Moors abandon Cordoba

[Old Geezer]

I just began a Retrofit Grand Campaign as Portugal (VH/VH) and immediately sent an army and the heir to attack Cordoba. The army halted just outside the city as it did not have mps to attack. The next turn I see that the Moors have abandoned the city and they have a couple of units on the bridge just south of the city. Where the other unit(s) are I do not know. So I just walked into the city and there was no one there.

I had no spy in the city. I had made no diplomatic contact with the Moors or anyone else yet. My general was not scary or scarred.

How can this have happened? It wasn't a dream; I checked today and my troops are still there. This is another reason to save every turn so one can go back and replay it to see whether this is perhaps just random nonsense. I am running XP home so my first inclination is to blame Bill. Is he just trying to mess with my soggy brain or has CA programmed MTW2 to start malfunctioning after a certain point so that I'll break down and buy Empires? (You know, like planned obsolescence in the good old days when cars lasted 2 years.)

[Monsieur Alphonse]

The AI sometimes leaves its cities undefended. I had a similar experience when the Byzantines defended Iraklion by putting an army on either site of the city but not one in it and I could march straight in to the city.

[_Tristan_]

Yes, the AI tends to prefer to field "field armies" rather than leaving men to garrison its cities.

Could be scripted, I don't know.

It may also be tied to the fact that PO is more easily kept in AI cities than in player cities thus requiring less numerous garrison in order to keep order up to the point where no garrison is needed hence what you witnessed...

Just my

[Old Geezer]

But it took my force 2 turns to get to Cordoba and my force was almost adjacent to the city. The AI even had a diplomat who surely saw the force. In all my years of playing TWs I have never seen anything even close to being this silly, unless I did it.

[Ratwar]

I've seen worse. Once playing as England I had Scotland abandon Edinburgh for about three or four turns allowing me time to get a fleet to York, sail my main force past the Scottish Army outside York, and the take Edinburgh. It was early enough that Edinburgh was the only Scottish city, and they didn't even bother to siege my nearly defenseless town of York.

[Old Geezer]

Well, I can see the Scots abandoning Edinburgh for several turns if the weather was so good that they could play golf.

[anweRU]

I haven't seen the AI completely abandon cities in the Retrofit Grand Campaign, but it has done lots of silly moves, such as moving large stacks out of cities as my armies approach them. It also leaves large stacks without generals, and they go rebel in a few turns.

I don't remember such behavior in the original METW2 1.1 that I played earlier... I'll need to play a campaign in METW2 1.3 regular to see if it is a problem with the Retrofit.

[Double A]

I've seen it happen in Rome a few times, and maybe once in M2, but the only time I actually got to take it was when I was at a truce with the Gauls, who's only city left was the one in Iberia. I sent like 5 horse mercs to take it, after they ran right by the 2 stacks they had, roaming southwest France.

[Lancome]

I just began a Retrofit Grand Campaign as Portugal (VH/VH) and immediately sent an army and the heir to attack Cordoba. The army halted just outside the city as it did not have mps to attack. The next turn I see that the Moors have abandoned the city and they have a couple of units on the bridge just south of the city. Where the other unit(s) are I do not know. So I just walked into the city and there was no one there.

I had no spy in the city. I had made no diplomatic contact with the Moors or anyone else yet. My general was not scary or scarred.

How can this have happened? It wasn't a dream; I checked today and my troops are still there. This is another reason to save every turn so one can go back and replay it to see whether this is perhaps just random nonsense. I am running XP home so my first inclination is to blame Bill. Is he just trying to mess with my soggy brain or has CA programmed MTW2 to start malfunctioning after a certain point so that I'll break down and buy Empires? (You know, like planned obsolescence in the good old days when cars lasted 2 years.)

Were they @ war with Spain? Perhaps they were routed by a Spanish Army.

[RobN]

I find that, quite often, the AI leaves just a general defending a city. If he dies then his unit disappears too. That could be a explanation.

[Old Geezer]

They were not at war with anyone - not even me yet. That probably explains some of it. I saw some units move out of Cordoba toward the east. They showed up a couple of turns later to be stomped.

[Viking Prince]

Never been able to walk right in. It does not surprise me though. As another has observed, the AI likes field armies and not large garrisons. If you want to role play it a bit to give the game more of a chance, you can do the honorable thing and meet the field armies first before taking the weakly defended cities. It can make things more interesting.

[cambovenzi]

Never been able to walk right in. It does not surprise me though. As another has observed, the AI likes field armies and not large garrisons. If you want to role play it a bit to give the game more of a chance, you can do the honorable thing and meet the field armies first before taking the weakly defended cities. It can make things more interesting.

i usually do b/c i rarely use siege weapons.( i really should use them more).

i can either isolate the field army away from other field armies and garrisons and take them out 1st.(so they dont try and attack my siege forces)
or i can assault the caste/town in the first turn by attacking a field army sitting next to it.

[Galain_Ironhide]

I've seen it quite a lot when you advance on an enemy - particularly those that you are not at war with yet and they just send their troops away on another conquest. Just put it down to silly AI behavior really. If a faction does it to me whilst I am advancing I'll do my utmost to destroy any enemy units in the province before taking the city. Kind of like what Viking Prince mentioned.

[Old Geezer]

As regards to what anweRu said about large stacks of AI troops without generals turning rebel, I am presently fighting the French who have a very low authority king and have seen at least 2 , one full and an almost full, stacks go rebel, with generals. Such can make nice blocking forces if they are in the right place.

I am using the tactic of almost emptying Bordeaux and Toulouse in order to entice French armies into my territory so that I can defeat them without the Pope becoming upset. This has worked well and Angers was easy to assault with the help of spies. The French could not be more cooperative. These exploits make the game easy enough that after turn 50 the rest is really just a mop up campaign.