Turn Unit Route Off

[bigwolt]

Hi all,

I was wondering if there is a way to completely turn off unit route. I don't think it plays realistically for me in the game and would like to get rid of it.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks,

[Theseus1234]

you mean morale? or if routing?
if so, then go to your main medieval II total war folder (usually :C/Program Files/Sega/Medieval II but it could be different), and locate "medieval.preferences.cfg"
open it with notepad and find the line "morale=1"
change the value to 0
save

if you are not allowed to save, right click the file and go to "properties". uncheck the "read-only" box and press ok. then try editing the file again
EDIT: Welcome to the forums!

[claudius2007]

Oh man if you get rid of units routing you alter the entire purpose of the game. I am not sure what you mean when you say routing doesn't come in realistically in the play...

[Sir Salisbury]

Routing is probably the most realistic part of the battles. Far more casualties came from a rout than the actual fighting, and routes were almost always how battles ended.

[bigwolt]

Routing is probably the most realistic part of the battles. Far more casualties came from a rout than the actual fighting, and routes were almost always how battles ended.

Thanks for the welcome.

What bothers me is that the battles happen too quickly, and this is probably more realistic, however as far as a fun factor goes, I would like to see the battles take a bit more time.

The main problem comes when sieging a city. I will send a group up the ladders and before it even gets to half the losses, the units route, and this is about the time I am sending another group up the ladders, then they will only absorb a small percentage then route too.

I then had an instance where I was fighting Scotland and I had broken through the gates and had about 200 troops there against 150 with my General. My side then killed their king, my General was still alive. The totals were probably 100 to 80 in their favor due to archers on the walls and they all routed. Even with a fresh set of 80 troops on my side coming through the gates. For the sake of my fun > realism, to me I would rather there be no route.

[Gobmech]

Change difficulty?

[bigwolt]

Change difficulty?

Can you change the difficulty of battles after you have started a campaign?

What level do you find unit route to work effectively and still have a challenging battle? I don't want to make it such that the computer now routes quicker too to make the battles easier...

[CamBovenzi]

Can you change the difficulty of battles after you have started a campaign?

What level do you find unit route to work effectively and still have a challenging battle? I don't want to make it such that the computer now routes quicker too to make the battles easier...

as far as i know, you cannot change the difficulty mid-campaign.

very hard has the most realistic battles.
but as far as not making your own troops route, you would have to go with a lower difficulty.
"for battle difficulty, the harder it is, the harder it is to route the enemy and easier to route you"

[Sith_Lord]

man, going up ladders is a very easy way to get routed most times.... or atleast thats my experience. It seems that its beter in terms of it cant burn, but going 1 vs wall defenders is a morale shatterer as you dont have many men on the wall at a single moment. You need a lot of different ladders with troops assaulting a bunch of sections for it to be successful i find. Use siege towers or better yet,just bash down the walls.

[claudius2007]

Yeah, as Sith_Lord and others commented before me, your problem is not from units routing but from not having enough units in your siege and using ladders. THE ONLY REASON TO EVER USE LADDERS is if the enemy has only 1 infantry unit or NONE in the siege defense and so you can easily climb the walls and capture the gate. If you don't have artillery you should build 2-3 Rams and send them all at once towards the gates. After the gates are down storm in with plenty of infantry and spearmen and capture the gate. Then, move your own archers inside on the gates and make them fire inwards. After that, you are ready to advance to the town center.

Obviously this is just a suggestion, you should consider going to the Scriptorium on this forum and read the many strategy guides written by experienced players over the last years. You will find very valuable information to enhance your gaming experience and get a lot better without having to modify the game.

[bigwolt]

Yeah, as Sith_Lord and others commented before me, your problem is not from units routing but from not having enough units in your siege and using ladders. THE ONLY REASON TO EVER USE LADDERS is if the enemy has only 1 infantry unit or NONE in the siege defense and so you can easily climb the walls and capture the gate. If you don't have artillery you should build 2-3 Rams and send them all at once towards the gates. After the gates are down storm in with plenty of infantry and spearmen and capture the gate. Then, move your own archers inside on the gates and make them fire inwards. After that, you are ready to advance to the town center.

Obviously this is just a suggestion, you should consider going to the Scriptorium on this forum and read the many strategy guides written by experienced players over the last years. You will find very valuable information to enhance your gaming experience and get a lot better without having to modify the game.

Thank you for your input. It does make sense that all those guys jumping into double the fray would lose moral quicker.

Do your battles last long though, the longest battles are during the towns, sometimes taking 30 minutes, but the ones on the battle field seem to take longer to march towards the enemy than it is that they are actually locked in combat. Maybe this is realistic the quickness of it?

[claudius2007]

Thank you for your input. It does make sense that all those guys jumping into double the fray would lose moral quicker.

Do your battles last long though, the longest battles are during the towns, sometimes taking 30 minutes, but the ones on the battle field seem to take longer to march towards the enemy than it is that they are actually locked in combat. Maybe this is realistic the quickness of it?

