Quote Originally Posted by Caravel
How does this work? Do they affectively have to be critically hit twice before they actually die? If so I may change them to 1HP as you had stated that you had done in the previous post.
You got it.

Another thing. Have you been using the BI exe for RTW? If so, how is it going?
I use it for RTR Platinum, but not for vanilla RTW as I think the main Imperial campaign does not work well with it (at least for Rome - there are no Senate missions etc.) I think any improvements are marginal and probably confined to the strategic AI.

My point is that I shouldn't need to face a numerically superior force in oder to lose, and most of the battles I've fought so far in RTW have been against the odds, well outnumbered, by 4 to 1 in some cases and my forces have still won the day.
Well, I would typically only lose in MTW/STW if facing a superior force (in quality or quantity), so I am not sure there is a big change there.

To be honest, my RTW experience is quite varied. Most vanilla battles, I admit, I've sailed through. Casualty rates have been well below those I experienced in MTW and STW. But the current PBM campaign I've entered has seen me suffer two humiliating defeats in one turn. It may be because I've entered cold mid-campaign, when the AI has decent troops (bull warriors for Spain; horse archers for Scythia) and my pre-Marian + mercenary forces have been mediocre. But it's been humbling. In both battles, there was no major fault in the AI. The Spanish just came forward en masse and eventually overwhelmed me; the Scythians made pretty clever use of horse archers, as I indicated.

A more common pattern was that I shoot to death the AI (protected by top notch troops), who either sits around hopelessly or reacts piecemeal as you indicate. But lately I've been trying to fight with "historical" pre-Marian Roman armies - ie go light on missiles and cavalry (two each per stack max) and fight with small stacks including many mercenaries (up to half the stack) as allies. The gloves are off with the Scythians now though.