Battle Time Limit

[Jive]

Greetings EB fans. After congratulating myself on seizing the initiative in a Pahlava campaign, my conscience is becoming a bit of a bother. The crux of the matter is, this campaign has a battle time limit, and there have been so many engagements in which I've been attacked by overwhelming force yet still managed to win--or draw, in the case of siege sorties--by running (mostly with FM's, to avoid the presumed negative traits from withdrawing) around the battle map perimeter until time runs out that I'm thinking it's a blatant exploit. Yet the default for campaigns seems to be WITH a battle time limit--the box for "No Battle Time Limit" isn't checked when a campaign is started.

Simply put, I couldn't have made the progress I have so far without the battle time limit. In fact, it's been the difference between winning and losing nearly half the time. Some players say no battle time limit is much more realistic, while others use the time limit as a matter of course.

So what's the deal here? Is there any definitive ruling on this issue? Thanks for your kind attention, and happy gaming!

[seleucid empire]

Greetings EB fans. After congratulating myself on seizing the initiative in a Pahlava campaign, my conscience is becoming a bit of a bother. The crux of the matter is, this campaign has a battle time limit, and there have been so many engagements in which I've been attacked by overwhelming force yet still managed to win--or draw, in the case of siege sorties--by running (mostly with FM's, to avoid the presumed negative traits from withdrawing) around the battle map perimeter until time runs out that I'm thinking it's a blatant exploit. Yet the default for campaigns seems to be WITH a battle time limit--the box for "No Battle Time Limit" isn't checked when a campaign is started.

Simply put, I couldn't have made the progress I have so far without the battle time limit. In fact, it's been the difference between winning and losing nearly half the time. Some players say no battle time limit is much more realistic, while others use the time limit as a matter of course.

So what's the deal here? Is there any definitive ruling on this issue? Thanks for your kind attention, and happy gaming!

hello jive.

You can change the battle time limit mid-game. Go to options and you will find it. I use no time limit for my battles.

I personally think using time limit to to win is not really the way to go. I mean you still have to face that army eventually since you didn't destroy it.

Although I like to switch back to using time limit before the AI assaults my cities. The reason is that sometimes you need to defend the town square with phalanxes meaning you cant move them.

A lot of the time, the AI gets parts of its units stuck in between buildings trying to get to the town centre so the battle will never end and I have to reload.

[Jive]

hello jive.

I personally think using time limit to to win is not really the way to go. I mean you still have to face that army eventually since you didn't destroy it.

Well, yes and no. There was this huge Ptolemoid stack with two FM's and a bunch of phalanxes that attacked my army of four FM's and maybe a dozen HA's while they were besieging Hierosolyma. The small garrison--including another FM--was thrown in for good measure.

I managed to kill all three FM's and (apparently) the other garrison units before withdrawing the HA's and running my FM's around the map until time expired. Not only was their humongous stack obliged to retreat, the city fell into my grubby, blood-stained mitts as well. Ptolemy and Saba resumed their intermittent warfare next turn, and the now-leaderless stack headed for another battlefront.

This was exceptional, but at other times I've flummoxed overwhelming stacks repeatedly by occupying favorable terrain, withdrawing the HA's after their quivers were empty, then leading the enemy forces on a wild goose-chase with my FM('s). This can happen repeatedly with the same enemy stack on the same battlefield over several turns, or--in the case of siege battles--several times in the same turn against the same (but steadily depleting) besieged garrison.

There are several older Pahlava/nomad strategy guides at the Org. One poster--USERMAATKA--played with the timer, while another--social infidel--apparently did not. It's certainly possible to win without it, but having it makes things a lot easier for a super-mobile defender.

[seleucid empire]

Well, yes and no. There was this huge Ptolemoid stack with two FM's and a bunch of phalanxes that attacked my army of four FM's and maybe a dozen HA's while they were besieging Hierosolyma. The small garrison--including another FM--was thrown in for good measure.

I managed to kill all three FM's and (apparently) the other garrison units before withdrawing the HA's and running my FM's around the map until time expired. Not only was their humongous stack obliged to retreat, the city fell into my grubby, blood-stained mitts as well. Ptolemy and Saba resumed their intermittent warfare next turn, and the now-leaderless stack headed for another battlefront.

This was exceptional, but at other times I've flummoxed overwhelming stacks repeatedly by occupying favorable terrain, withdrawing the HA's after their quivers were empty, then leading the enemy forces on a wild goose-chase with my FM('s). This can happen repeatedly with the same enemy stack on the same battlefield over several turns, or--in the case of siege battles--several times in the same turn against the same (but steadily depleting) besieged garrison.

There are several older Pahlava/nomad strategy guides at the Org. One poster--USERMAATKA--played with the timer, while another--social infidel--apparently did not. It's certainly possible to win without it, but having it makes things a lot easier for a super-mobile defender.

Oh right, you mean when your besieging a city and they sally. Yeh I know what you mean. I have done it with Hayasdan against the large rebel armies in Armenia.

Although you dont always have to do that. You said 4 bodyguards? Which type? The early Parthian bodyguards are fast and hit hard. They can beat armies by themselves. 4 can obliterate anything in the hands of a player. Ive killed 2000 Bactrians with 3 of them, losing none of my generals before

[Jive]

Oh right, you mean when your besieging a city and they sally. Yeh I know what you mean. I have done it with Hayasdan against the large rebel armies in Armenia.

Although you dont always have to do that. You said 4 bodyguards? Which type? The early Parthian bodyguards are fast and hit hard. They can beat armies by themselves. 4 can obliterate anything in the hands of a player. Ive killed 2000 Bactrians with 3 of them, losing none of my generals before

Correction: I had five bodyguards. One was either killed in battle--but don't recall seeing the "heroic death" message--or assassinated immediately afterwards on the same AI turn.

I'm fielding late bodyguards these days. No arrows, but they're heavy duty in melee. Love that charge bonus!

In the battle mentioned above, the five FM's had less than 100 guys total IIRC (I'm playing on normal unit size) to defend against over 1500 Ptolemies, including maybe seven or eight phalanxes. By the time I dispatched their three FM's they were already very tired, the HA's had run out of arrows, and there were still over 1000 enemy to deal with. Discretion being the better part of valor, I thought it prudent to avoid combat and risk losing precious FM's (they make any other cavalry except HA's superfluous).

OK, so maybe I could've taken out a few more, but the time limit worked against me too. As it was, the AI chased with only a single phalanx, which got surrounded and annihilated before its mates arrived in support.

[Boriak]

Once it took me a very long time to get through and take the walls. By the time I got to the town center and took the defenders out, I was out of time - I think I missed it by three minutes. So all that work went to pieces.
Now I tend to disable time limit when I'm assaulting walled cities.

[Entropy Judge]

Once it took me a very long time to get through and take the walls. By the time I got to the town center and took the defenders out, I was out of time - I think I missed it by three minutes. So all that work went to pieces.

I had that happen once, in Vanilla Rome. Except I missed taking the Town Center by about 40 seconds. Half the stack regenerated, including the FM I'd killed. So now, when I play EB, I siege places for a long time if they have a decent number of troops and Stone or better Walls. Once they're down to half-strength, if they haven't sallied, I'm usually strong enough to barrel through their defenses anyway.