Using AI for movement

[Hairog]

I love the campaign concept but I don't love moving every piece evey turn and would like to figure out a way to use the ai more effectively.

Maybe I need a little primer on what the game will do when I tell a division to "attack a hex" or "defend". Will the ai set up in the defended hex or will it set up in the best possible postions to defend that hex etc? I can't figure out what it will do.

Also what is the best way to move units long distance using the ai? Should I pick a hex and tell them to defend or attack it to get them to stay on the roads and not go charging off into the woods and be tangled up for the whole rest of the scenerio.

I also feel using the AI for general movement and attack/defense is more realistic and leads to less "gaming". In real battle your commanders are going to do all sorts of crazy things and do not have the top down stategic view that we have. As a commander you have to anticipate or mitigate these mistakes. I like to put myself in the game as the the army commander and limit myself to individually placing units that are only within a certain distance from my unit counter. This simulates the sending of a courier to the units in question. This is the only time I can tell them exactly how to attack or where to set up etc.

The AI is driving me crazy in Campign Getty. I don't remember them doing such crazy things in the other Tiller games I've used AI to manuver.

[Shuffler]

Maybe I need a little primer on what the game will do when I tell a division to "attack a hex" or "defend". Will the ai set up in the defended hex or will it set up in the best possible postions to defend that hex etc? I can't figure out what it will do.

The ai that you play against is based on scripts that are basically a series of orders that trigger at certain times. These orders are identical to the ones you can give under the commander control setup - IIRC these are Assault, Attack, Hold, Defend and Defend Extreme. So basically if you give these orders to units, they will behave locally exactly the same way as the ai does i.e. not very well. If you go into the scenario editor and bring up the ai scripts from the menu you can view these orders and when they trigger. Basically the ai is not dynamic at all - it cannot respond to changing situations that deviate from the structure of the ai scripts.

This can lead to some bizzare things. For example, if an artilley brigade has an order to occupy a certain position and you've already captured it ahead of when the scenario designer expected you to, then the artillery brigade will still attempt to fulfill those orders and assault your position unsupported.

If you notice the ai is very poor at using road nets to get to a location quickly because it can only plan so far ahead. Same goes for other terrain hazards that a human player would avoid, such as swamps, rough and forests. As maps get bigger, there's a greater need to plan ahead over greater distances. This is the main reason (as far as I can see) why the ai performs more poorly with the larger maps in the HPS games than in the original Tiller games.

This may not help you very much, but my advice would be to force yourself to get used to micromanagement and become proficient at using column movement - if you can arrange your divisions and corps with the divisional and corps leaders at the top of the leading stack, you can move the entire formation with one click, thus reducing the need for micromanagement.

[Lord_Valentai]

This is sadly true, especially about the swamps. I just gave up playing the computer at Mechanicsville when it couldn't cross the river, just marched into the swamps....

[nunny]

if you can arrange your divisions and corps with the divisional and corps leaders at the top of the leading stack, you can move the entire formation with one click, thus reducing the need for micromanagement.

I too have been trying to figure out how to use the A/I commander control feature - if only to move reinforcements up to the fight, since I despise the drudgery of manually moving columns over long distances.

However, I'm not quite sure I follow Shuffler's advice... Can someone elaborate? How can you move an entire formation by just moving the leading stack without the A/I turned on?

*Edit - Nevermind I just figured it out! Man, I wish I knew this a year ago, I had stopped playing Gettysburg mainly because of the tedium of moving formations.

[rahamy]

I see you figured out the movement, but to clarify the AI shouldn't be "on" to do this - for those reading it, in case there's any confusion.

There's a variety of ways to perform column movement which radically reduces the amount of clicking you need to do during normal "movement turns", but my favorite way is this: Select the first unit in the column, preferably with the highest ranking leader on top of the stack, then press and hold the "Alt" key and then Right-click on the hex you want to move to. This can be the next adjacent hex, or it can be one on the other side of the map. If the distance is long the units will move as far as they can with their existing action points.

I really only recommend going long distances this way when traveling on a road, where a column can easily move down the road and there's no question for the AI as to what the easiest & most direct path is. If you try to go long distances on any area of the map you may not always be happy with the direction the computer AI selects. You can use it in the open too, where there's no terrain you want to avoid.

And this works for a single regiment, or an entire army. Just make sure the highest ranking leader (Brigade, Division, Corps, etc. Commander) is on the top of the stack when you initiate the movement, so that everyone will follow along. Also, remember the least common denominator...if you have a supply wagon or disordered unit in the middle of your column it will break the chain, and you will have to clean things up. So force management is important, as is Command & Control to keep your troops in good order.

You can also just click once on the hex at the beginning of a column (without selecting any units) and then use the Alt key and right click the destination and it will move all units after it...the only problem with this is command structure is ignored...so if you are moving along a road and another formation is on the side you can easily "pick up" that formation as you pass, and you may have to go back and correct some unit placements.

[KG_RangerBooBoo]

You also need to be careful about trying to move long distances along winding roads as the AI will sometimes cut the corner. Don't know how many times I've selected a cavalry unit on a road, hit the alt button then selected a spot way down the road and right clicked only to have the computer run into some woods trying to cut a corner. Just did it this again this morning on the Peninsula. It is better to sometimes just go in short leaps from one intersection to another or from one curve to the next to prevent this from happening. Sometimes it is best to just click hex by hex to make sure the entire column moves exactly as you want it to instead of what the computer might perceive to be the best route.

[Lord_Valentai]

That pissed me off at Shiloh. Forrests men got stuck in a wood and because they were detached they spent 3 hours reforming and were useless. Grr....

[nunny]

Thanks all for your hints and tips. Learning all this really makes this a "new" game for me now and enjoyable to play again. And now that I know this, I'm actually thinking about purchasing some of the other Civil War titles, where before I thought it wasn't that great of a game engine.

Cheers!
Nunny

[rahamy]

Glad to hear it!

And FWIW I've been playing Tiller games since '97 and I still learn new things about the engine every now and then...there's a lot under there if you are willing to dig and learn a little bit.