How do hordes orientate themselves?

[florin80]

I`ve noticed that the horde armies try hard to stick together. Moving grouped and in the same direction and actually losing time because of this. What exactly determines which way a horde goes? Are there any clear factors that influence this? It would be great to guess up front which direction(generally) will a horde take so I don`t discover my huns have turned east and went to Bactria.

And also, is there any way to make the hordes of the same faction be active in more than one place at the same time? In example, I`d like the huns to take all gothic settlements in the first turn, but because of the distance between them(and despite the fact that they start at war and besieging the towns) they abandon some and instead try to converge. Apparently this is more important for them. Any way to change it?

EDIT: sorry, it needs to be moved. I meant to post it in the non tutorials section(Text editing and scripting)

[Aradan]

Hordes do behave strangely. In FATW, if e started the Easterlings as a horde with no settlements, they'd sack any settlements in their way, but they wouldn't keep them, they'd march straight to Minas Tirith and they would desperately try to take it, againa nd again, until they got wiped out. Not tested thoroughly, but maybe because it's the capital of the empire_east faction... Could be also because it is a huge city and had lots of money-making buildings, but I think it's the first one.

[florin80]

So it`s possible that there are certain hardcoded aspects about this? I ask because one day it hit me that the huns and every nation they dislodge hurry west and sooner or later clash with the romans. But since they start north of the Black Sea they could just as well go east and cross the Caucasus mountains into asia. Or go north and settle there. So I also considered that they might orientate themselves based on the region`s economic importance. For which presumed reason CA might have left everything in the starting area poor and sparsely settled. If this is the reason then I`m kinda screwed. I might finish with my map and see the hordes settling in miles away from the romans.

By any chance, was Minas Tirith in your case defined as a wining objective for them? I wonder how much this matters to hordes.

Also, when they try to converge and move together, do you think the faction leader is the point de repère? If it is then one thing that might help would be to start with him fairly in the middle of the area over which the other armies are spread.

[Aradan]

Yes, it was a victory condition settlement, but so was another one that lied a couple of tiles away from their starting position and they completely ignored it, even though it was a large city, lots of population, lots of buildings, low level walls, small army etc.

Yes, I think they'll rally around the faction leader. But the problem is you can only starts hordes in border regions on the map. Unless you move the guy with the campaign-script...

[Autolykos]

But the problem is you can only starts hordes in border regions on the map.

Not true. I started hordes in the middle of the map, and it worked fine. You can, however, only *emerge* them on the edge of the map.

[Aradan]

You're right, of course.