Another way to slighty increase the time of battle I guess would be to increase unit sizes. To do this go to the main menu -> options -> miscellaneous and change unit size from normal to a higher tier. This will mean that spearmen will have about 120 men in their unit instead of 60/75, archers will have more as well, etc.

Don't worry you will have LONG battles as the game progresses. In the early period battles tend to be short because factions don't have the infrastructure to recruit a ton of units and the units you can recruit don't last long in combat.

Another thing you could try is to install various mods. Some mods are renowned for having crazy battles as the AI is slightly changed and will train more troops.

[bigwolt]

Another way to slighty increase the time of battle I guess would be to increase unit sizes. To do this go to the main menu -> options -> miscellaneous and change unit size from normal to a higher tier. This will mean that spearmen will have about 120 men in their unit instead of 60/75, archers will have more as well, etc.

Don't worry you will have LONG battles as the game progresses. In the early period battles tend to be short because factions don't have the infrastructure to recruit a ton of units and the units you can recruit don't last long in combat.

Another thing you could try is to install various mods. Some mods are renowned for having crazy battles as the AI is slightly changed and will train more troops.

I am pretty sure I have the unit sizes maxed. I am using the stainless steel mod. Perhaps it could be that I have never gotten long enough into the campaign to experience a truly epic battle.

Thanks for the input.

[CamBovenzi]

Thank you for your input. It does make sense that all those guys jumping into double the fray would lose moral quicker.

Do your battles last long though, the longest battles are during the towns, sometimes taking 30 minutes, but the ones on the battle field seem to take longer to march towards the enemy than it is that they are actually locked in combat. Maybe this is realistic the quickness of it?

they cant make the battles too long, or the game would be unplayable.
they have to sacrifice some realism in some cases to have a playable game.
realistically battles could last hours and days.
but who wants to sit there all day fighting one battle?
not me, i can tell you that.

[bigwolt]

they cant make the battles too long, or the game would be unplayable.
they have to sacrifice some realism in some cases to have a playable game.
realistically battles could last hours and days.
but who wants to sit there all day fighting one battle?
not me, i can tell you that.

Fair enough, but I don't want there to be men 4 deep routing 5 minutes in. This is on very hard difficulty by the way.

Here is an example:



At this point they only have 95 men left. Before the units with 22 and 23 route (this was the beginning of the route) I had 150+ men in that town square with my general. Now why would they all route. Is it because the "unit is broken", I think what is missing is that the route code needs to take into account the rest of army.

[claudius2007]

There are several reasons why they broke:

1. Your men are exhausted as the picture shows.
2. Some of your units have lost more than 60% of their numbers. These usually route regardless of everything else happening to your army. The same applies in real life. If a squad gets overpowered and loses many men it will attempt to flee BECAUSE THEY CARE FOR THEIR LIVES and are not comforted by the fact that there are 10000 reinforcements nearby.
3. Your units are all spearmen and from the looks of the battle balance it looks like they are fighting some infantry meant to counter them. (heavy infantry, highland nobles something like that I assume)
4. You are fighting the enemy in the town center. When the defender is in the town center ITS TROOPS DO NOT ROUTE, meaning they will fight to the death and yours will not.

If they do rally try to use the General's Rally Troops ability to cancel the route. Sometimes this works.

Also if you had 1 unit of archers in your army composition in this battle none of this would have happened. You could have placed them behind your spearmen and had the net advantage fighting hand to hand, because their guys would get murdered by arrow fire.

[bigwolt]

There are several reasons why they broke:

1. Your men are exhausted as the picture shows.
2. Some of your units have lost more than 60% of their numbers. These usually route regardless of everything else happening to your army. The same applies in real life. If a squad gets overpowered and loses many men it will attempt to flee BECAUSE THEY CARE FOR THEIR LIVES and are not comforted by the fact that there are 10000 reinforcements nearby.
3. Your units are all spearmen and from the looks of the battle balance it looks like they are fighting some infantry meant to counter them. (heavy infantry, highland nobles something like that I assume)
4. You are fighting the enemy in the town center. When the defender is in the town center ITS TROOPS DO NOT ROUTE, meaning they will fight to the death and yours will not.

If they do rally try to use the General's Rally Troops ability to cancel the route. Sometimes this works.

Also if you had 1 unit of archers in your army composition in this battle none of this would have happened. You could have placed them behind your spearmen and had the net advantage fighting hand to hand, because their guys would get murdered by arrow fire.

I suppose I am going into this with the mindset of Age of Empires. Your points are well taken. I did have archers but let them die early on doing ram support.

Thanks for the replies, I am going to go attempt this again using a different mindset.

When fighting in the town and going down one street, do you have all your men attack at once, or do you sort of line them up and have one attack after another? The more than I send into the fray, the more of the invisible shield I seem to get that displaces the troops and only has a small percentage actually fighting at the front.

