Units disappear from one scenario to the next in multi-battle campaigns

[smartadze]

Hi, an issue that has bugged me since the beginning I begin a custom campaign by choosing a side (example: Persian). I select my units. I play the first (or any) scenario in the campaign and emerge victorious, moving to the next scenario. I receive recruitment points to re-build my army and purchase additional units.
BUT
one or more units I had already purchased and used in the previous scenario has now disappeared. A unit I had previously expended points for is now just ... gone. I can buy another one, of course - but I had already done that!

These are not units that were disrupted, routed, suffered extreme losses, exited the board, were out of command control, or any other situation - these are active line units whose number just ... vanishes.
These vanished units do not exceed any kind of limit as to the number allowed for a particular type - if in fact there is a limit. I mean, if I wanted an army that consisted entirely of Sparabarra bowmen- why shouldn't I have one if I have the points and the opportunity to purchase them? But that's NOT even the case here. For example, the buy-in screen at the beginning of a Large-initial-battle campaign shows I can purchase up to 23 Sparabarra bowmen. I purchase 19. But then, one scenario later, at the rebuild-and-buy screen at the beginning of Scenario #2 - one has vanished, and I now have only 18. He was happy, healthy, and victorious, now just vanished from the roster, never to return. Of course, there is no points credit or anything of that sort.
So perhaps I buy another one. One scenario later, another one may vanish - NOT the unit I just bought, but what seems to be a random one. WTF?

This happens with any Level of Play, initial purchase points and size of Army (small to Large initial scenario), number of scenarios in the campaign (5 to 15), and I have observed it with more than one nationality. I prefer to play as Persians, and this vanishing is always consistent. Because the largest Persian contingent is - by nature of the side - Sparabarra, it has been most notable in that category. I have had campaigns where I have purchased upwards of 26 units but never could maintain more than 18 or so at any given time. The rest are not defeated - they are just vanished, never to return. Or the points either, of course.

Love the game! How can this be remedied, or at least understood? I appreciate any help or advice. I can furnish screen shots or etc. Playing latest version with full clean install on Intel 12th-Gen system and RX=580 video.

[rbodleyscott]

At the end of a campaign battle the system will consolidate the units of a particular unit type, redistributing men from the most damaged units to bring the strength of the other units as close as possible to that of the least damaged unit of that type. This (a) avoids the army consisting of lots of severely damaged units, of marginal effectiveness, in the case of a follow on battle that does not allow reinforcements, or (b) reduces the number of recruits required to bring the remaining units up to full strength if reinforcements are allowed.

For mathematical reasons, the more units you have of the same type, the more likely this is to happen. This is why you have noticed the issue more with Persians, who, as you say, tend to have lots and lots of Sparabara units.

You have not lost any men, but they have been redistributed between other units to replace their losses. This means that you will have more reinforcement points to spend on new units than you would have done if this consolidation was not done, so you have, in fact, been reimbursed for the "missing" unit.

Note that the unit indices in brackets after the unit name in battle are not permanent campaign unit indices, they are just the unit indices assigned automatically by the game engine at the start of each battle to allow it to keep track of the units in that particular battle. If you want to keep track of individual campaign units, you need to name them using the name unit function, at the start of a battle. They will then keep that name as long as they continue to exist in the campaign.

[smartadze]

Oh my - thank you for such an erudite reply. Am I correct in understanding, that NAMING a unit will not ensure that it sticks around, but it too could be assimilated in the redistribution of men (and vanish).

[rbodleyscott]

Oh my - thank you for such an erudite reply. Am I correct in understanding, that NAMING a unit will not ensure that it sticks around, but it too could be assimilated in the redistribution of men (and vanish).

That is correct. But the code redistributes the most damaged units. (Which was usual military practice in later periods, and therefore probably in the Ancient period). And if they are equally damaged, the most recently recruited.

[smartadze]

Thank you again. I observed for myself how the engine does this by starting a new campaign using the Sparabara and naming each unit (S 1 to S 22). Sure enough, although victorious overall, unit resources had been completely redistributed from the end of Scenario #1 to the Scenario #2 buy-in screen. And the most damaged unit (S 9), although healthy, had been disbanded.

For those who also might be interested in the numbers and how the sausage gets made, I have attached a simple table.