The Grand Attack and Defence Thread

[Ludendorf]

Going to try to collate specific scenarios on the campaign map and state whether or not you will be attacking or defending in them.

If an enemy is besieging my province, and I send a relief army, will the relief army be attacking or defending? Will that situation change if the enemy launches an assault, and the relief army arrives too late only to challenge the conquerors on the battlefield? Do the sizes of the armies involved matter?

I say this because I swear I had a scenario where I sent a relief army, the enemy conquered the settlement, and then I was the defender in the ensuing battle on enemy-held (previously mine) territory.

[Gray Fox]

"No plan survives contact with the enemy."

I was a soldier. Sometimes you launch an attack and the other side is suddenly also attacking. It's called a Meeting Engagement. You switch to the defense out of expedience. If everything happened exactly as expected, it would be less frustrating...and less exciting.

[Ludendorf]

"No plan survives contact with the enemy."

I was a soldier. Sometimes you launch an attack and the other side is suddenly also attacking. It's called a Meeting Engagement. You switch to the defense out of expedience. If everything happened exactly as expected, it would be less frustrating...and less exciting.

This is true enough. That said, all recent combat tests suggest you will always be the attacker, regardless of assault status or army sizes.

Now I have to go drink something warm to calm my jangled nerves.

[Swuul]

I can't find the quote now, but I am 99% certain it was in some patch notes. If a region is under siege at the start of the turn, then the besieged side will be the defender in all combats in that region for the turn.

[Pocus]

If you get an occurrence where that's not happening, please send the save to support.

[Ludendorf]

If you get an occurrence where that's not happening, please send the save to support.

Wait, so relief armies are supposed to be the defenders? That's the opposite of what I've been seeing. I think I still have the combat test file I used to confirm this. Give me a moment to confirm...

[Ludendorf]

No, I can now confirm. The relief army is the attacker in all situations, including if the settlement has already fallen, and if the relief army is outnumbered by the besieging army. Trying to attach a save file. Where and how can I attach it? I'm trying to upload the relevant LSF file, but it isn't allowing me to upload it. It says 'invalid file extension'.

[Ludendorf]

Bringing this back up, as I've had situations in a multiplayer game where I have attempted to relieve a siege on two different occasions... and wound up with two different results. One time I was the attacker (the city had just fallen) and the other time I was the defender (I think the city still stood, but I can't be sure).

I'm not complaining, but if there is supposed to be consistency, it doesn't seem to be happening. Either that, or there's some other factor that I don't understand. On both occasions, I had the smaller army. Now that I think about it, my opponent was moving out of the province on the second occasion.

[stuart3]

I wouldn't like it to be totally consistent. It would be nice if the opposing generals' ratings and a small random factor were taken into account. There is such a concept as manoeuvering on the offensive strategically but then tactically fighting the battles defensively and vice-versa. There are also such things as meeting engagements.

[Gray Fox]

Ludendorf, I use We Transfer to share my save games. Just archive the LSF file with some free software, like 7Zip and follow the instructions at We Transfer, which is also free, to upload it. You'll get a code that links to the file. Just post the link and the recipient can DL the file.

https://chadneybulgin.wetransfer.com/

https://www.7-zip.org/

[Pocus]

No that's not what I mean, a relief army will be the attacker, although it is now calculated by checking the delay since the other side arrived. What I meant is that it's not normal that a relief army enters the city without a fight with the besieger.

[Ludendorf]

No that's not what I mean, a relief army will be the attacker, although it is now calculated by checking the delay since the other side arrived. What I meant is that it's not normal that a relief army enters the city without a fight with the besieger.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up Pocus.