Influence and routing

[Gith]

Just thinking of a pair of misc. questions I had.

1: What does influence do?

2: Have you ever noticed that it is occasionally better to quickly march a unit through a routing enemy unit, as opposed to just ordering it to attack? I've noticed that cavalry especially, if they build up enough speed, will ram through more routing soldiers and take more prisoner than if they had just attacked. Is this common practice amongst MTW players, or what?

[Pyrit]

1)I'm pretty sure that Influence affects how other countries will respond to your actions. For example, if you're allied with say Spain and Spain is allied with Germany, and you attack Germany, Spain will remain your allies, not theirs.

2)That is true, but it's gotten worse as the game's patches have progressed, it used to be like slicing butter with a hot knife, but now its not as effective.

[discovery1]

1) influece also effects general and provicial loyalties.

2)Ths was true with earlier versions, but the swipe was removed completely with the 2.01 patch.

[mercian billman]

Influence is good to have because it increases the loyalty of heirs and generals (usually.) When you become the biggest country everyone start's hating you and influence really doesn't mean much.

[Gith]

Thanks.

And yea, I had kind of noticed the technique not working, but I figured it was an error on my part, not the fact it was removed. Bah.

[katank]

it's still useful to charge past them but now they no longer get unlimited charge bonus as before.

before, it's possible to charge past using cav upon even non routing units and take off a chunk of a unit.

influence only good for general loyalty really. diplomacy is so random and nonsensical.

factions refuse peace even though I have them on the ropes.

they should be happy to just become a vassal let alone an autonomous entity allied with me. BAH they don't listen, they die http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Doug-Thompson]

Influence is vital to preventing rebellions, as mentioned.

As for charging through, it is still better than simple melee attack. It also works best with faster cavalry like jinettes, and cavalry with good melee attack.

[Imperial Buffoon]

I'm I right in that with the VI patch, you get no charge bonus at all when running through a unit? This means it's still useful for attacking routing units but not for charging (as the swipe bug allowed)

[katank]

I think it's only equivalent to charging once.

ie. once the front rank makes contact, no more charge.

before, with swipe, you get unlimited charge as infinitum or at least until the enemy unit is destroyed.

Still beats simply meleeing IMHO.

I still charge past units but no longer expect miracles like swipe used to yield.