Arranging armies

[ceff7711]

Simple Question:
On the battlefield, when I click-n-drag the box to 'grab' multiple infantry units (let's say 3 Line Infantry and 2 Rangers) and then place them in one straight line on the battlefield, does it just randomly arrange them or is there a way (besides me manually doing it) to make it place them in a specific order. I.E. :

Line>>Rangers>>Line>>Rangers>>Line

Artillery too.

Is this possible or do I have to manually place each one?

Thanks

[♔Darmoth♔]

I'm not sure... but there might be a preset formation that suits your need. I like to select and group my line infantry and cannons when I'm arranging them at the beginning of battle, and I used the triple line integrated artillery formation. It arranges my infantry in a line, usually the strongest towards the center, placing the cannons in between them. It makes a very devastating battle line. But there are several others, I'm not as familiar with. It'll probably think of rangers as light infantry or skirmishers, and I'm not sure if there is one that puts them into the line automatically with the line infantry like you described.

However, the standard line formation, alt+2 will arrange them into a single line, though again I think it places the strongest infantry toward the center.

[daniu]

I did experiment with all the standard formations a year ago and found most to be of little use.
I only use alt-4 (single line), alt-9 (integrated artillery) and very rarely alt-7 (screened).
I don't think there is a formation that gives you line-ranger-line-ranger-line though, but then again, putting your lights in front is usually the way to go.

[ceff7711]

I did experiment with all the standard formations a year ago and found most to be of little use.
I only use alt-4 (single line), alt-9 (integrated artillery) and very rarely alt-7 (screened).
I don't think there is a formation that gives you line-ranger-line-ranger-line though, but then again, putting your lights in front is usually the way to go.

Never used these 'alt' formations. Is there a diagram in the manual of how they arrange troops?

[daniu]

Never used these 'alt' formations. Is there a diagram in the manual of how they arrange troops?

No, that's why I ran the experiment.
Actually, you don't need to use the "alt" keyboard shortcuts, there are also buttons available for them.
You have to group your units first to be able to use them btw.

[P|A|ntZ]

Never used these 'alt' formations. Is there a diagram in the manual of how they arrange troops?

If you group units and then hit the 'formations' button, another HUD bar will pop up with available formations, all reduced to little icons. This works for both land battles and naval battles. The formations button is near the top-left of the main orders buttons in the standard HUD layout.

[ceff7711]

Thanks

[british_general]

If your troops are all over the place like this: Line Line
Ranger Hessian
Line
Then they will be arranged as:Line Ranger Hessian Line Line

[HomelessDepot]

I never use any of the default formations, and always use the click-drag function. I do use groups to move arranged units in formation, but I'm constantly grouping and ungrouping to switch things around.

I swear in Medieval it would drag your units depending on the order in which they were selected. That is, if you selected units ABC in reverse order (CBA), when you went to click and drag it would 'pull' them out in that order - CBA. I really liked this, but I'm pretty sure in Empire it pulls simply according to where the unit is in the large unit list at the bottom, which is kind of a bummer and makes more work for me. Even if you select them CBA, if they're listed as ABC, that's the way they'll be arranged when you drag out the line. I don't know why they would change that, seems like a step backwards. Either that or I'm losing my mind and misremembering .

-HD