reconnaissance, probes and retreats

[Zardoz]

Coming from the old AJE scene I'm slowly adjusting to this wonderful new game. Old tactics die hard but.

So some questions:

1. I seem to be able to inspect the army composition of enemy armies in neighbouring regions. Is this guaranteed to be accurate or is there some fog of war element? Is there some maximum range past which I won't be able to see other armies. Do I need to have cavalry reconnaissance for example if I'm advancing out of my regions?

2. If I give battle and decide to fight it out in FoG II, there seems to be no way to end the battle other than by the game running to conclusion with one side being defeated. The "Retreat" button as documented in the FoG II manual section 9.4.2 is not visible in an exported battle. Is that by design?

Since it is impossible to really do a fighting withdrawal in FoG II (fallbacks often being punished by morale drops plus heavy units not really advised to turn tail and walk backwards...) it seems that I should only export a battle when I am confident of a win or at least a draw.

Because there is no way to break contact in a losing situation, all defeats are likely to be severe and destructive, it seems to me. Am I missing something?

cheers

Zardoz

[loki100]

1 - if the army/fleet is in an adjacent region you have an accurate picture of it.

due to the game scale, I find scouting as such less value than say in AJE. Best to regard all that sort of smaller action as subsumed into unit moves and the pre-battle phase etc.

2 - worth stressing the game is not balanced around using FoG2 as there are too many variables, not least about player skill in that game.

So yes, its a fight to the 60% point.

If you think you are going to lose perhaps try to keep your cavalry out of action as far as possible, at least that will give you some protection during the post battle rout.

Unless you are absolutely destroying units in FoG2 I'm not sure it is more destructive than the Empires battle system, not least the final losses are very dependent on what happens after one army is defeated.

[Zardoz]

Thanks, that's all clear. It is a different game to AJE - I'm probably just advancing and conquering one region at a time with no sweeping maneuvers across the countryside.

The idea of using this game to add context to the FoG II tactical games is a real selling point but. If there is some way to add retreat/break contact in the future...

I played the tabletop ruleset equivalent of FoG II and got used to the abstract nature of that game - always thinking blades/spears/warband rather than Romans/Greeks/Celts. That's become a bad habit because it makes each game somewhat repetitive.

cheers

Tony

[Pocus]

What if you wait for the 24 turns to elapse?

[Zardoz]

What if you wait for the 24 turns to elapse?

Hi Pocus

I imagine that would work if you *could* wait, but generally the AI won't let you. 24 turns is enough to get across the "board" and I think that, in any situation where I could not win due to my army's weakness, the AI will "realize" my weakness and try to attack.

The last game I exported also had the AI trying a flank march on me. That's a pretty good AI in there!

There are situations where terrain allows a small army to turtle and survive but that sort of terrain is not guaranteed to appear in a game.

And I've just tried a couple of things in a test game -- there is no command to march off the "table". Units can only flee or evade off the board and heavy foot never evades. Never mind.

cheers

Tony