Limbo?

[Innocentius]

I played through an unpleasantly short Portuegese [sic] campaign today. Normally as the Portugese or other small factions you rush before neighbouring powers can out-produce you too easy. I decided not to for once. Although, I made a second mistake in still attacking too soon. When turtling with 1 province you need a few decades to build up before you do anything, and besides I attacked at a very stupid time. My influence was low, and neither Catille-Léon nor Aragon were at war with the Almohads whom I decided to attack in Algarve. The Elmos quickly countered with a small invasion of Portucal which was easily fended off, while I suffered a defeat towards a relieving force from Cordoba in Algarve (the Elmo units are way overpowered in Early).
Now the Elmos decided to mop me up and invaded Portucale again. A bit demoralized, realising I was finished I auto-calced, lost and was besieged. Just trying to enlengthen (is that a real word?) the siege I sallied, but seemingly forgot to move one unit of MSs out of the castle, as my sally was suddenly interrupted as the Elmo army stormed my castle garrison now only counting 17 men. Of course they won.

Anyway, most of that is beside the point, so you could've just jumped forward to this if I'd told you to: My army dissapeared. As did my king. My sallying troops just dissapeared, but I remained on the map, without kingdom or king. All my emissaries, bishops and princesses were still on the map, and I concluded a ceasefire with the Elmos and married a princess to the king of Castille-Léon! What can cause this or has it even happened to anybody else?

[Martok]

I think that's a new one, Innocentius. You were playing XL?

[Sensei Warrior]

I never heard anything like it.

The stack you have left led by your King is sitting on a provence (I'm assuming Portugal). If you end the turn do you go to a battle screen like you would if you were attacking a Provence? If it doesn't, try moving the stack to a different bordering provence, like Algarve.

I'm guessing as long as your still on the map, you're still in play and will be considered an attacking army the next turn. Or if you're actually MIA (or in Limbo) then moving your stack will cause the comp to "see" you again.

[Adrian II]

I never heard anything like it.

Weird things happen now and then. I once 'inherited' a Crusade. It wudn't much, but when an allied faction that sent it was wiped out and all that was left was this Crusade, it turned out that it was mine. I couldn't move it. And on the next turn the game crashed and kept crashing in even though I had saved it.

[caravel]

I remember fighting a battle as the Almohads years ago and losing to the Spanish, many of my men were ransomed back, but when I examined them they weren't my men at all. They were the French, that had obviously been fighting another battle and still had their own religion and colours.

This occurs because of a corrupted save. 99% of the time save corruption will result in an all out crash to desktop, but occasionally you get these strange anomalies.

One of the most annoying bugs is when your ransomed troops get stuck in the stack and can't be pulled out. The only solution I've found to this is to drop them into a castle and then pull them out again. This resets it. This appears to be caused by the function that locks rebelling and ransomed stacks down, and prevents them from being separated, not correctly unlocking the individual units the following year.

[Odin]

Anyway, most of that is beside the point, so you could've just jumped forward to this if I'd told you to: My army dissapeared. As did my king. My sallying troops just dissapeared, but I remained on the map, without kingdom or king. All my emissaries, bishops and princesses were still on the map, and I concluded a ceasefire with the Elmos and married a princess to the king of Castille-Léon! What can cause this or has it even happened to anybody else?

My guess is they were going to assualt the castle anyway, whether you sallied forth or not. I am curious if the message played that your king was killed and he has no heirs, etc etc.... ?

If not then you might have a reverse seige going. They took control of the province and the castle and now your army is seiging it.

The fact you cant see your army is troubling, but It must exsist, have you clicked on the army info icon? does it list your army?

[Adrian II]

One of the most annoying bugs is when your ransomed troops get stuck in the stack and can't be pulled out.

Yup.

The only solution I've found to this is to drop them into a castle and then pull them out again. This resets it.

Nice, I never knew that. My solution always was to save and reload the game. That works, too. And it gives you just enough time to put fresh bucket of coffee on the stove.

[caravel]

Yup. Nice, I never knew that. My solution always was to save and reload the game. That works, too. And it gives you just enough time to put fresh bucket of coffee on the stove.

I never knew that either, so it looks like a trade.

In some cases the ransomed army in it's entirety won't fit into the fort so the only solution was to move them to another province where they would fit in. The obvious solution now is to first try to move them into the fort, failing that: save and reload.

