Battle scripts

[Amiller]

First off let me say that this game is amazing and this forum is incredible. This game has actually caused me to waste money as I have bought two other games, installed them and ignored them in favor of this game.

I am a single player junky but know I would be bLasted into nothingness by any one of you because of one significant limitation in my skills. Commander battle scripts

The excellent walkthrough by Mr. Geryk doesn�t go into much detail on these scripts and I can tell from much reading in the forum that commander scripts are what really makes a great player but I have never really gotten the hang of them beyond "spells" or "attack rearmost"

So this said, I would love some general advice on scripts and perhaps some examples.

Thank you for your time.

[condors]

i am no expert but i usually play ulm

what i do typically have in my main attack force
1-prophet commanding heavy infantry front center on stay behind troops casting
2-1 unit of knights on each flank(with knight commanders) hold attack rear
3-smiths (hopefully with some bodyguards fall bears/statues) casting summon earth power, invulnerability, fireshield, cast spells
iron warriors can also be added at the start to boost troops, also if they have flying iteam they will join in the attack rear.

typically i go with a couple blade winds then cast spells(or 1 blade wind for the guys who cast iron warriors first)

not too much flexibility with ulm you have 1 caster with no randoms so its straightforward the indy mages can offer alot of choices but i don't have anything set in stone yet...

[Norfleet]

Scripts go hand-in-hand with formations: It's kind of like planning a sports move. You lay out your squads, or players, and then give them instructions on what to do. A squad of units can be given only a few basic orders: Attack something, Hold and Attack something, Fire at something, Fire and Flee, and Guard Commander. These are pretty self-explanatory orders.

Commander orders are somewhat more complex:
In addition to one of the above basic orders, you can give them up to 5 specific orders, such as casting a specific spell, casting an automatically chosen spell, etc, as well as a few commander-specific basics, such as "Stay Behind Troops" and "Cast Spells".

One helpful trick, to get a flying attack squad that can execute a hold and attack for something other than the basic wait-2, attack, is to give a squad of fliers an order to Guard Commander on a flying Commander, then give your Commander orders like (Spells)(Spells)(Spells)(Spells)Attack rear.

This will cause the entire squad to, instead of rushing ahead after two rounds, hold their position longer, guarding the commander, while your ground troops advance and engage the enemy. Then after the commander exhausts his 4 Hold or Cast Spells orders, he'll fly and attempt to attack the enemy's rear....and the flying squad, having been told to Guard Commander, follows him!

Naturally, this will put your flying commander at risk: Make sure he isn't the only commander, in case he buys it.

[Nethog]

Originally posted by Norfleet:

... then give your Commander orders like (Spells)(Spells)(Spells)(Spells)Attack rear.
... Then after the commander exhausts his 4 Hold or Cast Spells orders, he'll fly and attempt to attack the enemy's rear....

Wow, I didn't know you could give more them a single order to a commander - how do you do it?

[Arryn]

The commands window is broken into two parts by a horizontal line. The commands above the line are those that can be scripted up to 5 times. You just keep selecting commands from the top half until you've used up all five. (You don't need to do all 5.) Then you issue the command the AI will use the rest of the battle from the bottom half.

EDIT: typo

[ March 03, 2004, 22:24: Message edited by: Arryn ]

[Nethog]

Arryn, THANKS! I was wondering why the line was there! It is amazing that this wasn't mentioned anywhere in the manual (unless I missed it).