Soldiers don't follow orders.

[overweightninja]

too vage a post to provide any help...

1-what unit
2-under what conditions
3-sieging?
4-after the enemy disengaded and retreated (not routing)
5-are they throwing a pila/javeling?
6-are they with "HOLD" on?
7- etc.....

I figured if someone else knew what I was talking about that would be sufficient. Nonetheless...

1. Any
2. Any for frozen units, as I said the twisting tends to happen more often in close quarters and at the end of bridges and stuff but also in open field etc
3. Doesn't seem to make a difference (although obviously settlements = close quarters)
4. In the case of frozen units, possible, I don't remember them being involved in any fights after being frozen (although I would have tried to guide the battle away I imagine), but most would have been fighting before, possibly their target completely eliminated?.
5. Doesn't appear to make any difference, as I've said any units seem to suffer.
6. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't.
7. Feel free to ask for further clarification :)

I have also issued orders to unit that they've completely ignored. Usually, if I order them a few more times, they eventually follow through, but it's not that rare that I'll issue an order, they'll pretend to start, then quit.

Yup get that too :(

I don't just get the circle with Phalangites though....

As I said, appears to me like hardcoded tomfoolery :(

Cheers

[hoom]

All these are RTW game engine bugs/design choices & EB can't fix them.

The circle/swirly unit is a game engine buggy/odd way of getting units to re-form.
If they take casualties before completing the re-form, they start over again.
Most of the time if left alone they'll work their way out of it eventually.
Sometimes a new command can snap them out of it but other times it just starts the spiral afresh...

Buggy one or two guys locked in combat seems to be again a game engine bug where sometimes that guy in your unit doesn't realise that he killed the guy he was fighting & gets locked in unwinnable combat (& renders his entire unit all but unusable for the rest of the battle)
It seems to particularly occur with bridges/building corners/on walls & in other locations where unit pathing gets weird.

Grouped units attacking whatever is nearest to each of the grouped units is I think intentional design.
Sometimes its really handy (eg for cleaning up routers) but most of the time something of a pain.
To bypass, either give the attack orders to each unit in the group one at a time or ungroup before giving the order.

Alt+attack forces skirmisher units to attack in melee (& disables skirmish mode so they'll actually close)

[Thaatu]

I'm too lazy to check if this has been mentioned already, but switching guard mode on prevents the enemy from "snagging" your units into melee. In fact there's an exploit, which some of you are probably (accidentally or not) using, in which units that are defending against an attack with guard mode on suffer no exhaustion.

[Xehh II]

Units in guard mode do suffer exhaustion, it's just very, very slow.

[pezhetairoi]

I notice some units die faster on guard mode, though. Notably, my Neitos and other sword infantry.

[Xehh II]

I'd expect that guard mode would best best for Def. units, swordsmen aren't really that defensive.

[NeoSpartan]

I figured if someone else knew what I was talking about that would be sufficient. Nonetheless...

1. Any
2. Any for frozen units, as I said the twisting tends to happen more often in close quarters and at the end of bridges and stuff but also in open field etc
3. Doesn't seem to make a difference (although obviously settlements = close quarters)
4. In the case of frozen units, possible, I don't remember them being involved in any fights after being frozen (although I would have tried to guide the battle away I imagine), but most would have been fighting before, possibly their target completely eliminated?.
5. Doesn't appear to make any difference, as I've said any units seem to suffer.
6. Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't.
7. Feel free to ask for further clarification :)

...

Ok I'll give you some "general guidelines" when it comes to units. I don't have the issue you describe with ANY unit, but they do occur with some more than others.

-Twisting around & not fighting.
--Generaly occurs with phalanxs on close quarters (cities, bridges, etc), it also happens in openfileds too.
--Spear units or any infantry unit that have a VERY CLOSE formation (hoplites, soldurus, etc) have this tendensy too, but too a lesser degree of occurance.
--Spread out infantry rarely has this issue.
---This issue usually occurs when a unit is told to:
1-Move or shift formation. (HOLD can be On or Off)
2-Attack another unit. (with HOLD On)
3-A Phalanx in phalnax formation is told to move, attack, whatever. IF the phalanx has HOLD Off, it may even walk backwards and allow gaps in ur line to occur.
4-A unit is under attack, BUT u have not told them to engage.

In Siege its even more comon, especially with tight units, and even more so with phalanxes. Of phanlanx units, PIKES tend to be the most prone to do stupid stuff, and of all pike units, LEVY PIKES are the most disorganized (they take longer than Pezetaroi (sp) to stop circuling around and do it more often).
--Same story in bridges.

ANY unit in HOLD will mess its formation up. It can turn and give its back to the enemy it is facing. PLUS the units at the edges don't do anything and allow circling units to kill them without opposition. KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THIS it is extremely annoyoing. Hold also causes a few units to fight while the bulk of the group stays well behind.

When the enemy disengages and runs back ur units will stay in fighinting mode, walking forward VERY slowly with thier shilds up. (and getting a fatige penalty).

Fighting of courpese or gost units happens to every unit. Its annoying when it happens to cavarly though.

When trowing a pila/javeling ur men will stay put, NOT defend, get thier javeling out and NOT throw it. All the time they are getting killed. Common to any unit.

When a unit is attack and u DON'T tell it to attack only a few men will engage the rest will stay put, sometimes even getting killed.

IF in a middle of a fight the u tell ur men to attack, BUT there are 2 enemy units mush together, your men will attack the unit u told them to. And IF that units is behind the enemy mush, ur unit will try to walk throught the other infantry unit while getting killed and RARELY defending. Keep an eye for this, especially when enemy units start routing, and when u tell ur cavarly to charge.

make sure u 2X check what u tell ur units to do. Make sure u keep an eye on the type of unit, make sure u have Hold on or off, make sure ur attacking the intended target, and make sure u tell ur units to attack when they get attacked (sounds silly but its true test it, you will see a few of ur men defending and other not doing anything, BUT once u tell them to attack they will do a 2step charge and all engage).

I am not getting into cavarly, or skermishers..... that why I asked for u to be specific. I hope u can read throught what I posted and make sence of it. Problems have a tendency to overlap.


BTW on the subject of swords and spears and HOLD formation. There is an old thread about it. Where that issue was discussed but FYI:
-Sword units will do worst in HOLD in the long run. They kill less, and the enemy has to get REAL close for them to respond. And if ur sword unit is facing a spear unit, even an inferior spear, it will loose (especially if that spear unit is on HOLD, the longer reach will kill ur swordmen without them doing any damage).

-SO: use swordsmen in normal mode most of the time. ONLY have them in Hold when u want them to tie up an enemy unit. Especially true when ur using levy swordsmen, they last longer this way.