Surrender benefits?

Is there any advantage in giving in to the AI's demand for surrender? I mean surely any damage you do to halt their advance is beneficial so why not fight?

If you surrender, you just lose the province, and your army runs away. At least that's what the CAI does. I generally like to hold my cities.

Sometimes you want to preserve your army to fight another enemy faction that may attack the city or region you just conquered

When the AI demands surrender you will only have a few militias in that town or armed citizenrys. If so I would rather fight to the death because these units are pretty useless anyway (Especially with Armed Citizenrys-you will receive no benefit).
If you have a half stack you may get lucky and walk away, but if the AI pursues you it is better to reload the campaign and fight with the help of armed citizenrys.

The AI is dishonourable and can chase you out of the city and attack you if you do surrender if you want to preserve your units. The only advantage in surrendering is cheating the out of some chevrons for killing our soldiers.

Originally Posted by squatlover

The AI is dishonourable and can chase you out of the city and attack you if you do surrender if you want to preserve your units. The only advantage in surrendering is cheating the out of some chevrons for killing our soldiers.

Agreed. If your goal is to preserve the army, you need to make an assessment whether the AI army will be able to chase you down. You have to have follow AI movement turned on for this, as then you can roughly tell how far they've traveled and whether they have enough movement left if your army moved a short distance away.

Usually though, the answer is "Yes, they will be able to chase you down." And then there is really no point surrendering -- get your troops into some buildings and make them pay for every inch of ground.

And another thing is, NEVER surrender if you have fortifications. The AI is completely idiotic in sieges.

I think the words "in sieges" were superfluous.

As Churchill put......

'We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."


Basically never surrender, hold your ground and fight

CA should make it so that you can't attack a surrendered garrison.

Originally Posted by FriendoftheDork

CA should make it so that you can't attack a surrendered garrison.

That would be a great update, and then I might consider surrendering an option, to save a small elite or very experienced force, that would only lose anyway -- if I were guaranteed that they could not be attacked until I had at least one turn to move them somewhere else, then yes, surrendering might have its benefits, but otherwise I agree with everyone that says, hold your position and make `em pay.

@English Total War Gamer, perfect quote, always chokes me up when I hear it in his own voice

Originally Posted by FriendoftheDork

CA should make it so that you can't attack a surrendered garrison.

Wonderful idea. Would be historically accurate too. As attacking an army you just granted safe passage would be a very ungentlemanly thing to do.

That pretty much just reinforces everything I thought. Kill a hundred men and make them wait a turn or two before advancing(or force them into splitting their force), or let them win for free.
Tough choice huh?

AI does seem to get elite units pretty quick though. If it's only a town or two I don't see that as a big deal.

Perhaps it would be appropriate to give surrendered garrisons a "tactical withdrawal" like when you make peace with an enemy and all your armies automatically move into friendly territory