Another newbe question...

[Lunaticus]

After having played the game for some weeks I have two questions for the community (if this has been discussed before I would be grateful for a link):
1. How is the order of movements on the strategic map calculated? I remember there was a post somewhere that if A moves to B and B moves to A they might battle in the middle (or at A or B). What if I want to catch an army that is moving away from me? Can I somehow make sure that I move to them and force them to a battle before they move away? Also how is the order of combats in a province resolved (i.e. who is the lucky one to attack the province Last)?
2. What is the advantage of the fire magic spell combustion? In my (admittedly limited) experience it only does a very small amount of damage to the target. Is there some other benefit somehow?
Thanks in advance.

[von_Schmidt]

Originally posted by Nirvana:
After having played the game for some weeks I have two questions for the community (if this has been discussed before I would be grateful for a link):
1. How is the order of movements on the strategic map calculated? I remember there was a post somewhere that if A moves to B and B moves to A they might battle in the middle (or at A or B). What if I want to catch an army that is moving away from me? Can I somehow make sure that I move to them and force them to a battle before they move away? Also how is the order of combats in a province resolved (i.e. who is the lucky one to attack the province Last)?

Answer: movement happens at the same time, so you will never catch up unless that army decides to stay put.
Exception: if armies move into each other's provinces, the larger army 'pushes' the smaller back.
Exception2: movement into friendly provinces happens before 'invasions'.
I am not sure which army fights first when 2 nations move into the same province.

2. What is the advantage of the fire magic spell combustion? In my (admittedly limited) experience it only does a very small amount of damage to the target. Is there some other benefit somehow?
Thanks in advance.

A: I *think* it has 100% precision (ie: will hit every time). Possibly igonres armour? I remember using it a lot as Abyssia (whose mages have horrible precision).
But now I am just guessing...

[tinkthank]

A further question and some attempt at answers:

- I think combustion also fatigues the target, and does DoT.
- I think who attacks a province when is random. Troops *can* meet in the middle, but this is not a must.

Further question:
- If I use a mass-movement spell (Faerie Trod, Astral Travel) to move Army A to attack a province P and at the same time invade province P with ground forces B moving in from a P-neighbor, will I be able to attack that province with A&B simultaneously, or will Army A first attack province P (magic movement) and thus, depending on the outcome, either army B simply moves into my subsequently friendly territory B (or attacks the enemy province P which decimated my poor Army A)?
thanks

[mivayan]

(...) or will Army A first attack province P (magic movement) and thus, depending on the outcome, either army B simply moves into my subsequently friendly territory B (or attacks the enemy province P which decimated my poor Army A)?

This is what will happen.

[magnate]

What about if I am moving two armies into province P, from A and B, and the enemy moves his army OUT of P, into A. Will he fight my A army alone, or will I get to pound him with both armies together, or will they harmlessly pass each other by?

CC

[Endoperez]

Depends on the army sizes, among others. I am not sure, but I don't think there are special rulings for a situation like that.

[LintMan]

Originally posted by magnate:
What about if I am moving two armies into province P, from A and B, and the enemy moves his army OUT of P, into A. Will he fight my A army alone, or will I get to pound him with both armies together, or will they harmlessly pass each other by?

I think when enemy two armies will cross each other's path, the game picks one of their provinces as the one to hold the battle in. The army that "hosts" the battle gets the benefit of home ground (domain and its pd, I think), but loses its movement for the turn (if it wins), so that it remains in its original territory. I don't know what factors decide which province the battle would be in. (I can imagine it being anything from army size to army speed to programming mechanics like the order the provinces are numbered in).

So that said, if the A and P armies cross paths, the battle may resolved in A or P. I suspect that if the battle occurs in P, the army from B would also be included in the fight, while if the A/P army battle happens in A, then B's army ends up attacking empty province P, while A's army fights P's army on its own.

That's my guess, anyway.

-LintMan

[Karacan]

First comes movement through magical means (teleportation spells, faery trod, etc).
Then comes friendly movement, that means moving from one province into a friendly one.
Only then comes enemy movement. That means you can't catch a retreating army in the province he was before. Unless you magic something.

If armies are small enough, there's a chance that they will pass each other, too. I think that has to do with province (like, there can be bigger armies passing each other in the forest than in the plains), too, but I can't remember if I read that somewhere or thought to myself how cool that would be.