How do you behave after the enemy routs?

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You bring up a good point with ransom - I really wish that aspect was in the game... that and looting dead soldiers...

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Yeah, it should go like after the battle if you took out the enemy general, there is a chance that he recover from his wounds and is captured. From there you can negotiate(with a diplomat) with that general/family member's faction whether or not they are willing to pay the ransom you set for them. If they reject, then you can either kill him, make him an ancillary and add his characteristics to the general that beated him if he was there at the fight, or give him a chance to prove himself worthy to your faction and give him a post or adopt him.

Or even better yet, if you captured the faction heir or the faction leader imagine the ransom ~D That or that should allow you to have more weight on the table such as calling in region disputes and such.

As for looting, yeah, they should after a battle the amount of enemy soldiers killed by you should have 30% of their costs added to you(Taking their armor and weaponry and selling it and If any of you played Command and Conquer Generals: Zero hour in which the GLA has a bounty in which they gain a certain percentage of the killed unit's cost.)

Equites are great for this, and they can usually chase down the enemy generals heavy cavalry unit which is good too.

Good point there, but later on in the game, equites get fewer and fewer. I have not yet figured out how to merge 13 from one squadron, and 14 from another, and yet 27 from a third to make one full strength squadron of 54. When they get down below 50% strength, I have tended to discharge them. I really do not like using three unit cards to carry what would fit into one unit that cannot be retrained.

I used to try to use the "obsolete" Roman Units to hunt down Rebels, but have not played as a Roman in a while. What I am considering doing, is to retrain them by upgrading their armour, and putting them back on that detail.

Strength and Honor.

Celt Centurion

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Originally Posted by professorspatula

There's routing during battle, and there's routing post-battle. During battle, yes the AI chases routers, as do I - that's fair game. Post-battle routing is when every unit on the opponent's side is routing, so the battle is automatically won and the option appears to end the battle immediately. The AI can't do this, the battle just ends for them, and if you're lucky your men escape to fight another day. You on the other hand can wipe them all out. Which is a tad unfair, but each to their own.

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Rarely have my men escaped to fight another day;

but;

I shall endeavor to do the noble thing, and resist the temptation to finish off routing armies.

Hopefully, I will see them "drop dead" when I return to the Campaign map.

Thank you for the challenge to be "civilized".

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

you drag the 13 strength unit tab button onto the 14 unit tab button... or vice versa... etc

just drag and drop :)

Historically, you would capture the enemy and "put them under the yoke" which meant they had to symbolicy bend under a yoke and then you sold them as slaves.

"...drag the 13 strength unit tab button onto the 14 unit tab button..."

Or you can just hit M to automerge. This will rationalise your post-Marian units too, which may or may not be what you want (retraining refreshes a unit's numbers without the experience averaging that combining cards does).

I always hunt down and kill as many routers as I can. Why let them escape?
In the BI demo only 54 stinking Romans escaped the sword. On my second attempt only 17 escaped with their lives. If I can manage to kill them all I do, there is no room for mercy

......Orda

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Originally Posted by SMZ

you drag the 13 strength unit tab button onto the 14 unit tab button... or vice versa... etc

just drag and drop :)

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Thank you so very much for that piece of information!

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion

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Originally Posted by womble

"...drag the 13 strength unit tab button onto the 14 unit tab button..."

Or you can just hit M to automerge. This will rationalise your post-Marian units too, which may or may not be what you want (retraining refreshes a unit's numbers without the experience averaging that combining cards does).

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This helps too. Thank You!

Strength and Honor.

Celt Centurion

This is Especially for Professor Spatula,

Last night, as Selucids, I continued on to finish off Pontus (those who earlier had asked for and gotten peace several times only to attack me again a few turns later). They are now confined to Artaxarta, with a full stack inside, and I have a full stack laying siege. I expect the Faction leader to die of old age before the siege is over, and from that point will probably be facing rebels.

But that is another matter.

I said yesterday that I would restrain myself on butchering fleeing enemies.

As I said, I have about 4 patrols out there doing nothing but getting rid of rebels. Just last night, I probably fought about 20 battles doing this one task. Until yesterday, the normal end result was usually 0, sometimes a few of them getting away. My own losses were never more than 2 or 3, and usually 0.

But, last night, when the option came up to end the battle, or butcher them, I ended the battle. I could not believe it. Usually more than half of them got away! On the other hand, my casualties were still not more than 3 at any battle.

Being in "fight to the death", they all "dropped dead" when I returned to the campaign map, so I don't have to fight them again later. The largest battle with them was my 275 or so against just under 900. The result was still the same. A crushing defeat for them, as the option to end battle did not come up until they were down to about 40 men, and victory for me with very few casualties.

