Stop the (routing) Madness!

[Cainehill]

Soapyfrog said:

But surely this isn't desirable? Shouldn't an exception be made for battle summons?

Especially given that otherwise, a group of commanders with no troops can attack, and on turn 5 (or sooner, with haste/quicken) a phantasmal warrior or skeleton is summoned, gets killed, and routs.

Except of course, that the commanders currently might not rout until they're all dead, which is arguably worse.

[Esben Mose Hansen]

We've had the discussion about early routing before.,

Poll: morale and routing

Why have it again? More than half voted for no change at that time.

I, for one, like the current routing rules, except for one small thing already mentioned in the other thread.

Commanders not routing sounds like a bug, I agree. I havn't experienced this myself, so I have no opion in this matter.

[Molog]

I dislike the commanders always route when all units have been killed rule.

[deccan]

It isn't so much that we hate a particular rule than that we wish that there would be a particular fixed rule that we can confidently know applies consistently.

[Cainehill]

I'm not suggesting a discussion about the routing - my bane lord routing was as I might have predicted based on the current game mechanics. ( I do think it's flawed that I might have a mighty spellcaster wearing the shoes that teleport him around the battle, casting mighty spells, but routing as the 6th spell is randomly phantasmal soldier. )

But right now, there are battles that should have been won that aren't, because the routing rules weren't applied, and commanders lost for the same reason. Sometimes the nation whose commanders don't rout when they should have wins, because an SC keeps rampaging when it shouldn't. Sometimes the nation loses the commanders, which it should have been able to count on retreating when all the troops were lost.

I don't think it's supposed to be, "Sometimes non-berserk commanders will rout when all troops are killed or retreat, and sometimes they won't."

[Arryn]

Molog said:
I dislike the commanders always route when all units have been killed rule.

The devs have posted their defense/justification for this so if you hold out any hopes of it changing, expect to be disappointed. Personally, FWIW, I dislike it too. But Dominions is predominantly a game about armies, not heroes (despite the HoF), and the (rout) mechanics reflect this.

[Stormbinder]

Esben Mose Hansen said:
We've had the discussion about early routing before.,

Poll: morale and routing

Why have it again? More than half voted for no change at that time.

I, for one, like the current routing rules, except for one small thing already mentioned in the other thread.

Commanders not routing sounds like a bug, I agree. I havn't experienced this myself, so I have no opion in this matter.

I agree with Mose. The currrent system is fine with me, as soon as this bug (or two bugs) with commanders not routing are fixed. I have been using the routing mechanism as a defense agaisnt Ghost riders attacks, but it is hard to do if it sometimes work and sometimes not. ;( Same goes for any battle. If you dont' know when your troops would route and when they would not, it is hard to plan it.


I also think it would be better if Death twin spear would work similar to Lifelong protection in regards to routing - meaning its summons would not cause the routing of its owner. Otherwise there is not much point in this unique artifacts, and it would be suicidal to give it to any SC commander, except when accompanied by strong army. But this is very minor thing obviously.

[Vicious Love]

Just posting a third sighting, in case there's any doubt this bug exists. I've been fighting Caelum on Try_Something_New, and it seems they've taken to capturing my depopulated, unguarded provinces in raids, setting PD to 2(Or 1, or whichever gives one commander anbd one soldier), and promptly abandoning the conquered territories.
I sometimes respond by moving in a small band of troops(AE longdeads, soulless, etc.), and every single time I have done so thus far, without exception, both before and after the 2.13->2.14 client- and server- side switch, the Caelian infantryman has died in the first round of combat, but the seraphine PD commander remained on the field until killed.

[Chazar]

Yeah, seraphines are alwyas anxious to die in battle...its probably a religious issue...

[quantum_mechani]

I sent a .trn file that I think shows the the sort of thing Cainehill was talking about in his first post. Of course, the battle did happen in the Mountains of Madness, so maybe it is a feature .