Also, I probably need to use flanking tactics as well. But say I would split 6 squads into two streets, would you select all 3 and attack, or would you send in one, with one set up right behind where the fighting is going on?

[claudius2007]

Well I think I have posted this somewhere else before but the way I usually siege is the following:

(this is for a typical city with no arty)

1. Have 3 rams prepared. 2 will do most times depending on how many archers the defending force has.
2. Use really light infantry (expendable) on 2 of the rams and 1 heavy infantry on the third and move them all at once towards the gates. I usually arrange them in a line and the middle one goes to ram the gate while the others I just order TO MOVE to the left and right of the gate, in case they burn the main one. The reason you need one good infantry helping with the rams is that sometimes the AI preemptively attacks the rams and if you only have peasants pushing them you have no time to reinforce them before they route, hence you lose the rams. A unit of dismounted knights is excellent for the job, as they take little damage from arrows because of their plate armor and can hold off most troops long enough.
3. Ram the gate with one of the rams. During this time all your other troops must be far off the towers and archers reach. When the gate damage is around 40% rush in with your heavy infantry and spearmen from your main army towards the gate. Depending on how many troops they are going to try to hold the gate off with I usually bring a unit of cavalry behind the infantry to facilitate the push through the gates.
4. Now if they are defending the gate with light infantry bring everyone through the gate. Once troops are engaged there will most likely be a crazy mass of troops at the gates (or breach). Here is what you do, this is IMPORTANT: Keep 1-2 units in combat with the enemy, and select the other units from the unit bar that are trying to push in and ORDER THEM TO MOVE BEHIND THE ENEMY( in other words through them). This will cause them push the whole battle line inside(especially if you have more troops at the breach), and soon after the defenders will easily route. This prevents the armies from being deadlocked with only 1 unit fighting and the rest crowding at the back. THEY need to PUSH!!! (repeat this technique EVERYTIME there is a battle deadlock on the streets as well)
5. After you secure the gates and walls next to towers, bring in the rest of your army at the gates. Also, use 2 groups of infantry to BLOCK the roads heading to the town center. The AI will often attempt to push you out of the city.
6. Bring in archers and place them on the walls next to the gates so they can fire INSIDE.
7.After you are in heavily fortified position at the gates, advance to the next layer of gates(if attacking a fortress/citadel) or just proceed to the town center. Remember to make use of ALL your troops to cause havoc before engaging hand to hand.

This strategy usually minimizes the effect of the enemy towers in sieges for me, which is actually their only advantage.

[Sith_Lord]

YEah, and if the enemy is holed up in the town square, you should unload all the missiles you have on them before advancing, thinning their numbers helps a lot!!!

[bigwolt]

Well I think I have posted this somewhere else before but the way I usually siege is the following:

(this is for a typical city with no arty)

1. Have 3 rams prepared. 2 will do most times depending on how many archers the defending force has.
2. Use really light infantry (expendable) on 2 of the rams and 1 heavy infantry on the third and move them all at once towards the gates. I usually arrange them in a line and the middle one goes to ram the gate while the others I just order TO MOVE to the left and right of the gate, in case they burn the main one. The reason you need one good infantry helping with the rams is that sometimes the AI preemptively attacks the rams and if you only have peasants pushing them you have no time to reinforce them before they route, hence you lose the rams. A unit of dismounted knights is excellent for the job, as they take little damage from arrows because of their plate armor and can hold off most troops long enough.
3. Ram the gate with one of the rams. During this time all your other troops must be far off the towers and archers reach. When the gate damage is around 40% rush in with your heavy infantry and spearmen from your main army towards the gate. Depending on how many troops they are going to try to hold the gate off with I usually bring a unit of cavalry behind the infantry to facilitate the push through the gates.
4. Now if they are defending the gate with light infantry bring everyone through the gate. Once troops are engaged there will most likely be a crazy mass of troops at the gates (or breach). Here is what you do, this is IMPORTANT: Keep 1-2 units in combat with the enemy, and select the other units from the unit bar that are trying to push in and ORDER THEM TO MOVE BEHIND THE ENEMY( in other words through them). This will cause them push the whole battle line inside(especially if you have more troops at the breach), and soon after the defenders will easily route. This prevents the armies from being deadlocked with only 1 unit fighting and the rest crowding at the back. THEY need to PUSH!!! (repeat this technique EVERYTIME there is a battle deadlock on the streets as well)
5. After you secure the gates and walls next to towers, bring in the rest of your army at the gates. Also, use 2 groups of infantry to BLOCK the roads heading to the town center. The AI will often attempt to push you out of the city.
6. Bring in archers and place them on the walls next to the gates so they can fire INSIDE.
7.After you are in heavily fortified position at the gates, advance to the next layer of gates(if attacking a fortress/citadel) or just proceed to the town center. Remember to make use of ALL your troops to cause havoc before engaging hand to hand.

This strategy usually minimizes the effect of the enemy towers in sieges for me, which is actually their only advantage.

Great Tips!! I will use this strategy tonight.