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always evade

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 7:01 pm
by urkki63
Hi all!

Is it possible to order troops (or mod data files) to "always evade"? = never charge, avoid close combat if possible, just use your bows. FOG1 had that option, I think(?)

Henry

Re: always evade

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 7:34 pm
by rbodleyscott
urkki63 wrote:Hi all!

Is it possible to order troops (or mod data files) to "always evade"? = never charge, avoid close combat if possible, just use your bows. FOG1 had that option, I think(?)

Henry
No. (By design).

Re: always evade

Posted: Fri Dec 15, 2017 8:49 pm
by urkki63
What's the next best thing? What orders should I give to LH(F), say, Magyars and Parthians and the like?

Henry

Re: always evade

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 8:11 am
by rbodleyscott
urkki63 wrote:What's the next best thing? What orders should I give to LH(F), say, Magyars and Parthians and the like?

Henry
Why do you want them never to charge? They won't charge unless they think there is an advantage in doing so.

Re: always evade

Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2017 8:02 pm
by urkki63
Well, let´s say "minimize hand-to-hand" and "maximize missile action" then. Why? I feel it would improve the way light chariots fight in the game. I'm sure it occasionally came to blows if the chariot got stuck or was ambushed etc. but the best modern military historians do argue that the horses would simply refuse to charge straight into clear danger (such as a forest of pointy objects) even if the driver thought it was a good idea. That's what my books tell me anyway.

Some types of light horse might benefit also.

Last time, a bunch of massed archers charged into a phalanx of armored spearmen (admittedly after some shooting) and initiated a prolonged close combat apparently with their bare hands (having no other weapons). Surely, they would have been better off keeping a safe distance and just shooting the spearmen down with arrows since it was already going so well...

Cheers!

Henry

Re: always evade

Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 9:00 am
by rbodleyscott
urkki63 wrote:Well, let´s say "minimize hand-to-hand" and "maximize missile action" then. Why? I feel it would improve the way light chariots fight in the game. I'm sure it occasionally came to blows if the chariot got stuck or was ambushed etc. but the best modern military historians do argue that the horses would simply refuse to charge straight into clear danger (such as a forest of pointy objects) even if the driver thought it was a good idea. That's what my books tell me anyway.

Some types of light horse might benefit also.

Last time, a bunch of massed archers charged into a phalanx of armored spearmen (admittedly after some shooting) and initiated a prolonged close combat apparently with their bare hands (having no other weapons). Surely, they would have been better off keeping a safe distance and just shooting the spearmen down with arrows since it was already going so well...
True, but the fact that they don't have a melee capability does not mean that have no other weapons - they will usually have some sort of side weapon if only a knife.

If you want to make them even more reluctant to get into close combat, I am afraid you will need to mod the scripts.