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Here's the situation: I had Lord Shimazu surrounded; he was holed up in a fortress with only 250 guys, but I had taken the province and had like 10,000 guys crammed into that province. The program kept saying he'd last "for a couple of years." Well, I was forced to storm the castle, since time was of the essence (his heirless daimyo was in there, and if I wiped out those troops, his clan would be gone, but he had a son that was 14 and would mature in two years).
So every turn I dumped all my troops onto the fortress to "end siege." The problem was that this province (Shinano) bordered on other provinces in which Shimazu had a few troops here and there. So every turn he would send in a 200-300 guys against my 10,000. Then, the program would say "Lord Shimazu has decided he cannot win the battle and is retreating," referring, presumably, to the issue of his 200 guys challenging my 10,000.
Unfortunately, when the program cancels the battle under such circumstances, it seems to "forget" that you ordered the castle stormed in the first place. His "retreat" apparently cancels ANY battle in that province for that turn. As a result, I could NEVER storm the castle.
In this particular case, although I ordered the castle stormed on every single turn, TWO YEARS went by like this with me getting nowhere, and his heir eventually came of age, thus cheating me of my fair chance for a quick victory.
I guess my question is: has anybody else experienced this, and if so do you know how to get around it?
Because now I'm thinking this is a good strategy thing to know: if you have guys surrounded in (at least) a fortress, keep invading the province with 60 guys. When it comes time for battle, click on "call off the attack." Due to a programming oversight (?), your opponent will be unable to EVER storm the castle and will have no option other than wearing you down.
[This message has been edited by Darth Wart (edited 12-15-2000).]
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That sounds like a really good AI tactic.
Never accepting battle,but keeping you busy all the same.
You should be glad it gave you such a fight.
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Ah yes, the various 'tactics' the AI uses. It's been long since I've heard of AI cheats.
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Life has no meaning. Do not concern yourself with it.
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they why don't you just split your forces (after all, it's only 200 guys over there) and invade both his castel and his attacking province at the same time?
easy.
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the reason the AI does what it does is because your army can either defend your province, or invade the castle. It can't be two places at once. Plus, you can't invade his castle while Shimazu invades your province at the same time (if you lost, you would be utterly destroyed since theoretically there's no place to retreat) so the AI assumes you'd rather defend and keep an open retreat rather than commit to an attack.
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That's annoyingly clever, considering it was the AI's doing. To bad it can't be that clever in all aspects of the game.
I think I'd also divide and conquer here. Since you have no real use for 10000 troops in that province, just use your 16 best assault units for the castle storming, then send some harrassment forces to tackle the surrounding provinces. This also works well when you wish to take a province that can be reinforced immediately by many units. Just send some distractions to the surrounding threats as you take the main province. It always seems to shave off a few units, that would otherwise be defending against you.
p.s. can ninjas be used to unlock the gates in a castle seige? I just remembered that I've heard this from somewhere before, but haven't tested it since I rarely have need it.
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March swiftly to where you are least expected, and attack where your enemy must hasten to defend.
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it's be nice if there were actually gates on the friggin castle. but alas, there aren't. so no ninja, no nothin'.
