Fallback to Hire Ground (Can we the Human Get Control of This)

[rexof345]

Hi all,

Well I am ecstatic to learn of the new Rome coming out, I have a topic I would like some feedback and debate upon. Perhaps there is a mod out that I haven’t heard about, but I will go ahead and piss and moan anyway. Lol.

So I have been playing FOTS for the last couple of days. My recent battle has hit home on a sore flaw I have found with all total war games. When faced with an overwhelming enemy, (one you know can’t defeat) a prevalent general finds that he must from time to time retreat to hire ground. Why can’t we get the option to set our own retreat path/destination. The old AI like in the original Rome M2TW were decent about taking the high ground (i.e somewhere where the terrain would significantly benefit a defensive position, because the AI almost always pursues.)

However when playing FOTS I have found it annoying as hell (especially in naval battles) that when I retreat the AI sends my forces into a totally unwinnable position. For example, my current situation I was holding one of the choke points in FOTS with a decent navy. When faced with a superior force I had to withdraw. Of course we can’t withdraw far enough to keep the AI from still attacking us in the same turn, but I was at least hoping for a better position (i.e a nice coastal reef setting, or something with choke point, but instead I got an open ocean battle even though the campaign map shows me to be on the coast close to one of my harbors).

The AI retreated to within a small fraction of one of my harbors that is heavily defended with gun batteries. The AI suffers attrition and all looks for me to have a “port” battle with additional gun support. If this would have been so the enemy navy would easily have been flattened.

Now even after two hours of reloads, and changing tactics I have only defeated the enemy three times, but each time I suffer a “stupid” loss of my own navy that just pisses me off so I reload and try again. I am outnumbered three to one. God I miss the old auto resolve cheat codes.

Anyway I just wanted to rant and rave and find out if anyone else would agree/disagree that we the player could use a feature that when we opt to retreat we set the destination on which our retreating army/navy will fall back upon. Anyone have any thoughts.

Also what is up with loosing the cheat codes, I am sorry, yes I cheat sometimes but only cause I know I can win I just don’t want to take the time and fight it out time and again, only to have some stupid bug or small error screw up my results. Plus its annoying that I have to fight out every battle because the AI can’t factor in artillery/explosive shells.

Anyway take care everyone, and Happy Fourth of July…

[SonOfCrusader76]

You mean 'higher' ground, yes?

Anyway, you're right. It's completely idiotic that when you retreat, your army runs around in a circle and ends up a short distance away from where they've just been beaten. To follow on from that, if you find you've moved your army into an awkward situation, provided you're not blocked off from behind, why the hell can't we move backwards? I appreciate the 'enemy zone of control' mechanic - but that shouldn't stop a strategic retreat, which is exactly what it does now. I'm sure it wasn't the case in the older TW games either.

[Humble Warrior]

That depends. On the hand one, yes, the army should try to retreat to the best ground, but this should be governed by the type of General retreating. If he is low starred or even just a Captain then it`s quite possible that he makes the wrong `judgement call` and goes to a random fallback location.

However, high starred- or good Generals should always fall back to the best defensive ground most of the time, friendly army or friendly city.

[SonOfCrusader76]

Good call, Humble - I agree.

[rexof345]

Yes I did mean "higher" ground. lol... I caught it and couldn't figure out how to edit it afterward. I agree that yes the path should be governed by factors such as the rank of the general, his attributes, ect. But I think it would still be nice to control this portion of the game ourselves and not leave an army (or navy) that it took several turns to create to the fate of the AI.