Army saved by naval defeat

[Baltadji]

Hi folks, new guy on the block.

First of all, I should point out that I am new at this game, and there are many intricacies that are completely beyond me; I do use the "autoresolve" option in quite a few of the combats, especially the naval ones (after an embarrassing first encounter with enemy ships that, ahem, did not end well...). In any case, I usually play land powers, like Sweden, Russia or the Ottomans.

However, today I encountered a thing that intrigued me somewhat, namely an invading army that was saved due to the ship that carried them losing the battle, and I wondered how that could happen.

The story was as follows; I loaded a fine army, consisting of my best troops under an experienced general, onto one single sloop, intending to invade India, which I realize might not have been the most intelligent move... And sure enough, when it was the AI:s turn, a Marathan fleet sailed up and attacked; not wanting to risk the army, I pushed the retreat button, and my sloop sailed out of range. But then a single Marathan Brig came in from another direction, and now I could not retreat anymore. The odds looked pretty good though, with only a slight advantage to the AI, so I saved and pressed "autoresolve". Result: Defeat. "Oh damn", I thought and looked through my saved games, only to find that the last one was five years earlier. Not wanting to lose ten turns of progress, and with the autosave option and latest save only sending me back to the predicament I've put myself in, I hit "autoresolve" about 30 times, hoping to get lucky. No, defeat every time, with my ship and army sinking before my eyes...

Oh well, with the glum prospect of going back five years in time, and vowing never to risk an army like that again, I decided to at least try to beat the AI on my own, even though I knew I sucked like an industrial vacuum cleaner on naval combat. So, I tried to maneuver as best I could, which was not very good; the enemy brig chain-shot away my sails and de-masted me without me even coming close. As soon as the mast disappeared, I was greeted with the message "crushing defeat", and sighed.

But lo and behold, when I got back to the campaign map, I found my ship, with army, retreating away! Hurt, but still sailing, not sunk or captured, as it had been when I autoresolved! Hardly believing my luck, the first thing I did next turn was to put my army safely ashore.

But the thing intrigued me; every time I let the AI handle the battle, my ship (with army) was lost; but when I simply sailed randomly and let my mast and sails be shot to pieces, it got away! So now I was wondering, is this how it should be, or was it a bug of some sort?

[Tidybeard]

Welcome to the "Let's All Spend Our Time Complaining About Empire Instead Of Either Getting on With Playing It Or Playing Something Else" forum.

Sounds like it's just part of the game to me, something sort of missing link between the events of the battle and returning to the campaign map. Yes, it's not the perfect game so many people here want it to be (see my almost-WW3-starting "Battle Map Environments" thread), but it is one of the best I've ever played, despite it's various quirks and glitches.

[English Total War Gamer]

You shouldnt have declared war on the Maraths before you had reached their shores. Takes them by surprise, leaves some of their cities undefended and you won't get attacked on the way to India even with a weak fleet.

[Skyline Pete]

Helpful hint for those that don't know. Even if you can no longer retreat on the campaign map when attacked by hostile naval units here's what you do.

Start the battle and place your ship(s) as close to the edge of the combat zone as possible, as soon as the battle starts you immediately make a straight line to the closest edge and when near push the retreat icon. Your ship will exit the battle, you'll be greeted by a loss screen but your ship(s) will still be intact. On the campaign screen the ship will then move off randomly as if it had just retreated anyway.

This can be repeated as many times as necessary, HOWEVER, if your ship retreats near the shore and is 'trapped' then regardless of whether or not you try to retreat the ship will instantly die on the GC map.

[Baltadji]

@Tidybeard: Well, actually, I didn't exactly complain - especially not this time, when the little quirks of the game actually saved my newbie behind. I know that the game might not be perfect (I have read through the whole Rage thread during a couple of long night shifts, and I have of course found one or two peculiarities myself), but I still like it

@English Total War Gamer: I was already at war with the Marathans; invaded them from the north (as Sweden) after defeating Persia, but didn't advance as fast as I thought I would, due to troubles in Afghanistan... so I thought I should open a second front in Southern India, and sent an army by ship. Guess I should have sent a proper fleet with them, eh?

@Skyline Pete: Aha, useful to know. Of course, I hope I will not have to use that trick from now on

Thanks for the replies, all. And my army is now safe and sound on the Indian mainland. Well, not exactly safe, but if my guys will be annihilated (as my first seabourne invasion army was at Mysore), then at least it won't be by one lousy brig!