Historical mods and kill rates

**SwordsMaster** · 10-01-2005, 10:34

Actually, I´ve been giving this some thought myself and I think time limits for battles (except sieges) should be lowered proportionally just as the armies are proportionally smaller than their original counterparts. I.e. assuming every TW army is 1/10 of a proper battlefield army, then they should get only 1/10 of the time to finish the battle. So if you could get,say, 7 hours of daylight for battle in the real world, then 0.7 hours which is around 40 minutes maximum.

This and buffing the rates at which soldiers get tired (when pursuit is necessary) should provide for more accurate rates. Also the healing of casualties after the battle should be upped by a LOT. it is just wrong that 5 men out of 70 injured heal. IMO it should be more like 60%-40%.

**Geoffrey S** · 10-01-2005, 12:28

Agreed with a lot of points posted here. The kill-ratio is frankly ludicrous, even defeated armies would usually keep a large portion of their troops; I think a lot of this is to do with the fact players can send their cavalry chasing every last router off the field, whereas in real life this often would lead to broken-up armies and a very dangerous situation for the "victorious" side which could be exploited by the "losing" side. If there were a way to keep troops dangerous even when routing this might dissuade such chases across the map to mop up every last enemy. Or, as has also been suggested, ramping up the healing rates in an army after battle.

The MTW option of taking prisoners and then either releasing or killing them is much missed in RTW.

**Ciaran** · 10-01-2005, 15:05

To achieve lesser kill ratios you could also lower the morale value for all units, the lower that one is the easier a unit will rout (i.e. it takes less losses to make it rout). In Darth mod 5.8 the morale values got increased and I´ve seen one-on-one battles that went to the point of having two eighty-man formations fighting till both were down to not more than a dozen, once there were even only two men left in both units, not fighting on battlements, nor with encircled units, just two about equally strong units meeting head on.

**Alexander the Pretty Good** · 10-01-2005, 15:14

It would be nice if the battle time limits weren't so ridiculous.

I don't know about BI (yet

) but in RTW they were awfully unpredictable.

Two armies miles apart with thousands on each side? You get 18 minutes, man. You'd better run!

Assaulting a city with huge walls and dozens of defending units? 25 minutes!

Two hastati vs. three town watch rebels? 40 minutes, man.

Sometimes the timer worked out, but usually you had either too much or too little.

One thing that CA could do is drastically reduce the timer after you have "won." IE, the enemy is routing. They won't recover from something that complete, so give the victor just two minutes to mop up routers. Maybe less time. Even if the winner had another 20 minutes, drop it to two to give the losers a break.

**Lord Adherbal** · 10-01-2005, 15:17

this can't be solved with modding. As said before, a unit loses most of it's men after routing, because they die almost instantly then (unlike MTW were they could still do damage and break out of an encirclement). That also means lowering morale doesnt help at all, the only result is that the winner will take less casualties. Casualties for the loser will be the same.

In real life it would also be harder to chase routers because there is no godlike general floating high over the battlefield seeing were every enemy unit is on the map. Not to mension that real-life terrain has a lot more features that obstuct line of sight. And units chasing routers too far might actualy get lost and have trouble finding back their army. All this cannot be simulated wth the TW engine.

**Geoffrey S** · 10-01-2005, 15:40

So basically it's up to the players to make it a fair game?

**Ciaran** · 10-01-2005, 15:49

That about covers it, namely it would mean to refrain from chasing routers.

**Kraxis** · 10-02-2005, 04:32

Upping healrate would not help.

Haven't you noticed that it is only the victorious army that get healing? Makes sense really, as the losers have left their wounded on the battlefield. But to up healrate would just make it easier for the winners.

**afrit** · 10-03-2005, 05:41

Originally Posted by Ciaran

That about covers it, namely it would mean to refrain from chasing routers.

Problem is, sometimes the enemy breaks so quickly that letting them get away without chasing seems like not reaping a well earned reward.

My compromise is often to continue the chase, but on triple speed. On large battles, this allows lots of enemies to escape.