Battle outcomes with newest patch

[The Great Bear]

I'm surprised no one seems to be talking about this, as I just assumed that it would have been patched long ago, but if it has been recognized as a problem please inform me. The thing I've seen so far is that the battle outcomes seem to have shifted to effects on morale, while I'm okay with that I've noticed once it goes one way its almost impossible to shift.

Example: a 4000 man army has attacked a 2000 man army, this goes on for a few days, the attacks have all but won, with about 3200 survivors, then, before the battle ends, the defenders get reinforcements of 5000 men. Normally this would have turned the tide and those being pursued would have been saved, but that seemed to have changed since the conclave patch. Now the 3200 army will wipe out the 5000(+remaining stack of 2000 man army) army with few casualties because the moral barely changed despite fresh troops.

Which makes no since, has anyone else noticed this?

 

[Arsonik]

I have noticed this to some extent but haven't put it to any kind of test or strict observation. I'm glad someone else has noticed. I've been extra careful of late reinforcing stacks.

 

[Yerko]

I just got Conclave today and started to play again and I'm having some strange combat issues. I attack with a stack of 4k against an enemy defending at plains with 2k stack. Right after the skirmish phase is over my army instantly loses all morale and retreats. Am I missing some really big changes? Anyone else experiencing this type of things?

 

[LucidFugue]

It can happen based on troop compositions, flanks, and negative tactic combinations.
Light infantry will let you outnumber opponents and you'll do okay in the skirmish phase, but if you have a small flank that is broken quickly it won't have a big impact on the combined morale bar (as there are fewer troops in proportion to the stack) and the battle situation quickly changes as your largest group is suddenly taking extra damage due to being flanked and in skirmish, so they break even faster.
Add in a negative tactic choice that accelerates losses and it's not impossible for a battle to rapidly deteriorate.

I also hadn't looked too closely at how reinforcements were affecting morale - but they do seem to just get added to the centre flank.

 

[Thrake]

It can happen based on troop compositions, flanks, and negative tactic combinations.
Light infantry will let you outnumber opponents and you'll do okay in the skirmish phase, but if you have a small flank that is broken quickly it won't have a big impact on the combined morale bar (as there are fewer troops in proportion to the stack) and the battle situation quickly changes as your largest group is suddenly taking extra damage due to being flanked and in skirmish, so they break even faster.
Add in a negative tactic choice that accelerates losses and it's not impossible for a battle to rapidly deteriorate.

I also hadn't looked too closely at how reinforcements were affecting morale - but they do seem to just get added to the centre flank.

What OP describes is that fresh troops do not come up at full strenght; while they do increase the overall morale, the difference is pretty small and if the army was about to root, then the reinforcements will likely root soon too; happens regardless of wether it's heavy or light reinforcing.

Now the 3200 army will wipe out the 5000

Wipe is a bit of an overstatement; it roots but casualties are probably not higher than without reinforcements (instead casualties are spread over the two rooting armies). Instead I just cancel movement if the army is about to root. If the reinforcements can take the ennemy on their own I just set up a battle right after first army roots (then reinforcements can attack them while morale is lower) or I just merge reinforcements with the rooting army and go back at full strength so somehow it did not really disturb me much. I wasn't really sure if it was WAD or a bug tbh.

 

[Burned Coffee]

I noticed that too, but I blamed myself for that, in the couple of cases where that happened to me, the troops arrived too late into the pursue phase. Rp wise I assume that the troops arrive on a chaotic chase where they find themselves at a dissavantage trying to evade the allies running away and being intercepted by the enemy.

In any case, that's because the new troops add to the flank instead of replacing it, no? as mentioned above the morale boost is not high enough.

 

[LeonOfOddecca]

I've had this issue as well, except that the army that I was reinforcing wasn't even routing. My combined 7,000 men quickly got crushed by a 4,000 man army. Very frustrating.

 

[SchwarzKatze]

I've had this issue as well, except that the army that I was reinforcing wasn't even routing. My combined 7,000 men quickly got crushed by a 4,000 man army. Very frustrating.

It's possible that your composition was bad or your generals were bad. One wrong move during the initial charge can decide the battle in one day.

 

[TCWolffe]

I've been thinking for a long time now that a battle summary and export feature of some kind would be nice so players can review what happened/questions can be answered more accurately.

Because it is just too hard to say if there's just some occasional anecdotal mishaps or a genuine issue when so many details are missing.

Keep in mind also that it may look like an incorrect "dilution" of the morale level because the number of troops reported during the battle is not necessarily the total troop strength of the stack, just the number left who have not yet routed.

 

[SchwarzKatze]

I've been thinking for a long time now that a battle summary and export feature of some kind would be nice so players can review what happened/questions can be answered more accurately.

Because it is just too hard to say if there's just some occasional anecdotal mishaps or a genuine issue when so many details are missing.

Agreed. The interface only shows the causualties from yesterday, without remembering the tactics used and the damage output, hence there's no telling what caused the slaughtering yesterday, possibly leading to many of the frustration about the battle mechanic.

 

[TCWolffe]

causualties

I saw it, because I'm OCD like that, but then upon thinking about it for a second, that is perhaps the most perfect typo ever given the context :9.

Causualties (noun, plural): losses of life do to contributing reasons far too numerous and difficult to precisely identify and preventing the formation of conclusions with a reliable degree of certainty.