Keeping units in formation when advancing

[InVinoVeritas]

What is the best way to do this? It seems pretty hit or miss for me when I tell them to advance. Do I have to group them in a formation, then ctrl-1 them or whatever, to get them to stay together?

Usually I use the choose formation button to set them up, then tweak it, then when I tell them to move they get all wonky and go back to the original way they were set up. Which is not good when the enemy is charging at you and your infantry turns their backs and walks the opposite way...

[Coldcall]

My advice is not to use the grouping functions in RTW/RS. Instead, highlight/select all the troops you want to move in formation, and move them as a block formation. I find the auto grouping feature screws up alot and scrambles formations.

Another way which is pretty accurate is select your group and then left click and hold and you can move the mouse around which will show you an outline of what formation would take effect if you let the mouse button go.

Hope i explained that alright :-)

[Coldcall]

And get them to run when moving to formations when you are close to your enemies because the ai often attacks while the player is manouvering.

[GreatOne]

And get them to run when moving to formations when you are close to your enemies because the ai often attacks while the player is manouvering.

Actually that's never happened to me, yesterday I manoevred my whole army to the enemy's back!(I was on a wrong end of a slope) and all they did was change their formation to face me.I was on the attack, so that must have had some effects...

[Octavius-Augustus]

Actually that's never happened to me, yesterday I manoevred my whole army to the enemy's back!(I was on a wrong end of a slope) and all they did was change their formation to face me.I was on the attack, so that must have had some effects...

It also depends what exe you're using. Since I started playing with alex, the AI doesn't hesitate to attack me the second I break formation. Most of the times it's futile, but sometimes I get a bad surprise (especially the Gauls!)

[InVinoVeritas]

Yeah, that's good, thanks! I did notice how you can hold the mouse down and drag it to adjust the formation. I'll stop messing with the pre-set formation buttons too.

[The God of War]

to keep moving them in the formation once you ahev arranged your army is pretty simple ..... jst select all of them and slect where you want them to go .... they will maintain the same formation but might change the angle due to a change in direction of march

[Beetlecat]

alt-click handles that.

The selected group will maintain their facing and orientation even if instructed to move 'sideways' from their original location.

[Athkara]

Once you've positioned your men in whatever formation you want, group them into one group after clicking 'start battle'; just group them, don't use any of the auto group formations. Now you can move them about any way you want (click, alt+click, click+drag, ect.) and they'll stay in your exact formation.

[Templar Knight]

Once you've positioned your men in whatever formation you want, group them into one group after clicking 'start battle'; just group them, don't use any of the auto group formations. Now you can move them about any way you want (click, alt+click, click+drag, ect.) and they'll stay in your exact formation.

wow i never new that

[Brusilov]

Once you've positioned your men in whatever formation you want, group them into one group after clicking 'start battle'; just group them, don't use any of the auto group formations. Now you can move them about any way you want (click, alt+click, click+drag, ect.) and they'll stay in your exact formation.

I use this method all the time and it usually works.

However, every now and then it messes up big time. Essentially, it takes every unit and deploys them in a single line with a very small 'frontage'. This causes me to stop all movement and then redeploy. Fortunately, this has never happened when the AI is close enough to take advantage.

Sometimes I think this may happen when a single unit was not in the group but I am not 100% sure on that as I usually group all the units at the start of a battle in a single group. When I know I am going to be attacked from two fronts I have two army groups.

[Athkara]

From my experience, that happening has nothing to do with how many units you have, or don't have in the group. Usually when it messes up and puts them all in one line, I've accedenally selected the group+units not in the group, or haven't selected the whole group. Then when I try to click and drag my formation it messes up.

[El Crumb]

I find marker points very useful when manouvering groups, especially flankers. Pop down some little flags for your guys to follow and you can let them manouver without keeping too close an eye on them. I have all too often given commands to cavalry on the wings to chase down skirmishers only to see them take the straightest line to them and run slap-bang into enemy spears. Never pleasant.

[InVinoVeritas]

Thanks for the tips! Now I just want to get home from work to try them out...

[Dark_horse_spirit]

Remeber that when you advance in formation that your units defend best from the right, they get a Sheild bonus from this side. So if you advance slightly to the left and turn away to the left slightly you will have the best defense this way. Hope this helps.

DHS

[Nellup]

Usually having them all grouped messes up when there is some kind of obstacle in the way of the group - the game then decides to change the formation so all the units are scattered across the area.