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.

[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.

[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.