Do you play with battle timer on ?

[Didz]

@Savage Smurf
If I am reading your post correctly, then you made a big mistake.

If by 'I decided that I should bring the fight to them' you mean that you decided to launch a sally attack on their beseiging army, then you could not have lost that battle.

Had you chosen instead the Quit and Exit the battle it would have been declared a Draw and you would have kept your city. The only way to lose a sally battle is to allow all your troops to rout.

The passive assault bug only really has an impact if the battle is started by the AI.

[gardibolt]

I always play battle timer on. If there's an actual battle, it's 99.9999% of the time finished long before the timer expires, one way or another. And it's handy to have it on when the AI attacks you in a siege but then decides that they like the spot where they're sitting, thank you very much.

[ocitalis]

was wondering... can you modify the battle timer to lengthen it a little? That way if the AI gets stuck the battle eventually ends. I like the timer but id lengthen it a tad.

[Odin]

I normally dont play with time limits, but I have been bitten by the AI seige bug once (and only once thankfully). I have had several epic field battles that I personally took my time on, and was thankful to not have run out of time.

but as didz points out the passive assault bug is AI induced battles only and not every time either as I have had a few seiges with 1.2 LTC where the AI assaulted and was driven back.

However it was always when they had superior numbers.

[Didz]

I suspect that this is one of those rare occassions where a 'Do something' trigger is necessary to override the AI but hasn't actually been provided.

The AI seems to recognise that whilst it has no means to win the battle by attacking, it also has no reason to withdraw as it is actually more powerful than its opponent. Hence, it sits and waits in the hope that the situation will change and allow it to win.

What is needed is a 'Do something' trigger that identifies the situation and overides the AI insisting that it either makes a pointless attack or withdraws.

The only other fix I have had limited success with is to provide the AI with a fresh tactical situation so that it is persuaded to initiate an action itself. Its obviously risky but sometimes its possible to persuade the AI to attack by faking a rout within reaction range of its units, or to trigger the 'Attack missile troops' trigger and then kite the enemy into tower range.

Sometimes just outflanking or moving behind the AI line will be enough to trigger an AI re-assessment of the situation and prompt a withdrawal. I've certainly seen my son do that with his Hungarian Noble Cavalry.

Nevertheless, it is a bug and needs to be fixed.

[Odin]

I suspect that this is one of those rare occassions where a 'Do something' trigger is necessary to override the AI but hasn't actually been provided.

The AI seems to recognise that whilst it has no means to win the battle by attacking, it also has no reason to withdraw as it is actually more powerful than its opponent. Hence, it sits and waits in the hope that the situation will change and allow it to win.

What is needed is a 'Do something' trigger that identifies the situation and overides the AI insisting that it either makes a pointless attack or withdraws.

The only other fix I have had limited success with is to provide the AI with a fresh tactical situation so that it is persuaded to initiate an action itself. Its obviously risky but sometimes its possible to persuade the AI to attack by faking a rout within reaction range of its units, or to trigger the 'Attack missile troops' trigger and then kite the enemy into tower range.

Sometimes just outflanking or moving behind the AI line will be enough to trigger an AI re-assessment of the situation and prompt a withdrawal. I've certainly seen my son do that with his Hungarian Noble Cavalry.

Nevertheless, it is a bug and needs to be fixed.

Well in practice the trigger does exsist, you have to sally. It might be sloppy from a game play perspective but is it completely unrealistic in some cases?

Sure the general getting stuck on a rock and cant move his unit sucks, but when an army determines that it cant take the castle and waits you out in the battle screen, cant that be considered a viable tactic?

The Ai's chances of winning improve when you sally, at that point, its one thing if the siege is initiated and the AI sits and does nothing. But if the AI attacks gets beaten back and reorganizes and settles on a hill, well that might be a case where it is using the engine to its advantage as opposed to the many ways a human can.

Im not convinced this is viable or fair, but Im trying to be objective.

[Didz]

Well in practice the trigger does exsist, you have to sally. It might be sloppy from a game play perspective but is it completely unrealistic in some cases?

The trigger clearly doesn't exist otherwise the AI would not be allowed to just sit there and do nothing.

As you say the only way to end the battle is to push EXIT or sally neither of which is an acceptable solution. What is needed is another 'Do Something' trigger like the one that forces the AI to make futile attacks on missile troops, but which in this instance forces it either to make a futile attack on the city walls or withdraw.

[Slug For A Butt]

Battle timer ON for me.
The timer is much more generous than RTW where I alwas had it set to off in case I was attacking a city.
M2TW timer gives you plenty of time to resolve a battle, but safeguards you against those nasty little instances where you feel like you are about to be conned.

[atheotes]

I mostly leave the timer ON... Now and then i will play campaigns with the timer OFF - not anymore.
In a siege initiated by the AI, i managed to beat back the main force. Some of units ran off the battle field and the rest were captured/killed. There was a long reinforcement general waiting there doing nothing... i sallied and killed him but the battle wouldnt end... i waited and searched for lost routing units... found none.. in the minimap i could see on red arrow outside the battlefield... i put all my units in a single line and swept thru the battlefield hoping they would somehow catch the invisible routers... to no avail.. i started scanning the battlefield inch by inch and after a lot of pain found 2 enemy spearmen under a ladder banging against the walls... none of my units could attack them/get close to them!!! Then i destroyed a ladder and to my relief they started running away from the walls and were promptly captured. It took me well over an hour and since then it is battle time always ON!!!