Battle of Armies instead of units

[The True Roman]

I hope that battles feel more like real life engagements instead of just little fights between units. I want and option so my whole army advances to the enemy without me having to tell each unit who to attack. I want to be able to use real life tactics from my knowledge of history instead of simple flanking ones. Make me actually want to use formations instead of simple battle lines. Being able to simple tell my army to advance or attack is something I've wanted for year anyone els want this?

[Adreno]

u could already group certain units and let them march in formation if thats what u mean

[The True Roman]

u could already group certain units and let them march in formation if thats what u mean

I know that but it doesn't make a difference, You can't tell your army to attack it will attack the nearest unit. You have to tell each unit who to fight, I want to simply tell them advance and lets see if my battle plan pays off. I pretty much want more pre battle prep and less in battle management cause in real life its hard to give commands to units in the mits of battle

[linc|Julius]

Yeah and when your back on campaign map there could be a big ass button in the middle of the screen that says 'RUN EMPIRE'

[Stath's]

Yeah and when your back on campaign map there could be a big ass button in the middle of the screen that says 'RUN EMPIRE'

[Alkaline Earth]

Select all 20 of your units.
Click G ( or the group button on bottom left picture ( 3 flags )
Select the group
Tell them to move behind the enemy lines

Your army will go straight forward and into the enemies army, so it will be a "battle of armies."

If what you mean is individual unit control then Total War isn't your cup of tea

[The True Roman]

Select all 20 of your units.
Click G ( or the group button on bottom left picture ( 3 flags )
Select the group
Tell them to move behind the enemy lines

Your army will go straight forward and into the enemies army, so it will be a "battle of armies."

If what you mean is individual unit control then Total War isn't your cup of tea

U guys aren't getting what I'm saying, Never mind some one can close this when they get a chance

[Destraex]

U guys aren't getting what I'm saying, Never mind some one can close this when they get a chance

I understand what you are saying I think.
You probably heard about ships being formed into squadrons of three by default. This logically lead you to believe that armies would be handled in the same fashion. A general does not usually micro-manage individual units. He orders his left wing say to attack in XX formation and do it in a certain way.
He may order his centre to adopt a particular formation and then feign retreat.
This is how you want to play the game, like a general. Being able to order the whole army to do something. To change formations, to attack in an orderly fashion. Previously Total War games have only allowed a few pitifull army wide commands. the primary ones being run or headlong rush of the whole army.

However the centurions and tribunes at various levels of command usually micro manage the formation. The player has to play these as well.

Therefore I would like both options. To control the army effectively (if there is really the 60 units on the field they claim), I need some Generals commands and then some lower level commands for the individual units.

I suspect CA has this in mind and will implement this if they are to have people manage so many units at once.

I agree too that unit and army cohesion should be important for morale if nothing else. I think total war as it is does a reasonable job of showing disorganised or shattered unit cohesion. But it does not often enough allow a unit to become shaken and stay a little disjointed as wounded and the shock of a hammer blow by another unit take a while to recover from... again unless veterans.
Units that are out of sight of other units and are not supposed to be should be a little scared unless they are veterans.

[Senchiro]

In my opinion you want less micromanagment because you are just not able to handle all those units togheter.
Actually i can do everything that you're actually mention with any total war.

[Raimeken]

I'm playing the game, the game is not playing for me. There is a time and place for what you're saying (I remember a game where you simply picked a formation out of 6, each of them countered another and was countered by another), but that time and place is not Total War.

[-Concrete-]

It should be more important to hold your line together, yes.

[The True Roman]

It should be more important to hold your line together, yes.

some one gets it, I mean in real life if the enemy broke your line the battle is lost. Right now you just send your men where ever and it really doesn't matter if you have a line or not.

[nameless]

some one gets it, I mean in real life if the enemy broke your line the battle is lost. Right now you just send your men where ever and it really doesn't matter if you have a line or not.

That's complete BS right there.

Up to FOTS it's critical that you maintain a battle line. If the line gets broken then the morale of your units fall.

