Ending Battle Approach

[Franbo]

A quick poll for the house; when you get the Ending a Battle dialog (i.e. last enemy unit routed) do you:

(a) End battle
(b) Continue battle

I tend to continue the battle and slaughter as many enemy units as possible using my cavalry in order to avoid the retreating stack of stragglers (since they often retreat into my heartland rather than when they came from/away from my attack).

I haven't done any solid testing but it seems like Ending the battle results with far too many enemies surviving (as compared to my chasing them down with cavalry).

Any thoughts?

Franbo

[LuckyNinja]

Well it depends. I generally tend to swamp the enemy with line infantry, so normally its pointless becaus ethe lnes can't keep up with the stragglers. If I have cavalry, then I prioritise the targets, like killing general's bodyguards over line infantry etc

[jehazy]

Again depends. Large scale battles tend to lead themselves one of two ways: Gettysburg-like full-scale slaughter fests, in which case chasing down the enemy is fairly useless. Rolling battles where either you or the AI scatter your forces and there are several charges/retreats in a single battle.

For the slaughter fest, it's normally best to just finish the battle instead of risking charging infantry, them getting enough morale back to reform and then annhilating your cavalry.

For rolling battles, I find that continuing when you have the clear advantage to make sure you kill every last SoaB works efficiently on 2x.

[Franbo]

Just to clarify; the question relates to once the battle is won where the dialog pops up. At this point all of the enemies are routed and your cavalry can do what they wish unopposed.

Whether it's worth doing during an ongoing battle... well; it really depends on whether I need the cavalry for something or would just have them waiting somewhere.

Franbo

[jehazy]

Understood. It's a question of time vs effort. Spending 5 minutes getting 5 kills isn't nearly as effective as spending 5 minutes and getting 200 kills. Just depends on the battle type to me.

[alpaca]

Yeah I'll typically do that because the stupid game will simply let the AI retreat deeper into my territory otherwise...

[jehazy]

Yeah, I'd say one of my major pet-peeves is the pathing/scale of retreats. It seems that a "retreat" means running deeper into enemy territory half the time (which it should) but the retreating army simply charges in no particular area. In one case I had a retreating army retreat into a square next to another city, get attacked by that city and retreat from battle, eventually ending up moving two-three times the distance it could have moved legitimately and randomly directed - I'm sorry, if I'm a general I'm not charging straight into enemy forces as soon as I get clear of a massacre.

Pathing of armies is equally sketchy at best. Try recruiting armies from your towns with your lead general and watch them take the worst possible path.

[Slaists]

Understood. It's a question of time vs effort. Spending 5 minutes getting 5 kills isn't nearly as effective as spending 5 minutes and getting 200 kills. Just depends on the battle type to me.

I tend to 'continue' on 2x speed. The ones I let go usually turn up retrained (refilled) but in the middle of my territory...

[pandoursbox]

I tend to continue the battle and see if there are any line inf. or higher I can run down easily. I don't really like the get experience for killing routes mechanic, feels cheap. I rationalize it by killing high value troops.

[HawkDreams]

Honestly? Dont waste time trying to finish off fleeing units. You will only get a few before the final battle results pop up anyways. I havent been able to find it yet, but I am thinking the end results are figured by script with a randomizer as they took away the ability to not only rout but wipe out fleeing troops. There is no way of knowing for sure yet, but it almost seems like pursuiing the fleeing troops it only lets you kill as many as it already decided would be killed and then suddenly ends.

[ztn3]

Actually, I always have cavalry or light infantry (faster than line inf) in my army -so I can chase routers, and - I ALWAYS do that. It has nothing to do with cruelty - and sometimes also not even with experience for hunting units ( I started to really care for my veteran cavalry - I stop them everytime there is a fence or other obstacle in their path - move them around and then let attack them again - I started to do so after some bitter experience: like losing 1/3 of elite cavalry chasing routers ).
The main reason is that the defeated army runs away (out of my reach mostly), but it is not pinned as it was in RTW or M2TW - it can move the same turn and raid my towns, mines, schools aso and make quite a lot of damage to local economy...

[mir24]

Wipe them out. All of them.

Lest they return and raid my territories - which they're likely to do in their next turn. As a rule, I find that once the enemy hits "Shattered" status, they're unlikely to reform in the battle itself. "Routing" units can still rally and attack.

If the unit has less than 10% of their troops, they're unlikely to survive the battle completely. I'm not clear about the exact numbers but I have had battles where I was pretty certain I shattered all the enemy's units yet they still had some units left over after the battle.

[Nastyvale]

Running down routers is a habit I caught since STW and fell in love with light cavalry. A couple of Yari Cavalry charging down from a hilltop at broken units was a thing to watch. Quoting M2TW 'Run down those worthless peasants!'

[Franbo]

Hmm... I hadn't realised slaughtering routed troops was a source of experience; it almost makes me feel guilty now... Then again; it won't stop me (at least until they fix the insane pathing and astonishing distances stacks can retreat when defeated).

... and I find it tends to give me something to do in the battle. Positioning the cavalry so they can run down the fleeing cowards adds a little bit of needed difficulty

[Shaio]

I wont stop running down routers until the battle end dialogue looks like \/
Exit battle.
continue battle.
Auto kill routers.


Because really if i don't i just end up fighting the same army again next turn, probably with another stack backing it up.

[zingfharn]

Always continue the fight.
I've reloaded a few fights to test some things, and from about 10 tests, on balance, it's definitely possible to kill more troops in manual mode. I tend to go x4, and flick to 1/2 speed when a unit is destroyed. That way you save real time, and maximise killing time.
I chase the biggest groups down. Squads of 15% or less tend not to regroup, but this is affected by experience and the presence of general, it seems. Personally, I focus on the general, and then take out the shooters. And I ALWAYS run down city defence, because I like to imagine they'll start an underground resistance and cause me problems, even though I know it makes no difference.
You should also chase with your shooters on shoot mode, because quite often the runners will get stuck.
Finally, if shattered units split really wide, and your horses are chasing down one guy on the other side of the map, run them manually *THROUGH* the bigger group (don't right click on it) and they'll stomp them as they ride past.

[zingfharn]

Oh, and with the pathing, they'll avoid enemy armies by default, even if you're at war. I've seen a stack of 15 go the long way around to avoid attacking a sole unit. I've just start quick-saving before every move. It's annoying, but not as annoying as ending up wide open.

[akinkhoo]

always destroy the enemy. release the dragoon!

[35th Foot]

Wiping out all the enemy is the best solution, especially if it is a unit(s) that have been raiding farms and towns. Even with a handful of men left they can continue that next turn if you let them go.

[django333]

I always end the battle for three reasons.

1) Unlike previous TW games it takes forever for the routing army to leave the field. In previous games the AI units made a bee line for the edge of the map. In ETW the units will change directions a lot and sometimes aren't able to find the edge of the map.

2) It is historically accurate that a lot of the enemy army would escape. Men more than likely would rout at the first sign of major losses and sometimes would not fight at all if they were heavily out numbered.

3) It makes the game more challenging.