Family members won't ambush.

[Glenn]

I have only noticed this problem in RSII.

I am fighting a war against Makedonia as Dacia throughout Paionia, and I have only two armies led by family members and a nine unit force of medium infantry and peltastai for ambushes.

The non-royal army is setting up ambushes without a problem when placed in woodland.

But when a family member is placed in woodland, even several different woodland tiles within a turn, the marker simply will not show a mode of ambush. Perhaps the unit will still ambush passing enemy during the AI turns, but when I am facing four superior large Makedonian armies I would rather not risk any mistakes.

Has anyone a solution?

[Ferdiad]

Pics?

[Glenn]

Not at the moment, if they are necessary then I will obtain one.

I have played EB, RTR, Vanilla, Darth mod and others and ambushed successfully in these, I know sometimes the character must be moved about a bit before it will set the ambush but it simply isn't happening here.

If you can take my word for it, the family member is in the right position but no ambush is being set.

Thanks for your interest Ferdiad, I will get you a picture.

[Ferdiad]

do hes traits seem suspicous? If another member was in that stack could he ambush?

[Beans]

What .exe are you using?

When I used the alex.exe I had all sorts of problems with ambushes.

[Ferdiad]

What .exe are you using?

When I used the alex.exe I had all sorts of problems with ambushes.

Thats in the battle map, this about the campaign map.

[Glenn]

Thank you both, using BI.exe, here is the picture which I believe illustrates the problem well.



Note that all captain units (taken from that stack) have no problem setting an ambush, the FM was placed in all those positions prior to the captains being sent there. This was also tested with the faction leader and the FM besieging Serdica.

I'd like to know what your experiences, thoughts and suggestions or solutions are on this matter.

Thank you!

[♔DARTH LEGO♔]

First thought:

Stack is too big too ambush, but still not sure if it is an actual game mechanic or my imagination....??

Second thought:
maybe your general has negtaive trait or anciallry that is mooting the ambush ability.?

Third thought:
maybe the way the land tiles are structured you can have only so many troops in that area, or that specific tile might be an eensy weensy glicth...


..Im leaning more toward 1 or 2 though...

[Spike]

Second thought:
maybe your general has negtaive trait or anciallry that is mooting the ambush ability.?

Third thought:
maybe the way the land tiles are structured you can have only so many troops in that area, or that specific tile might be an eensy weensy glicth...


..Im leaning more toward 1 or 2 though...

I have sucessfully do ambush in the past with with fullstack of Legio III Augusta, Spartans, and now with Royal Arvernii troops led by faction heir himself. No stack was too big for ambush (but I play on large, not huge)

maybe that specific FM and FH (and the rest of da family), have rotten ambusher traits between them

[♔DARTH LEGO♔]

maybe that specific FM and FH (and the rest of da family), have rotten ambusher traits between them

yeah i was leaning more towards that one....

[Glenn]

The three tested members have no traits pertaining to ambush ability.

The possibility of the force being too large to ambush effectively is something I had not considered, and I thank you for the suggestion.

As for the third thought, there can be no glitch affecting the ability to ambush on that tile since a captained unit was set to ambush there prior to my placement of the FM.

I will test the possibility of the stack being too large and report back - thank you both.

[♔DARTH LEGO♔]

The three tested members have no traits pertaining to ambush ability.

The possibility of the force being too large to ambush effectively is something I had not considered, and I thank you for the suggestion.

As for the third thought, there can be no glitch affecting the ability to ambush on that tile since a captained unit was set to ambush there prior to my placement of the FM.

I will test the possibility of the stack being too large and report back - thank you both.

it would be nice to know how it turns out for ya....

Me i do things the Roman way...

let em know you there and there isnt a Jupiter damned thing they can do about it.....

[Glenn]

Today's lucky door prize goes to BayonetFodder for his thought number one, thanks for playing everyone!

It turns out that you cannot realistically set up an ambush with thousands of men.

The same family member can ambush with 9 units under his command but even captains will not set an ambush with a full stack, sensibly enough.

So that settles it, I can go on with the campaign. Cotiso must now make his way cautiously south west in pursuit of Amphytron Pheraei who intends to defeat the Roman colony there with a rather impressive army. Duras the Coward (The last of them thank god, it's fixed) will take Serdika and turn it into a distracting, bustling fortification to keep the Makedonians busy with that long, vulnerable western march up the pass and away from the developing trade in Triballia and Singidun.
I don't want to conquer vast amounts of southern territory yet, so the idea is to tie their hands, then pillage Pella and Thessaloniki in order to gut them of superior military output.

Then I have belligerent Skythia to worry about.

Thank you for your help everyone, and especially BayonetFodder...

[dvk901]

I was going to say, in reading this, that it may be an issue of whether all the units in that army are able to hide effectively, in combination with the type of terrain. I have had whole armies able to hide and ambush, but sometimes, when you move them into a woods you don't get the RTW voice notification that an ambush is set. I guess I never thought to ask: Why? Just figured it was an RTW thing. But my inclination is to say that it has more to do with the army composition than with the FM.

[Salahedin]

I've had exactly the same problem. To be clear :

- the full army can ambush when leaded by a captain
- the FM can not ambush, with or without the army

don't know why but it is not a unit problem.

I found a way that usually works for me :

- get your FM out of the army
- move your army (leaded bye a captain) where you want and let it prepare the ambush
- then merge your FM in the already ambushing army. For me it makes the FM set the ambush with it.

[dvk901]

I've had exactly the same problem. To be clear :

- the full army can ambush when leaded by a captain
- the FM can not ambush, with or without the army

don't know why but it is not a unit problem.

I found a way that usually works for me :

- get your FM out of the army
- move your army (leaded bye a captain) where you want and let it prepare the ambush
- then merge your FM in the already ambushing army. For me it makes the FM set the ambush with it.

Heh...clever. Never thought of that.

[Glenn]

Thank you, I think you both may be right.

It is possible that in a more heavily wooded area (Say in central Germany) such a large army would be capable of ambushing, and I will have to try that.

In this case I think the army is simply too large to hide the army in those sparse trees because even the captain wouldn't ambush will the full stack, but if I am in Teutobergia it may be different.

Thank you Salahedin, I have had the problem of FMs not ambushing before in other mods, when I fixed it usually by shuffling them from one tile to the woods back and forth till they understood, but your idea would waste much less movement points, so I will adopt it if [when] the problem occurs.

Thank you both!