Unit settings

Unit Settings

Unit settings are part of the paperwork page. Most of what is involved with combat tactics comes down to unit settings, and so generals will usually issue orders that include the unit settings they feel are ideal for whatever it is they are ordering you to do. These orders are not polite suggestions. When troop leaders do not work in concert, everyone dies. Even if your general is an idiot, it is better to have all the troop leaders work together than have everyone running around the battlefield like headless chickens. The are four "settings" each with 4 or 5 options (though you are rarely ordered a "designation" since it is assumed you are set to "regular army"). The options for each setting are described below,

Conduct

Conduct determines how your unit behaves once its on the battlefield (and to some degree whether or not there is a battle at all).

• Evasive - drastically increases the chance to evade combat with enemy units.
• Defensive - only engages enemy units if they engage you.
• Normal - initiates combat with any enemy units in the region (and sometimes neutral units).
• Aggressive - engages all enemy and neutral units (and sometimes even allies).
• Murderous - will attack anyone in the region, possibly even realm-mates and peasants.

Evasive is commonly used while trying to return home after having your unit "wiped out" in enemy territory. The remnants of your unit will still engage enemy troops unless you tell them not to. On the other end of the spectrum, murderous is almost never used. I have never once seen a general order his troop leaders to murderous, and with good reason.

When set to the other three options, whether or not there is combat is largely determined by diplomatic relations, and the effect of the units conduct is mostly limited to their conduct on the battlefield. On the South-East and South-West islands, diplomatic relations are easy to understand because everyone is at war with everyone else. But on other continents, diplomatics relations can be very complex. Even some of the oldest and wisest nobles are occasionally surprised at the causes and effects of diplomatic relations.

Anyway, units set to aggressive are more likely to advance (even into a wall of spears), whereas units set to defensive are more likely to hold their ground (even under a hail storm of arrows). Normal is normal.

Designation

Designation is easy to understand, but hard to explain. The simplest way is to say that while unit "type" determines in what fashion the unit is trained to fight, unit "designation" determines under what circumstances the unit expects to use their training. Again, that's not strictly the case, but nothing ever is.

• Regular Army - Standard designation. If you don't know what to do, set your unit to regular army.
• Sentry - slightly higher combat strength than regular army, but slower travel times and 20% more expensive.
• Police - Diminished combat strength, but not as averse to civil or police work (the only designation available to bureaucrats).
• Vanguard - Faster travel times than regular army, but slightly lower combat strength and 20% more expansive.
• Mercenary - Higher morale, but 50% more expensive than regular army (the only designation available to traders).

Sentry is generally reserved for units that intend to stay within their realm, and not travel much. When you drop militia, the settings are discarded, and they are automatically set to a standard "militia" setting. You don't have to pay them either (except for their last paycheck) because the realm is now responsible for their maintenance.

Mercenaries are generally used for expeditious campaigns because they don't lose morale when away from home. Vanguard for similar circumstances because they travel fast. And, as a soldier, let's hope you never have to designate your men as police.

Field Position

The battlefield is divided into 11 columns (numbered 1 thru 11 from left to right). The attacking army starts on the left, the defending army on the rght. If the region has fortifications, then the 5 columes on the right will be colored gray and represent the area of the battlefield behind the fortifications. Which column your unit will begin in will depend on your field position.

• Front - If you are attacking, you will start in column 5. If defending, column 7.
• Middle - If you are attacking, you will start in column 4. If defending, column 8.
• Back - If you are attacking, you will start in column 3. If defending, column 9.
• Rearguard - If you are attacking, you will start in column 2. If defending, column 10.

Therefore, columns 1, 6 and 11 are always empty at the beginning of a battle (but they may become occupied as the battle progresses). If the defending units are dug in or are behind fortifications, it is not likely that they will "advance" from column 7 to column 6 until all the attacking melee units are disabled (i.e. wounded, retreated, etc.). If the region has fortifications, it is very difficult for the attacking units to "advance" from column 6 to column 7 without seige engines. Ranged units will only "advance" from toward the enemy if there are no enemy units within their range.

Unit Formation

The last of the unit settings, unit formations are probably the least understood despite its being one the most critical elements of combat tactics.

• Line - Normal defense and attack against both ranged and melee units.
• Box - Improved defense against melee units, but decreased defense against ranged units.
• Wedge - Improved attack against melee units, but decreased defense against melee units.
• Skirmish - Improved defense against ranged units, but decreased defense against melee units.

I said earlier in this lesson that if your unit faced off alone against a single enemy unit, the result would be determined largely by combat strength, but I also said that that wasn't strictly true. I was refering to Unit Formations. Field Position determines where your unit begins, Conduct determines when your unit advances, and Unit Type determines what your men use in to fight with (swords and shields or bows and arrows), but Unit Formations determines the actual tactics your men employ once they are face to face with the enemy. An 200 CS archer unit can wipe out a 300 CS cavalry unit if both units are set to box formation, because every arrow will strike a rider whereas the riders will have to hack their way through the archers one body at a time.

Learn the unit formations. I am not kidding. Nobody ever does, and it is probably the most important unit setting of all. It is true that the larger the opposing armies are, the more important the other settings become, but unit formations are always important, and they are rarely understood correctly. Everyone knows that archers should be behind the cavalry by the time the enemy infantry arrive, but very few people understand what the units should do once they met each other on the battlefield. Those few people are called generals.