Reinforcements

[Sinisa26]

In Shogun 2 (I'm not sure about the other TW's), when your army or allies army was in a the general radius around you, they would start the battle as reinforcements. However, I think that instead of having them spawn instantly as reinforcements at the start of the battle, they should join to battle in relation to how far away they are from your army. So like if they are out of the radius by about 3 game centimetres, they should arrive to the battle one or two minutes late. And so on and so on... What do you guys think?

Discuss...

[Evalation]

huh..

[Sinisa26]

huh..

What I meant to say was. Usually there is a circular "aura" around your army on the campaign map. Anyone in or on the outskirts of that "aura" will be called in to fight the battle (they can decline).

In Rome II, I'm thinking that the aura should be a lot bigger, but instead of the army that is caught in that aura being drawn into the battle instantly, they should be late to the battle by some amount of time relative to their distance away from the main army.

[The Juggernaut]

That's a pretty good idea, actually. It would make orchestrating large offensives easier, but at the same time would force you to focus more on the movement of your armies on the campaign map.

What I'd also like to see is a return of the reinforcement's delayed event, where a reinforcing army fails to show up on the battlefield, sometimes for the whole match. Maybe make this dependent on general skill, relationship between the commanding general and the reinforcer, and on troop movement points/ability.

[Reiver]

Couple of problems. Battles seem to be getting faster (to the point i find unmodded unplayable) and the movement system has always meant moving armies is finicky so the failures in the campaign system translating to the battle system putting you at a disadvantage is unfair.
That said, if they allow us to group 40 units (or more) as a single stack so moving armies isn't as annoying then i'd be all for this. As it is, especially in Shogun atm i consider two stacks as a single army as that's what i can field in battle. That i can't treat them as one due to an arbitrary stack limit (which can easily be modded out) is just silly.

[The Great Montrose]

good idea because this would be realistic and I also like the bit about some generals not even bothering to send their reinforcements if they dont get along with the other general or maybe if he was a political rival ?

[SirCymro]

good idea because this would be realistic and I also like the bit about some generals not even bothering to send their reinforcements if they dont get along with the other general or maybe if he was a political rival ?

This would only work for external affairs not internal.

Alliances break down easily and rarely last long (well thats what i found out playing TW games) and so if you have an ally that dislikes you or is not too pleased they can deny battles instead of always being drawn in, adds a new perspective to alliances as well.

As for the general idea its a good suggestion, however before the battle you should have several other options to use as well.

E.g. Stay in formation - the legion/warband will arrive at the same time and deploy at the same time on the battlefield

Skirmish - archers, and other ranged and lightly armoured infantry are sent to run ahead arriving winded, but earlier than the main body

Charge - Cavalry arrive ahead of all forces and deploy quicker

Double time - the whole legion/warband deploys but is tired when doing so due to forced march

Etc etc, adds even more strategic instability and unreliability to the game.

[Emperor Domitianus]

Couple of problems. Battles seem to be getting faster (to the point i find unmodded unplayable) and the movement system has always meant moving armies is finicky so the failures in the campaign system translating to the battle system putting you at a disadvantage is unfair.
That said, if they allow us to group 40 units (or more) as a single stack so moving armies isn't as annoying then i'd be all for this. As it is, especially in Shogun atm i consider two stacks as a single army as that's what i can field in battle. That i can't treat them as one due to an arbitrary stack limit (which can easily be modded out) is just silly.

The old reinforcements delayed thing was if the armies went over the unit cap. I too am hoping for larger zones of control for armies though.

I don't think that "modding" is always necessary. I see no problem in the actual managment of the armies. The only problem is the lack of space for reinforcements. I mean the limit of stacks is the real problem. I hope the new system will deal propely with this allowing you more troops on the battlefields.

[Ticklestick]

The old reinforcements delayed thing was if the armies went over the unit cap. I too am hoping for larger zones of control for armies though.

[Doge Domenico]

I never played Shogun 2. Was the piecemeal from empire in that one? Or was it more of a medieval 2 kingdoms deal.

[Ichon]

I never played Shogun 2. Was the piecemeal from empire in that one? Or was it more of a medieval 2 kingdoms deal.

No it was not as bad as Empire for reinforcements but still some issues. I can understand the piece by piece arrival in ETW and NTW but what I don't get is how if 2 armies 1 right next to each other the reinforcements arrive behind the opposing enemy army? It just seemed weird and while it let to a couple disaster more often than not having reinforcements arrive behind the enemy led to a quick victory once they had arrived.

Hopefully ZoC and generals skill along with some other factors might play a role in battles for RTW2. If there are 2 separate armies but the opposing general in a single army has higher skill he might be able to move towards one army and attack if first with the 2nd army arriving quite late to the battle as reinforcements.

[Outlawed]

Sadly the nature of a turn based game dictates an aura kind of thing.
If two armies are a couple of kilometers apart, they will march to join each other before engaging in battle, unless you ambush them, which you could during a night battle.

[Doge Domenico]

No it was not as bad as Empire for reinforcements but still some issues. I can understand the piece by piece arrival in ETW and NTW but what I don't get is how if 2 armies 1 right next to each other the reinforcements arrive behind the opposing enemy army? It just seemed weird and while it let to a couple disaster more often than not having reinforcements arrive behind the enemy led to a quick victory once they had arrived.

Hopefully ZoC and generals skill along with some other factors might play a role in battles for RTW2. If there are 2 separate armies but the opposing general in a single army has higher skill he might be able to move towards one army and attack if first with the 2nd army arriving quite late to the battle as reinforcements.

I can't understand the piecemeal thing. If I have two armies and you have one,why would I use that army as a reserve when they could be flanking, or something.

[Ichon]

I can't understand the piecemeal thing. If I have two armies and you have one,why would I use that army as a reserve when they could be flanking, or something.

Because a big part of Napoleonic wars was traveling in dispersed columns where parts of the column would arrive at a time. Communications is quite difficult still- sure you can use the reinforcements to flank when they arrive but trying to flank when they only know the general area of the battle and not knowing enemy dispositions is likely to lead disaster.

The ability to have armies force march but arrive winded or with lower morale is an interesting concept and I hope something similar at least is done by CA. Perhaps a general skill or trait to influence how much faster and other factors like stamina and morale. Combined with armies further away arriving later it could be interesting with especially the most important part is that if the first army is defeated before the 2nd arrives the battle is over. History is full of instances when armies arrived just a tiny bit late.

[Challis89]

I liked the reinforcements system from old rome where sometimes they were delayed. I do want to see more armies taking to the field together like in the older TW games. Lets get these big set peice battles back

I do like you idea that the further away they are the greater the delay in getting to the field.