Delayed reinforcements evaporating...

Last night I fought a battle with my Macedonian army before the gates of Rome. I was sieging the city and the army got attacked by the traditional relief force. This relief force (a small Julii army of two, not full, legionnary cohorts and some velites) was relatively easily beaten.
The senatorial army was announced as a reinforcement army. Unfortunately they didn't make it to the battle, so I just had to get rid of the Julii.
When the battle was over, I noticed that Rome was empty! The Senate's army had just evaporated (a pity because there were a few good units in it like Praetorians, Praetorian cavalry, Urban cohorts and some siege artillery).
I couldn't assault the city, but when I broke off the siege, I could move in my army without any problem.
Isn't it a bit strange that an army that doesn't arrive on the battlefield in time, just disappears? Okay, they had the "no retreat possible" icon, but they didn't even arrive in time to make it to the battle so this shouldn't have counted, right?

Here are some pictures:
http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/RTW/Rome_01.jpg

http://home.scarlet.be/~cpel/RTW/Rome_02.jpg

PS. Don't comment on the game year. I know I am a slow player :wink: :grin:

Heres what occurs to cause that from my observation.

The senate army was on the battlefield just they did'nt have a single unit across the redline. So when you defeat the first army and they did'nt get a single unit across the line it's a complete victory.

If you had hit continue battle, the senate army would have appeared for you to massacre them.

So on A.I. sallies all you have to do is crush the relief force before the besieged force gets on the field and you get credit for defeating both armies.

Yeah, it's pretty silly. A huge army evaporates because it didn't make it to the battlefield on time. Just another of the poorly thought out mechanics that populate this game.

That's a nice general you got there! ~D I've never seen reinforcements disappear, but I usually press continue battle and charge on routing enemies (why not max out the kills?) ~D ~D ~D

Well, that's actually something that bothered me: I did hit the "continue" button, but after I put the last routing Roman to the sword, I just got the battle end screen, and -poof!- the Senate army was gone.
So I maxed out the kills (only a handfull of red Roman left the battlefield alive), but the purple army didn't make it in time.

BTW, when sieging Arretium a few seasons later, I got attacked by several "rescue" armies, which I consequently beat, but this time the army that stayed in the city ("reinforcements") did not disappear (I held the siege for 5 seasons, and got attacked 5 times in a row).

A weird feature...

Maybe the Senate Army boozed up the night before and got up late, missed the battle. ~:cheers: ~:cheers:

Maybe post this one in the bug fixes request thread in the Ludus Magna? It doesn't sound right.

Actually I got a small loss once because an allied army tried to tackle some powerful rebels, and I had a single unit of cavalry nearby (to keep a watch on the rebels). But as it happened my unit entered the field next to a big rock, so a number of the horsemen had to double back quite far. My unit entered the field but a measly 5-6 men that were still marching onto the field from their long trek. So I could just sit and watch as the allied army was cut to ribbons while my men took their time to wals in slowly. They never made it in time and the battle was a loss.

Hi TL,

I've written in my Guide that when a besieger is attacked from the outside (meaning no-sallying-forth), the "fight-to-the-death" icon won't show up. Look at the Germania screenshot in my signature link Stories (where I have Lugdunum besieged). There's no "fight-to-the-death" icon (and I was attacked by reinforcement from the same faction).

So it's looking like the "fight to the death" icon appears when another faction attacks you instead (that's the only difference I can judge from the examples so far). I have to test this. BTW, how long have you had Rome besieged before you were attacked?

In any case, just modify the no-reinforcement delay option in preference.txt file.

@ Quietus.
Well I think you're right when you put that the "fight-to-death" icon only appears when you're attacked by a faction different from the faction you're besieging.
A few seasons before I laid siege to Rome, I had exactly the same problem with Capua, but unfortunately I didn't take pictures there. I sieged Capua, which had a full stack of Scipii elite units (a much more formidable army than the Senate's), and the Senate main army attacked me. I won the battle, and after the battle, I immediately got the "Capua conquered" screen. :huh:
What puzzled me at the Rome battle was that (apart from the evaporating Senatorial army) I didn't get the "Rome conquered" message, but my army kept on besieging an empty city :huh:

Anyway, in the next battles near Arretium it's always another Julii stack that attacks me, so your theory makes sense there.

Oh yes, I think the Julii attacked me near Rome at the third turn/season of the siege.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tricky Lady

PS. Don't comment on the game year. I know I am a slow player :wink: :grin:

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I just noticed this bit, I'm even slower than you, playing as Egypt, I'm nowhere near Rome yet and it's 178 bc... I do have 38 provinces though.