please... this bug is by far the worst

[Sam Adams]

remove the siege time limit.

Nothing is more annoying.

I make a lightning strike into the heart of the nile... getting ready to make a huge assault... I got 5 towers ready to take the walls, open the gates, and the rest of my army will storm in...

oh but wait theres a 20 minute time limit... impossible. So I set it to 3x and let the time run down... nothing else you can do.

[FURRY_BOOTS]

yep, im feeling your pain :dizzy2: im sure theres a mod out there somwhere, that can dissable the time limit, have a wee look around you should find something ~:)

[HicRic]

The time limit isn't a 'bug', it's a 'bad feature'. And yeah, there are ways around it. Download a mod, or before starting a campaign, go into the 'historical battle' menu, but don't play a battle, then come out of the menu and make a new campagin. No time limit!

Also, I've never found taking a city within 20 minutes to be too difficult. Once it got a little close (when I assulted Rome) but maybe giving up was a bit premature? After all, if you fought there would be a chance of victory, but giving up assures there is none... ~;)

[Didz]

Its not exactly a bug but I agree there should be a feature to turn the battle timer off or extend the time limit.

However, there are a couple of utilities that allow you to do just that.

Personally, I use the RTW: Time Limit Negotiator utility or TiLiN for short.

It can be downloaded from here http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=9993&hl=tilin

[KiOwA]

The timer might be a good idea in field battles, as it would put the initiative on the attacker and discourage turtling. But in sieges, it simply makes no sense whatsoever. If I've camped outside the gates for 2 years, and I'm assaulting now, I should think I have way more than 20 mins to defeat you.

[Didz]

I've never had any negative issues with the timer being off, either with seiges or battles.

The thing it does discourage is the old trick of launching a sally against a beseiging AI army just to cause attrition. This can backfire if the AI refuses to quit the field or attack and create an awkward situation where you have to go out and drive them off the battlefield with inferior numbers of troops.

Its happened to me once or twice but so far I've got away with it. You can always quit the battle anyway and provided all your troops are inside the city walls the worst that will happen is that its declared a draw.

As far as open battle is concerned I don't consider it correct that we should win by the timer running out anyway. I've yet to encounter any enemy army that initiates a battle and then doesn't attack and if we initiate a battle we can't win we should withdraw.

[NagatsukaShumi]

The time limit is utterly ridiculous, regardless of whether I can win within the time limit.

It takes the magic away, I remember the other Total Wars where a battle could last a could solid hour before it was over, now I've got to win in a time limit. It makes the following scenario

"Men, we have 20 minutes to win this battle"

"Why?"

What possible reason would an enitre army have for giving themselves a limit to their battle? I hate limits, even if I usually finish before hand I don't like knowing that if things don't work out I may lose or draw due to the time running out.

What exactally happens to my army? After 20 minutes do they all get a sudden rush of fear if they aren't done fighting?

Stupid, luckily it can be turned off though.

[Didz]

What ought to happen if anything is after a suitable time period (say an hour or two) the screen should gradually begin to get darker and unit detection distances should shorten until you can barely see anything.

Might create a new value to using fire arrows ~:cool:

[MrWhipple]

To be fair to CA 20 min may be a bit short in some cases, but in real war, (and I speak from experience) Time limits are very real. Fatigue, rations, water, weather, health, all play a part. To say nothing about how truly freaked out you get just knowing that there is someone out there in the bush with an AK with a round with your name on it. Also there is the bigger picture to think about. If my troopers don't take objective X by time T then unit Z gets the s**t blown out of it because I screwed up by lolly gagging around having a short arm drill with the guys.

[Didz]

To be fair to CA 20 min may be a bit short in some cases, but in real war, (and I speak from experience) Time limits are very real. Fatigue, rations, water, weather, health, all play a part. To say nothing about how truly freaked out you get just knowing that there is someone out there in the bush with an AK with a round with your name on it. Also there is the bigger picture to think about. If my troopers don't take objective X by time T then unit Z gets the s**t blown out of it because I screwed up by lolly gagging around having a short arm drill with the guys.

But those are time limits and deadlines produced by the actions and decisions of the respective command groups we have to deal with those as part of any battle anyway. If the enemy is bearing down on your archers with a bunch of light cavalry you know you only have a limited time to get your own cavalry over there and save their arses.

The CA 20 min rule is a totally artificial time limit which basically says 'We don't give a f*ck what your strategic plan is, you do it in 20 minutes or we are going to switch the world off.' As such its rubbish and shouldn't have been made mandatory in the first place, especailly as its another of those features which was already optional in the previous games.

