What the...????

Some of you might remember me posting something about a rebel family member popping up in battle as a unit of Pontic Heavies. We had a discussion about it and several explainations came out of it, such as the rebel bodyguards some some odd reason having the Pontic Heavy Cavalry nametag.

I never bought into it, and now I have proof of 'something rotten in the state of Seleucia'.

First we will see a rebel family member riding with a unit of Horse Archers
http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/sd/screen003.jpg

Interesting but not as interesting as the next one.
http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/sd/screen004.jpg

Given that this thread is dealing with odd cases of units, I actually found in the very same turn an oddity with mercs and forts. Look at these two shots.
http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/sd/screen005.jpg
Notice that a unit of Eastern Mercs are residing in an ungarrisoned fort???? What is going on? So when I moved a unit of of Arab Cavalry to investigate if perhaps my Mercs had been bribed or something I noticed I could in fact select the Mercs and this happened.
http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/sd/screen006.jpg
Now can anyone tell me what is going on here? My fort is ungarrisoned by a unit of Eastern Mercs... ~:confused:
Has my fort somehow expired or something?

Well I have some answers for ya.

Screenshot 1 and 2, odd bug that's always been a graphical error for me. Wait until you get a general that is a movable stonewall. Even though the graphical picture is wrong they work exactly like they are suppose to on the battlefield. Odd thing is there is no way to kill that bug and I believe it's caused by a leftout feature. This bug occurs when they are born wether it be a daughter or son, so to destroy that bug you have to load a previous game before they were born.

As for those last 2 it's the mysterious blackouts that occur (modded or unmodded). I have no idea what's behind it but my guess is another leftout feature. Probably a civil war was suppose to occur but because it is a leftout feature you get this oddball blackout.

Only solution I have found is hit end turn and the next turn the blackout will be gone. Although it's always been my cities that blackout and not forts.

Though i sometimes experience blackouts, i still havent found a single clue as to why they're happening. They're exclusive to forts and cities (ie not in plain view), and they usually occur to me when i've been re-loading too many times.

Perhaps the map isn't re-initialized properly, say in the case of a new fort, or when cities are revolting.
Other than that, no idead. Any veterans ideas?

Well, incidentally I killed off the first rebel family member, but after a few more turns another popped up, and guess what? He was a Horse Archer too. ~:eek:
Anyway I killed both the Peasant and the second Horse Archer in a battle. The Peasant was most certainly a family member in command of Peasants. He had the general look about him, not just the run of the mill captain looks.

So I wonder what is going on? Perhaps rebel family members aren't so picky when it comes to generating units? But I did have a few laughs when I killed that Peasant. He could have been in charge of a Rebel General unit, oddly enough, but he chose to go walking with his drinking buddies rather than sit on a nice strong horse protected by superb fighters.

Good to know that I'm not the only one that hava experienced the odd blackout. And it did go away when I ended the turn.

I have one general whose icon changes from minute to minute. When I select him, he's a war elephant. When I move him into a city, he becomes a stone wall. The next turn, he's a Praetorian Cohort. Shortly afterwards, he's a peasant, or an incendiary pig, or a warband. I can never tell, and occasionally I miss him because I don't see a character picture.

As to the blackouts, I have had them happen once or twice to forts, but most of the time, they happen to a city when I complete the new government building.

Rebel family mambers can be in charge of any unit, not necessarily a rebel general unit (who are often a part of a rebel stack, but *without* family members - unlike any other general unit if I'm not mistaken).

In my experience as well, blackouts most often happen when cities finish new governor building. They are still selectable from the city list though.

perhaps those generals are just very poor? he can only afford pheasants ~D

i've seen a rebel family member accompanied by peasants and horse archers...
(both were former persian family members)

I had a very strange "blackout" once as well... Playing as Britannia, I tried to bribe a multi-general Senate army, which, however, succeeded only for one general. :dizzy2: The other senators didn't seem to notice their fellow Roman was on the Briton side now, and didn't even kick him out of the army! After some turns, I did succeed in getting him out of the stack of Roman forces and moved him to my city of Segesta.

However, although the city scroll shows hm as the governor, his unit card (which cannot be selected), just shows a question mark... ~:confused:
And it doesn't matter if I go to the next turn, this just stays the same.

I just hope his name will change from "Gaius Maxentius" to "Gaius the Sneaky Bastard" ~D

all my generals have faces, luckily ~:cheers: ~D ~:cool: ~;)