Immortal Fire Quick Battles

[julianbarker]

I will be honest and confess that in the hundreds of hours played before I never looked at Quick Battles. But on buying Immortal Fire I thought I would fire up a quick Battle and just accept the default options. I got an Antigonid v Lysimachid which as a student of the Diadochi, seemed a good place to start. I got a small force of nine units. Three cavalry, one pikes, one Thracian, two skirmishers, an elephant and an engine. My opponent seemed of similar size with more infantry and fewer cavalry so was looking forward to a smallish battle where I could use the rough ground to reduce the impact of his pike supremacy, and use my cavalry superiority on the flank. Despite him having only eight units he had four leaders, which seemed a bit much. By the time we made contact he had received three separate tranches of reinforcements. I beat his original army, but my units were in no shape to defeat the wave after wave of reinforcements, many of whom were veteran pikes despite my one pike unit only being average.

Is this what Quick Battles are meant to be like? I like challenge and have no time for games where the player must win every scenario/round/level etc. But things became completely unwinnable and I can't see how a player can win a game like this.

I have two armies, with basically the same troop types, in open terrain and I get 3068 troops and the enemy get 12319!

[rbodleyscott]

Quick Battles randomly select from the various scenario types (though weighted towards open battles).

It seems like you got a Rearguard scenario which is a survival scenario - which is intended to be unwinnable, you just play it to see how long you can survive. It doesn't do anything for me either, but I am told that some people like survival scenarios.

Most battles will be more normal scenarios. If you open the briefing panel it will describe the situation - and if you don't fancy it, you can exit the battle and roll again.

Conversely, the random selection of scenario types and terrain types for Quick Battles can give the player the opportunity to try something he might never try if he picked the scenario details himself. And if you do want more control over the battle setup you can do so using Custom Battles.

[julianbarker]

Thanks for the explanation. That makes a lot of sense. But I failed to notice the changed victory conditions as nothing ever said "Rearguard" .if I got a clear message that I was not meant to destroy 40% of the enemy etc. it would make a difference. I enjoyed the game until the point when playing on became pointless, because i don't know how long is long enough. Sorry, but what am I playing the battle for? I don't remember ever getting a choice about the scenario. As the original forces were matched closely to mine I thought it was a straight battle until more enemy turned up. Surely the player should get more info than that so they know what they are playing for, and what they are playing against? A rearguard action won't be done without some purpose or reason.

If I had known I was meant to be a rearguard I would have played much more defensively and used terrain differently instead of trying to beat the enemy originally opposite me. It was not a good introduction to the game if that had been my first ever FoGII game.

Also, why has a rearguard got an engine and pike phalanx? Surely it would be cavalry and lighter and more expendable troops? I don't mind the variety or challenge, but it has to make some sort of sense to the player.

[TheGrayMouser]

You can see your objectives on the detailed window as attached.