[LordKhaine]

The time limit is a good idea itself. But the amount of time given isn't. In MTW you'd have 60 minutes or so for a large battle, and hours for the epic history defining clashes. In RTW it's usually around 20 minutes even if you're assaulting rome!

[Didz]

The time limit is a good idea itself.

I really don't see why anyone thinks an artificial time limit is a good idea.

I don't recall Churchill ringing Hitler up and saying "Right! Old boy either you invade and wipe us out by the 30 August 1944 or we've won."

Nor did Wellington give Napoleon 20 minutes to capture Hougoumont failing which he had to withdraw to Paris and abdicate.

This time limt idea might make sense if we were playing Football Totalwar and everyone changed ends at half-time but as it is its just silly and serves no purpose other than to bugger up everyones game.

[Obex]

I started playing with the time limit disabled, after i lost a siege that involved a lot of onager action, followed by my inability to prevent routed units from wandering through the town square, and thusly resetting the end battle clock.

I rather enjoy playing without the clock, but there is a situation that this causes a problem. When the enemy brings two armies to siege, the one without siege equipment sits on the side and does nothing unless the walls are breached. what sucks is when my small force would drive off the first army before they breach the walls, then have to try to set up on the side of the castle, and attack the lazy, ai-less secondary army. here, the time limit serves to protect me from having to sally.

kind of a damned if you do, damned if you dont situation, in my estimation.

[Didz]

I started playing with the time limit disabled, after i lost a siege that involved a lot of onager action, followed by my inability to prevent routed units from wandering through the town square, and thusly resetting the end battle clock.

I rather enjoy playing without the clock, but there is a situation that this causes a problem. When the enemy brings two armies to siege, the one without siege equipment sits on the side and does nothing unless the walls are breached. what sucks is when my small force would drive off the first army before they breach the walls, then have to try to set up on the side of the castle, and attack the lazy, ai-less secondary army. here, the time limit serves to protect me from having to sally.

kind of a damned if you do, damned if you dont situation, in my estimation.

Can't you just exit the battle?

My understanding is that this would result in a Draw with you still in control of the city.

I don't think there is any need to sally unless you have troops outside the town walls that cannot be brought back in for some reason.

[The_Emperor]

I really don't see why anyone thinks an artificial time limit is a good idea.

I agree. in a siege situation the attackers would literally have all day to try and capture the place... If they failed they would go back to their camps and try again later, or if the fighting was really fierce (the fall of Constantinople for example) the fighting would continue through the night.

I really didn't like it when I invade a Large city, fight my way to the Plaza break the enemy but the time limit runs out before I manage to kill the last couple of enemy troops...

My forces: "We have Victory!"
(enemy survivor walks around the corner)
Last enemy survivor: "Sorry guys your 20 Minutes are up and I'm still here, now pack up your stuff and go home"
My General: "Blast, thats dashed bad luck... Come on men, collect your stuff we'll come back and kill this little sod in Six Months!"

:dizzy2:

[Cras]

strange is you can wait 6 -8 turns before you attack (3-4 YEARS)..

but when the fighting starts you have to be done in 20 minutes


I have sometimes reopened a save game to be able to retry the attack, some cities it's quite a long walk from the gates to the square. Also taking you by several towers that fire on you so you have to take them first... which is not hard (cause they are not defended) but a pain in the *ss

[Sam Adams]

ya, 45 minutes is all I ask for. Youd think it would be pretty simple to double the time. I wish there was a way...

[Sam Adams]

it takes about 20 minutes to scale the walls and kill all those who stand there.

then it might take another 10 to secure the town.

[Ziu]

As Didz said;
TiLiN TiLiN TiLiN TiLiN TiLiN TiLiN

Works great, with no more frustrating 10 second losses! :furious3:

[Didz]

ya, 45 minutes is all I ask for. Youd think it would be pretty simple to double the time. I wish there was a way...

Use the TiLiN utlility and then set a kitchen timer up to any limit you want to set yourself. When the kitchen timer goes off just force yourself to push the ESC button. ~D

[Sam Adams]

ive started smashing down walls with ornagers now. Its way faster and usually less costly than going over the top anyway... you just gotta smash your hole where the enemy archers are, so they either die or move. Its nice when you get a flaming round right in the middle of archers... and like 30 burnt bodies get blasted off the wall.

things like that is why I bought this game...

[chef4fun2]

Alexander took 8 months to take the city of Tyre back. Back in thoses times the leaders did what they had to, to insure his men had what was needed to get the job done. and taking as long as needed also.

[sapi]

are you mad!?
the time limit is needed to give hope to the defenders, just take the city quickly