Optional auto-pursuit when "Exit Battle, or Continue" pops up.

[Ichon]

It seems every TW battle since ETW is over in 10-20 minutes (vast majority of them are- really all except sieges vs starforts or when large reinforcing/allied armies are fighting).

Then there are 15-25 minutes of guiding the cavalry around not to hit stakes or get trapped by an AI unit that rallied. So often the pursuit takes as long or longer than the battle if you don't want to let many enemy escape.

This is crying for something simple where however many operational cavalry are on the field can chase down 2x their unit numbers onto routing enemy units of the retreating army- maybe focused on the best infantry of the enemy(since cavalry can fleet quicker the pursuit cavalry would focus on the men with the best chance to have good loot or be worth a ransom).

So if you kept 2 full units of 45 size cavalry alive they could pursue and slay/capture 180 enemy selected from surviving enemy men. If there were two 15 size damaged cavalry alive as well that would be a further 60 for a total of 240. Generals wouldn't count in this auto pursuit for cavalry figure.

Further it might also be cool feature to chose between slay or capture for additional income from captured to sell as slaves. The trade off is more captured lowers total numbers of eliminated enemy. For example orders to slay would be 2x cavalry numbers while to capture would only be 1x so 50% more enemy would escape to fight again if cavalry are trying to capture not kill.

It would also be nice if those numbers could be changed slightly with traits so up to 3x enemy slain with "excellent cavalry commander" or 66% could be captured if general has "slave marketeer" trait/skill. So if a general had both skills/traits in the scenario above that would result in 360 enemy eliminated with 238 captured as slaves and 122 killed in the pursuit.

If players think they could do better than the auto pursuit(I counted 10 battles from NTW and Shogun2, 5 each- were each cavalry man averaged about 3.4 killed in pursuit so base of 2x most people could probably do a bit better) there is still the chance to manually control the pursuit but with reports of "huge battle" maps I just have the feeling it will take 40 minutes to pursue on those and be incredibly boring and desperately in need of a fix.

Also it would be a great factor to make in the generals skill paths as the pursuit and hot hotly it was given often distinguished good generals from great generals. Also with the option to pursue to kill vs capture slaves to sell could have other diplomatic and/or strategic considerations.

[Humble Warrior]

So basically you want the chasing of routers automated. I saw this request before during MTW2.


You`re forgetting one key thing... Chasing routers is what makes winning a hard battle enjoyable or `fun` to use the wholly inadequate, but present day term, especially after a hard fight. I like chasing the enemy down, seeing them scream for mercy as my cavalry runs them down wickedly, then to hear the lamentations of the women.

It`s why even when CA took out the BAI`s ability to do this, they still left it in for the Player. Personally, i would`ve liked it if the BAI could do it too, but CA probably thought it was `no fun` for us, even though it was optional.

Doesn`t the game figure out any routers killed automatically anyway, even if you quit early?

[Ichon]

So basically you want the chasing of routers automated. I saw this request before during MTW2.


You`re forgetting one key thing... Chasing routers is what makes winning a hard battle enjoyable or `fun` to use the wholly inadequate, but present day term, especially after a hard fight. I like chasing the enemy down, seeing them scream for mercy as my cavalry runs them down wickedly, then to hear the lamentations of the women.

It`s why even when CA took out the BAI`s ability to do this, they still left it in for the Player. Personally, i would`ve liked it if the BAI could do it too, but CA probably thought it was `no fun` for us, even though it was optional.

Doesn`t the game figure out any routers killed automatically anyway, even if you quit early?

I might want to run down routers occasionally if some enemy unit nearly ruined my battle plans but in general it is incredibly boring and takes up a huge amount of time. In MTW2 I think if you exited battle some random amount of routers seemed to be killed but it varied from alot to hardly any- not sure based on what.

In more recent games NTW, Shogun 2 I am pretty sure if you exit without continuing and pursuing every single enemy escapes. I don't have FotS so maybe they changed it for that.

[Futski]

So basically you want the chasing of routers automated. I saw this request before during MTW2.


It`s why even when CA took out the BAI`s ability to do this, they still left it in for the Player. Personally, i would`ve liked it if the BAI could do it too, but CA probably thought it was `no fun` for us, even though it was optional.

