a question regarding the "sortie" mechanic

[riknap]

in the dev streams, they said you can use the garrisons to reinforce an army in battle. while playing around, I noticed you're only able to do this if the "battle" happened while one side (ie. the enemy as defender) was besieging a province (ie. your province), as you could only press/access the sortie button using the siege view interface, and the siege view interface is only visible if there was a prior siege.
In short, you can't use your garrison to reinforce a battle if it happened when one army "catches" another army (that's moving, thus not sieging) over your provinces. will this be changed sometime in the future?
I've found that sometimes a 2,000~3,000 soldier reinforcement is often enough to win a critical close-call battle in your favour - especially if it's a very large battle that involves entire force limits of countries, and morale is at single digits for both sides (like 0.09 vs 0.06 - a single reinforcement unit or two can completely tip scales towards victory, especially if reinforcements are too far away )

 

[MeatPirate]

I wait for a stack to siege a province then move my main stack in. The day before it arrives I press sortie. It gives a very welcome boost to fighting defensive wars against bigger foes.

 

[riknap]

well, that's certainly one way to trigger it :laugh:
still, it's not very strategic. there are often times wherein you want to catch/bait the enemy (because another terrain is disadvantageous for you), not to mention the timing of the garrison-reinforcement is what's vital. having the reinforcement at the very start negates their value as a way to eke out the battle by a few more precious days to win the war (I've had battles give +10 or so warscore and push war enthusiasm from medium to low, making it possible to demand peace early enough (say to avoid losing the war in case the enemy alliances are too much)