Slitherine

My troops just won't come back while the enemy troops are rallying back left and right. I am seeing this much more often at Baron difficulty which has made this game ridiculously harder.

I just lost a game where I was ahead 50 - 32 by 62 - 40.

Because they just kept coming back and I was forced to play whack a mole while none of my troops ever returned.

Units rally automatically and there isn't much you can practically do to influence it. At baron difficulty there are probably more enemy units routing at any given time which means there's higher chance of them being the ones rallying, and if the enemy units are high quality that increase their chances or rallying as well. I'd also imagine that more of your units have routed as a result of auto-break which means they can't rally anymore, while your are probably driving off many of the enemy units by effective flanking which means they aren't necessarily that badly damaged and can rally. Beyond than that this sounds like normal case of bad luck.

No mechanic to rally troops, as you are only the general of your army, unable to totally control the behaviour of each of your units/soldiers. And on this day, on the battlefield, as a general, you weren't lucky.
Next time, maybe ! Fortune will favour you and your soldiers will be more disciplined.
The fate of the battlefield IRL.
An element of randomness that adds spice to the game, making each battle different.

The probability of AI rallying = the probability that your own troops rally.
In this game, no magical advantage is given to the AI, depending on the difficulty level.

If you don't want the enemy troops to rally, use your light troops to harass the routers (and the newly rallied ones).

Athos1660 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 12:15 am ...In this game, no magical advantage is given to the AI, depending on the difficulty level.

And to continue that thought, the only advantage the AI has at the higher difficulty levels is that it has more points to buy units, and at the very highest level of "King", its troops are also of generally higher quality while yours are usually the same or of lower quality (especially "Average" or below units) than their normal levels.

Otherwise, the AI acts the same at all difficulty levels, and it uses the same random number generator (RNG) you do - so rallies happen (or don't happen) for both the AI and you for the reasons described above.

One thing you can do to increase the *chances* of rallying routed units is to have a general with it - this will have the unit check for rally on each of your turns, instead of (I think) a 20% chance of checking to rally every turn by itself. That 20% chance is just the probability of attempting to rally, the routed unit then has to try to rally, with higher-quality units (say, "Above Average" or better) more likely to rally (assuming the unit isn't below 50% of its original strength, because at that point it won't stop running.)

Of course, you take the chance that the general just gets dragged along with the routed unit if it doesn't pass its rally test - for practical purposes, I think it's only worthwhile to try to rally "Superior" or better units. Units of lower quality are more likely to say, "Screw you, sir!" and keep running

The flip side of this is one of the reasons light cavalry is so useful - a routed enemy unit cannot check for rally at all if it is being pursued, even if it has a general with it. So if you see a high-value target like a routed knights and sergeants cavalry unit (usually superior or higher quality) with a general accompanying it, and it isn't already being pursued [Edit: or below 50% of its original strength], you would be wise to charge it with a cavalry unit to either chase it off the map, or until it disperses. You might even kill or wound the general. [Pursuing] a routing raw light crossbowman unit? I wouldn't bother unless there were no other targets.

I say "light cavalry" because it's a cheaper unit, and I don't want my own knights and sergeants to follow the enemy off the map ("Come back, you idiots, the battle isn't over yet!" - which happened many times in history. As an example, see the Battle of Verneuil (17 August 1424) and the actions of the Milanese heavy cavalry who were allied to the French and Scots.

[Edit for grammar.]

Btw routing units can't test to rally if they are being pursued, or if they suffered more than 10% losses from shooting in the previous enemy turn.

Athos1660 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 2:19 am Btw routing units can't test to rally if they are being pursued, or if they suffered more than 10% losses from shooting in the previous enemy turn.

I did mention pursuit in my post as a means of preventing a rally, but you do bring up an excellent point in shooting a routed unit to prevent rallying.

If you (the player) don't have light cavalry to pursue routing units, use your light foot to chase them and shoot them up, especially if they are close to the 50% loss level. If you can inflict enough casualties to drop them below 50% of of their original strength, your job is done, and the routers will soon disperse permanently. Late in the battle, the main jobs of your remaining light infantry is to chase routers and to shoot un-routed units which are close to auto-breaking (50% for average units, lower % for lower-quality units, higher % for higher-quality units.)

Thanks a lot everyone