What variables affect casualty recovery?

[SinerAthin]

Hey guys.

Not all your guys that are struck down necessarily die in battle, some are wounded, and it shows up in the after battle report in the healed casualties statistics. But one thing that has come to my attention is that there's definitely some variables that determine the likelihood of them getting back.

For instance, I have noticed that troops that are killed by ranged fire are more likely to recover after the battle. And sometimes, troops killed in bulk by charge attacks often also come back.

Does anyone know all the variables that can affect the likelihood of your troops recovering after the battle? Like does choosing to continue the battle after the enemy route decrease the chance of your units recovering? Does the amount they spend on the ground increase the likelihood of them not recovering?

[Comrade Roboto]

Some of the traits the general has affect it I believe.

[tudor93]

Some of the traits the general has affect it I believe.

Indeed, there are traits (and also 1-2 ancillaries if I'm not mistaken) that increase the number of recovered casualties after the battle. But how exactly does this work? It is an interesting question, there were a few discussions about it. I remember that the first casualties of a battle always recover (don't know the number exactly; so it's a good ideea to make sure that you initiate with your elite units; for example, do a charge with your heavy cav before the clash of the infantry lines, you will lose a few knights before withdrawing them, but they will recover for sure).
But does the type of the weapon of the attacker make a difference? Like SineAthin observed that the men struck by arrows recovered in great numbers. Or maybe those guys were the first casualties of the battle, thus a lot of them being healed. Does a man wounded by a spear militia has a better chance of recovering than a man hit by a heavy swordman?

[Comrade Roboto]

Indeed, there are traits (and also 1-2 ancillaries if I'm not mistaken) that increase the number of recovered casualties after the battle. But how exactly does this work? It is an interesting question, there were a few discussions about it. I remember that the first casualties of a battle always recover (don't know the number exactly; so it's a good ideea to make sure that you initiate with your elite units; for example, do a charge with your heavy cav before the clash of the infantry lines, you will lose a few knights before withdrawing them, but they will recover for sure).
But does the type of the weapon of the attacker make a difference? Like SineAthin observed that the men struck by arrows recovered in great numbers. Or maybe those guys were the first casualties of the battle, thus a lot of them being healed. Does a man wounded by a spear militia has a better chance of recovering than a man hit by a heavy swordman?

Wow, I never knew it was that complicated. I always thought that good "healing" traits like surgeon and the like just meant more survivors, but nothing more.

[Dr. Conquest]

Recovery is about 15% of the troops you lost, rounded down. The method of their demise is not a factor. The order they fall in is. The first units to die are the first to be brought back. So, suppose you advance some archers and lose half of them. Next, you advance some spearmen and lose half of them, too, with no further losses after that. When you win the battle, you won't get back 15% of your archer casualties and 15% of your spearmen. You will get all archers, because they died first and filled up the entire recovery pool. Of course, you can increase the effective pool size by losing more men during the battle, but that is ridiculously self-defeating.

I feel this is a little bit of lazy programming by CA. I would have much preferred an even distibution of recovery across all affected units. The system is particularly annoying due to my style of play. I tend to use General's Bodyguards heavily at the beginning of a battle. They start dying and filling up my recovery pool. This is a pain because they are the one unit that retrains automatically and I would get them back anyway. I lose all the men from the regular units because the recovery slots are filled up with Bodyguards, thank you very much!

[Me, Myself and I]

Recovery is about 15% of the troops you lost, rounded down. The method of their demise is not a factor. The order they fall in is. The first units to die are the first to be brought back. So, suppose you advance some archers and lose half of them. Next, you advance some spearmen and lose half of them, too, with no further losses after that. When you win the battle, you won't get back 15% of your archer casualties and 15% of your spearmen. You will get all archers, because they died first and filled up the entire recovery pool. Of course, you can increase the effective pool size by losing more men during the battle, but that is ridiculously self-defeating.

I feel this is a little bit of lazy programming by CA. I would have much preferred an even distibution of recovery across all affected units. The system is particularly annoying due to my style of play. I tend to use General's Bodyguards heavily at the beginning of a battle. They start dying and filling up my recovery pool. This is a pain because they are the one unit that retrains automatically and I would get them back anyway. I lose all the men from the regular units because the recovery slots are filled up with Bodyguards, thank you very much!

That's not what I'd believed and honestly I thought it was nonsense. I figured I should check it, however.

I took two archers units, a unit of spearmen, and a unit of general's bodyguard. They were against two spearmen units.
I sent my spearmen forward, until they routed.Then I sent my archers forward, until they routed.Then I sent my bodyguard, who finished off the enemy.

Casualties were 150 spearmen, 54 archers, 3 general bodyguards.
Casualties healed were 32 spearmen and nothing else.

This is 31.05% casualties, taken entirely from those who died first. All died from the same cause, and there were sufficient archer deaths that, if you were wrong, there would be at least 1 archer healed. So basically, Dr Conquest seems to be entirely right.

[mystang89]

double

[mystang89]

That's really good to know though. I'm like the Dr.and use my bodyguards as the beginning. I think I'll start using my other cav first now.

[Dr. Conquest]

That's really good to know though. I'm like the Dr.and use my bodyguards as the beginning. I think I'll start using my other cav first now.

If I might play devil's advocate for a moment, it might not be worth it. I personally use my Bodyguards because they are very strong, especially in the early game. They help me do the most damage as quickly as possible, with the aim of shortening the battle and reducing the number of other units that have to engage. Although I may get few useful casualty recoveries, my overall casualties are lower to begin with than if I had gone in with less effective troops. Also, if most of my losses are Bodyguards, they are guaranteed to get them replenished in a couple turns. I can keep my army on the march and not have to pause for retraining. Essentially, it's not worth changing my tactics simply because of the recovery system.

[mystang89]

Hmm, well, although you and I use my bodyguards at the beginning of battle I actually use them to lure the enemy into attacking me first. They suffer a few casualties but generally not as much as if I took my army to meet them.

[RuthlessChubbz]

I use my horse archers at the beginning of the battle and I've noticed they always recover most of their casualties which works very well for me. That's why they're all on gold chevrons.