Winning by running away

[Fisherking]

Does any one else avoid combat until the clock runs out in order to force larger stronger enemies to withdraw?

[DVX BELLORVM]

No, I would considered this to be a heavy exploit. Not to mention I would be bored to death doing it

Anyway, I only use the battle timer because of the passive siege AI...

[FactionHeir]

I think I did it once during RTW times but never since. Its both time consuming and boring. If you can't win the battle, at least inflict as many casualties as possible. Pyrrhic victory and all.

The AI does it at times when it has HAs though.

[Slug For A Butt]

No, I would considered this to be a heavy exploit. Not to mention I would be bored to death doing it

Anyway, I only use the battle timer because of the passive siege AI...

Couldn't have said it better myself. A man after my own heart.

[Ramses II CP]

I did this once in my English campaign when I hung a good general out to dry and he got attacked. I was counting on the passive AI to ignore him while I brought his army back, but he got jumped by eight hundred or so infantry. I just criss crossed the map until the timer ran out. Very boring, even at 6x.

Wouldn't a non-general unit become exhausted and rout? Maybe some good morale, good stamina HAs or similar would last.

[vladiator]

Sometimes, when I have cavalry and they are heavily outnumbered, I let the enemy chase me around the map a bit. Then, when they are tired or their units are separated, I attack them. If things don't go too well, I retreat, let them chase me and then attack again later.

But no, I don't run away just to see the clock run out.

[Fisherking]

I only asked as it is a classic raider tactic and best used with your HA types, though some other horse can pull it off. You can make a dent in the enemy force when they get strung out or separated. Not something that works well against the Mongol types though.

It is much better to try it on the first attack rather than withdraw and sacrifice units that can’t win.

And right the reason for the timer is the sieges but you still have to use it. I suppose it depends on how much you value the force involved.

[DVX BELLORVM]

I only asked as it is a classic raider tactic and best used with your HA types, though some other horse can pull it off. You can make a dent in the enemy force when they get strung out or separated. Not something that works well against the Mongol types though.

Well, one thing is to pointlessly run around the battlefield waiting for the time to run out, another thing is using you cav (especially HA) to encircle, divide and destroy enemy units, one by one..

I used the second tactics a lot when playing with the Turks, and I managed to beat far more superior force. But once I ran out of missiles, I'd withdrew. Unless I thought the enemy was soften enough that it could be broken with one last charge. It would usually resulted with heroic victory, and massive experience gain for my HA.

Couldn't have said it better myself. A man after my own heart.

[Ferret]

Well I don't have to worry about this, I play with no battle time limits, and I wouldn't see the point in doing this anyway, it would be easier to just withdraw.

[TheLastPrivate]

i've done it before out of pure necessity..but I would not WANT to do it.

[TevashSzat]

I too had to do it out of pure necessity. The ai had a ton of archers meaning that I would get horrendously butchered if I attacked, but wasn't doing anything so I was forced to just wait it out

[WhiskeyGhost]

I fight with Battle Timer on, i don't like it when theres 1 bugged enemy infantry unit during a siege on my castle, that i had to fight off tier by tier to the last wall, and 1 enemy unit gets bugged (where its spread out all over the map for some reason, and it isn't getting killed or reforming or retreating) and i am forced to either:
A. Sit for eternity, since the timer doesn't run out.

B. Send what few remaining forces which i likely have very little of remaining out to get slaughtered by enemy cavalry that remained in reserve.

C. Give up a barely won fight against a sizable and actually well coordinated enemy attack, because i can't kill off that 1 bugged half dead infantry unit, which is the only hope the enemy has of getting through my last wall.

To be honest, i don't like those options, so i leave battle timer on just for that reason, so the computer doesn't get bugged victories against me.

(Note: During this battle, my odds were ridiculous either, it wasn't one of those "heroic" victories where the odds are 10:1 against me, the odds were actually quite close, being about 5:6. I had sacrificed a chunk of my defenders to get rid of the enemy trebs and catapults. This incredibly enjoyable fight turned my best moment into a sour bitter memory too. )

[Kobal2fr]

I too had to do it out of pure necessity. The ai had a ton of archers meaning that I would get horrendously butchered if I attacked, but wasn't doing anything so I was forced to just wait it out

So essentially, what you're saying is you won't do it, unless you can lose ?

Sorry, just struck me as funny is all.

And to contribute to the debate : I play with the timer off, mostly because of sieges. I like to start them with a long "artillery preparation" (read : use siege stuff to blast away any tower that may or may not shoot at my folks, make walls crumble beneath the feet of archers etc...), and I hate when I have to rush my assault afterwards because I'm running out of time. Kinda defeats the purpose of the preparation, which is to avoid losses .

[TevashSzat]

[QUOTE=Kobal2fr]So essentially, what you're saying is you won't do it, unless you can lose ?

Sorry, just struck me as funny is all.
QUOTE]

Well, it was a siege and the AI has the good old bug of retreating to outside the walls, but outside tower range after routing the first time and never assaulting again.

It was a very important city and I, by all rights had won that battle thoroughly, but was left with a skeleton of what I started out with and most likely could not have killed all of the remaining archers

[Philbert]

What I have done is take up a strong position on a hill against the mongols, that they were afraid to attack (even though they outmatched me). They would then do their dance across their half of the map trying to lure me out.

I did this when I had a single stack that I was refreshing from Gaza and Antioch trying to crusade Jeruzalem. This single stack over a long period took on 6 mongol stacks one by one, losing as many troops from desertion as from mongol fire. If I had just destroyed one stack, and was attacked after, I chose to sit it out (clock on +6) so I could wait for next turns reinforcements instead of getting slaughtered and having my pet general killed.

In the end I did get Jeruzalem though!