Can`t defeat Norway, Britannia campaign

**18w4531g00** · May 13, 2012, 05:48 PM

Hello,

need some help with something very annoying. Played the Scotland campaign and have eliminated all but one of Norway`s towns. The last one is the island above Mull. It constantly keeps 3 generals around the castle on the same points, to reach the castle I have to defeat one of them that stands to the south.

Problem is, every time when I try to attack him with a new army, game sets the battle on something that looks like 50 degrees steep rocky mound and my army is locked on isolated spots. AI army can`t attack, mine can`t move at all, can`t even surrender so every time I have to exit the battle and it just keeps happening.

Any ideas how to overcome this?

Also, when trying to make my army face a specific direction, holding the right mouse button gives an option to use a Cossacks style placement system, but unlike in Cossacks, it is hardly controllable and took me lots of efforts to place them correctly, sometimes it does not even engage when I hold the mouse button.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

**lolIsuck** · May 13, 2012, 06:34 PM

The only way to solve this is by autoresolving. If you're not sure if you would win autoresolve then open the command shell or whatever it's called (normally the ~ key) and type auto_win attacker and press enter. This should win you the autoresolve.

You can't do anything about it, it's a mapping issue so you're not doing snything wrong

.

**Sitalkes** · May 13, 2012, 06:59 PM

Can you attack from a different direction? Perhaps you could get him to attack you instead? If your army is many times bigger, reduce its size to something closer to the Norse army and they should attack you. Try holding down the Ctrl key when trying to organise your army. Another option is to put a small part of your army under AI control and see if it can find a way through the cliffs that you haven't noticed.

**Silverheart** · May 14, 2012, 12:05 AM

Move your army onto a ship, and the AI should be shifting positions of their armies eventually. Then move ashore and besiege the castle immediately.
For a faster solution, do what Lollsuck said, and autoresolve.

There isn´t much more you can do, actually - personally, I´d prefer the autoresolve, maybe while using a Family Member who has "night fighter".

**18w4531g00** · May 14, 2012, 05:02 AM

Thank you both for the inputs. He is not moving, looks a bit buggy but they remain around the castle and the King is in. The first time this happened I put the whole army under AI control to exclude the possibility of human error, they remained stuck and game started to blink, like I was playing it on an old computer. Its like my troops are on an Everest platoon, locked from all places. Was quite interesting as if it was walkable it would make all ranged units obsolete

**Aeratus** · May 14, 2012, 12:47 PM

I've seen Norway camp a few stacks outside that island's castle without moving. If you can't get them off the bugged map, the only thing you can do is autoresolve as Sitalkes said.

**Silverheart** · May 14, 2012, 01:00 PM

BTW, are the norwegian armies also standing on the port? Usually the AI doesn´t place armies on ports, and there you should be able to disembark and engage them in a less mountainous field. I suppose this is probably not the case (since you would probably have tried that), but I just want to make sure...
Also, is there any chance to send a high-level diplomat and bribe any of their armies? Maybe you could use an assassin to kill the general, and then bribe the rest of the army so as to create a path directly to the castle...

**complete noob:(** · May 14, 2012, 02:31 PM

If nothing else works, you could ship up some assassins and kill off the generals. It won't let you capture the castle, but it will eliminate Norway

**18w4531g00** · May 16, 2012, 03:40 AM

Can`t disembark more than one army on the port, one spot left only. I held my general for 4 turns, the enemy didn`t move. Got this solved in the most time consuming manner - restarted the whole campaign and took the islands in another order, the one left now is bigger and will be easy to conquer

Its a pity army placement issues and battle army allignment ( tried the control key, not working, I actually meant the red dots representing the position of the soldiers along with an arrow of the direction they will face when I mentioned prebattle placing of units, in Cossacks it was very very easy ) are not solved, game is fantastic otherwise.
Thanks guys, I appreciated your help!

**18w4531g00** · May 16, 2012, 06:28 AM

Gave up and uninstalled the game today. I am not an expert in anyway, but have played strategies since 1999. This game is excellent and at the same time rubbish ruined by terrible army controls when in battle mode, slow motion of other opponents, absolutely rudiculous navi battles, nonsense of blocking enemy ports, catapults appear stronger than culverines against infantry, weak AI, bad AI management of cities, pointless AI management of reinforcements, but what really annoyed me is the battle terrain placement engine, it is absolutely horrific. What a pity because otherwise the game is very well done.
Thank you all for the support so far, will wait for Cossacks 3, hope they`re doing it in the Cossacks: Back to war style not doing something like the Napoleonic wars which as Medieval 2 I also wasted money on...

