AI armies and forced march

[Hooahguy]

Anybody else notice how so many AI armies are in forced march mode? I get why its done for the added marching speed, but its aggravating how the AI does it so often, and now I really cant wait for a mod that removes all the flags from open field battles.

[Sp4]

AI navies seem to be in uh.. forced row? All the time.

[Veho Nex]

Its annoying chasing a 300man army around your homelands because they are in forced march and you cant attack them because the only way to catch up is to be in forced march.

[ReluctantSamurai]

Do armies on forced march suffer attrition? I play a lot of WWII games by Talonsoft and there is a "forced march" feature (sort of). Units have mobility points with mechanized units having double or more than foot units, and combat is phased (movement>combat>2nd movement>combat). You hold back a certain amount of mobility pts. for the second phase (provided you are successful during the combat phase) and then you can move or attack, but not both. Units also have a supply and readiness number and both decrease during movement and combat. However, if you choose to expend ALL of your mobility points in the first movement phase (essentially a forced march) your readiness (reflected by the amount of equipment and men ready to fight, not always the same as your total amount of equipment and men) goes down much more quickly and you consume fuel and supplies also at an accelerated rate. Very much a realistic system>>>you can force march to get a unit somewhere quicker than normal....but at a cost.

Hence my question about attrition. (sorry for the long-winded description)

[Quillan]

No. They can't initiate a battle, they suffer a 25% penalty to morale if someone else attacks them, and if attacked they have to defend a capture point, but they don't suffer attrition just from forced marching.

The problem is, the earlier posters are correct. They move much farther on a forced march (seems to be a 40-50% increase on land, 100% increase at sea), so if they slip past you, you can only catch them with a forced march. And since you're in that posture, you can't attack them. You either need another army ahead if them, or you have to trap them.

[ReluctantSamurai]

but they don't suffer attrition just from forced marching.

So basically like a "Two Towers Uruk-Hai" forced march. Not very well thought out, it seems. If an army suffered attrition for each turn on a forced march, they would have to drop out of that mode or simply melt away. That's such a basic principal, IMHO, and Talonsoft has it right.

100% increase at sea

Since the introduction of true navies in R1, I've always had a dislike for the way a fleet could sail as far as it cared to (provided it's not attacked) irregardless of supplies and distance from a friendly port. Replenishment-at-sea won't be happening until the 1940's, I'm afraid