Routing! Routing! what to do next?

[Lord Rom]

Someone messed up bigtime and let me post all over the place http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif Now I can ask the big boys(and girls) questions. Cry Havoc I've got the enemy running like frightened school girls, my brave men are chasing them all over the map, there are a few pockets of resistance wavering here and there. Now what do I do? What are your best tactics for running them off the map, gathering your scattered forces, and marching to clean up other forces on the field? Do u immediatly gather your troops or do u run and help your beleagured allies? Lets hear the best of your routing tactics.

[GoldenKnightX2]

I usually let my fastest cavalry chase the routing enemies down and send my infantry to help my allies(if any).

[Mithrandir]

Depends on the situation...

usually I just send 2 cav to chase the entire army off the map, they are fast,strong and manouvrable, so if anything rallies, they can wedge it and rout it again. I send all to my allies then. or just send depleted units (units with few men) after the enemy... they'll wont do much good in battle, but are enough to keep the enemy routing while your non-depleted units help your allies.

[Puzz3D]

When considering sending help to an ally, I try to estimate whether I can arrive before he routs. If I can't, then I just regroup and rest my units.

[Cebei]

Well if everybody is running away than the thing is simple, send equally fast units for each routing unit (send cavalry to chase cavalry) to send them off the field. If you send your Alans after spearmen, you will capture many of those spearmen but if you dont chase cavalry with an equally fast unit. That cavalry may regroup and attack back. And secondly while capturing, do not order attack, just run your units across and through the routing units. This way your units will not stop while capturing soldiers and enemy units will fall very quickly.

[tootee]

when ya opponent route, the most important thing is to keep the integrity of ya force.. so assume all of them are running, try to channel them such that they rout in one direction, or most of them rout in one direction. its too messy and troublesome to keep track of who and where are ya units.. the best trick for me is to select all and double click at the edge of map in the direction of rout.. most of ya army will be close together, and channelling most of the enemy out of the game. after ensuring most of ya men is moving in same direction, then its safer to check individual unit to see if they have better targets.

[Dionysus9]

I normally let my depleted cav units chase off the routers while I regroup the rest of my army toward my allies (far enough away I can escape a chain rout if I arrive too late, but close enough I can run to aid if needed).

The first thing I check for is large units of cav, which I immediately "peel off" from the pursuit and send to allies.

If there are a lot of good sized units routing then I will send some depleted infantry to chase as well.

This has gotten me in trouble a few times, but overall it works for me the best. My maxim is "if I routed him once, I can rout him again." It is true 90% of the time which is good enough for me.

The only problems occurr when the enemy rallies a few good units and my depleted units dont have enough strength to re-rout them. My depleteds run away instead and the enemy regroups. Since morale bonuses are calculated by #of bannermen in the vicinity, this can create a situation where the enemy has more morale bonuses than I do, and it changes the engagement to where he can win.

Now, by the time the enemy has regrouped and is marching on me--I'm already grouped and rested (unless I'm helping an ally). Meanwhile the recovered enemy is still tired and recently routed--so he is not in the best morale shape. If he wants to march over to me then he is even more tired. So even if he has managed to gain a banner advantage, I still feel like I am okay.

By the time he gets around to attacking me again, I've probably been able to help my allies enough that we will win even if I die.

The key for me is-- once you have him running, send only what you need to keep him running--take the rest to your allies.

[Aelwyn]

I do some of what has already been mentioned, but another thing I look at is the speed of each unit. If I have a heavy unit like Chiv. Foot Knights, it doesn't matter if they're chasing another unit of CFK, I stop them and regroup. They probably won't catch any men anyways, and the few they do don't matter so much as the rest they could have gotten. I'll usually let maybe 1-2 light inf units chase, as well as my cavs. I will regroup my missles and my main inf with my general, if he's still alive. Then either march to allies, rest, or get into position to fire on the remaining opponents.

[ichi]

Excellent ideas all, very similar to what I try to do. Situations vary, but there is a pattern. Usually I am the one routing, or it is my ally that is rushing to my aid, but every once in a while I . . .

Use light, fast, depleted units to chase routers. I send them after the enemy unit that I think is most likely to rally OR the unit that I would least like to rally (usually the biggest high quality cav or inf). I like to use out-of-ammo horse archers, longbows or nizaris, but will use whoever is close and available.

Position one Heavy Cav where it can react to a recovering enemy unit, so if someone does rally I can hit it quickly.

Stop the largest, heaviest, slowest units and get em grouped up, ready to go help.

ichiRW

[Lord Rom]

These are really good guys. Thanks http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wave.gif