Rally, Route or Withdraw?

**Legorreto** · 01-16-2006, 17:26

What's the main difference in between these options and when should I use one better that the other?

**Scurvy** · 01-16-2006, 17:33

you use rally when your men are running away, and they turn round and reform,

i use withdraw when i have a unit stuck in combat by mistke (usually horse archers) but striaght after hitting withdraw double click somewhere behind them and the move away far quciker than from just withdraw,

and rout you almost never want to do on purpose

**matteus the inbred** · 01-16-2006, 17:43

Originally Posted by Scurvy

and rout you almost never want to do on purpose

i never want to do it by accident either...! for emergencies only, to get troops out a bad situation quickly.

withdraw can also be used to take exhausted troops or missile troops that have run out of ammunition off the field, so you can replace them. it's also a good idea to withdraw siege weapon crews once they've run out of ammo. they'll just walk off the back of the battlefield, and once their unit icon has gone from the bottom of the screen, you're free to bring reinforcements on.

**Scurvy** · 01-16-2006, 18:06

hmm i have routed on purpose once or twice, it can be very effective for getting enemies right where you want them,

a good example (online) is when i was defending on a map with trees on each side at clear centre and no hills anywhere (hard to describe) i hid men in both side of the trees, and then put quite a few men in centre to make it not quite as obvious that i had men in trees. He wasnt going to fall for it though and just stood there shooting my inf and pavs, so i charged that half of my army right at him, and after maybe 30 secs routed them, they ran straight down centre, and he couldnt stop men chasing so i hit him on both flanks with my best units, the runners then rallied and i crushed him

**matteus the inbred** · 01-16-2006, 18:09

hmm i have routed on purpose once or twice, it can be very effective for getting enemies right where you want them

ah yes, feigned retreats, good point!
as i don't play MP, i guess i've never needed them...the AI just doesn't seem to need the extra impetus of a rout to chase things into traps...! and elite units are often programmed to ignore routers that aren't elite.

**Scurvy** · 01-16-2006, 18:31

to be fair, on mp they normally fail completely due to chain routs or simply clever opponents, and also most game are 3v3 or 4v4, so you need all ,16 units available...

**Betito** · 01-16-2006, 19:33

Another use for the withdraw feature is to replendish your missiles (SP only):

When a missile unit shoots all their ammo, you have two choices:

1. To keep them for the melee, which is maybe a good idea for close, tough battles AND if the unit can do it decently (ottoman infantry, futuwwas, janisary infantry.... even longbows, if the battle is that close)

2.Withdraw and replace:This is better suited for battle where you don't want your units to be decimated or if you want the firepower to remain at a high level (bridge battles come to my mind, although many other cases are suitable). Turcoman foot is a good examples of this, and i prefer to use longbows this way.

The withdraw process can lead to confusion: when the unit leaves the battlefield, the number of soldiers start to go down quickly and the wavering flag shows up: just like if it were attacked by surprise. So watch out this detail, and don't be fooled by this possible confusion

Edit: BTW, very nice sig, Legorreto!

**The Darkhorn** · 01-16-2006, 22:11

Don't you hate it when you rout them by mistake. Once, in a crucial attack I began and selected the entire army with crtl+a.....then instead of clicking on the group icon, I clicked on the rout!!!!!

For a few seconds I sat there going....wtf?

Then the light bulb comes on.

**Scurvy** · 01-16-2006, 22:14

the worst is at the start, when you group units and hit rout by mistake.... i once had 6 cav run off the battlefield because of a cruddy mouse (obviously didnt feed it enough cheese)

but all 16! killer! i think GAH just about sums it up...

**Weebeast** · 01-17-2006, 09:40

Why is that sometimes my troops are 'disheartened by constant retreat' when I never hit the rout button? They all just chain rout and can't be rallied. Well, they do rally but in a second they rout again.

This happens to me when I keep trying to change formation (left click - drag mouse thing).

**matteus the inbred** · 01-17-2006, 11:24

to Darkhorn and Scurvy

i can't believe you did this!
i haven't achieved this singular feat yet, but there's plenty of time, oh yes...

i hit 'windows' in the middle of a scrap last night and it caused the 3D accelerator to fail

**Ludens** · 01-17-2006, 13:27

Originally Posted by Weebeast

Why is that sometimes my troops are 'disheartened by constant retreat' when I never hit the rout button? They all just chain rout and can't be rallied. Well, they do rally but in a second they rout again.

It's caused by the so called Benny-Hill code, to prevent players from running light cavalry around the map until the timer runs out. A unit that is constantly ordered to move away from the enemy will, after 15 move-orders or so, auto-rout. Attacking an enemy will reset the counter, so you can start running around again.

Routing units will not always rally when you order them, and it gives a nasty vice to the general if he does it. Therefor I only use it when I want to prevent a unit from getting shredded in a melee, if it is unable to disengage manually.

Rally gives a morale boost to fleeing units, so it can be used to stop them from routing. Quite often, however, the boost is insufficient and they keep running (thereby tiring themselves and making a succesful rally even more unlikely).