Commander Orders

[Ice_Sickle]

I need help understanding the relationship between a commander's battle orders and the battle orders of troops under his command.

I can give my commander an (attack)(attack)retreat order (I presume this means he attacks for 2 rounds and then retreats.

If I give a squad of archers under his command a "Fire at Archers" command do they also retreat after 2 rounds of attack? Or do they just stand there and keep firing until they break or are slaughtered?

I'm facing slow troops and know I can get off 2-3 volleys of arrows before they reach me so rather than Fire and Flee I want to fire for 2-3 rounds and then flee. But obviously I don't want my commander to abandon his archers on the field.

I've got some hoplites under this commander too and I want them to cover the retreat. Attack and Flee?

Help would be most appreciated!


Ice

[Norfleet]

The Archers will only retreat after the commander has departed the field, if he was the only commander. Otherwise, the archers will continue to shoot. After the battle, their squad will be disbanded and the commander's troops will enter the provincial dogpile and require reassignment. Otherwise, they will run when their only commander has removed his august presence from the battlefield: They will not rout until the commander is actually gone. Given that you ordered the commander to attack twice, he will have spent two rounds moving towards the enemy, so in all likelyhood, the archers will not retreat for at least 2 turns after the commander begins his own retreat.

Of course, if he gets killed doing that, the archers will immediately retreat!

[Ice_Sickle]

Thanks so much!

What happens with normal troops when their only leader was killed by an assasin before the battle began? Do they route quickly or do they fight almost as well as if they had a commander?

[Vynd]

Originally posted by Ice Sickle:
Thanks so much!

What happens with normal troops when their only leader was killed by an assasin before the battle began? Do they route quickly or do they fight almost as well as if they had a commander?

Troops without a commander will rout on the first round of battle. I've never suffered through the particular circumstance you've described, but I have seen this happen to troops I've left sitting in a province with no commander and no province defense. This fact is (I assume) part of the reason why people recommend setting the PD in every province you own to at least 1 (since 1 gives you a commander).

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Vynd:
I've never suffered through the particular circumstance you've described, but I have seen this happen to troops I've left sitting in a province with no commander and no province defense. This fact is (I assume) part of the reason why people recommend setting the PD in every province you own to at least 1 (since 1 gives you a commander).

This is not necessarily a bad thing. Odds are that troops simply left lying around commanderless are the routed remnants of some previous battle. If given a commander via PD, they'd fight with default orders and positioning....and likely die. Without a commander, they'll head for greener pastures the first turn of the battle.

The sole exception to this would be Ashen Empire Ermor, where if left without a commander, the troops simply crumble.

The other drawback of PD is that if you are defending a province using SCs, the PD units will die quickly and cause an immediate rout.

On the flipside, PDless provinces can be overrun by a single scout, an obnoxious annoyance that was recently introduced into the clan lexicon by some damned foreigner.

[ May 15, 2004, 00:58: Message edited by: Norfleet ]