A seasoned soldier aka The weathermaster

[Gilrandir]

While you can get some information about the terrain of the province you are going to invade, there is no way you can be sure of the season your battle will be landed in. Or is there? Can you influence the choice of the season?
A connected question is about the weather you are going to get. While attacking you may choose weather (within certain limits: even if the promised weather is fine it starts to drizzle whenever the AI spots that I have Naphta). What about defending? Is the Naptha curse at work here as well?

[Karl08]

There is no way to influence which season you'll be fighting in, as far as I'm aware. And come to think of it, I think the only time I've fought in snow is when I've fought in Sweden or Norway.

You can choose to wait in hopes of more favourable weather when attacking (though you will only be able to wait 4-5 days at most, not till the next season or anything), but you have no choice whatsoever when defending.

[Gilrandir]

In my experience, winter battles happen not only in northern provinces, but also in most of what is now France, Germany, Poland and Russia. I don't like it as the troops get exhausted even if they stay put (much the same as in the desert). But I hoped someone has a recipe to avoid winter battles.

[gollum]

You can tell which season it is by the music that plays on the camp map. Every tune corresponds to a season, and that season has its own weather parameters. Weather effects are most harsh in Temperate terrain and that in vanilla is far more rare than it is in reality, hence you get less harsh weather overall.

Harsh weather has its own way of fighting, be it heavy rain or snow. Just remember that the enemy is also affected by fatigue and so you can use this to your advantage. In addition bowstrings, xbows/arbs and guns fire less well in bad weather conditions and this means you would take less casualties in a stright attack than otherwise you would have.

[Gilrandir]

In addition bowstrings, xbows/arbs and guns fire less well in bad weather conditions and this means you would take less casualties in a stright attack than otherwise you would have.

But the Guide says that arbalesters (unlike xbows) have metal bowstrings, thus they are not affected by moisture in the air.

[gollum]

Hello Girlandir, i don't have the game installed at the moment and hence i cannot check files or through custom battles, however neither the unit descriptions in-game, nor frogbeastegg's guide are without mistakes*. Experience suggests that volleys by all missile weapons are slower and impact less in bad weather. Yet, as i said i cannot confirm or not that conclusively at the moment.

Be that as it may, the point is that bad weather gives you in general missile cover that favors straight melee attacks aka rush tactics. This is all the more if you aim your line of approach through a wood or similar that provides additional cover.

*for example the arbalesters unit description says iirc that they take longer to reload than xbows, yet that is not so - they take the exact same time if memory serves.

[I of the Storm]

If I'm not mistaken, you are almost certain to have a winter battle if you are in the northern half of the map and it's the 2nd battle of that specific turn.

[Gilrandir]

Hello, Gollum! Glad to have you back here after a break.

Be that as it may, the point is that bad weather gives you in general missile cover that favors straight melee attacks aka rush tactics. This is all the more if you aim your line of approach through a wood or similar that provides additional cover.

I can't but agree. Once I was attacking an enemy who had plenty of archers (I had none). So I chose the rainy weather and I hope it did its bit in the general success of the battle.
@ I of the Storm
What can be considered the northern half?

[gollum]

Hello Girlandir, thanks for the welcome back.

The weather plays a much bigger role in STW that has seasonal turns and hence you encounter rain and snow more regularly in battles. It does provide missile cover in that game as well as in MTW. In general, try to turn every element (terrain/weather/troop types of yours and the enemy's), to your advantage on the battlefield.

[drone]

If I'm not mistaken, you are almost certain to have a winter battle if you are in the northern half of the map and it's the 2nd battle of that specific turn.

This was my understanding as well.

I'm not sure where the lower accuracy in rain is specified. Whether or not a missile weapon can be used in rain is noted in the projectilestats.txt, but I don't know where any accuracy penalty is stated, I've always assumed it was hardcoded.

[gollum]

Most likely hardcoded, yes. Custom battle tests would probably be needed to determine volley effectiveness uner different rain intensity conditions. I have a feeling that arbalesters are also affected by the weather although to a lesser extent than xbows. Yet without custom battle tests it no more than just a "feeling".

[Geezer57]

If I'm not mistaken, you are almost certain to have a winter battle if you are in the northern half of the map and it's the 2nd battle of that specific turn.

Actually, it's not quite that rigid. But the single largest factor in obtaining winter weather is to have multiple battles in the same turn. The more you have, the greater the likelyhood of obtaining one or more winter battles.

I once fought five battles in the same year: the first three were normal weather, the last two in blowing snow and ice.

And the lattitute isn't the sole determining factor - I've had snow in the middle-east and north africa, but only very rarely. And only when I've set things up to have many battles in one year.

[Axalon]

Hello Geezer57,

“snow in the middle-east and north africa” - now that is a screenshot I would like to see… :)

- A

[Gilrandir]

Well, I can't provide a screenshot (for one thing I don't know how to do that), but Geezer57's post brought it back to my memory - snow in Africa. I can say that I both saw it - and haven't. Let me explain. Between the message that a battle is imminent and actual transition to the battlemap you get a what-do-you-call-it screen that informs you about the composition of your and your enemy's army, the generals' stars and also shows the battle terrain in a small window with a revolving view. So, it is in that window that I saw the desert covered with snow. But when the battlemap appeared there was no snow! Since I had it happen several times I concluded that it was supposed to be a winter battle, but due to the climate of the province it was a snowless winter.

[drone]

Snow in the Africa/ME, that must have been an interesting looking map.

Been a while Geezer57, welcome back.

[Geezer57]

Hello Geezer57,

“snow in the middle-east and north africa” - now that is a screenshot I would like to see… :)

- A

And I wish I could provide one for you.

But it's only happened once or twice in literally thousands of games, and at the time I was solely focused on closing with the enemy. There was so much fog or blowing snow in the air, I couldn't see much past my nose, so my normal missile softening up was useless. I just wanted to get into melee range and have at it, so didn't think to make any screenshots.

If I had, they would have still been lost, due to multiple hard drive losses over the years. I can't say which version of the game I was playing at the time (I've had dozens of mods for MTW), or if the occurence was due to a bug or not. But it did happen, at least once, even if it's astronomically unlikely.

But the main point I wanted to make is still the same: if you want to fight in adverse weather, try to end your turn year with as many battles as possible, preferably five or more. Just be careful what you ask for, as you might not like the battle weather you get.

[gollum]

“snow in the middle-east and north africa” - now that is a screenshot I would like to see… :)

In vanilla, many provinces in the middle east have border crossings designated as arid, especially along the Holy Land coast ie Lesser Armenia to Antioch to Tripoli to Jerusalem and the other way around. Iirc the chance for snow is highest in temperate terrain, then lush and then arid. So while it hasn't happened to me, it is possible to encounter snow in one of those in the middle east, although admitedly it should be very rare. I am not certain if desert maps can be snowy though. It could be perhaps a very occasional engine glitch as sandstorms are the desert winter equivalent of snow storms in northern terrains.

In north africa all crossings as i recall are rock desert from Morocco to Tunisia and then sand in Cyrenaica and Egypt, hence again not sure for snow in battles there, yet some of the provinces themselves (Morocco and Algeria) ie the castle maps where sieges are fought are arid.