Continued weirdness with Sardinia-Piedmont in North Africa

[Prussia]

Playing as S-P I sent a force to Cyrenaica which had just fallen to the Rebels- in an attempt to cherry pick provinces.

Sent a force of 2 Cavalry Brigades; 2 Generals; and 2 Supply Columns (additional Colonial style units are fitting out on the mainland) which successfully landed in Cyrenaica, defeated the rebels and chased them into Sirt via Benghazi (or Amal... hard to say). Next turn, they engage and defeat the rebels twice in Sirt, but by the end of turn processing the force is now in Tunis? What? How?

I have influence in Tripoli, but not in any of the other regions from Sirt to Tripoli; and Tripoli to Tunis? I'm not at war with the Ottomans, so ostensibly I shouldn't be able to pass through their territory! Or can I? Or only in pursuit? The only naval transport units around are in Gulf of Sirta, so they didn't end up in Tunis via transport.

So finally after this long journey accomplished in less than 30 days (Rommel would be envious) I'm now at war with Tunisia; and of course my preliminary colonial force is not up to the task of tackling a full blown Tunisian battle force... rebels yes, but not Regulars. So of course my relatively intact (nominal losses vs. rebels) but tired units lose their first battle against the Tunisians. Okay... but by the end of the turn, one of the Cavalry Brigades is now history!!! I call Bull Hockey. Unit should have never been there to begin with having availed themselves of other world tech to even get there. Horse shit!

I've done several trial play-throughs of Sardinia-Piedmont in attempt to learn the game; and this is the second time that units end up by magic in Tunis. Prior attempt they came out of Tripoli, which didn't make sense; this instance its farcical.

I've rolled back to the prior turn in attempt to save my cavalry brigade from annihilation.

Any advice; suggestions, or observations would be greatly appreciated.

The one thing I need to be more aware of are my offensive/pursuit settings of units so they don't go traipsing all over the place.

Thanks in advance.

[loki100]

I think there were two issues - first you targetted the rebel units and thus you followed them? Second I now forget the exact status of Libya but I think that once you take it from the rebels it reverts to Ottoman control, as you weren't at war with them you were bounced from the region?

In general, you can enter territory notionally owned by another state if it is held by rebels. Control will then revert back to the state with the best loyalty. Sorry this is a bit vague but not actually played PoN for a little while

[Erostratus]

I have been like you trying things out with S-P, and also on my second run, as I was eyeing tunisia early. On my second run I started colonial cards on the first turn and I think I delayed france at least a year. I could have been more aggressive and grabbed it but, I did not want to use my continental force. So I made 2 inf div and 1 cav div. Right as I was getting things together france nabbed the tunis capital, and the provence above. Trouble with S-P is it takes so long to build armies at the start I think you need to take part of your starting force to make this happen. Even when france attacked the Tunisian army, I think they lost one of the battles and even after they took the capital tunis's army was not destroyed.

EDIT: it is the turn 3 in 1854 and I have my invasion fleet of the coast of tunis. Low and behold tunis has been giving the french quite a struggle and currently tunis's army hold the capitol. It has changed hands twice now!! talk about the dramatic! I imagine the french army is in another provence I cant see. I have 35%cp the most I think I can get with S-P at this point in time in the two provinces south of the capital. Its my intent to land my 2inf, 1cav, & support units there. This is my first time landing such a large force. I do have a question though. It appears I can't land my whole stack at once. If i try to get them all to land it says something like" will delete current unit in the stack" or "can only land one army". If I have a larger army do I need to do it in successive turns? I have only ever landed a colonial brigade or something small.

Thank you