consequences.

As there are national characteristics for formations do you know if its possible to have these for the way in which different nations would react? For example, a british line holding to await the advance of the french columns would behave quite differently to, say, a prussian line. From all accounts the british line is more likely to hold its position and give fire, not something I see in the game as, I suspect, all nationalities may have the same behavioral model? I'm very interested to hear your views on how you solve the issue, if you do anything at all? My solution is usually to TC the unit(s) if they are about to engage to ensure they stand their ground on first contact.

Pop1

I understand that troops with a higher experience level will hold their volley fire until a closer range but this can have unintended side effects.

SOWWL isn't really designed to replicate what we would call national characteristics very well, certainly not in the values in the OOBs. The KS Mod has managed to introduce some variation but that is done in the formations (drills.csv) based on which sprites are used. Kevin is better placed to go into more detail than me on this subject.

I am not sure if editing the ai.dll can get the game to recognise different nationalities.

You can change the characteristics of troops somewhat by changing the values of cells AA-AH. You can change the behavior of the commanders by changing the values of cells S-W. However, you have to ask yourself what do you want as a result? If it is to have historically accurate behavior from commanders and troops for the various nationalities then you have to accept the fact that some armies will rarely win a battle. Think of the Austrians from 1800 to 1809. If the numbers on both sides are close to the same, there is little unpredictability when the battle starts. Is that OK? The KS mod tried to give a flavor of national differences without making grossly unbalanced armies, (exceptions are the Spanish and to some extent the 1806 Prussians).

Accepted, I do not want to change things so the game becomes unbalanced. I do enjoy the MOD very much and it gives challenging games, what could be asked.