Should SC's autorout?

[OmikronWarrior]

I get why an army automatically routs when 75% casualties have been reached, that makes sense. However, this has led to some much odder and less sensible occurrences. Like a SC fleeing when the few points of PD gets killed, nevermind that the SC unit could easily crush whats attacking.

And in the case of raiding, they may not have a territory to flee to. So, is it possible to rework the code where a unit with, say, 30 or more morale does not autorout with the rest of the army? Or something like that? Its annoying and doesn't make sense.

[Loren]

A couple of things I would change about routing:

1) Some sort of strength figure for units--autorout should be based on strength rating, not on a simple unit count. As you say, dead chaff shouldn't matter to a SC.

2) For figuring if unit X routs I would subtract the strength that it has killed from the friendly kill figures. If a SC + 100 chaff enters battle, the 100 chaff die while the SC kills 200 enemy chaff the rout calculation should be based on -100 casualties (won't rout) rather than the 99% it would currently be based on.

[vfb]

I'm confused about the rules for auto-routing. I've gone into a battle with a PoD and a single skeleton as archer chaff. The skeleton dies, but the PoD does not route. Any idea why?

[Reay]

Perhaps because the dying skeleton is only 50% of the army .

So I assume you need 3 units to die before your last unit would auto rout.

That is a bit weird.

[OmikronWarrior]

If my memory serves, the entire army routs once 75% casualties are reached, whether or not that includes 99 morale units I'm not sure. As for the single skeleton, it'd only be 50% of the troops, so there's that.

[Agema]

Putting your SC in the right place to do the right things is part of the strategy, so don't use them to defend a province if your PD is going to cause him to rout before he's done his thing.

What you could do is try casting beserk, as I think beserk units carry on fighting even when the army routs. If your SC then beats the enemy, I don't know whether the winner is the player who routs last or has the last man standing, but your opponent will barely have an army left.

[vfb]

Last man standing wins.

Not using an SC to defend a province if your PD is going to cause him to rout is a good idea, because of the current game mechanics. However, these particular game mechanics do interfere with my suspension of disbelief, and I'd probably enjoy the game even more if nonsensical actions (like the SC in the PD case routing) did not occur.

[Digress]

Agema said:
Putting your SC in the right place to do the right things is part of the strategy, so don't use them to defend a province if your PD is going to cause him to rout before he's done his thing.

Wait till your SC "does his thing" and in the process kills his own PD and then routs before the attacking enemy reaches him

[vfb]

Well, that's not so bad. He's fleeing because he's embarrassed and wants to get out of there before anyone recognizes him.

[cleveland]

I had a strange experience recently, and I'm curious to know if it's a 3.14 change:

I was attacked by a lich (immortal) with some crappy light-infantry-type support troops (you know, the AI's specialty) in his dominion.

Anyway, the lich spent the battle spamming Terror while the light infantry was quickly chewed up. Auto-rout kicked in, complete with the "Army of XYZ has routed" message, and the remaining light infantry retreated...BUT THE LICH DIDN'T. He continued to cast spells until I finally finished him off like 5 turns later.

Has anyone else experienced this? An immortal unit staying on the field after an auto-rout while in friendly dominion?

I thought it was kinda neat.