what am i doing wrong

[Agathosdaimon]

Hiya - i love this game, its very tough i find

I am playing the 30 years war campaing on medium difficulty and i however cannot seem to get past the first scenario. i have attempted it like 6 times or more and find everytime that my arquebusier horsemen melt away very quickly once the catholic riders are committed and neither my tercios and cannon can dislodge the catholic tercio - and of course i cant get into combat with the two tecios up close wthout attracting the other catholic units to join in close combat - they are positin just in a way that means always they get to have more units attack me than i can fit through the bottleneck in the middle to get to them -am i the only one, what special move am i missing here? can anyone here here enlighten with some tips on how to make the best use of my bohemian army on the first scenario

thank you!

[demiller]

I had the same problem. The biggest key for me winning was to realize that Arquebusier cavalry really, really doesn't want to be involved in melee. The more you can keep them away from heavy cavalry and allow them to concentrate fire, the better.

In the center, it's important to place your cannon where they can shoot every turn at the rearguard tercios while you gang up two of yours one one of his. Do as much damage to the enemy tercio via fire combat as you can before allowing for melee.

Fire superiority breaks morale and seems to be more effective than melee unless the unit is impact/melee specific, like Kuriassers. Heavy cav charging downhill at the right moment can immediately shatter enemy units, but then they usually gone for several turns as they chase the routed enemy off the map.

Timing is everything, and particularly in this scenario. Keep your arquebusier cavalry together and shooting and they can wreak havoc!

[Agathosdaimon]

that sounds good though the turns burn away very quickly and it takes a while to bring up the cannon, also what is the best way to dispose of the catholic units in the woods at the start - i dont want to use cannon there as that will just take too much time t

[demiller]

I sent three units of Arquebusiers to each, sat adjacent and poured fire into them. At the same time I pushed the cannon and tercios forward between the woods, and my remaining horse around the woods. After a couple of rounds of fire the commanded shot in the woods will be at least Disrupted. When the main body is past them and they're at least Disordered they'll begin to retreat. I continued to pursue them with light horse until they broke, all the while advancing my main body toward the enemy.

[Agathosdaimon]

well i finally got past that scenario! it came down to the very last turn - i couldnt weaken those tercios with cannon alone, i needed my tercio to be closer as well as having some around the ponds and some arquebusier creep around hte pond over to their side - this always brings the rest of the enemy into the battle but it does let me get in 2 or so turns and the arquebusier can fire on teh tercio without and fire back from them as they are facing still the bottleneck.

i can see that it however is not firepower alone that can secure success, the enemy have to be demoralised overall enough and a fleeing tercio mass seems cause others to waver

the next battle looks spectaculuar - a large head on field battle!

[demiller]

I've taken two swings at White Mountain and lost both times. The first time both sides were above 60% losses and I lost by 1%. Last night the AI absolutely pulverized me. He attacked en echelon from my left to my right, and masses four tercios and six kuriasser regiments on my right. When that mass hit my line, even attacking uphill my troops shattered like glass and everybody started running for the hills!

It was an impressive thing to watch.

[Hrothgar]

Just in case you're making the same mistake I did, I thought I'd let you know that it's NOT necessary to win a game in the "campaign" in order to play the next game. You can click on the arrow at the bottom and go to any of the other games in that campaign. Then, after playing some other battles and gaining more familiarity with the system, you can return to this scenario.

[FroBodine]

One thing I REALLY wish this game system showed is what scenarios you have won. As it is, I just have to remember that I won the first mission, third mission, etc.

There really needs to be an indicator on each mission screen that shows if you have won it or not. And as a bonus, it would be excellent if it kept track of the difficulty level you played for each won mission.

[demiller]

Good point Hrothgar. The "campaign" is more a "list of historical battles" than a real campaign. They aren't always even in chronological order.

jglazier - I agree, it would be nice to have some sort of battle history and stats.

[jack54]

I am enjoying this game yet also finding it difficult. I've recently tried both sides of an English Civil War Open Skirmish and each time the AI Mounted Troops (Royal Cavaliers or Parliamentarian Horse) get the better of my own.

In the most recent my Parliamentarian Infantry was doing fairly well but the AI Cavaliers chased most of my Horse from the field. It was close and the tension high but several combined Cavalry charges broke many of my infantry and a cascading rout soon followed.

This is level 2, so I am assuming that the AI is getting none of the combat bonuses that the manual mentions may happen at level 4 and 5, which probable means 2 things: the AI is VERY GOOD and I really don't know what I'm doing. Lot's of fun none the less.

[rbodleyscott]

ORIGINAL: jack54

This is level 2, so I am assuming that the AI is getting none of the combat bonuses that the manual mentions may happen at level 4 and 5, which probable means 2 things: the AI is VERY GOOD and I really don't know what I'm doing. Lot's of fun none the less.

Not sure what you mean by combat bonuses. On level 5 (and level 1), the unit qualities of both sides are tweaked slightly from the beginning of the game - you will see the difference when you mouse over the units. Otherwise the AI gets no combat bonuses whatsoever.

The difference between level 2,3,4 is usually that the player gets more points to spend on optional units at the lower levels. In some of the historical scenarios there are special scenario-based differences between the difficulty levels instead.

However, the AI never gets any cheaty tweaks or enhanced "luck" in combat. Both sides use exactly the same combat code and random factors.

Players sometimes think they are seeing the AI getting more "luck" than they are, but that is a phenomenon common to all wargames. Everyone always thinks their opponent is getting luckier dice than they are!

Let me assure you than in Pike and Shot, this is not so.

[jack54]

ORIGINAL: rbodleyscott

In some of the historical scenarios there are special scenario-based differences between the difficulty levels instead.

I thought that meant the AI received bonuses...Never meant to say the AI is cheating and stand corrected. I am on level 2 so I never suspected that of happening.

At one point I won 2 in a row and got all 'full of myself' then lost 5'. You have created the most challenging AI I have every played! Period!

[&o]

[rbodleyscott]

ORIGINAL: jack54

Never meant to say the AI is cheating

Sorry to be so defensive, but someone on the Steam forum did suggest just that, and as we are rather proud of the AI in this game, we don't want people to make the mistake of thinking it is only good by cheating on the combat mechanisms.

[aaatoysandmore]

Is your ai cheating and you're not telling us? [:'(] It cheats so well then if it does.

[demiller]

This is one tough AI. It's very rare that I struggle this much in a wargame to win. I'm very impressed with it. I'm almost relieved to play PBEM++ because I know a human opponent will almost certainly be less effective in using his troops than the AI is!

[aaatoysandmore]

If matrixgames/slitherine doesn't take this teams ability to make a challenging ai and put it into some of their other stuff they are well I can't say what they are but you know what they are? [:D]