Assaults

[Ol' Choctaw]

There are some curious things that happen to me when I assault structures.

I don’t know if there are a set of conditions that bring it to resolution or not.

I do know that sometimes you can have a siege force laying siege to a place and bring in an assault force and storm the place. At other times they arrive and just continue the siege without assaulting the structure.

The other thing that drives me crazy is an assault that ends as soon as a battery or supply unit is captured. This is also a sometimes thing.

Dose anyone know more about what stops an assault? I know it has taken me a full three months to finally take Ft. Monroe on a couple of occasions.

There are definitely parts to this that I do not have a handle on.

I am not starting with any units on defensive or passive posture. All are on attack or assault. Captured units on passive sometimes stop the assault and sometimes don’t.

I don’t think it is bugged but clearly there are things I don’t understand.

[Caffran]

I'm sure i read somewhere that when you assault a fort you should put your troops on a DEFENSIVE stance for the first turn so they just invest the fort and take potshots to try to breach the walls. then next turn, assuming you've made a breach or two, you go over to full offensive and storm the place.

It kinda makes sense in one way, but seems backward in another

(await's a reply from more seasoned campaigner)

[Durk]

I am not sure I am a more seasoned campaigner, but I have some experience with assaults. The impact of artillery and other special ability units and leaders helps.
If you can siege, this is one approach which is often most successful.
For assault, you need something better than 4-1 superiority to have a chance of success.

Intermediate success, can stop the attack, capturing units.
My take, the chance number is fairly large, so luck and some siege guns takes it every time, eventually. Overwhelming numbers works better.
Bad luck, however, is mostly my fate.

[Mickey3D]

I am not starting with any units on defensive or passive posture. All are on attack or assault.

An unit in attack posture will NOT assault a structure. Assault order must be given.

Another point to consider is your choice in the second line in the posture frame : by example if you choose the blue order your attack will stop after 3 rounds.

[Ol' Choctaw]

Maybe I didn’t make that part clear enough.

I have a structure under siege by a minimal force for say a turn or two.

I bring in a larger force of about 3:1 odds or better to assault the structure.

Of course the original unit does not take part in the assault but sometimes the arriving force will assault and sometimes it just arrives and sits out the rest of the turn.

I know about the sub-settings and typically that is not the issue.

But thanks for the replies.

[Longshanks]

Any chance the leader in the first force is higher rank than the 3:1 force?
Or, is the 3:1 force leader not active?

[Oldman]

I'm definitely no expert also to provide a definite answer. One more point of consideration would be cohesion of the assaulting force - you've mentioned it is "arriving", so not in the top condition.
Such situation should be mentioned in the message log though (as far as I remember), so easy to check.

[Longshanks]

Good call, Oldman.

[GraniteStater]

AFAK, it comes down to this:

* To Attack or Assault, (orange, red buttons on upper ROE settings) the Leader must be Active - must be.

* If you are Assaulting (same as Attack, but assault the structure as well), IMO, there is no point to Conservative (blue on lower ROE settings) or Feint (green) - this is no time for half measures. Personally, when I Assault, it is AllOut (red on bottom ROE), almost every time - rarely do I merely Sustain (orange) the Assault. It's hell for leather or nothing. Yeah, digital soldiers are gonna get degaussed - do you want the structure or don't you?

Other Leaders of any rank whatsoever have nothing to do with the stack's orders and ROE. AFAIK, this applies to Army/Corps command, too - if Milroy is in the Union AoP as a Corps Commander under McClellan as the Army Commander and is Active, he can be given Assault/AllOut and he executes it. The results may be poor, Milroy may get killed, the stack could retreat after a failed assault, the Cubs could win the Series, but Milroy will Assault and will go AllOut or Sustained, as you choose. Again, AFAIK, other stacks and their Leaders have nothing to do with it and the Army/Corps situation on the ground can only help you, other than having bad numbers because you have McClellan or Banks or another lackluster Army Commander bossing the stack's Leader.

If anyone wishes to correct my understanding, jump in.

[Jim-NC]

Granitestater - The Cubs could win the world series? And I like the degaussed idea (as long as it's your troops, not mine).

Ol' Choctaw - Is your assaulting force merging with the beseiging force? When they merge, the orders of the moving to merge no longer count, and they default to the unit being merged into (IIRC). It could be the other way around, but I don't think so.

The other thing is that sometimes you engage in a battle, and capture units. The enemy retreats (don't ask me where they retreat to in a town, but they do), and the combat stops. I understand that a unit can retreat in a region (and avoid combat), but where do they retreat and how do they aviod combat in a fort (or town). I think it is a game engine limitation.

The way to check is to see the other side's results (they will have the "force A succeeded in retreating from battle" message indicating that combat has stopped).