Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

If you are searching province 'A', and have an army in province 'A', and you find a site castle in the province, and your province 'A' is attacked by an enemy nation, your army in 'A' will take part in that battle. Even though they are not patrolling the castle.

But armies moving into 'A' from another province will not take part in the battle, because they just move into the castle that was found during the site-searching stage. It can be inconvenient to have your armies get split up like this.

It would be nice if the 'Move and Patrol' option was always available, so if you anticipated that you might find a site castle in the same month you are attacked, you could give your armies the 'Move and Patrol' order when moving into a non-castle province.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

Indeed. Always having move and patrol available would be most helpful.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

Then you'd have to use it all the time though, or at least when you know you're going to search the province and expect a fort from it. Will just be of use to vets, might confuse newbies. Maybe the mechanic would have to be changed instead.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

Well, I'd probably use it when I'm site searching a province and my enemy has moved his army next to my province. In the game I'm in where this occurred, it would have been better to postpone searching until the attack I anticipated had taken place. But I wasn't sure I'd find a fort, and also wasn't sure if my army would be split, and I managed to squeak out a victory in any case. :)

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

Oops oops oops!

The army that was in the province with the site-searching unit was actually patrolling, so of course that's why it took part in the battle (except for the unit which was site-searching, he stayed in the castle).

I'd still like to have 'Move and Patrol' always available, but it's not a huge priority.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

A slightly more obvious use to relative noobs would be that with move and patrol, you save a turn if you want to patrol a certain province for scouts or stealth armies. Which would make it much more likely for you to find stealthing armies roaming your territories.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

Are you sure? I thought that you don't actually get any patrolling benefit out of "Move and Patrol" armies on the turn they have the orders to "Move and Patrol".

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

No, actually I'm not 100% sure, I was just assuming it would have the effect. I suppose the way to test would be to see if it's possible to cause a stealthy army to be caught by troops with high patrolling value set to move and patrol to a fort province, but I've never tried it.

If it doesn't work that way then I would agree there is basically no use for the command to the average noob, or even probably most players period.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

No, the command is very useful. But it does not do any good for patrolling benefit on the first turn it is used.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

I think it is an excellent idea! And why take newbies into consideration? It's not like this game is newbie friendly from the beginning anyway. We are an elitist group aren't we? Just say yes, I want to be part of something grand.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

Oh, they won't even notice the command is available. :D

Actually, there's nothing complicated about having the "Move and Patrol" command available even when you're not moving into a castle province. It would just make your army automatically have "Patrol" orders when they arrive the next month. So you could send off some forces to patrol your border and not have to worry about having to give them new orders to patrol the next month.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

Excellent! :D

We should notify Johan!

If you say his name three times he will appear granting you a wish.
Johan! Johan! Johan!!!

Then you just have to wait...

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

...and he appears behind you with a hook and kills ya. Oh no, that's Candyman. :D

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

Yeah, Johan carries a moose instead of a hook :D

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

i've missed having a "move and patrol" order a number of times - when you're magically creating a castle, or the castle is finishing construction that turn, the current mechanics make it impossible to move an army to defend that province.

This is especially troublesome as I believe an army moving in the same turn a castle is (magically?) created auto-breaches the walls.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

I would not be surprised to find that this is because castles are initially created with 0 Defense, and most be "repaired" on the first turn, to full.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

True, I forgot about that. That is indeed very bothering during gameplay.

What probably is an argument against a general "move and patrol" order is that you could move with a big army and hunt for scouts at the same time. That might be a little unbalanced, as spies can't move and cause unrest at the same time, too, for example, and from a roleplaying perspective the troops should be occupied enough to get from one province to the next within a month to keep looking for insurgents in the process. Maybe decoupling castle defense and patrolling would work better.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

I thought "move and patrol" didn't actually patrol for stealth units or unrest already?

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

That's what I thought too.

Re: Finding Site Castles and Attacks
 

I had a frustration recently. I was besieging a castle with a LA Ulm Vampire Count in it (hidden?). On the same turn I stormed the castle, a handful of thralls must have been spawned. Next turn, I find I'm under siege by this occupying force. At the time it wasn't critical, but it delayed me a turn whilst I broke the siege.

I can imagine the scene as the gates were broken and my army poured into the castle. A ferocious swirling battle at the gates, raining arrows from the towers and harsh, coruscating magics tearing gouts out of friend and foe as the defenders are pushed back step by bloody step. Eventually the hearts of the defenders crumble; at first a few men, then the whole mass, and the tattered remnants plead mercy or run for escape tunnels, abandoning their pikes and halberds. As the last defender is cut down, the victorious general strides up to the tower with his bodyguard, and cuts down the enemy flag, spits on it, and throws it down into the mud of the courtyard. His troops bear up the national flag, and proudly haul it aloft, saluting, savouring the prospect of a feast and a long night's celebratory drinking. Then they survey the land around them...

to notice three guys with pitchforks encamped and building a new trebuchet. "Rebuild the gates!" The general cries. "We're under siege!".