Why do my defenders always start on the wrong wall?

[waywardryan]

Just a quick question. Sometimes when I get sieged my entire army will start all the way on the wrong side of the city and by the time I can get them over to defend the city I've already lost. Is there any way to get around this?

[mightilyoats]

Yes, don't click on Start Battle until you have set up your army.

When the siege starts, the game will be paused with a banner saying "Start Battle". Until you click that banner, you can move your units to any position you want. Also, while doing this you can see the enemy positions.

[waywardryan]

Isn't that only in skirmish mode?

[mightilyoats]

Well, I am speaking only from personal experience. When I am beibg besieged and the enemy assaults my settlement, I can always position my units before the battle. (It makes perfect sense in terms of realism.)

What is skirmish mode? I haven't come across that yet.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi,
Skirmish mode is when missile units are set to keep away from the enemy. They always retreat to a safe distance when the enemy gets too close and then, when they are far enough away, fire their arrow. It can be set in the right hand bottom corner of the screen.

And mightlyoats is right - only in sally battles where you are the defender (outside of the walls) can you not position your solders before clicking the "start battle" button. Good luck!

[mightilyoats]

Oh! THAT skirmish mode... I thought there was some arcane and mysterious "skirmish mode" something similar to arcade mode (where you have infinite arrows) - please don't read this as a sarcastic post, I am being sincere.

Anyway, that skirmish mode is not really related to this issue.

So, Waywardryan, Omanes and me are in agreement. You should be able to set your formations before the battle if you are defending a settlement assault from INSIDE the settlement. If you are doing the sieging and the enemy decides to run out of their settlement to attack you, then you can't.

[waywardryan]

Well that is very odd because it simply doesn't work for me. As soon as the game loads into battle (without me even touching it) everybody is moving around and there is no chance to move my guys where i want them.

By skirmish mode, I meant quick battle or set up battle or whatever its called. In that mode I can set up my guys....

I dunno but this is pissing me off.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Hi again,
On the campaign map press the Esc key and go into game options. Then deselect the "arcade battles" box. I believe that that is the problem, arcade battles stop pre-battle troop deployment. Good luck!

[Warmaster Horus]

Yep, that's it. Omanes the not-so idiot got it right. I don't suppose anyone knows [B]Why[B] the computer automatically sets troops there?

[waywardryan]

That got it. Thanks! you rule. That was driving me nuts. What a stupid game dynamic.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

My purpose is to serve

[mightilyoats]

Cool Omanes. They say you should learn something new everyday. I learnt something new already now, so I think I should call it a day!

I've never tried arcade mode before. Now I won't... ever.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

I've never tried arcade mode before. Now I won't... ever.

Arcade mode is useful for something - it removes morale, fatigue and limited ammunition so is good should you want to play with a more simplified battle mode similar to that of an RTS game such as AoE or the Civ Series, also useful if you are a veteran of these games wanting to go into the TW series a step at a time. On the down side it disables the ability to deploy troops and instead of having a small portion of your/the enemy's army survive, it all has to die for one side to win the battle. Convenient if you have done the destroying - not so convenient if you are the one being destroyed...

Yep, that's it. Omanes the not-so idiot got it right. I don't suppose anyone knows Why the computer automatically sets troops there?

I believe that the troops are set there because the AI by default would deploy it's troop in front of where the computer deploys yours by default. The AI, wanting an advantage, repositions itself hoping that you don't notice and take time to get to your wall to defend against them. BTW the AI has already deployed their troops while you are deploying yours. What it doesn't realise is that you are intelligent enough to realise that they are there, can deploy pre-battle and can send an force there to go and chuck 'em out of your city!

[MuseRulez]

If you still want to play in arcade mode, but still like to set up your forces before battles: go to the preferences folder, it should look something like this:Rome - Total War\preferences. There you will find a text file called "preferences". (you didn't see that one coming, did you? ) Look for the lines MORALE:TRUE FATIGUE:TRUE LIMITED_AMMO:TRUE. These are the settings for NON-arcade battles. Just change TRUE to FALSE. You can now play a normal campaign and still have all the "advantages" of arcade mode.

REMEMBER: Back-up your file FIRST!

[Celt Centurion]

And mightlyoats is right - only in sally battles where you are the defender (outside of the walls) can you not position your solders before clicking the "start battle" button. Good luck!

Also, I tried the "Arcade battles" (unlimited ammunition) a couple of years ago. I found that when battles started, they were already in motion as soon as the screen came up, the same as when an enemy was sallying against me. That meant that I had to do a lot of rushing troops to where I wanted them, and unfortunately, archers usually got up on the wall long after the enemy was out of range. The infantry and cavalry were less of a problem in that I only needed to group and send them where I wanted them, and it could be worked from there.

Strength and Honor

Celt Centurion