Stopping Infantry from pursuing and the function of the Guard command?!

[Jambo]

Ok, this one's been frustrating me for a while. Can anyone help with stopping infantry pursuing routing enemy? It really serves no purpose whatsoever to have infantry sprinting and chasing routing troops, since unless they're quicker than the troops they're chasing then they will never catch them. In big battles this leads to your troops getting strewn all over the battlefield and when/if the enemy regroups this can lead to these chasers becoming the chased... :(

Now, I was told the 'Guard' option was the one to use, however, I can't seem to get the desired effect from this command!? Units still have a tendency to chase routing units.

What I'm essentially after is a way to choose to attack a unit, but as soon as they rout, stop chasing them and preferably return to their previous position. This seemed to be somewhat workable with the hold position command in STW and MTW - is the guard option different in RTW? Is it even functioning as intended? For it to work, does one simply have to let the unit be attacked, as it certainly doesn't seem to work if you actively select a unit to attack another...

Anyone?

[Ptah]

If you actively select a unit to attack another, you're overriding the basic implications of the "Guard Area" command. Thus, your soldiers will follow your orders and ignore their basic formation orders - they will attack, and then they will chase, until they are actively stopped.

You can see this aspect in work when you alt+double click on the enemy with horse archers in "Skirmish" mode. The attack command overrides most status commands.

[Servius]

From your description and my experience, I think Guard only works the way you want it to if you DO NOT order a unit to attack another. If you don't, and your unit gets slammed into, if the nme disengages, your unit will hold its possition. However (and I'm mostly guessing here) if you set a unit to hold, but then order it to attack, it basically disregards the the Guard order and fights like usual.

The only way to make it work, I think, is to issue a Stop order when the nme flees, but then that sort of renders the Guard order pointless, at least in the way you want to use it.

[lancelot]

this bugs me aswell,

it also bugs me that romans charge after one pilla throw (and they have 2?!?!) when often I want them to throw them all before a charge.

[Slaists]

Regarding pila: I guess, they leave the second one in stock so they can start the next attack with it. What really bugs me is the "try throwing a pila" animation before attacking even if they have no pila...

As to the guard mode: in MTW, a unit would return to its post after the enemy started routing even if it was ordered to attack something from its respective guard position. This was not a SURE thing though: there were times when they went on pursuing rather than guarding. In RTW though, I've seen my whole second line break into charge and pursuit in the guard mode without me issuing any commands... Interestingly enough, if you put a group of units under AI control, they'd stop the chase and return to their positions even without the guard mode on...