Doesn`t the game figure out any routers killed automatically anyway, even if you quit early?

I think the reason they removed it for the BAI, is because it's rather time consuming to have our good (sometimes rather retarded) friend, BAI chase us down.

[zg0301zg]

I agree, its time consuming, its not about fun it about practicality, if the battle ends and all enemy units are routing, I think they should or at least half of them be included as prisoners rather then to send cavalry to do so, I guess its just a matter of choice that at least should be dealt at the beggining of the game as one of the options

[SonOfCrusader76]

So basically you want the chasing of routers automated. I saw this request before during MTW2.


You`re forgetting one key thing... Chasing routers is what makes winning a hard battle enjoyable or `fun` to use the wholly inadequate, but present day term, especially after a hard fight. I like chasing the enemy down, seeing them scream for mercy as my cavalry runs them down wickedly, then to hear the lamentations of the women.

It`s why even when CA took out the BAI`s ability to do this, they still left it in for the Player. Personally, i would`ve liked it if the BAI could do it too, but CA probably thought it was `no fun` for us, even though it was optional.

Doesn`t the game figure out any routers killed automatically anyway, even if you quit early?

I agree - chasing routers is lots of fun, especially when they're troops that gave you a tough time in the battle.

[windsupernova]

Didn´t the game auto add some casualties to the losing army if you chose not to chase routers? I always had the impression it did and I mean Empire and more recent games.

But well yeah it would be a nice feature, I don´t see myself using it much(much like auto resolve) but yeah sounds cool

[Ichon]

Didn´t the game auto add some casualties to the losing army if you chose not to chase routers? I always had the impression it did and I mean Empire and more recent games.

But well yeah it would be a nice feature, I don´t see myself using it much(much like auto resolve) but yeah sounds cool

I don't think so... I still play NTW occasionally and opened some Shogun 2 saves and when I chose "Exit" rather than "Continue" the enemy escapes with no further losses. It might be a function of difficulty level I guess, I hadn't considered that.

[bangell99]

I think that's an absolutely brilliant idea. It should leave quite a few still alive, so when you've completed a big battle you have an incentive not to auto-pursue and inflict maximum casualties.

[Lord Baal]

I think an option is fine. As Humble says, running over the bastards is fun. But who has the time for that when you are the Emperor of the known world
Jajaja... an option would be fine, that way everybody is happy.

[Ichon]

Do you guys enjoy chasing routers down after every single battle? I can see it occasionally but if you have to fight 2-3 battles in 1 turn which is common in later stages of a campaign, you still enjoy each time 10 minutes or longer chasing the routers? For a half hour every turn and that is the low estimate.

[Greve Af Göteborg]

Yes I do enjoy chasing down the routing enemy units, I see it as a reward for winning the battle. And if it takes too long, just increase the battle speed.

[Ichon]

Yes I do enjoy chasing down the routing enemy units, I see it as a reward for winning the battle. And if it takes too long, just increase the battle speed.

I always chase them on max speed unless there are tons of traps/stakes around and it still takes 20 minutes frequently.

Part of the problem might also be related to the poor pathfinding where cavalry wander around and 40 men manage to chase down only 10 scattered infantry in 30 seconds so to chase down 60 runners could take 3 minutes and that is only a single enemy unit.

All I am asking for is an option- even slightly less effective than doing it myself because it is very tedious to spend 10-15 minutes repeatedly chasing down routers when in late campaign especially 2-3 battles or more per turn is common.

[Kabeloko]

I guess there could be an optional auto chase feature, after you won the battle, one that you wouldnt need to watch, just get the report of prisoners later on campaign map, one that wouldnt kill you own troops with friendly fire or stakes.

And this could be implemented too if you autoresolve the battle, a little box you mark before clicking autoresolve, that wont aply if you fight yourself, because you could change your mind after the fight in person and pursue them youself.

Autochase should also be avaiable afte you began the chase personally, if you want to guarantee the most prisoners, the leave it to the all computate what you left behind, as you go back to the campaign screen.

hope this didnt got confuse, its late and my english isnt the best.

[Kabeloko]

Ops, acidental double post, sorry.