routing questions

[Merry Jolkar]

I don't want to risk losing a commander. If I have him retreat after he's fired of his volley of spells, will this affect the probability of my troops retreating (providing there are other commanders who will stay behind)?

Also, does a commander's command value have any direct influence on whether his troops will retreat?

I sometimes see troops who have routed return to battle (though they then seem to route easily), without any spells being cast. Why?

Finally, I have read that the probability of a troop retreating is lower if he or she is a member of a larger unit. How does that factor in to the retreat calculation? A unit is all the troops in one "row" under a commander, right?

Thanks, Merry

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Merry Jolkar:
If I have him retreat after he's fired of his volley of spells, will this affect the probability of my troops retreating (providing there are other commanders who will stay behind).

As long as there is a commander with the appropriate leadership type, the units will not be affected. For mindless undead, they will dissolve until they reach the current leadership limit.

Also, does a commander's command value have any direct influence on whether his troops will retreat?

The commander's value does not affect the morale calculations as far as I know. Where the effect does show up is that a commander that can lead 50 troops can create a larger squad than one who can only lead 20, and this squad will be harder to rout.

I sometimes see troops who have routed return to battle (though they then seem to route easily), without any spells being cast. Why?

Are you sure that they were routing and not moving to attack a unit that was behind them? I'm not sure that I've seen the behaviour you describe otherwise.

Finally, I have read that the probability of a troop retreating is lower if he or she is a member of a larger unit. How does that factor in to the retreat calculation?

I believe that when the average morale loss of the squad is greater than the number of units in the squad, the the entire squad will rout.

A unit is all the troops in one "row" under a commander, right?

Correct.

[Merry Jolkar]

I will double check but I didn't THINK there were any troops behind them.

I didn't even realize that their morale comes down! I thought it was just a series of checks. So, morale drops for a given unit if that unit gets hit, but not for other, unhit units, right?

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Merry Jolkar:
I didn't even realize that their morale comes down! I thought it was just a series of checks. So, morale drops for a given unit if that unit gets hit, but not for other, unhit units, right?

I really can't give you a more detailed explanation than what I've already given you, since that's about as much information on morale as there is. I believe that it is some of the oldest code in the game, so the devs were not completely sure how it worked when asked.

[Merry Jolkar]

I actually find that pretty cool. It's neat to have some things that you can't ever know for certain -- avoids optimizers, and feels "real"...

[von_Schmidt]

"I sometimes see troops who have routed return to battle (though they then seem to route easily), without any spells being cast. Why?"

If you mean routing troops who are still with the (victorious) army after the battle: routing troops only flee to neighboring provinces if they leave the battle screen before the battle ends.

If you mean that routing troops actually turn around and rejoing the fight; well, I have never seen that happen...

von Schmidt

[Ironhawk]

Originally posted by Merry Jolkar:
I sometimes see troops who have routed return to battle (though they then seem to route easily), without any spells being cast. Why?

I have seen this behavior rarely and it is only with bodyguards. The scenario I have seen is that a commander has a set of bodyguards. That army then routs for one reason or another and the commander then begins fleeing, so the bodyguard accompanies him. BUT, if the commander gets ahead of the bodyguard and leaves the field before them, they will sometimes turn around and charge the enemy. I don't have any explaination as to why this is, I'm just relating what I have seen.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Ironhawk:
The scenario I have seen is that a commander has a set of bodyguards. That army then routs for one reason or another and the commander then begins fleeing, so the bodyguard accompanies him. BUT, if the commander gets ahead of the bodyguard and leaves the field before them, they will sometimes turn around and charge the enemy. I don't have any explaination as to why this is, I'm just relating what I have seen.

I suspect this might happen if the commander, personally, blows his morale check, while his bodyguards do not, and thus chickens out. The bodyguards, of course, assigned to escort him, follow him to the end of the battlefield, but once he vacates, the guards, who are still unbroken, no longer have anyone to guard and therefore revert to default orders of attacking the nearest thing in sight.

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by Merry Jolkar:
If I have him retreat after he's fired of his volley of spells, will this affect the probability of my troops retreating (providing there are other commanders who will stay behind).

As long as there is a commander with the appropriate leadership type, the units will not be affected. For mindless undead, they will dissolve until they reach the current leadership limit.

---

I was under the impression that as long as any commander with undead leadership remained, all undead were fine; presumably for much the same reason that undead can remain in a province without an undead commander.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Cainehill:
I was under the impression that as long as any commander with undead leadership remained, all undead were fine; presumably for much the same reason that undead can remain in a province without an undead commander.

I'm not entirely certain how it works now, although I think I might have seen undead units dissolve when I couldn't think of another reason for it.