When and how long does a charge bonus last?

[tallstark]

Hi All, I was looking at the FAUST guide (great work!) and it shows for instance that Forlorn Hope have a 17 attack and a 6 charge bonus. If I charge them at a line, do they get 23 for the first round then revert to 17 after the first exchange? What if I "charge" them at a group that is behind the first line, do they "charge" their way thru the obstacles in the middle?

Seeing as the late bodyguard have a 13 base and 8 charge bonus I am thinking of having switching tactics and using them to hold the line while I charge in and out with HI! But seriously, does it make sense to charge in waves with HI, get bonus, hit them from another angle with group 2 and meanwhile have group 1 take a 10-15 yard back up and run up on them again?

Also, what happens if a group of Dismounted English Knights charges across a field, and from the other end charges a group of French Lancers? Lancers are hitting with a charge bonus total impact of 21, Dismounted's hit with 27! Do horses fly in the air?

I can't wait for graphics card to get here so I can custom battle some of these and see if the numbers play out in a real battle...

[N3rull]

Theoretically, an infantryman's charge lasts until his first attack and a cavalryman's charge lasts until he's stopped (a thick group of spearmen stop a horse nearly immediately, while a loose formation of peasants is a mere slowdown for a heavily armoured horseman - which means a cavalry unit may rip the whole peasant unit with one charge).
Infantry charge works quite well (when it works, that is - sometimes only a few men charge, sometimes they don't, this game is wtfull of bugs, just acknowledge this). Unfortunately, cavalry charges are fouled up.
Here's why:
A heavy lance, which is used by heavy cavalry, historically could kill only one-two men before it broke. The rest of the cavalry charge's demolition was made by the sheer impact of horses, riders and all their steel armour and stuff. Just imagine you and a dozen of your friends standing with spears or whatever in a tight group and a man on a Harley Davidson dashing straight at you at the speed of 35miles per hour. It doesn't matter if the biker is killed by your spears or if he has a spear himself, once the bike wrecks into the group of you, you're all gonna be smashed.
However, in Medieval 2 it is the lance that deals most of the Charge damage. It functions kinda like a billion-Volt Tesla coil - it instantly kills everything as close as one metre away from it, as long as it is pointing horizontally (meaning the cavalryman is charging). Seriously, a single cavalryman can kill around 10 infantrymen by simply sticking his lance between them from a distance.

So here I can answer your question - an infantry charge won't make cavalry fly because the über lances the cavalry have will own the infantry before they attack.

Continuing the cavalry charge topic, if 90% of the unit is still charging, the men who are already stopped are unlikely to raise their lances and draw swords - they keep charging, causing more and more mayhem.
It also sometimes happens that a unit of cavalry will not stop charging at all, even when they're stopped themselves - I've seen it a number of time. For example, once a unit of Mailed Knights simply rolled over a full unit of heavy infantry (Feudal Knights, Armoured Swordsmen, DEKs, Gothics, whatever). But not because the infantry were in loose formation and the cavalry could easily trample them. No, it happened because the mentioned bug occured - the cavalrymen suspended in a 'running' animation and had their über lances pointing at the infantry even though they were stationary. So basically their lances worked wonders while they did nothing.

This game is full of idiocy, but it is still some fun, as long as a bug doesn't screw your perfect plan one day.
Or maybe I should've said that "until a bug screws your day". I've had a whole year screwed up this way so far.

But, nevertheless, have fun.

[tallstark]

Ahhh, great point. Those lances will hit way before. Does SS or any of the mods address the charge bugs?

[Echad]

Just imagine you and a dozen of your friends standing with spears or whatever in a tight group and a man on a Harley Davidson dashing straight at you at the speed of 35miles per hour. It doesn't matter if the biker is killed by your spears or if he has a spear himself, once the bike wrecks into the group of you, you're all gonna be smashed.

Nice example, but the biker is more likely to have a billiard cue! \m/ Rock on! =)

They just made all units Centaurs, hence there is no horse damage - there are no horses! Seriously, they made it finish quite realistic, while in the game it is mentioned as a lance damage, it looks like they ride through them and works like it is...

P.S. How do you write this "ü" in uber, with dots? =\

[N3rull]

ASCII code. All international signs have an ASCII code, some are typeable via ALT.
I've learned the code for ü for the sake of writing "über" in Jedi Knight 2 chat. Made me sound "pr0"... good old days of LordNerull whacking everyone around with a lightsaber ;p.
Never mind.
The code for ü particularly is 0252.

In case you don't know how to put ASCII signs into text, here's an explanation:

- you find the code of the character you're looking for.
-- a good source is the ASCII table provided with WindowsXP. Go to Start-> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Character Table (or sth like that, I have a Polish system). Choose the Arial font as it supports most characters. Find a character you want to type and click on it, it will become enlarged. At the bottom of the window, to the right, it'll say (IF the character is typable by this method):
Press keys ALT+1234 (again, something like that, but the ALT+1234 is what you have to do and 1234 is the code itself).
-- you may also try to look for codes on the web.

When you have the code, do as the Code Table suggests:
Hold Left ALT and use Numerical Pad (the square pad on the right of the keyboard) to type the numbers of the code. Release ALT.

For instance, when you find Ă in the WindowsXP's character table, the bottom right of the window will say "Press keys ALT+0195". That's what you have to do:
Press left ALT and type 0195 on the numerical (right hand) pad, then release ALT.
Effect -> Ă .

PS. Sorry for the offtop ;d

[NobleNick]

ASCII code... PS. Sorry for the offtop...

Good post. Some off-topic posts to answer an impromptu request are worth it. I would +rep you, but evidently I have already done that for you too recently.

[homefry]

I think the attack points switch right when they switch weapons from lances to swords.