Fair Play

[Realturka]

I once fought 4 small egyptian armies with 1 big turkish army... I defeated the first one, made the 2nd and 3rd ones rout and started searching for the 4th army... Then I found them... on top of a huge cliff...


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\ 0 | 0= Enemy archers
. \ |
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It was just a group of archers but I couldn't reach them and had to withdraw my troops... Could I win that battle? That wasn't Fair Play at all...

[Flavius Gonzo]

Those battles are tough. Most maps that have cliff territory I find that usually there is a spot that you can deploy in that will allow easier access.

But some maps, the defender has a terrific advantage. Rebels seem to be good at finding those spots.

And you can win those battles, just expect much heavier losses. The last one I played like that I was able to run my calvary up one way while my infantry marched in loose formation up the front of the cliff. They were exhausted by the time they reached the summit, but with the numerical advantage, and getting the calvary there in time to flank, they managed to rout the AI pretty quickly. I didn't take too many casualties once my infantry closed, but the infantry took heavy losses marching up the cliff while the AI pelted them with arrows. Your own archers are nearly usesless in such a situation, just use 'em as supporting infantry units.

In some maps, I've been able to use Arty to pound on a well positioned enemy, but it's a gamble to have Arty on the field in those hilly maps, they can easily get stuck somewhere or also not have the right line of sight.

[katank]

I've had two cases like this with Swiss rebels.

Once, they deployed on a literally unreachable location (on the map edge with insurmountable cliffs on either side). Had to withdraw. Gah!

Another time, they were inaccessible but a higher location was accessible. 3 units of horse archers start raining arrows on the 1 unfortunate unit of pikers. All was well. Everyone besides the captain died and I still had 1/3 of ammo left on all my units. However, the captain managed to disco dance his way to surviving the arrow storm! (He keeps waving his sword around and telling his dead buddies to "attack, forward, attack, forward, etc.")

It's truly frustrating. There should be really a check to make sure all deployable parts of the map are accessible. Then again, one day, I dream of deploying an all missile army where the enemy cannot reach.

[Ars Moriendi]

Then I found them... on top of a huge cliff...

The game does that sometimes, spawning units in inaccesible places.
Happened to me too, only in my case the situation was the exact opposite : I had the smaller army and half of it was on some high cliff. It was a close fight, using only half my forces while the rest were watching the show from above like the fans at a soccer game.

Those battles are tough.[...]

Those battles are impossible to win. I think the OP was talking about those situations when the AI forces can be reached only by fighter planes and ICBMs.

[Snoil The Mighty]

Just had my first one like this last night, had several previous that had torturous pathing but finally had one where it looked like the last plateau would get me there but no such luck. I like the new terrains, but if the enemy can be attacked then a battlefield of some sort should exist so this has to be filed under "bug" IMHO. If they want to have unassailable positions it should preclude initiating an attack on the CM

[sapi]

Agreed - this and delayed reinforcements (which let me take york, defended by about 2000 troops, by killing one general's bodyguard) need to be fixed (and i know there's a way around the latter bug but i don't like to use it)

[katank]

Now I'm curious. What's the way around delayed reinforcements? Autoresolving?

[Realturka]

it happened again... here's an advice: don't fight when your enemy is near a mountain...

[sapi]

Now I'm curious. What's the way around delayed reinforcements? Autoresolving?

Editing your cfg file so that unlimited_men_on_battlefield = 1

[BrianMHS]

Pretty sure the delayed reinforcement bug he was referring to happens when the game decides that your computer can't handle all 4000 troops being on the field at one time, so some troops mysteriously are "delayed." I would imagine that's what happened in his battle for York, that the game decided to "delay" the computer's army.

It's never happened to me, but I've heard of it.

I had one of those crazy mountain goat battles, but I was the defender. My position wasn't unreachable, but it was pretty close. It was pretty awesome, felt like Helm's Deep or something. Musketeers can shoot pretty much half the map when they're 3000 feet above the field. :)

[sapi]

Brian, that's what i was referring to, and that's how to fix it ;)

[katank]

Cool, still wondering if it kills performance though.

[sapi]

Of course, but to fix that you just have to kill them ;)

[Shahed]

This has happened to me as well.

There are some mountains with unreachable spots. So if YOU or the AI deploys there, the battle will last for all eternity (if you have the timer off like me).

Sometimes those spots are targetable by missile fire, so you can shoot up the units in there.

[katank]

I think they should certainly guarantee any area where the enemy can appear is reachable. I don't mind enemies corner camping or hill camping etc.

Just let me have a way to get at em! It's infuriating when the enemy has 1 guy left and somehow wins because he dodged an obscene number of arrows and my hordes can't march up to finish him off.