[Innocentius]

My guess is they were going to assualt the castle anyway, whether you sallied forth or not. I am curious if the message played that your king was killed and he has no heirs, etc etc.... ?

If not then you might have a reverse seige going. They took control of the province and the castle and now your army is seiging it.

The fact you cant see your army is troubling, but It must exsist, have you clicked on the army info icon? does it list your army?

No, I recieved no message spelling "Succession!" or "Disaster!"... And I don't think it was a reversed siege as the Elmos started producing troops immediately, and at first I lost sight of Portucale (I had some form of emissary/spy in all Iberain provinces except Portucale since well...it was mine and I had WT). When I moved a bishop from Algarve back into Portucale I noticed that there were fresh units of UMs in the castle that hadn't been inte the invading army since they had armour +1.

[Adrian II]

I never knew that either, so it looks like a trade.

In some cases the ransomed army in it's entirety won't fit into the fort so the only solution was to move them to another province where they would fit in. The obvious solution now is to first try to move them into the fort, failing that: save and reload.

It also happens that the stack won't move at all. In which case I disband them, particularly if they are losers anyway. If the General was bonkers all along and has now become a Good Runner, he can keep on running all the way to Hell.

[Don Esteban]

I remember fighting a battle as the Almohads years ago and losing to the Spanish, many of my men were ransomed back, but when I examined them they weren't my men at all. They were the French, that had obviously been fighting another battle and still had their own religion and colours.

I can just see it.

Okay we've got the ransom money so lets have some fun and send the frenchies to Africa

The origin of the French Foreign Legion

[Ironside]

Nice, I never knew that. My solution always was to save and reload the game. That works, too. And it gives you just enough time to put fresh bucket of coffee on the stove.

And a third way is IIRC to add troops to the affected stack and refill your depleted units with the new ones. the depleted units is now movable and you can move out some of the affected units together with it, wich stops the bug for those units.

Was too long since I happened to me so I don't remember all the details exactly, but it's done very simular as mentioned above.

Never knewed about those 2 methods above either.

[naut]

Sorry to bump an old post, but

I have had this happen to Munster, they had all their agents left on the map including a Princess whom I married.

[caravel]

Another new faction added through a mod... coincidence? I wonder if there's a file missing somewhere...

[naut]

Wouldn't suprise me if it was to do with the new faction(s).

[Ironside]

Reading it again, I suspect that it's the civil war bug.

Once in a while when a faction dies without hiers a civil war occurs. But in this buggy case, all land goes to another faction due to marriage.
The faction in this case will continue to exist, but without any land and troops and only the agent units remains.
Might occur when faction dies out through combat too?

And usually does the king still live, although he serves a new master now... . Aka he will show up in "wrong" province and work as a regular unit on the campaign map (but won't be seen on the combat map).

[Don Corleone]

If you still have an emissary alive (and enough gold), go bribe a cheap stack somewhere and bring your faction back to life!

[naut]

@ Ironside: Yes that is exactly what happened.

[caravel]

Reading it again, I suspect that it's the civil war bug.

Once in a while when a faction dies without hiers a civil war occurs. But in this buggy case, all land goes to another faction due to marriage.
The faction in this case will continue to exist, but without any land and troops and only the agent units remains.
Might occur when faction dies out through combat too?

And usually does the king still live, although he serves a new master now... . Aka he will show up in "wrong" province and work as a regular unit on the campaign map (but won't be seen on the combat map).

Well that's a new one on me. I hadn't heard about that bug before.

Slightly OT: You've reminded me that I recently experienced one of those civil wars where the monarch dies without an heir and the two factions contending from the throne are led by generals with royal blood. In this case I was playing as the Egyptians. First time that has ever happened to me also.

[Martok]

Slightly OT: You've reminded me that I recently experienced one of those civil wars where the monarch dies without an heir and the two factions contending from the throne are led by generals with royal blood. In this case I was playing as the Egyptians. First time that has ever happened to me also.

Really? I get them....well, not frequently of course, but I wouldn't say they're extremely rare in my campaigns either. I actually instigate those kinds of civil wars on purpose -- every now and then a good brother-vs-brother matchup is exactly the kind of shake-up my empire needs.