King in battle, but wasn't the general!

Has anyone else had this happen?

In my current campaign (English, early, expert [VI 2.01]) my King was in Flanders and the French launched an attack. When I started the battle, the pre-battle screen showed his newly-matured 16 year old son was the general, having 5* as opposed to the King's 4*. In the battle itself there was a 21 man unit of Royal Knights (the king) as an ordinary unit - no crown or anything!

This has never happened before, and as far as I know it shouldn't happen, cos the King is supposed to always take command when he's on the field. I can only guess that it had something to do with the new prince coming of age that year, in that province. The King had a full stack, and obviously the Prince was a new unit.

Most strange..... especially as after the battle the King got the extra command star and "skilled defender" virtue.

I have seen it happen once to, and some others have reported it as well. I suppose it's a glitch. Don't know what causes it to happen, though.

I think there are a lot of weird little quirks like this in the software. Keeps things interesting, I guess.

I had a strange situation just the other night while one of my forts was being attacked. I only had one peasant unit garrisoned inside; however, the AI attacked with only one unit: an urban militia with low valor. So I figured I had a chance.

What ended up happening was, the AI charged my front wall instead of the main gate, which is where I had my peasant unit. As the UM began hacking at the wall, it appeared as though the first line of men had already broken through (their image appeared on the inside). I mistakenly took this as a breach and immediately ran my peasants over to attack. As I did this, however, I discovered that half my men already lie dead on the ground, while the other half were eager to dash.

Hmmm... strange. No other enemy units around… no missile fire... how in the heck did they get killed? I'm guessing what happened was the AI became confused with where its unit was actually positioned. So once the "hacking" commenced, it was not only recorded as damage to the front wall, but also as damage to my men??? ...not really sure.

Anyway, I sometimes wonder if the CA guys are visiting this forum from time and time and taking good notes. Sure would like to see some of these things get fixed in later versions of MTW.

Alexios, there's a possibility that the broken wall fell down on your troops and crushed them. That's a feature, although I haven't seen it happen on my troops.

Wish I'd kept a save game for the year, but only had it as a quicksave, so now it's erased. I had a horrible feeling at the start of the battle that I was going to get one of those messages -- "The English King has died from an illness" but he survived a few more years!

On the fort assault, I've noticed that units attacking walls often show up "through" the wall before they've actually broken through. Another reason your peasants may have died is crossfire from your central fort, as they would have walked into the line of fire. If you'd left them by the gate, all would have been well...

Another reason your peasants may have died is crossfire from your central fort, as they would have walked into the line of fire. If you'd left them by the gate, all would have been well...

I thought about this also, but I don't recall seeing arrows on the unit icon indicating they were under missile file. (Does this even show up when its friendly fire as opposed to enemy fire?) And I had lost them while they were still positioned at the gate, which was a fair distance away from where the AI was attacking.

I'm thinking about reloading the saved file for that year and see what happens. Not sure if I can get the AI logic to follow the same pathway as before, however. I shall see.

Originally Posted by Ironside

Alexios, there's a possibility that the broken wall fell down on your troops and crushed them. That's a feature, although I haven't seen it happen on my troops.

Yes, I saw that. AI held troops near wall (citadel) and my mangonels destroyed wall which broke up into AI units.

Originally Posted by Ironside

Alexios, there's a possibility that the broken wall fell down on your troops and crushed them. That's a feature, although I haven't seen it happen on my troops.

I second this theory, I have been on both ends, besides if you look at Ironside title he is the "Master of useless knowledge" I think he might have pulled a gem out of his bag of tricks, because I think he's right

Which, if he is is ver useful.

It happened again, this time in Samurai beta6 mod - originally the pre-battle screen showed my Daimyo as general, but after opening and closing the re-inforcements panel the 4* general took over, and the Daimyo reverted to an ordinary unit on the battlefield again. SO, my guess is that it does somehow tie in to the reinforcement procedure, maybe opening up the panel makes it forget who's the king??? Hmmm...

Two rules about Generals:

1. The General with the highest amount of * will lead your army, even if your King or Daimyo is present.
2. The unit in the top left rectangle will lead your army.
2a. This is by default the highest ranking General. However, if you edit the order of your troops, say put reinforcements up, then you might change which unit is in the top left.
The result is that whatever unit is positioned there will take the command.

Originally Posted by R'as al Ghul

Two rules about Generals:
1. The General with the highest amount of * will lead your army, even if your King or Daimyo is present.

Not generally. Had a battle where the Byz 3-star king led the battle. It was 2 9-star generals(!) among the reinforcements.

And it's the bottom left corner.
Edit: Yeah make that the right corner. Wasn't really waken that day

Normally the king always takes command as he outranks everyone regardless of command ability. It is possible to put someone else in charge IF you have enough units for reinforcements, in which case pop your king down in the bottom panel out of the way. In this last case though, all I did was look at the bottom panel. BEFORE I opened it the Daimyo WAS the general (it was a Daimyo vs. Daimyo battle to start with), but AFTER I closed it the glorious 4* general "Spare Hero Slot" had taken over. I moved no units about myself, but the new general had moved himself into that bottom right slot when I scrolled back up.

And the general is usually in the bottom right slot (we'll get there in the end....) Once again, I bet I don't have the game saved to play with it more!

Originally Posted by macsen rufus

BEFORE I opened it the Daimyo WAS the general (it was a Daimyo vs. Daimyo battle to start with), but AFTER I closed it the glorious 4* general "Spare Hero Slot"

And the general is usually in the bottom right slot (we'll get there in the end....) Once again, I bet I don't have the game saved to play with it more!

A loyalty problem? A coup d'etat?

Yes, bottom right corner is correct. Sorry.

I've never had that problem before My king is usually the general in my battles even if I dont want him to be.

I've had this problem once or twice. It must be a bug...

I once also had my crown prince take generalship when my king was present, I think as the English in Flanders. I was less fortunate in the battle, though, and I think my king got an undeserved weak defender vice or some such. I can't remember if the prince had just come of age that year as it was some time back. Makes me think of Edward III at Crecy leaving the battle to the Black Prince.

Ajax

Had this happen to me only once, i chalked it up to a minor glitch as he was in command after the battle and in the next battle. Luckily i noted it and kepted his royal unit away from the front for fear of losing him without noticing