Thats twice now with the faction leader escape!?

Thats twice now, two different cities...same leader. I had his cities under seige...and he just disappeared from the city. He was a Thracian leader named something "Scarface"...and twice now he's just up and vanished from a city under siege. This last city that he was in, when he left he was the only unit in it, so I just walked right in. I don't understand though how he can just disappear from under a siege like that.

The first time it happened it was a coastal province, and I thought maybe he ran to the docks even though he was sieged...but this second time, the city was completely land locked...

I don't understand how he keeps slipping away, to show up two turns later with almost a full stack at his back...

anyone?

also, during a seige if I assault, will the AI run out the front gate and off the map? is that an option, or will they try to fight at least somewhat? i know sometimes the Ai will run in a fight, but don't they have to at least show up first?

the first city i actually assaulted and he vanished, i reloaded and he was also gone afterwards, so it's goofy regardless.

The only thing I can figure is that the general died during siege and thus his bodyguard disappeared. But what would be the odds that that happened twice during a siege?
Normally when you fight a siege, they'll rout to the city square and can't leave the map;

Never heard of this sort of behaviour myself. Any beseiged army has no way out except to fight against the beseigers, so I'm not sure what to say about the disappearing general.

And no, the AI army cannot just run away from a seige. Either they sally and you fight a battle, or they stay and you starve them out. Are you breaking the seige by repositioning your troops, or fighting other incoming armies? That's the only possible cause I know of.

No, in the first seige it was my full stack seiging his city vs. him and some peltasts. I let the seige stand for a few turns, they were in the White Stone Walls, that shoot flaming arrows at siege equipment.

Thats a big issue for me, how can 1 heavy cav unit and 1 peltasts unit set fire to 1 battering ram and 2 seige towers at the same time attacking very far apart seige equipment....thats REALLY annoying. They set fire to all my seige equipment(sap points it is from now on for the most point) so I reloaded and he vanished while under seige.

This is what really got me...I found him again later at another city to the north Polossivi...something like that. That time, I had him seiged and his army just vanished in thin air after I hit the end turn button. He was under seige for something like 3 turns at that point, the next turn my army was still seiging him, and hadn't been touched or moved the entire time, just when my turn came up again, the city was completely empty. I can only imagine that he died during his turn...but thats the only thing I could come up with...there were two other units with him and they disappeared at the same time, the city was completely empty the next turn and i walked in without a fight...no clue what happened.

Ah.

If you're seigeing and not assaulting, but just letting the seige do its work, then the game assumes you have starved the army out after the "This settlement will surrender in [#] turns" ticks down to zero.

So he didn't disappear. He starved. Poor general. :embarassedg:

but the settlement had like 5 turns left...

Sometimes even AI characters die natural deaths, and when they do, their bodyguard goes with them.

As for the other units, were they depleted from previous battles? During a siege, a unit within the city constantly loses men from turn to turn, though I can´t recall even units depleted to a dozen or so men to vanish completely during a siege. I´ll have to pay closer attention next time, but usually one or two men keep staying alive until the siege duration is up.

No clue, sorry. My campaign behaved funnily as well: my assassin killed a Sassanid family member, who suddenly popped out again the next turn, complete with a new trait that boosts his security! My assassin lost the ancillary he gained as well :no: