Chain routs and morale discussion

[Kraxis]

In MTW the enemy army (and my army) would chain rout as well. But it developed more slowly unless one side was heavily outclassed. The men died more slowly, so I had some warning that they were failing before they routed.

Yeah... You could see the cracks in the line as the units began to waver. Gritting your teeth you began a frantic clickfest to get whatever reserves in position before it was too late and the entire line collapsed (along with the reserves). There has been many times whre I have yelled at the screen "COME ON... Just a few more seconds." A few more seconds... That is an eternity now. Even if you take hoplites and other phalanx units the battle is quickly desided.

[SpencerH]

Yeah... You could see the cracks in the line as the units began to waver. Gritting your teeth you began a frantic clickfest to get whatever reserves in position before it was too late and the entire line collapsed (along with the reserves). There has been many times whre I have yelled at the screen "COME ON... Just a few more seconds." A few more seconds... That is an eternity now. Even if you take hoplites and other phalanx units the battle is quickly desided.

I've always preferred defensive battles. Some are Agincourt-like slaughters but those like you describe are always the best.

I fought two defensive battles this morning before work with a total of 5000 men in the space of 15 min. The battles in RTW are over too fast and chain routing is a big part of it.

[Red Harvest]

When I first was adjusting the phalanx two days ago, I did a 1 vs. 1 grassland test with 6 militia hops vs. hastati or something like that. (I had already given the hops some armour pts. to match their greaves and helmet in the game.) The plan was to test a well ordered wall vs. similar but somewhat better sword infantry. The AI and I marched against one another with 5 abreast, and captain's unit in reserve. As the lines met I was able to keep my militia in good order and take the pila barrage--this was the IDEAL match up with militia hops. When the hastati crashed into them, two of the units routed immediately...for no apparent reason, creating a "picket fence" look. I threw in my captain's unit at one of the holes, but of course could do nothing about the other. In this case the battle was lost within 2 seconds of the lines making contact despite what should have been a sound tactical employment, and the AI even obliging with straightforward frontal assault.

As a result of this and other tests, I have raised defensive skill for almost all phalanx units by +2. The formation should be excellent at defending itself and holding together. If the game engine won't give them credit for it...then I will do so with the unit stats. In tests yesterday I found this to hold the units together well, even if they were suffering considerable attrition.