As I said, those rebels are pests. And their very existance standing on the road lowers my income. So they have to be gotten rid of. I am finding my "Anti Rebel Patrols" are very effective for that.

Just wanted to share with you that I am trying to do the honorable thing, but golly it's hard!

Strength and Honor.

Celt Centurion

The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies, to chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth, to see their near and dear bathed in tears, to ride their horses and sleep on the white bellies of their wives and daughters

ahem...errr...or something...dunno what just happened there, I was going to grab a twinkie bar and suddenly everything went black and there was this diabolical laughter...

I say again, GADS we are a bloodthirsty lot. Is this why the EB named themselves after the Barbarians, rather than the champions of civilization?

Seamus

I just kill as much as I can. The AI always ends the battle when all of my/enemy units are routing. They usually let the enemy general go away like nothing. :furious3: That's really pissing me of!!

Chase them all down...mercilessly, it's a great way to get my General's bodyguard experience, though I'll train up my other cavalry if the enemy army is large enough. To keep to a little realism I usually chase the tougher units with my General's bg, and the weaker units with other cav. :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge: :charge:

KILL TOTAL WAR NOT FOR WOMEN OR WEAK MINDED :charge:

Hunt down the little b*stards...I slaughter them to the last...even if it takes twenty minutes to follow them around the map, they all will die... :devilish:

Couple of things. Just finished reading a book about roman generals by Adrian Goldsworthy. Killing routing enemies was generally encouraged but persuing them at length was not, due to the possiblility of them regrouping and counter attacking. There are numerous occasions where routing enemies regrouped and mounted a successful counter attack.

Personally, I only chase routers until I have the option to end the battle and that's it. The AI can't continue to chase me down so it seems a little unfair to do it to them. Equites, the general and (occasionally when I have them in the army) wardogs seem to be the best for chasing.

To me, pursuit isn´t that much fun, so I rarely do it (I suppose this is meant to be the situation when you can quit the battle the instant all enemy units on the field are fleeing), except against a reinforcement from an enemy city. Killing garrisons is always desirable.
If single units during a battle rout, or even the major part, then of course I pursuit, there´s no use having my men idling around - after all, I pay them and don´t do it for the kicks of it, so they can work for their money - and every kill could help later on.

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Originally Posted by MerlinusCDXX

... it's a great way to get my General's bodyguard experience ...

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That's very true. General's bodyguards make great pursuers, too.

Cut 'em down. Show no mercy. Right down to the last man.

I always have a unit or 2 of light cavalry to mercilasly cut down any routers - Numidian Cavalry Mercenaries are my fav unit for this. Always go for the furthest units first, then swoop back to kill the rest so none escape - take no prisoners!

I also charge the enemy when the AI attacks but then on the battle map decides it can't win and withdraws. I use my light cav to charge into the rear of enemy units, picking them off one at a time while the other units continue to withdraw. Again Numidian mercs are ace for this as they can give them a volley of javelins before plunging into the rearmost ranks! Ha ha

I wonder if this nearly universal approach would alter if:

The AI was scripted so that if you hit "continue" against any faction once, they would do the same to you for the next 50 turns or so.

The AI was scripted to allow a routed unit that was too close to an enemy cavalry/fast mover to either: surrender (and you incur dip/econ penalties for refusing) or go bezerk.

Seamus

P.S. Maybe its just the old role-player in me (recovering thankfully), but I tend to take on a persona in this, so always doing the methodically correct (in gamesmen terms) approach of surrounding an opponent on all but one red zone and then conducting my battle so as to force a long retreat toward that gap while my cavalry mercilessly kills every single opposing soldier seems a bit horrid. Those pixels represent people, and butchery isn't always the way to go.

I ussually chase 'em down except if they are rebels or i'm not patient enough to do it,also i first try to kill the best units around peasants have the best chance to escape in my battles. Also the farthest units come first unless some other important unit is behind them and they are unimportant.

i slaughter them all! if you leave half of them thry will just attack again.

kill as much as I can :)

it wouldnt b right to not kill them...theyd just live terrible lives after seeing everyone else in there army slaughtered.

Yes, wouldn't want them to have Survivor's Guilt. Best to just put them out of their misery. ~D

"For the glory of the Empire, KILL, KILL, KILL."

A cookie for the one that gets the quote.

While smashing routing units prior to the battle's decision seems reasonable, isn't it better to let the enemy get away so that you can fight again for more experience etc.?

Seamus