What the...?

[Shasqua]

Recently, I was defending Nicaea as the Roman Empire from the Turks. As my Pronoia Infantry fought some Turkish Archers who'd scaled the walls, at least 20 of the archers simultaneously screamed and dropped dead. Instantly. Without being hit. The survivors (if there were any, I can't recall) fled.

Can anyone tell me what the hell just happened?

[Stolet]

Maybe they were hit by a cannon tower cannonball?

[Valandur]

Maybe they were Seperatist Battle Droids in disguise as Turkish Archers who disactivated when their Command Star Destroyer was destroyed by a 10 year old pilot.

[eisx]

They were the 1st Batallion of the Turkish Suicide Commando and they completed their mission.

[Valandur]

They were the 1st Batallion of the Turkish Suicide Commando and they completed their mission.

"Quick! Up the wall!" cries the Sergeant of the 1st Battalion of the Turkish Suicide Commandos. "Don't let a Roman touch you, kill yourself if they come close".
The 20 or so commandos quickly scale the walls and find a battalion of Roman Pronoia waiting for them. The Pronoia step forward to attack when the Sergeant yells, "quick men, they're here. Suicide!"
Suddenly the 20 or so men drop dead, some from jumping on their own swords, some from poison and one throws himself off the wall.
The Sergeant is the last one alive and with his last sight he sees his men all dead and painfully whispers, "job well done men.
"What was the point of that?" says a Pronoia infantrymen on the wall...

[Loki_999]

Sounds like a stray artillery shot that you didn't notice... or possibly some naphtha?

[Czin]

A contagious combination stroke and heart attack mayhaps?

[King Of Scotland]

They screamed and dropped dead? Never heard anything like that... Maybe they got frightened by the large enemy force...

[Jared Sinn]

bunch of girly men

[tudor93]

........or maybe just a bug

[Shasqua]

There were no cannon towers or naphtha. Possibly a catapult shot, but I doubt it, as the catapults hadn't attacked that section before and didn't again.

[Surgeon]

Nope, not a stray shot, it happens, it's a bug. I sometimes suspect it might be due to "overcrowding" on the walls but I don't really know for sure what governs it. One time I retreated to the 2nd wall of my fortress while the enemy took his time to scale the first. All of a sudden I get a message that their captain is dead, along with ~50 men. There was no fighting going on at the time.

[Shasqua]

Ah, thank you.

[Scelesticfish]

Someone was playing Indian Love Call and the Turks are actually martian.

[Loki_999]

Actually thinking about it I recall a game i had recently where I had half a stack of spearmen who did not take part in any fighting mainly because my archers took out all opposition. After the battle the game reported casualties amongst my archers (like 20 from one unit). I put this down to a bug, possibly occcuring during/after setup where some units were magically killed due to positioning around trees and rocks...

[A Demented Goldfish]

massive heart attack

that regiment had gone to mcdonalds the day before

[Kotex01]

They were scared to death(literally) by the mighty and glorious Byzantine army!

[RMSN NIKE]

Recently, I was defending Nicaea as the Roman Empire from the Turks. As my Pronoia Infantry fought some Turkish Archers who'd scaled the walls, at least 20 of the archers simultaneously screamed and dropped dead. Instantly. Without being hit. The survivors (if there were any, I can't recall) fled.

Can anyone tell me what the hell just happened?

I have seen this happen. Luckily to my enemy. I, Ireland, assaulting Winchester, Barons' Alliance, in Kingdoms. One of my unit was fighting an enemy unit just came onto the wall to fight my troops. My unit was winning. Suddenly a rock shot from a Trebuchet flattened a bunch, did not count, of enemy soldiers. It was a friendly fire since I have no siege weapons in my assaulting army. And the survivors fled. This Trebuchet was at the southwest corner of Large Town while I was on the southeast corner wall. I tried to fight this battle several times, I was flattened/burned a few times, and I lost a major chunk of a unit one time when the wall they were on was damaged above 50%.

[Valandur]

Maybe they got struck by lightning.