Cantabarian Circle=Melee death machine?

[John the Mad]

I just had a battle,well actually the same battle twice because i reloaded,that made me go what the @#%!*.

I caught a unit of light horse on its own so i sent a slinger,a spear,and a cav unit to dispatch it.As i was moving foward it started to charge towards my slingers so I ran the slinger back and moved up the spear unit.Now i know it made melee contact with my spear,when suddenly the cav just started zipping around so fast that it made my eyes hurt and literally began tearing the spear to shreds.I thought this ain't right i had them stopped dead in their tracks during a head on fight so i reloaded.

This time when they started to charge i moved my cav to intercept them.Once again they were stopped dead in their tracks then once again in the middle of melee them started zipping around like crazy and began ripping my units to shreds.Both times i noticed that my units began the movements like they were trying to chase down routers and were not trying to fight.It just seemed to confuse them.

Now maybe this happens all the time with light horse in melee and i never noticed because i have never caught one on its own and when i do fight them its in larger battles where i don't have the time to view every single action with such detail.Is this a legitimate function of the circle or an exploit?

I guess either way i have to live with it but curiousity has the better of me.

[antisocialmunky]

Were they circling or stuck in the circle/infinite turning bug?

[John the Mad]

Err..Good question.

They were zipping around so fast its really hard to say.They could have been just turning back and forth really really fast in the middle of my units.I guess i just assumed they had used their special ability.

Would be nice if campaign battle replays were brought back.

Btw what is the infinite circling bug?

[antisocialmunky]

Sometimes infantry with high density will turn and form a circle when it tries to get back into its rectangualr formation because it keeps turning. Sometimes it'll explode and men will fly everywhere.

Think of it as a RTW moshpit bug.

[Fierro]

Sometimes it'll explode and men will fly everywhere.


I loled at this but don't know if it is meant literally or just to show that the circling bug really sucks... I'm sitting here imagining my hoplites attempting to get back into shield wall after circling for the past 5 minutes until the formation can't take anymore and men literally fly all over the place getting splattered on the walls as if they were bowling pins... lol:laugh4:

[kekailoa]

OP- I know what you're talking about. They're not so much forming a circle, just running constantly through the pack of men, back and forth, back and forth. I've seen it before (and used it before) and I don't why or how it happens, but it's really effective. Then, after a while, they stop, and melee ensues. Then horses go back to fighting in melee normally: like crap.

[Cute Wolf]

Normally units that do cantabrian circle could break from their formations rather quickly, and fight normally in melee... but sometimes, their movement got a charge bonus maybe(?) but it was the logical explanation of your case...

[antisocialmunky]

I loled at this but don't know if it is meant literally or just to show that the circling bug really sucks... I'm sitting here imagining my hoplites attempting to get back into shield wall after circling for the past 5 minutes until the formation can't take anymore and men literally fly all over the place getting splattered on the walls as if they were bowling pins... lol:laugh4:

No they do go flying. If you have a high density unit in guard mode, stack some more ontop of them, tell them to run through a similarly dense unit, and then take guard mode off, then the resulting density decrease will send men flying EVERYWHERE.

@ Wulf, that seems likely.

[John the Mad]

Ah,their getting a charge bonus,or are performing a charge, during melee.That explains it then.

Thanks.

[HunGeneral]

I don't know but this sounds suprisingly similar to how some light cavalry are suspected to have fought in meele.

I read this theory some time ago in a book on the Hometaking Hungarians. The author (can't remember his name) speculated on some evidence that after the "fake retreat" and "backword archering" (parthian shot) had weakened and tired the enemy then the light horsemen would turn around and enter meele but no by standing in one spot,, but galopping past the enemy horsemen and striking with his saber - it is fisically proven that this gives the max possible strenght to the strike and that so a saber could even cut trough a chainmail shirt.

However I don't think that this is the way it should work in R:TW. I suspect it is somekind of bug, but I'm not sure...