If your units gets flanked or attacked from the rear they will lose morale and cohesion.

So yes having a line does matter in Total War.

If you send units all over the place to engage other guys the AI will take advantage of it by sending in cavalry in those open gaps and tear the units to pieces.

Well, i think he says he likes more to prepare a battle-plan before the battle and then watch if his soldiers would carry it out. It reminds me a picture of Xerxes watching the Battle of Salamis from a cliff. A nice oneI think it is a good idea and innovative if the battle-prep has a lot of details. But i also think you should be able to give orders in the middle of the battle, as specific as they can be.

No he's saying that right now we can just send all 20 units in a random frenzy and still achieve the same results if we had kept them in a battle line which is BS which is why people here are having trouble understanding him because no one actually does what he's saying.

[swoosh so]

some one gets it, I mean in real life if the enemy broke your line the battle is lost. Right now you just send your men where ever and it really doesn't matter if you have a line or not.

One of the reasons stw and mtw1 were so good in multiplayer. If your line broke you were dead. Ofc people just assume the later games were better :O

[Stath's]

Well, i think he says he likes more to prepare a battle-plan before the battle and then watch if his soldiers would carry it out. It reminds me a picture of Xerxes watching the Battle of Salamis from a cliff. A nice oneI think it is a good idea and innovative if the battle-prep has a lot of details. But i also think you should be able to give orders in the middle of the battle, as specific as they can be.

[Senchiro]

Actually what he want it's like a fps player ask that his gun have auto headshot because he don't want waste his time to aim and so prefer only to see this bullet blow up this head off...

[Adufka]

I hope that battles feel more like real life engagements instead of just little fights between units. I want and option so my whole army advances to the enemy without me having to tell each unit who to attack. I want to be able to use real life tactics from my knowledge of history instead of simple flanking ones. Make me actually want to use formations instead of simple battle lines. Being able to simple tell my army to advance or attack is something I've wanted for year anyone els want this?

I understand what you want to say...and actually it's not bad idea I like it...u don't want your army separated to 40 unit and attack in group....but you want some one formation for whole army is that right?

[Rorarii]

I hope that battles feel more like real life engagements instead of just little fights between units. I want and option so my whole army advances to the enemy without me having to tell each unit who to attack. I want to be able to use real life tactics from my knowledge of history instead of simple flanking ones. Make me actually want to use formations instead of simple battle lines. Being able to simple tell my army to advance or attack is something I've wanted for year anyone els want this?

If you mean not having to point-n-click orders to individual units but actually give verbal commands to actual groups, like "hastati ADVance! ..", "Eques outflank the enemy on the right" .. "Rorarii retire to rear .." then ..

YES!!! REALITY IN BATTLES!!

If you ordered "Princeps ATTACK! .." then each individual maniple / cohort woud automatically (VIA AI) attack the closest enemy unit, starting with those facing it. You wouldn't need to direct each unit.

Of course, you still would need the ability to point-n-click individual units when things got sticky ... sticky moments ..

R

[josak]

I can't believe the naive responses here. What the OP is basically asking for are better / streamlined controls. Why is it after countless iterations of total war do we still have the same clunky, awkward control system. You still can't move a unit without clicking / dragging and resetting his formation. And there are very little options for giving orders to your army aside from advance, retreat, etc.

The OP wants a streamlined battle system where you can give orders without having to micromanage every little unit. The game is too focused on managing individual units , which is really the center for much of the AI problems. In actual real-life battles orders are giving to large sections of the army - right flank, left flank, center, calvary, etc...

As of right now advanced formations are basically useless because the AI doesnt know how to use them or react to them. Basic formations and flanking maneuvers are pretty much the way to win every battle.

A great thing about a streamlined battle system is that it could drastically reduce the AI issues since the AI would no longer have to coordinate and manage a bunch of individual units on a large battlemap, which it's clearly incapable of doing.

It looks CA is actually trying to streamline things with Rome 2 so I have some hopes.

[daelin4]

All TW games have what you're looking for. It's called Auto-Resolve.