Reinforcements delayed?

[Fatski ElRatski]

I was just playing a campaign with the Egypt on VH/VH and I had surrounded a roman unit on all 3 sides just north of bylazora, so i attacked with one group and was granted the other 2 divisions as reinforcements. But when I went to the battle screen the reinforcements never showed! A message popped up saying "Reinforcements delayed?" and because of that I was outnumbered 2 to 1, but still managed to pull off an avg. victory. Does anyone know why my reinforcements failed to come? I remember that it was winter so could it be weather related?

I've never had this happen to me or knew it could happen before so I was quite intrigued when it did happen.

[Aemilius Paulus]

That's a sly trick that the RTW engine pulls off when it knows that your computer cannot handle all of those units on one battlefield. It is actually a very good thing, as you would have one heck of a laggy battle with all of those reinforcement armies.

BTW, you do know that you can control only one stack at a time right? If you checked the "AI Reinforcements" on the battle scroll on the campaign map, then you would have the two reinforcement armies controlled by the AI, or AS (artificial stupidity), which will screw everything up. However, if you did not check the "AI Reinforcements", ten you would just have those two armies waiting on the edge of the map.

[johnhughthom]

Go to your preferences file and change "unlimited men on battlefield" to TRUE. This will allow reinforcements to show upevery time, though, as Aemilius Paulus said, this is a double edged sword as your battles will very laggy with more troops than your comp can handle.

[Quirinus]

I see.... I never knew that, I thought there was a small chance of it occuring in every battle with reinforcements. Though I did wonder why it seemed to happen to hordes more than anyone else. :( Pity, it would have enhanced the role-play element if it were truly random and not just a gameplay mechanic.

[Fatski ElRatski]

That's a sly trick that the RTW engine pulls off when it knows that your computer cannot handle all of those units on one battlefield. It is actually a very good thing, as you would have one heck of a laggy battle with all of those reinforcement armies.

BTW, you do know that you can control only one stack at a time right? If you checked the "AI Reinforcements" on the battle scroll on the campaign map, then you would have the two reinforcement armies controlled by the AI, or AS (artificial stupidity), which will screw everything up. However, if you did not check the "AI Reinforcements", ten you would just have those two armies waiting on the edge of the map.

Tricky.... And thanks johnhughthom I think I'll change that option to TRUE since I do play multiplayer online and the game usually tells me there are too many armies for my comp to handle, but the game still runs fine, not much lag at all.

I unchecked both boxes because I did want to control my reinforcements and the division I was controlling only had about 8 units in it so I assume I would've been able to use some of my reinforcements

I see.... I never knew that, I thought there was a small chance of it occuring in every battle with reinforcements. Though I did wonder why it seemed to happen to hordes more than anyone else. :( Pity, it would have enhanced the role-play element if it were truly random and not just a gameplay mechanic.

yeah that's kinda disappointing to hear, I definitely wasn't expecting it to be a mechanics issue.

[Upxl]

I actually do think it’s a random occurrence.
For the ai as well as the human player.

I experienced this a number of times.
No matter who’s got the higher troop size.
I remember ones attacking Chartage I had to fight 2 full stacks with my semi-stack.
But the probability reinforcements delayed depending on your troop superiority is indeed influenced by it.

Ofcours I could be completely wrong about this.

[Darkvicer98]

Like others had said, it could mean the RTW engine cannot handle all those units, later on in the battle when 1 massive battle has occured the reinforcements arrive.

But strangely as well, in a battle enemy reinforcements were delayed even though we both had roughly 500 men each on the battlefield. I nearly killed their general unit(which was very tough) when their reinforcements arrived and my men were slaughtered.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

I'm sure that, as well as it being a way of keeping the R:TW engine from struggling, there also is an element of randomness in it's implementation when this is not the case. I've had re-enforcements delayed several times when the number of troops is significantly low.

[johnhughthom]

I turned unlimited men on battlefield to true for the first time over two years ago and have never had delayed reinforcements since. Of course that may just mean I have been very lucky.