Autoresolve insanity

[Mori Gabriel Syme]

A 300+ army under one of my prince's, a three-star commander with no known vices (nor virtues), assaulted the unenhanced keep of the Sicilians in the Papal States; it contained only the Sicilian king, a three-star commander. I didn't want to mess around with smashing the gate & all just for one man, so I chose to autoresolve the battle. The computer returns a message

Defeat
Your losses: 271
Enemy losses: 0

This can't be normal. Has anyone else had experience with such a mystifying outcome?

[Orda Khan]

Ohhh yes.
Never use auto resolve especially if your Sovereign or heir is involved. Due to a crash I had to refight battles. As you can imagine it was a bit of a drag but nowhere near as bad as seeing the outcome. In the original battle I lost just 32 men, in the auto resolve I lost 197, nearly half the army in that province

......Orda

[solypsist]

keep in mind that castles also have seperate garrisons (who operate castle defense weapons like ballistas) and these may reflect on your casualties if you auto-resolve.

many times people have written in complaining that they've suffered massive losses autoresolving/assaulting a castle that contained only "ten peasants" but they'd forgotten they were attacking a castle with culverin defenses, which the garrison uses, and which is calculated into the equation.

[Kristaps]

Yes, castle defenses should be taken into account by the autoresolve. However, autoresolve usually does not take those into account -- otherwise the, traditionally, minimal castle assault autoresolve numbers cannot be explained. I guess, the case discussed here is rather an exception than a common occurrence. In most cases, when I use autoresolve, my losses are ridiculously low... {I would lose way more people to castle defenses if playing the assault myself than what is indicated by the autoresolve result}.

[Mori Gabriel Syme]

I'm pretty sure it was unenhanced, by which I mean that it would only have arrow towers.

I guess the bottom line is that from now on I will only autoresolve a battle if it is a hopeless crusade that I'm trying to get rid of. If I care about winning, I should do it myself. & this time, I'm waiting to bring over a trebeuchet.

[Tyrac]

I have never had a auto resolve of a castle assault give me more casualties then what an actual personal command assult gives. In every fight I have had is is obvious that the computer does not really take into account the actual castle defenses. The results you saw are truly bizarre. Auto calcing a castle asssault is almost cheating anyway. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif if it REALLY bores you set speed on max and it only takes like 3-6 min to break a gate(s) and kill the units inside anyway. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif And the kills you take will be REAL.

[deejayvee]

I've never assaulted a castle with only 300 men before. Could it be that?

[hoom]

Yes, 300 what?

vs a King with uber general action and stone walls (keeps have stone right?) giving him the gate defensive position...

My experience of attacking strongly defended gates is that you get mulched.
So I always try to knock down the walls and enter there.
This means wait for artillery unless it is a fort (cos you can break down the wooden walls quickly).

I never use autoresolve, but I have heard of a single prince getting over 1000 kills and victory on his own in an attack through autoresolve...

[Mori Gabriel Syme]

I'm sure the result was due to the fact that it was a king in the keep. It still bugged me because I occassionally autoresolve an assault, not really from boredom but because I have further plans elsewhere that I want to execute (I guess that's impatience), & the results are lower than if I had done it myself. The 300 by the way were fairly miscellaneous: longbows, archers, spearmen, a few cavalry. I assaulted the gate because I had no seige equipment with me, & the pope was threatening to excommunicate me.

As a follow-up, I waited two turns to bring a trebeuchet over from Aragon. The turn before it arrived, a large group of well armed loyalists appeared in the Papal States despite the 200% loyalty of the general population. I had moved in quite a lot of troops because the king had acquired the "skilled assault defender" virtue. Due to the loyalist however, I moved in even more troops, & the battle was fought as a defensive action in the open. In the course of the battle, the Sicilian king charged in to support his losing knights, & he began to slaughter troops by the dozens. Brave Prince William, leading a unit of chivalric foot knights, rushed to attack & with three remaining killed the Sicilian king. The late king even garnered the narrator comment that he was "a brave man making a good end." With his death, however, the Sicilian faction ceased.

[chunkynut]

I admit i often cant be bothered to kill the 30 men in a Keep that will take 10 years to seige (and with the pope breathing down your neck) it isn't worth waiting. So add a couple of pieces of siege weaponry and autocalc. You lose some but probably less than i would if i did it myself

[Papewaio]

Never bet against a Scilian when death is on the line http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Plaxx]

And never fight a land war in Asia

[Exile]

Strange..usually when I auto resolve a castle assault my losses are far less (too low - no account for castle defense I suspect) than if I play it out. Maybe I'm just awful http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Nobunaga0611]

Besides which, that Gen prob had an added bonus of "Ready to fight as there is no retreat". I've fought an entire army with one unit of Byz. Infantry and one unit of Napthas. Well about 500 men or so, not 960. I anchored myself in a corner, and sure enough, it started to rain. So Napthas were useless. I won the battle, took about 55 losses, and have over 350 kills with that one unit. True I was in the corner, in the woods, on a slight hill, but the point is that when a unit is ready to fight cause they know they can't retreat, it helps morale.

[Dark Angel]

Dont forget there are more ways of breaking a castle seige with few defenders.
1 Use a spy especially if he has been in the province a while.
2 Use an assassin to kill the defender.
3 Always use a seige engine if assaulting.
4 Use mercenaries if viable

Good luck

[TheViking]

Quote[/b] (solypsist @ Feb. 10 2003,20:39)]keep in mind that castles also have seperate garrisons (who operate castle defense weapons like ballistas) and these may reflect on your casualties if you auto-resolve.

many times people have written in complaining that they've suffered massive losses autoresolving/assaulting a castle that contained only "ten peasants" but they'd forgotten they were attacking a castle with culverin defenses, which the garrison uses, and which is calculated into the equation.
castle defens dont count when auto-resolve,

Once i attacked english king, the only one left in castle,

i auto-res it, lost 50 man, then i attacked it and took command of it myself, i lost 541 man that time, over 300 to the castle and little more then 200 to the king

[hoom]

I always fight all my battles.

I don't trust the autoresolve and I enjoy the battles even if I'm going to lose.

I'm certainly not going to autoresolve castles now that I know its got a loophole.