**Ferdiad** · May 16, 2012, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by 18w4531g00

Gave up and uninstalled the game today. I am not an expert in anyway, but have played strategies since 1999. This game is excellent and at the same time rubbish ruined by terrible army controls when in battle mode, slow motion of other opponents, absolutely rudiculous navi battles, nonsense of blocking enemy ports, catapults appear stronger than culverines against infantry, weak AI, bad AI management of cities, pointless AI management of reinforcements, but what really annoyed me is the battle terrain placement engine, it is absolutely horrific. What a pity because otherwise the game is very well done.
Thank you all for the support so far, will wait for Cossacks 3, hope they`re doing it in the Cossacks: Back to war style not doing something like the Napoleonic wars which as Medieval 2 I also wasted money on...

Demanding much? The game is old enough but has stood the test of time quite well, especially with mods.

**VikingOfSixth** · May 16, 2012, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by 18w4531g00

Gave up and uninstalled the game today. I am not an expert in anyway, but have played strategies since 1999. This game is excellent and at the same time rubbish ruined by terrible army controls when in battle mode, slow motion of other opponents, absolutely rudiculous navi battles, nonsense of blocking enemy ports, catapults appear stronger than culverines against infantry, weak AI, bad AI management of cities, pointless AI management of reinforcements, but what really annoyed me is the battle terrain placement engine, it is absolutely horrific. What a pity because otherwise the game is very well done.
Thank you all for the support so far, will wait for Cossacks 3, hope they`re doing it in the Cossacks: Back to war style not doing something like the Napoleonic wars which as Medieval 2 I also wasted money on...

Norway wins in the end I suppose...

Army controls are simplistic, not sure what you mean by slow motion, there are no naval battles, blockades can disrupt economies, artillery is crude in Medieval and is best used during sieges or against large formations with proper terrain, AI has its faults but is in no way a game breaker, never had trouble with the terrain in my campaigns - stay out of mountains if you find them difficult to fight in. Perhaps you were looking for a different kind of game? Total War is a tactical game with strategic elements.

**Aeratus** · May 16, 2012, 12:10 PM

The battle terrains are terrible, especially in the Britannica and Crusades campaign where every map contains these ridiculous mountains. It should be possible to view the terrain beforehand.

As to the other aspects, I don't agree. The army controls are pretty easy in this game. Just point and right-click. Also, catapults are nowhere as good as culverins. The AI is supposed to be bad in a game like this, which is why you play on max difficulty, and why there are other mods that increase the difficulty level.

**Maklodes** · May 16, 2012, 05:26 PM

What really got me one time was when I attacked an HRE army that was in the alps. The terrain was mountainous, with them having a big elevation advantage. They weren't inaccessible or unbeatable, but I decided that it would probably be a tough battle that would be worse for me than for them even if I won, so I hit the white "withdraw" flag on all of my troops. No casualties on either side, but it counted as a crushing defeat, and my general got "Edgy around Imperials" and lost some command and dread. Oh well.

**Ferdiad** · May 16, 2012, 05:32 PM

I see nothing wrong there lol. That seems pretty realistic for what you did.

**Maklodes** · May 16, 2012, 05:39 PM

I'm not complaining about this a huge amount, since any system will have its quirks, but since you happen to bring up realism, I don't see how it's realistic that making a tactical decision to withdraw upon seeing the disposition of enemy troops, and doing so without taking any casualties, would be counted as the same as getting most of your forces killed or routed in a one-sided battle. (The "indecisive attacker" traits seem more fitting)

**Ferdiad** · May 16, 2012, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by Maklodes

I'm not complaining about this a huge amount, since any system will have its quirks, but since you happen to bring up realism, I don't see how it's realistic that making a tactical decision to withdraw upon seeing the disposition of enemy troops, and doing so without taking any casualties, would be counted as the same as getting most of your forces killed or routed in a one-sided battle. (The "indecisive attacker" traits seem more fitting)

People perception of him could be that he is a coward, not that he actually is.

**Sitalkes** · May 16, 2012, 06:24 PM

If you had withdrawn from the battle before getting to the battlefield you would have got the indecisive attacker trait. The AI is not that difficult to defeat if he is on a hill - check the "how to get the AI off its hill" thread http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=514920 If you have more archers than he does, he will attack you. I have seen the AI start the game on top of a very steep slope but come down to attack me because I was Welsh and had large numbers of archers. Unfortunately the AI only had one way down the hill (due to cliff faces) so I caused huge amounts of casualties by shooting at him with archers and artillery and he never even got into contact until I charged him.

**War lord** · May 18, 2012, 10:52 AM

I'm fairly sure that that problem in the Britannia campaign was fixed in one of the patches, do you have it installed?

**Old Geezer** · May 20, 2012, 03:28 PM

There is a bridge which runs east to west about midway between Zagreb and Belgrade. I repeatedly tried to have 2 Byz cavalry units attack 3 rebel units sitting on this bridge. Every time my units were stuck on a 70 degree slope and could not move. The enemy advanced and shot my men to pieces. The other side of the bridge had a short narrow flat spot and a road that look like it went up at an 80 degree angle. My men look rather surreal to say the least hanging onto the cliff they were stuck on - dead or alive. I kept reloading and getting the same landscape.