Healed wounds

[Ramiro]

I have noticed seeing the post of the Siege of Masalia, specifically the capture of the list of casualties, that the the casualty recovery process is in fact very random. Could it be tweacked so as to give a more homogeneous % to each unit?

[Incomitatus]

I don't think it's random at all. I haven't done conclusive tests, but after years of playing, I've come to the conclusion that the casualty recovery rate is highly influenced by the period of time between a unit taking casualties and the end of the battle, and possibly also by the amount of time it spends idle during the battle.

The easiest way to see this is to fight a siege against a palisaded town, and run skirmishers up to throw javelins over the wall... they take casualties - from towers, from missile armed defenders, etc - then they fall back out of range, and sit the rest of the battle out. Usually they will recover between 90-100% of their casualties.

I've had units reduced to 1/4 strength early in a long battle, spend the rest of the battle behind the lines, and recover most, or even all, of their casualties at the end. Meanwhile, casualties suffered right at or near the end of a battle almost never seem to recover. This has led me to always chase routers, in order to draw the battle time out, and if I'm feeling really manipulative, I herd routers around for awhile before riding them down or letting them run off.

[Carados]

Defeated armies never get the chance to recover their loses in a battle though.

I've just posted in my thread that I think it might be because of missile fire. Casualties early on in the battle are usually due to missile fire, but those later on tend to be through actual combat.

[Slayer of Cliffracers]

Defeated armies never get the chance to recover their loses in a battle though.

I've just posted in my thread that I think it might be because of missile fire. Casualties early on in the battle are usually due to missile fire, but those later on tend to be through actual combat.

Yes more of your people recover if they are killed by missile fire. Makes sense too. In melee you are more likely to be 'finished off' or at the very least trampled to death by the advancing attackers.

[Quinn Inuit]

That's what I've seen, too, with one exception. When a unit suffers absolutely ridiculous casualties from a charge, it'll often recover those.

[Carados]

That's interesting. I don't recall putting much emphasis on that in the past but it did cross my mind.

The charge is a kind of special attack though, isn't it? As in, cavalry don't launch people tens of metres away unless charging. Perhaps anything other than melee attacks leads to an increased chance of recovery?

Worth a little test regardless

[GraaEminense]

Missile fire recovery is the only one I've noticed consistently. I'll keep a lookout for the other points mentioned.

It has always seemed to me that there is a (semi-random) percentage of total casualties suffered that is healed, and that missile wounds and wounds from the units with the highest casualty ratio takes priority. Anyone else noticed this?

[Ramiro]

If this is the case (recovery based on type of casualty and time) i retire my early request, but is strange that one unit can recover 90% of it´s wounded and other none.

[pannonian]

The victor recovers a proportion of the casualties suffered. Without a chirurgeon or other recovery ancillary, the proportion IIRC is roughly 10%. With a chirurgeon, the proportion is 45-50%. AFAICS the percentage the ancillaries seem to offer doesn't change the actual recoveries, so a doctor (10%) is as effective as a chirurgeon (15%), and stacking ancillaries won't add to this.

The casualties to be recovered are determined by the order in which they were sustained. So if the game decides your army will recover 100 casualties, the first 100 to be wounded will recover. So if some of your prize elite get taken out in the early battle, towards the end of the battle, get your missile units to fire into a melee involving cannon fodder, and the blues on blues in that incident will allow your elite to recover.

[Caesar Augustus]

I'd imagine it would the missile casualties that recover the most, if you think about how hard it would be to throw a spear at someone at long distance and hit them, let alone how hard it would be to hit them in a place that would cause a mortal wound.

[pannonian]

I'd imagine it would the missile casualties that recover the most, if you think about how hard it would be to throw a spear at someone at long distance and hit them, let alone how hard it would be to hit them in a place that would cause a mortal wound.

Whether a unit is missile or otherwise doesn't affect whether or not it recovers its casualties. The game calculates that n casualties will recover, and it's the first n casualties you sustain that will be recovered. Because skirmishers are usually the first units to engage, they recover many of their casualties. Because cavalry are usually thrown in at the end, when the enemy are faltering, they don't recover many casualties.

[Caesar Augustus]

Ah right I see.

Cheers for that Pannonian!