Hilarious river battle

[econ21]

I accidently fought my first river battle in RTW last night. I rushed a scratch army to fight some bandits and to my horror realised too late that they were camped out on the middle of a bridge. Attacking across a bridge had been a nightmare for me in STW and little better in MTW, so I approached the battle with trepidation.

Fortunately, I had a ballistae and unit of archers whereas the enemy had no ranged troops. Now that the ballistae can move, I could push it to the river edge and shoot the AI general's heavy cavalry with impunity. The archers were out of range though.

So, cautiously, I edged a unit of hastati onto the middle of the bridge. Somehow it seemed wider and less confined than in STW/MTW (it was near my Julii capital, so maybe the upgraded road helped?).

The AI then charged hell for leather against my hastati - heavy cavalry, naked fanatics, etc. They moved at the usual very rapid charge speed.

But the funny thing was that about half the enemy cavalry and a good proportion of the naked fanatics plunged to their deaths into the river! I even got to see the "heroic" death animation of the enemy general, as he fell with his horse into the water.

Needless to say, the enemy took a hefty morale hit from this and, when coupled with the effects of my arrows and pila, soon broke after very brief melee with the hastati on the bridge.

In my enthusiasm, I ordered my army to rush over the bridge to pursue the enemy, but thankfully none of them fell off.

I am not sure what was going on, but it was as if my formations adapted to form a thinnish column suitable to cross the bridge, whereas the AI maintained a line, with at least one end of the line falling into the river rather than trying to cross the bridge.

I guess this is one for the bug thread?

[Oleander Ardens]

When I held experiments with special phalanxformations I was doing so good that I pushed whole Roman Armys back - and half of my man into the River

OA

[discovery1]

Once when deplying for a river batttle, I order my troops to form a semi-circle around the bridge. Well, one unit of pikemen apparently was recruited from Antioch Mental hospital, b/c as the moved into possition they all slid down the river bank and into the river.

[Red Harvest]

Yes, bridge battles are badly broken at the moment. Fortunately, there are few of them.

[Haido]

I always try to have my battles at river, and line up with two ballistas scorpions four companies of archers and 2 hastati.

Best choking point ever.

[Spino]

I've never seen men falling off the bridge in a bridge battle. The only ones I've fought were against the Gauls who tried to cross only to get massacred by my Auxilia Archers and Legionary Cohorts.

Then again I only cross bridges when they've either routed or are in the process of withdrawing. By the time I get to them they're already off the bridge.

[Tamur]

I've had several, one with four armies (one ally and myself versus two Gaul armies) and have yet to see anyone charge into the river. I've seen a few get pushed off the sides of the bridge once they're on it and melee is going on, but none that have charged in.

That said, there was a map you could access in the Demo where I saw plenty of AI soldiers die while marching into the too-deep river. So I know it's possible.

[Nelson]

None of the Total War games have ever let you select any part of a bridge to move unto and Rome is no exception. You must always order a unit to cross and then halt it on the bridge if that is where you want it.

The game will let you click on an enemy that occupies a bridge to attack it but the move logic does not recognize the bridge and some of your own men will march into the water. The AI seems to have the same difficulty attacking units on a bridge but it never learns its' lesson...

When I want to engage on a bridge I order a run to the far side. That seems to work.

[Servius]

Yeah, I hope there are several bugs here, cause several things are broken.

For one, in MTW, when you ordered a unit onto the bridge (by actually telling it to move across the bridge and then stopping it while still on the bridge...) when it halted it kept a perfectly boxed formation. But in RTW my Hastati are all a-jumble and they do not reform into an ordered box.

Two, whenever I hold a bridge, and the enemy army breaks, nearly all their men jump/fall off the bridge while trying to turn around and run away. I call them the "smart but clumbsy cowards" because there is another version, usually cavalry, that I call the "tough dumb cowards" because they try to retreat THROUGH my lines and off the side of the map on MY side of the river. Oddly enough, those guys usually break through and escape whereas the others try to turn, fall off the bridge, and drown.

I suspect there's a problem with the 3D engine and/or collision detection because the units are not respecting the terrain and the bridge. My units on the sides of the defensive arch will often, after charging, loose half their men; the half that ran UNDER the bridge and drowned

[Red Harvest]

This is a real bug. I'm not sure what the trigger is but I've seen it in at least two bridge battles. I don't have CTD's or other in game problems--so I have no reason to suspect it is machine config related In one the AI men retreated off the sides and drowned. In the other they charged forward with the middle section hitting the bridge, and the rest hitting the water.

