Hey folks, new player here. Came over from Civ V and I have to say I really like the combat mechanics. I especially like the option to auto through insignificant skirmishes where one player has clear superiority, or manual more important battles.



But I'm not clear on whether and when I should use manual against the AI. As in, I'm not sure whether micromanaging my army confers enough of a real advantage for it to be worthwhile. I may be able to save a unit or two using ground cover and timed retreats, but overall whether the battle is won or lost still seems to be based on the number and strength of units you have rather than the actions you take in combat. Since there's a lot of RNG in combat anyway, I feel like that may basically cancel out any maneuvers I could pull off.



For me it hangs on whether auto actually simulates the full combat, using default orders for both sides, or whether it just rolls your army's strength against the opponent and then doles out damage on both sides (the way Civ does). Leaving your units on default targets while in manual seems pretty bad -- primarily because units seem to always target the most damaged opponent regardless of how far away they are -- so if that's what auto is doing I can see why you would not use it. But if it's just rolling armies, that could actually give the attacker an advantage, since it reduces the number of combat rolls that have to be made (reducing chances for a critical hit/miss outlier) and it eliminates positioning disadvantages like distances between strong and weak units as well as cover bonuses etc. Does anyone know which of these auto actually does?



When do you use auto versus manual? Have you ever won a battle on manual with a weaker overall army strength than your opponent (shown on the circular meter on the beginning)? Have you lost one on auto despite having a stronger army? If you do find better results with manual, what tactics are you implementing to get those results?



One thing I think could really make a difference is hero spells (that could be used instead of attacks) and support casters -- if those were added you'd have a lot more options to position smartly against a stronger opponent.

I think you will have a lot of differing opinions on this question.



I -always- manual combat unless I have an overwhelming advantage (so overwhelming I don't have to worry about losing any units). Once you get the hang of the combat and how to exploit the AI you can save units per battle from dieing. Even if the odds are overwhelming against me, I play it out. I can usually kill 1-2 units instead of 0 if I auto-simmed.



Yes, I have won multiple battles against the AI (actually the majority of them) where I have 'less strength'. I have a few good examples in screenshots, will try to post one of them when I get on here at home(auto-battle versus actually playing it out). The circular bar isn't a great predictor TBH. It gives a general idea but ive had results, both good and bad, on opposite sides of the spectrum of the circular bar.

When you enter the battle actions, there is no difference if you watch the action or just press auto, is there?

As far as I can tell, auto just plays the combat out with everybody on aggressive orders. So all the normal stuff-- terrain, reinforcements, etc-- comes into play.



I just do auto when it's a foregone conclusion. That's usually a scout at <50% against a fast enemy, or my elite army against some batch of poorly retrofitted units. Even with the elites vs. poor retrofits, it means that my units take more damage than they would have otherwise, but I'm lazy enough that I am willing to pay that price.



There are a few cases where the AI is really poor: healing (well support in general), fortification bonuses, defensive fights, and mixed arms (cavalry + silics oh my that's a bad outcome). So in those situations, definitely no auto-resolve.

I don't know much about how the auto works in terms of stances etc, but what I can say is that, it's almost always beneficial to play all early game battles manually. One of the biggest problems I find with the AI is they fail to take advantage of terrain buffs, such as forests, high ground, etc. This can make a big difference.



Also, you've mentioned support units. In my current Broken Lords game I find I can increase the health of my units by clever use of my Dust Bishops. If my army has some lost health, rather than spend dust (which you can never have enough of as BL!) I use my Dust Bishops to heal my units. Oftentimes I can come out ahead if done correctly.



It just depends whether you can be bothered playing the battles! (Personally I really like the combat mechanics!)

natev wrote:
I just do auto when it's a foregone conclusion. That's usually a scout at <50% against a fast enemy, or my elite army against some batch of poorly retrofitted units. Even with the elites vs. poor retrofits, it means that my units take more damage than they would have otherwise, but I'm lazy enough that I am willing to pay that price.

This is pretty much the approach I've started to take. I mean I have a tiny chance I could save that <50% scout with a manual defence and some very lucky terrain advantages, but who wants to spend 6 rounds running away...



A big reason I'm not doing much better in manual than auto is its tough to figure out what's actually happening in a battle. It's pretty hard to find tactical info on even simple stuff like my chances of a hit/fumble on a given enemy and the rock paper scissors unit type advantages.

For me:



AUTO: When you're already ROFLstomping enemy armies.

MANUAL: Everytime else.

Yorien wrote:
For me:



AUTO: When you're already ROFLstomping enemy armies.

MANUAL: Everytime else.

Mostly this. After playing the Cultists a lot, I tend to Auto now if there are 2 or less units facing 3 or more units. Even if I'm shown as having a marginal advantage or disadvantage where I might swing it. After a certain point as the Cultists if you're doing well, you have fights way to often to manual everything and still have fun.

Auto: most of the time

Manual: small and important battles (where things are predictable and controllable)

Spectator: cinematically important but large/easy battles; to send a dying empire screaming into the abyss



Often relatively precise control will generate a pretty similar outcome to if you just hit auto anyway. Try saving wounded units from angry Wild Walker archers