Another nation takes region while I'm battling defending army

[MARVIN_THE_ARVN]

So, I attack an independent region, have fought 2 rounds of combat against the garrison and then a AI faction moves I to the province, I assume they beat the garrison and then takes the province.

Now, as a game mechanic I think that's not a particularly enjoyable way to deal with this situation but from an immersion point of view it also makes no sense.

Surely, some sort of stand off should occur or the most powerful army takes the province.

Is this working as designed?

[jimwinsor]

Well, if there were no walls involved, it does sort of make sense immersion-wise; you move in first, so the enemy garrison moves to your border to defend. After a couple rounds another army swoops in on their now undefended border and takes most of the region.

[MARVIN_THE_ARVN]

From a game perspective it makes life easier but immersion wise it makes little sense to me.

Surely my army would be in the province and not just give up the territory they had been fighting over?

Contested, I get but my army gets teleported out of the region and they have control of it. Wouldn't a better mechanic be to have the area contested and then a choice is made to retreat, war over it, see if you can get local support or force the other army out through other means.

Also, wouldn't it be extremely dangerous to engage an army already engaged in a running battle/campaign?

Although it is possible it happened I don't know of any instances where a neutral army swept in on a battle with 2 engaged armies.

[Hendricus]

As a defender it would be fun to see two invading armies fight each other first. The battered winner can after that try to defeat the Original defender. At this moment going into a neutral region with several armies is a black box situation.

[lostangelonline]

From a game perspective it makes life easier but immersion wise it makes little sense to me.

Surely my army would be in the province and not just give up the territory they had been fighting over?

Contested, I get but my army gets teleported out of the region and they have control of it. Wouldn't a better mechanic be to have the area contested and then a choice is made to retreat, war over it, see if you can get local support or force the other army out through other means.

Also, wouldn't it be extremely dangerous to engage an army already engaged in a running battle/campaign?

Although it is possible it happened I don't know of any instances where a neutral army swept in on a battle with 2 engaged armies.

I tend to agree with all you said. It made me curious and I made a quick search on Google/Wikipedia and so far I found no historic examples where a 3rd army would get involved in an ongoing battle/siege. Considering this might be a quick way of profiting and take territory from a stronger nation at war with another nation (like I often did in EU), I suspect there is a good reason for it (like you said, because the first army who defeated the garrison would not just give up the territory they had been fighting over).

So I agree with both your proposals to improve the game:
1. either the most (perceived) powerful army (biggest CP - combat power) takes the province;
2. or region will NOT change owner if 2 (or more) armies of the possible new owners are in the province (and fighting diplomatically over it, while the locals themselves continue to remain loyal to previous owner). In this case:
2.a) one will have to (eventually) leave and the region (without previous owner garrison) will immediately pass to the only army left (fixes loosing side having their army teleported without consent), or
2.b) one player (eventually) declares war on the other, and the armies in the same region will immediately fight each other, until only one is left and gains the region.

What do you guys say?

[MARVIN_THE_ARVN]

Sounds good to me and I'm glad to hear it wasn't just me that found the mechanic odd.

[Morbio]

This recently happened to me in a MP game at the start. I was the Arverni besieging the province due north of my starting city. I had besieged for 2 years and the defence was suffering through attrition, before they collapse the Galli move in and take the region and I'm teleported back to the starting city! To make matters worse I can't attack the Galli without declaring war. I do this, but this delays me 1 year and when I can attack the Galli had recovered enough to hold out from my invasion (just) and so now I lose a fair portion of my army am back to 1 city and have a weak army. It has ruined the MP game I was looking forward to.

Something has to be done to stop this

[FrenchDude]

I’ve a made a topic about this not long ago, I think that the whole thing isn’t working as intended, it will probably be reworked (I hope so)

[Pocus]

If you want to help us, please provide saved games the turn before this undue region snatching.
Send the file(s) to support@slitherine.co.uk, copy-paste the thread URL and title and mention this is for Pocus please.

[MARVIN_THE_ARVN]

Hey Pocus,

Thanks for the interest, sadly my game is a multiplayer game and I think 2 turns have since passed.

I assume that means I cant send the save.

[Morbio]

Ditto

[Morbio]

I'm expecting this to happen imminently in a current MP game.

I'm Mauretania and at war with Carthage, Rome is also at war with Carthage.

I've had a Carthage city under siege for a few turns as it has 3 walls and I don't want to risk the loss of some of my most experience troops. Last turn Rome has marched an army into the same region, I'm expecting it will try to take the city first. If it does it will mean I'll have to attack Rome, just on principle!

Pocus: If you want to look at this the game is called something like 'Sand People' as the players are playing minor desert-based nations and all the main powers are AI.

[Morbio]

I'm expecting this to happen imminently in a current MP game.

I'm Mauretania and at war with Carthage, Rome is also at war with Carthage.

I've had a Carthage city under siege for a few turns as it has 3 walls and I don't want to risk the loss of some of my most experience troops. Last turn Rome has marched an army into the same region, I'm expecting it will try to take the city first. If it does it will mean I'll have to attack Rome, just on principle!

Pocus: If you want to look at this the game is called something like 'Sand People' as the players are playing minor desert-based nations and all the main powers are AI.

As expected, I inflict some casualties on the defenders and reduce the number of walls, but while doing this Rome takes the city and I'm teleported out to a neighbouring country. Not good

[Pocus]

I'll see when I can reproduce the bug and fix it. Not sure it can be done for the next patch, if we want it this year!