Reinforcements delayed?

**Jacque Schtrapp** · 02-26-2005, 07:17

I'm playing as the Brutii in my first post patch campaign. It's 142 BC and the civil war is under way. I've kicked the Scipii out of Europe entirely (which is amusing because they have twice as many troops as I do, they're all milling around Carthage unable to run my blockade) and am holding the line from Arretium to Ariminum against the Julii. My primary army is attacked by two to three full stacks every turn and every turn I face only one army and get the "Reinforcements Delayed?" message. I even delay the battle by making the Julii come all the way across the map and when they are on the run I chase down every last soldier in the hopes that the other army will arrive before the battle ends. Never happens. Is this some post patch snafu? In the past I almost never got that message and now, post patch, I get it every single time there are more than one opposing armies facing me. It sucks since with the AI's seriously retarded tactics it takes two and three armies to provide a challenge. Anyone else experience this?

**Quietus** · 02-26-2005, 07:37

Reinforcements are always delayed for the enemy. Usually, the battle is already finished before they arrive. (For reference, I play on VH/VH).

I've seen some delayed enemy reinforcements that actually arrived. But the enemy is already routing.

1) There's probably a fixed time in which they are cued-in to arrive (when delayed), but the battle is normally over before that time arrives.

2) There is probably a special ratio that when exceeded, the enemy gets a delayed reinforcement.

I've fought a ~3000 vs ~3000 siege battle (I was the attacker) and the enemy reinforcement arrived (~400). They were delayed though, but they arrived.

**Kaldhore** · 02-26-2005, 07:43

Woa I just came online to post about "Delayed reinforcements" nicely weird.

But my experience I just had was slighty different.

I sent an army to help one of my cities sally forth. Both were only about 1600 men (on huge) but the enemy (egyptians) numbered 3200 + a nearby army of 1000.

I get into battle and I get the message "Delayed reinforcements" I click on it and it tells me that although they are delayed I fight alongside the best soldiers and not to worry, but that I wouldnt be getting any reinforcements this day.

Oh....Damn.

About 4k enemy and 1550 - all phalanx - my greek normal hoplites(my cav were in the other army).

Okaaay.... So I get down to some serious defence formations (Phalanx triangle) and they just form before the chariots hit me. then the arrows start to cut me down. then the javs....It seems overwelming. Eventually I think this aint gonna work - should I withdraw??

Then a huge line of Greek coloured banners appeared on the horizon and the map. I get the message " Your Reinforcements finally join the battle" !!! ( it told me I wouldnt get any !) And not only that but I was on a smallish map and they appeared right behind the main body of the enemy. 5 more units of phalanx Armoured hoplites, LOADs of cav and some creten archers w000t.

needless to say - the enemy begain to chain rout and I launched both sides of my forces into a chase - ending in an Greek egyptian Greek sandwich.

Bloody Marvelous.

**AntiochusIII** · 02-26-2005, 08:04

Does it has anything to do with the number of your forces in the battlefield, like Shogun and Medieval?

Like, less chance for reinforcement for larger armies?

**professorspatula** · 02-26-2005, 08:34

I find my army is typically the one who's reinforcements are delayed nearly every time. I had 4 armies attacked by 3 armies of the senate. I get 1 army on the map, they get 3. Somehow my initial army survived long enough for the reinforcements to finally arrive and finish off the senate.

I think the number of men involved in the battle and the chances of reinforcements being delayed are related. If all 7 armies were fighting at once, I'd have over 13,000 men killing each other. No way my PC can handle that. Just about every battle I've had with reinforcements that bring the number of men involved to over 5000-6000 has a great chance of the reinforcements being delayed. Perhaps the number of units (and not the individual men in the unit) involved in the battle is the key though. I don't know. I very much imagine I'll never have a battle with 10,000+ men all fighting at once though, reinforcements will be delayed I can almost certainly guarantee.

I also wonder if the attacker's reinforcements are more or less likely to show up than the defender's or whether its random or based on something else entirely.

**A.Saturnus** · 02-26-2005, 22:46

I had battles with three enemy armies while none was delayed, though that were rather small armies. Did this happen to anyone when the number of men that would normally join battle is not to large? If the answer is no then we have a likely answer: the game delays armies in order to get below a limit of men on the field.
In that case, could anyone with a pretty strong PC try out setting "UNLIMITED_MEN_ON_BATTLEFIELD" in preference.txt on TRUE to test it?

**professorspatula** · 02-27-2005, 01:24

Another thing I noticed which may or may not be related: When there were masses of reinforcements all delayed, the first lot of reinforcements only showed up when a large number of people had been killed. The second army of reinforcements showed up when the battle was practically over. The other 2 armies never showed up at all, nor in the following battle. In smaller fights when the reinforcements are delayed, sometimes they show up within a minute or two of the battle.