Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

Hello All,

Been playing the demo a bit, really love this game so far, great to be playing a true turn based strat game again.

Anyhow to my question, I was wondering what people did with there troops that are battle afflicted prior to casting that healing winds spell or what not, most of them suffer a big morale drop, so I pulled them off the line, but then what, should I continue to pay upkeep while I await the spell research? Are they good for patrolling maybe, though I rarely use that? Maybe make a bluffing force with them and hope no one calls my hand? Or perhaps send them on suicides against Independents to free me of the upkeep cost, and get some good force scouting, before I bring up the Main?

Thanks all for any help. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

I use them as suicide squads. Set them off to one side with orders to attack rear. From what I have seen, they will either:

A. Take a Heavy calvery charge, and die. Which is fine by me, especially if they absorb the nasty single lance attack per battle.
B. Attack the side or rear of some main force at the same time as the main front line troops, not doing much damage, but surviving longer than taking the brunt of the attack and routing.
C. Fodder against tramplers, so that the frontline and archers have a bit more time.
D. Make it to the rear and do some damage, or die trying.

I haven't tried anything else. Preferably, in Dom III there will be a "Disband" command.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

Okay, very nice.

I guess I had it in my mind that them fleeing/dying was bad globaly, but I guess the engine is only unit based on morale checks, so these tactics would work great.

Thanks much.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

The morale system per squad and per battle, Ironpaw.

Per squad, morale is checked whenever a fellow squadmate is wounded or killed. And if more than half (i think?) of the squad fails morale checks, then the squad will rout.

Per battle morale works like so:
1) If all commanders are routed or killed, all squads rout
2) If all squads are routed or killed, all commanders rout
3) If your army consists of only commanders, the first friendly casualty will cause the rest to rout.

Rules 2 and 3 are very important to remember when using SCs or solo mages.

As for what I do with my wounded, I'm actually pretty lenient. The only wound that *really* concerns me is Battle Fright because that compromises the effectiveness of the squad. Those men are used as Lance Cushions like Bummer describes. Additionally, if I am facing an Assassinating opponent I will sometimes use Limp and Crippled units as bodyguards for my non-critical commanders

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

4) If your army consists of only Bodyguards, the first casualty in your ranks will result in a general rout.

A Caelum Seraph taskforce was destroyed by PD because all their troops were on Bodyguard; how nice to kill troops worth 800 gold coins with capital PD. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Incidentally, not all units count for the battle rout: for example, a Virtue spamming Ghost Wolves will not rout when her Ghost Wolves are killed. I believe only units brought in at the beginning of the battle matter for rout purposes, but don't quote me on that.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

I somehow recall that there is a command that highlights all wounded troops when you're in the army setup screen. Is this true, or am I making it up?

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

You are, its the 'w' shortcut key. (and therefore not a command http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif)

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

Mark one unit in a squad, hit
"w" for wounded,
"e" for experienced (**) troops

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

The only annoyance is that you have to mark a unit, and so after pressing w (or e), that unit will be selected along with all the other wounded (or experienced) units.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

Except that 'e' hasn't worked for several patches now, which is very inconvenient.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

Thanks all this is great information. Learing the Rout system is pretty crucial and I wasn't clear on allot of this.

Thanks again.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

Do summoned units prevent you from routing if your original troops rout?

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

It works for me. Are you sure you just had no units with TWO or more stars?

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

It works for me... any unit with **+.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

Ah - it's only for troops with two stars? That explains it.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

I believe so, yes. They wont stop your troops from routing, of course, but I think they will stop the commanders from routing. Saber did that trick a couple of times with me using a Skull Talisman on a raider commander.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

5. Immortal commanders never rout in friendly dominion.
6. Mindless units dissolve when routing.
7. Mindless commanders never retreat.
8. Once one side has started routing, the other side will never rout.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

8. not true. Berseked units could win and also make the other side rout after thier own side routed.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

Indeed - which is one of the great things about berserk troops, and even more so about berserk commanders - the bigger the better. If you can get berserk on an SC pretender or solid summon ( demon commanders, bane lords, wraiths, even a firbolg or whatnot ( and never forget, say, a Gift of Reason'd Terrasque, Juggernaut or Abomination http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif ) then you can bring in some chaff to absorb heavy damage, counting on the commander to go berserk before the troops rout.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

Just wondering: those that include the auto-rout once fifty rounds have gone? If so, can mindless units/commanders be killed if they fail to win after one hundred battle rounds? (Astral Shield can produce those kind of effects in particular)

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

Do you mean that berserked units can cause retreat in the opposing side after their own side has completely retreated?

I know with immortal commanders that once their side routs and they keep on fighting, that no enemy units retreat anymore.

Example. A sc vampire queen commanding one militia goes up against hundred militia in her own dominion. Once that one militia gets killed, the 100 militia will keep fighting to the last man.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

I think it goes this way, but I don't remember the exact numbers:
Only one side can rout through normal means (failed moral). However, if the battle reaches the 50-turn limit (if it was attacking) or the higher limit (if it was defending), it will rout. If it fails to do so (paralyze, berserk, fatiqued etc), the maximum limit hits in and everyone dies.

Re: Battle Afflicted Troops?
 

I hadn't heard of this, but it may have happened to me in a recent game turn (using 2.15). Either that or the other side got really lucky with moral checks. Has anyone else seen this?