[Oaty]

I had a good one 3 town watches and my general on 1 side and about 800 of the enemy troops on the other side, I was the attacker. The only problem was 1000 reenforcements came from the other side. In wich the A.I. tried to withdraw. The A.I. I believe is programmed not to withdraw from a bridge battle but unfortanately I do'nt think its programmed to look at where the reenforcents come from either. So as soon as the A.I. sees the reenforcements it quickly tries to withdraw and they had almost corssed the red line but the comp saw my lone general hitting some guys in the back and turned around. Immediatly I pulled my general back and they started there withdraw again but again I smashed a unit in the back and all the meanwhile all the foottroops are getting closer. I again pull my general back and in there chase they get too close to my infantry to withdraw and they basiclly got assacred.

Now if only the A.I. was smart enough to attack across the bridge and force the reenforcemnts to come acroos then I would have had a challenge on my hands hoping the townwatch would hold out for long enough. Then there would have been a nice manwich sandwich.

[Turbo]

Equally amusing is the broken siege element of the game. While it doesn't happen everytime, I have seen entire units "fall" off the walls to their death while exiting Siege Towers.

Once in the city, the AI and I played musical buildings with troops running everywhere as the pathfinding within a city assault is horrible. I had a large group of guys circling the inner walls time and time again.

[Psyco]

The pathfinding for bridges is beyond terrible.
I had an army of 7ish units of light chariots defending a bridge. The enemy attacked with a large army of infantry, but I managed to route them before they had crossed the bridge. I decided to pursue them (across the bridge), so clicked a unit of the chariots and double-click charged. My chariots sped towards the bridge, clumping together. They charged across the bridge and.... about 3/4 of the unit turns sharply, falling into the water. There weren't even enemies nearby!
This definetly needs to be fixed.

[ChaosLord]

The probably turned to anticipate the enemy moving, cav likes to do that alot. I've only experienced this once so far, in a huge bridge battle versus the Carthaginian king. It was annoying, but I pulled back as soon as I noticed it. What we need is the invisible railing back that was in MTW, as the water serves no real purpose right now anyway. Put the railing on bridges and shores and it should be fine.

[Servius]

We Demand Railings!!!

[Psyco]

We Demand Railings!!!

Or at least safety nets.

[Colovion]

Rome: Total War

"This time, we've taken out the safety nets. We're edgy like that"

[Didz]

I was equally amused to see my Hastatii pushing Eygptian archers to their deaths off the walls of Sardis having climbed ladders to reach them.

So, satisfying

[Didz]

The pathfinding for bridges is beyond terrible.
I had an army of 7ish units of light chariots defending a bridge. The enemy attacked with a large army of infantry, but I managed to route them before they had crossed the bridge. I decided to pursue them (across the bridge), so clicked a unit of the chariots and double-click charged. My chariots sped towards the bridge, clumping together. They charged across the bridge and.... about 3/4 of the unit turns sharply, falling into the water. There weren't even enemies nearby!
This definetly needs to be fixed.

Well not really. To be honest thats exactly what I would expect to happen if a large bunch of chariots all attempted to cross a narrow bridge at the same time at the full charge.

[Soulflame]

Nothing like seeing 800 men plunge into the water... hehe. My largest battle as yet. 1000 guys on both sides, with them 1000 reinforcements. The attack began when they wanted to cross the bridge. I had 6 units of Phalanx Pikeman in a a formation around the bridge, with some archer behind it. The rest (about 6 units of cavalry and 3 scythed chariots) way i the back. The firs tunit to try and cross were peasants. after taking 2 arrow volleys.. they panicked. about 50 of them ran off the bridge, the few remainging impaled them on my spear wall. Then came the Elephants. when they were on the middle of the bridge, they ran amok, but still headed for my line. the first phalanx killed them all, but at a cost of about 50 men. I switched that unit with another phalanx. Then there were about 800 milita hoplites left.
They would advance, be scared and run into the water. the rest would pull back, and repeat it. It was a bit funny to see all 800 of them drown.
The other army came in my back when the last of them cried for mercy and plunged into the deep. My cavalry and scythed chariots wiped those out.

If only men could swim eh? (PS it's now a site of famous battle.. )

[Psyco]

Sorry to bump this old (ish) topic, but this is an issue that badly needs to be adressed. At the moment, bridge battles are almost unplayable.
Here's another "endevor" with the infamous 'Suicide Chariots'.
I was defending a bridge with 4 units of light chariots (289 men). My opponent was the Julii, who had about 1000 infantry. Their first couple waves were routed by my arrows, but eventually they managed to get across. I had my chariots on skirmish mode, so that when the enemy had crossed the bridge, I could still harass them without fear of retribution.... or so I thought. The enemy made it to the other side of the bridge and my chariots, with the exception my general's unit, started moving away, to keep their distance. My general's unit thought it would be a funny joke if they ran straight through the mass of enemy hastati (about 5 units) then into the water. The enemy troops were disorganized, so most of the chariots got through. The remainder of the unit continued on into the water. I lost the whole unit, and subsiquently the whole battle.
This deperately needs to be patched.