combat deployment

[Guest]

Has anyone had any luck in controlling how the AI deploys units during a battle?

It always seems that my weakest unit is in the middle. Boats and special units to often fill the front row. I just had a 12 stack of hoplites/catapults/mounted archers defeated my a city defended by 6 coracles and 6 archers. in another battle, 2 hoplites were defeated by 2 slavers/2 arhcers because the slavers were in front and the archers were able to use their ranged attack. Also it seems that the battle AI doesnt understand that units with a shorter range should be in front. In some other post it was discussed that 2 archers would line up next to each other if they attack a single unit. I gave mounted archers less range and attacked a single unit with 1 archer/1 mounted. They still lined up next to each other. being that i've never played thru to tanks, does that mean all future warfare is fought in a line? Also many of my flankers seem to end up in the middle of the line while non flankers are on the end.

Anyone else notice any screwy battle lines?

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History is written by the victor.

[Galatea]

Yes, I have. In a stack with tanks and artillery, my artillery was always front and center. Also, machinegunners stand by idle when they could use their ranged attack.

[hexagonian]

I know that battle lines are supposed to be drawn by placing the strongest unit front and center. I would assume that range/flank factors become secondary when drawing up those lines, so it can be likely that due to the numbers, ranged units can end up on the front lines. The coracle/archer battle is actually logical from the standpoint of the computer, because coracles have a defend factor, so they automatically will go on the front lines, and the archers line up behind. Factor in the defend modifiers and those boats could of defeated the attacking stack.

Certainly not realistic, but the computer works with numbers, not realism.

One thing I discovered in experimentation is that range factors have to start at 15. A range factor of less than that will put those units on the front lines, so if you tweak numbers, you have to take that into account.

I think that machine gunners have a range of 10 in the default game, so bump it up to 15-20 and see what happens.