max number of armys,units in battle not including AI

[jimmy]

what is the max number of armys in a campaign battle[20 stack max] you can control.? or can you like MTW only control one 20 stack army. or smaller armies up to the max stack size 20 example 3 armies comprise of 2, 5 stack and one ten stack army. i ask this as i had three armys but could basically only control one 18 units and two units from another army whys this.? whats the point of me spending loads of money on a new computer to play MTW max size armys.

[fret]

The maximum units a player can have under their control at a given time is 20.

Before patch 1.2, any units in the field over and above 20 were controled by the AI (or if you had two armies of 15 units, you would control 1 army, the AI would control the other).

After patch 1.2 you have the option to carry on as previous, or allow drip-ffed reinforcements. This means that if you have two armies of 5 units, one will start out under your control, and 5 of the re-infocement units will come into the battle under your control, and then as you units are killed or routd, new units from the re-inforcements will be come into the battle ,under your control, upto the 20 unit limit.

Thats as I understand it at least.

[fret]

EDIT - in paragraph 3 of the above post, i meant to say "Two armies of 15 units", not two armies of 5 units.

[Lichgod]

As Fret mentioned and I would add that the AI can control any other units, especially using V1.2. At the pre-battle match-up screen, you can select which additional armies the AI controls with the default being player control. So you can have more than 20 friendly units on the battlefield but only 20 can be player controlled.

The AI opponent can have many units on the map. I have had approximately 60 enemy units on the map at once in a big siege battle (I was defending). I have also had six small AI armies fight me in a open field battle with something around 35 units vs my 9 with enemy attacking from all directions. I bare won by fighting them piecemeal. Imagine a tight circle of Greek phalanx-type infantry with one merc peltast and one general in the middle. For awhile, it felt like Custer's last stand with waves of Macedon horse hitting then peltasts and militia hoplites. My poor general was the only man standing in his unit about 75% through the battle. Excellent fight overall.

[jimmy]

its still a bummer that you can,t control armys above twenty units. but you can let the AI do it and then it get,s your reserves/extra armies murdered/trashed. it couldnt have been hard to let the player control as many or as little units as he wants. i wonder if there is a way round this or is it hard coded into the game or why this is surely its just as easy to let the player control the units as the AI?. a nice example of this would be to place an army in thr rear of the enemy and ambush the AI reinforcements, or finish of routing units or a well timed attack into the rear of the AI enemy to cause mass routs etc the lists endless.

[Simetrical]

This is definitely hardcoded into the game, and there's no conceivable workaround. The interface is basically not modifiable, unlike (say) the units.

[_Aetius_]

You could have it if it could be changed to have for example an option of clicking a tab that showed page 2 of the stacks you have, this way it takes up no more screen space which is clearly a reason why 20 is allowed only if it was forty less screen room would be available.

The problem will always be though can a player control so many units at once?