the use of waypoints in combat

[hellraiser]

Hi to all out there and welcome me cuz this is my first post.
Question: have U ever considered using waypoints in combat? Try that it might give U some extra advantage. I've tried that against AI and seems to work!
The best use of waypoints in combat situations is when U try to flank the opponent. Let's assume U're in a combat situation where the front line consists in heavy infantry backed by whatsoever. Obviousely u would want to kill the support units thus greatly reducing your opponent's fighting ability. You can try the flanking maneuver with your fast units(e.g. cavalry)but you will have to click-click-click.... on the battlefield in order to avoid enemy's ZOC's. It is a huge time consuming approach; by paying attention to a single unit (your cavalry trying to flank the enemy) U can't provide the desired attention to the main battle; that could mean certain defeat.
My ideea: once U decided to flank the opponent, put your cavalry in the fastest formation type, and, instead of clicking repeatedly, use waypoints to draw the path to the enemy's supporting units. Probably U would use a half-circle move in order to avoid enemy's ZOC. If U are fast enough, U could issue this type of maneuvre in less than 2 seconds. Don't mind the decrease in your cavalry AV, cuz it decrease gradualy in time so by the time it reaches the target the AV would be still high.

Try this maneuver if U like, and post your oppinion. And if someone has a better ideea of flanking the enemy, please post it cuz I'm very interested in this particular maneuver, which I consider to be one of the keys of winning a battle.

Actually, since you're putting your flankers in Pressed Formation (fastest formation that you mentioned) anyway, you don't need to worry about zoc's. Pressed formation ignores enemy zoc's a great majority of the time (sometimes if your units get "stuck" in pressed formation and cannot move along the path given them, they will go into combat mode. But this is rare.)

So just put your guys in pressed formation and micromanage that flank instead of using waypoints. The key to a good flank is timing. Micromanaging that flank is critical to arriving in the enemies support at the right time.

Also, when units go along waypoints, most of the time they stop at the waypoint and wait a second for all of the company to "catch up". Since timing in a flank is so critical, you may not be able to afford the extra seconds that your flanking company uses between waypoints.


Just some food for thought ...

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Natascot-OW

- Ya wanna win a game of Kohan? Play a game against me and you'll have your chance.

[morpheus133]

scouting with way points is VERY good though. the team with the best scouting of the map has a huge advantage. so make sure your scouts keep moving. even if you are a newbie in your first game online, you can make a huge contribution to the team by uncovering as much black as you can. waypoints is the best way to do it. as soon as you build scouts or shadelings you should have them waypointed to scout the borders of all the nearby towns. this way they scout and still heal. some people will set scouts in press and just run them across the map to an allies town. this also can be effective.

[hellraiser]

[quote]Originally posted by Nathan:
[b]Actually, since you're putting your flankers in Pressed Formation (fastest formation that you mentioned) anyway, you don't need to worry about zoc's.........

Yeah man, U seem 2B right. Never paid attn. to the time a unit waits when reaching a waypoint.( In fact the waypoint wait time didn't matter so far to me.) Although my waypoint-flank tactic seem to work well against an AI opponent it would probably not be so effective against a human opponent.
But I will further use it cuz I mainly play single player games because of my poor net connection I have at home.
Thanks for the tip anyway.