Desert Provinces in Summer

[FaceDancer]

In my Baktria campaign I have some difficulties fighting Taksashila to the south. I'm invading their province of Maka and every year I got event that desert roads are blocked in summer. Even when I got full supply and food I'm getting losses from attrition. Is there a way I can manage my armies in those desert regions? Am I doing something wrong, should I invest in specific buildings or tech?

[Dago Red]

Plan invasions around summer, not during, in those regions. Even baggage supply units won't prevent it, since as the pop-up says, roads are blocked etc. I don't think improved "supply line" buildings lessen the attrition (i believe that's only for sieges, but I could have missed something in this latest version). Think of summer in those regions, as winter. You don't go on campaign in winter.

The other thing you can do is have a reserve army following your main one, with troops you can rotate in and out. If they're too far into the same region, you can at least merge units to replenish them back to full strength (Ctrl+M).

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

I haven't played a desert faction for a looong time but AFAIK what @Dago suggested sounds logical.
A more experienced desert member could elaborate further though.

[FaceDancer]

@Dago
My main problem is that I'm losing men to attrition while they are stationed in my regions, regions that are well suplied with food. I understand that roads might be blocked so I cant supply invasion forces. But I even cant supply my armies garrisoned in my regions.

[drillmaster]

Everythind dies in hot regions. Both stationed and invading forces. I once tried to capture the region south of carthage and made an army of low quality, throw away native tribesmen and mercenaries immune to attrition even though i was playing as Epirus. This might help.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[~Seleukos.I.Nikator~]

I'm not so familiar with this system, yet, but from what I remember I read in the manuals having baggage unit within your army might actually reduce the negative effect of the harsh weather conditions.

[FaceDancer]

Okay. I just build harbour in my region that had no food and now my population is dying out, but at least my army is "buying supplies overseas" by the harbour so they are not facing starvation.

[MateoTheSpaniard]

Honestly, I feel like desert regions feel kind of overwhelmingly bad sometimes. I kind of understand the idea but it can really trigger me sometimes even how long it takes to just travel to another region in the middle of the war.
It destroys the rhythm a bit compared to normal war in better regions. Winter-ish regions have 3 weather seasons in which they can wage war with mildly ease. But desert regions get crapped on the whole year with the campaign range penalties, not just the attrition in summer.

[pawelrut]

Honestly, I feel like desert regions feel kind of overwhelmingly bad sometimes. I kind of understand the idea but it can really trigger me sometimes even how long it takes to just travel to another region in the middle of the war.
It destroys the rhythm a bit compared to normal war in better regions. Winter-ish regions have 3 weather seasons in which they can wage war with mildly ease. But desert regions get crapped on the whole year with the campaign range penalties, not just the attrition in summer.

This works exactly like it should, so I hope the DeI don't feel force to change it.
Survive in the desert is hard, it even harder if you have a hole army.

After a hard winter, a winter-ish region will recover, so food and water is easy to find. But in the desert you still have nothing, the weather is better but that is it. It takes more planing and tactics to wage war in desert regions.

Also try to stay on the roads, this will spare you from attrition, takes a bit of micro, moving a little bit at a time, don't just click on the destination you wish to arrive at, armies don't fallow the road, they just take the sorters route, so you need to micro move them.
(This should be obvious to everybody, but you never know...).

[Gasmio]

Crazy roads! no replenishment! ;(

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

This works exactly like it should, so I hope the DeI don't feel force to change it.
Survive in the desert is hard, it even harder if you have a hole army.

After a hard winter, a winter-ish region will recover, so food and water is easy to find. But in the desert you still have nothing, the weather is better but that is it. It takes more planing and tactics to wage war in desert regions.

Also try to stay on the roads, this will spare you from attrition, takes a bit of micro, moving a little bit at a time, don't just click on the destination you wish to arrive at, armies don't fallow the road, they just take the sorters route, so you need to micro move them.
(This should be obvious to everybody, but you never know...).

AFAIK we're not gonna change anything about them.

[Dago Red]

Good, everything is well done in this regard I think. AFAIK most factions that are native to the desert regions are immune to the movement-attrition penalty. So the only thing I'd change/tweak at all is the amount of micro needed, while moving along roads for other factions, but it's not that big of a deal. For those playing in these regions a lot, they'll notice the map is a little buggy, and way too punitive, even with careful micro-managing your moves in millimeters (measured on-screen, zoomed in).

I like that if you aren't paying attention, or you just carelessly order a move far away, you can get an extra attrition hit when crossing open desert. It's the same as if you aren't paying attention and crossing through mountains in winter, or a nasty swamp, for those who only play in Europe (weirdos). But, if you take the time to micro your route, and carefully make move orders along a road, you shouldn't get hit so badly -- only the roads don't seem to really be where they look like on the map and sometimes no matter where you click, you take a hit.

[♔Greek Strategos♔]

Good, everything is well done in this regard I think. AFAIK most factions that are native to the desert regions are immune to the movement-attrition penalty. So the only thing I'd change/tweak at all is the amount of micro needed, while moving along roads for other factions, but it's not that big of a deal. For those playing in these regions a lot, they'll notice the map is a little buggy, and way too punitive, even with careful micro-managing your moves in millimeters (measured on-screen, zoomed in).

For a smoother map check step 10 from our Tech thread here

[MateoTheSpaniard]

You are all right, I've never thought about you making any changes, I like the idea and the challenge, I was just sharing my pain. But it is a good pain when you learn to play with it and you feel like you accomplished something, is the right feeling you should be getting from this kind of games.

For example the first campaign I played with DEI some months ago was with the Seleucids and I had the idea of conquering Nabatea lands. I didn't plan anything as with vanilla Rome2 you don't need to plan anything and just marched 1 lonely army to conquer, when I captured the first city I started to realize that my army was dying of attrition so I immediately started to march them home, but the summer and the deserts were so hard that even combining units wasn't enough and only 600 soldiers were able to make the trip home. Oh and also I had to move the general from the army so he wouldn't die as he was my heir.
I shared this experience in those times in the forums and I think some people misunderstood me, I wasn't complaining, I was surprised, astonished to experience this hardcore gameplay I hadn't experienced for a long time. I felt like Alexander The Great when he forced his army to cross the desert and almost half of them died. It was amazing.

Sorry if I didn't express myself correctly, my comment was to explain a bit why this person may have made this post, what he may have felt. That doesn't mean I dislike this mechanic, I wanted to make him realized that this is not a bad thing really. Maybe I didn't make myself clear but I hope now you understand.

Thanks a lot DEI team for this amazing mod.

[JCB206]

I like deserts too. Not sure I agree with armies having attrition in the cities in well supplied regions, as it makes no sense. But it's hard to please everybody. I absolutely love that armies in the desert get attrition outside the cities though. Even my troops "immune to desert attrition" get attrition. So just a small gripe. Thanks team.