Withdrawal Order

**sbroadbent** · 08-28-2006, 07:54

In Barbarian Invasion you could fight night battles, but only if you were forced into it by the enemy, or your general had the nightfighting trait. One balancing point atleast for the Singleplayer campaign would be that the command could only be accessible if you have atleast one general who has the tactical retreat trait. It could also be linked to the general's command ability. If a unit tried this tactical retreat under a low command general they might get morale penalties which could turn the maneuver into a full fledged rout. Under a high command general though, your troops could get a morale boost.

**Vladimir** · 08-28-2006, 12:39

It would be nice if regular, disciplined units could do this. Levy or peasant type troops seeing or performing this movement should experience a morale penalty similar to or the same as seeing another unit rout. Often times a move like this was misinterpreted by friend and foe alike as a rout/retreat.

**Husar** · 08-28-2006, 13:39

Well, it sounds like a lot of new animations(moving backwards, fighting while moving backwards, blocking while moving backwards, fighting while moving forward, etc...) and apart from that, what keeps TW unit from following the retreating unit to the edge of the battlemap and rout them off the map considering they are still alive after such a distance? Also it's a potential new AI bug, so we may see our troops constantly fighting enemies on tactical retreat or such things.
I thought of it myself before, but it sounds like a lot of work and many possible bugs and very hard to balance. Maybe it's not worth bothering?

**sunsmountain** · 08-29-2006, 08:58

Originally Posted by Encaitar

A 'give ground' type order would be very useful.

Tell me about it, how do you think the battle at Cannae was won? Trying to recreate this battle in the RTW engine is only possible with some beefy morale troops and even then you'll suffer more casulaties than Hannibal did. He deployed his frontline troops similar to:

Code:

        xxx
    xxx     xxx
xxx             xxx

and let the front troops give ground. On the sides were pike units, hidden in the trees, ready to crush the Romans if they caught the bait. Which they did.

**CBR** · 08-29-2006, 13:33

Originally Posted by sunsmountain

Tell me about it, how do you think the battle at Cannae was won? Trying to recreate this battle in the RTW engine is only possible with some beefy morale troops and even then you'll suffer more casulaties than Hannibal did. He deployed his frontline troops similar to:

Code:

        xxx
    xxx     xxx
xxx             xxx

and let the front troops give ground. On the sides were pike units, hidden in the trees, ready to crush the Romans if they caught the bait. Which they did.

Or his losing center pulled back as losing units normally would. According to the few sources, holes even appeared in the center as some units started routing.

IIRC there has been a few battles where the whole battleline turned up to 90 degrees. That wasnt planned but simply because parts of the line were winning and advancing slowly while losing units slowly pulled back.

Getting your units to fall back on command while in melee would be extremely difficult. It would be slow and could cause a rout. Even pulling back when not in melee, but with an enemy in sight was very dangerous. So I doubt it really could be done when in actual contact with the enemy.

RTW unfortunately doesnt have units pulling back much while losing. Oh and Hannibal did not have troops hiding in the trees at Cannae. His African spears in long column formation was simply hidden by his frontline. Again something that is not possible in RTW because of the all-seeing eye of a camera.

CBR

**SpencerH** · 08-29-2006, 17:40

Great suggestion. I dont see how a fighting withdrawl order/button would be unbalancing unless the AI wasnt programmed to use it properly (hmmm, my thoughts are drifting toward another whinefest.......... ).

Hows about a "chase the nearest routing enemy unit button"?