Johnny comes lately

[Teutomatos]

Q: How do I know about the arrival of the reinforcements?

When player reinforcements enter the battlefield, a message appears at the middle right edge of the screen. The arrival of AI reinforcements is announced when the unit first comes into the player's Line of Sight. If you click on the message, the camera will focus on the reinforcements.

 

 

 Not exactly. Actualy renfocement comes lately after announce. I can't evaluate the timer, but may be almost a minute may be it could be more.

[Husserl]

The announcement is shown when the reinforcement action is triggered, so it takes a few seconds to see the player's units actually entering the field (they have also to cross the wooden decorative edge of the map). 

[Teutomatos]

Certainly.

 But as we haven't mini map to control, some of them appears stricly with the announce. Anothers some "minutes" ( around 2 or 3 ) and not seconds. It's an embarrassment in the tough fire action from the front, this requires us to make constant back and forth to the point of entry announced.

 I don't talk about the deployment. But the appearence itself on the map.

 

 I do not dispute the relevance of the deployment of AI, but sometimes I wish redirected as soon as possible myself, troops.

May be a timer to show the delay of arrival could help to soothe our souls. 

[Nick Thomadis]

Yes I think you have a good point. We will see what we can do in next patches.

[MikeK]

Certainly.

 But as we haven't mini map to control, some of them appears stricly with the announce. Anothers some "minutes" ( around 2 or 3 ) and not seconds. It's an embarrassment in the tough fire action from the front, this requires us to make constant back and forth to the point of entry announced.

 I don't talk about the deployment. But the appearence itself on the map.

 

 I do not dispute the relevance of the deployment of AI, but sometimes I wish redirected as soon as possible myself, troops.

May be a timer to show the delay of arrival could help to soothe our souls. 

I think that is a step in the wrong direction. Reinforcements rarely arrive early, sometimes on time, and often late. Anxiety over their location is a common experience.  Counting on their timely arrival in a plan has risks, and getting them orders (clear ones that they can implement correctly) takes a little time at best.  

 

The current approach gives some of the the flavor of that experience in command. Not all that much, since you can order them the moment you spot them if you are paying attention. The effects of divided command attention and distraction is a great virtue of "realtime" games - so the back and forth, as you choose between watching the fighting or doing other things, is a good thing. The game would feel more realistic by getting a message that reinforcements are expected well in advance and have them arrive after a variable interval of time and announce themselves once well onto the map or coming in sight of a corps commander radius, for example. That would provide the cues to include them in planning and to do something with them when they are in position, rather than having them be out of mind (though commanders can do that as well!). 

 

(The live satellite link with all player forces should be enough to provide whatever soothing is merited amid battle.)

[Husserl]

The arrival of reinforcements is predetermined to be triggered randomly around the historical time that these forces appeared in the Battle of Gettysburg. The trigger-time is also affected by the delay of previous phases/battles so sometimes they come later or not at all.

 

Player's reinforcements arrive shortly after the announcement but this is also affected by the type of the units. For example cavalry enter very fast while artillery needs the most time to enter the field. Enemy's reinforcements are announced when they come in player's LoS.

 

If you spot reinforcements coming very late after the message please note the phase/battle and the reinforcements to correct that.

[muttonnoir]

I'm of the opinion that the basic information about imminent arrival of reinforcements and no further news regarding their progress is  much more representative of the scenario faced by commanders in the mid 19th century. Communication was non existent in most cases and basic at best, confusing and often conflicting. Sheer luck played a major role in avoiding defeat or achieving victory. There is no need for further mini-maps - it spoils the basic premise of the game- if you go down that route you might as well throw in a few helicopters drones tanks and machine guns!

[Teutomatos]

Well, i m agree with that. But it's not this kind of problem. It's simply an unconfortable use or gameplay, if you need to move your sceen constantly, beetween front line and enter location slots. 

 An announced must confirm the units enter at time, not before, not later. Theres nothing here against historical approach or delay argument or unit speed. 

[RichardMcCor]

I agree that I constantly get the message that unit XYZ is on it's way. I go look and don't see them so go back to battle management. Then some mins later find them twiddling their thumbs just on the map as i forgot them. VonGilsa is my #1 lazy guy in that regard. Just letting his troops drink water and not caring that he is needed elsewhere after he comes onto the map whereas the iron and bucks march right into battle on their own.

 

Perhaps the fix is do a 2 step announcement :

 

1. Not only say "they are on their way from their off the visible map embarkation point" but then

2. Repeat the message when they actually get into visibility on your game map "Unit XYZ is now on the map at location ABC" - note location ABC is often not that close to the embarkation point as we know from previous posts.

[MikeK]

If you spot reinforcements coming very late after the message please note the phase/battle and the reinforcements to correct that.

 

I think late arrival adds realism, though a message saying they are delayed might appear a little while after the initial announcement of their approach.