No Battle in Neutral Territory?

[Falconius]

Installed the latest patch and decided to have one more game before EU4 comes out.

Playing as Ottomans, I'm at war with Castille, who has armies in Mameluk land (Mameluks surrendered to them). I send my armies down to fight, and end up with 30,000 men to Castille's 15,000 in the same province, but no battle!

Is this something new with the new patch? Never saw this happen before.

 

[unmerged(80402)]

I think it is some kind of bug, had it happen in MP game... was bit loled by this...

 

[TheArchMede]

There is temporary MA at the beginning (something like the first year) of a truce. Armies which are using this temporary MA can't fight.

 

[fleetothemoon]

I can think of one way that this may had happened.

Have you been using your spies recently? Instigating riots etc? Does the tooltip of that army who wont fight you possess both the Castillian flag and the Ottoman flag? If so, that probably means that somehow, that army of Castille was spawned from your spies. This usually happens when a rebel army funded by you changes to a national army upon completing their objective; they still retain their secondary flag (which is yours) so that they will never fight you in a battle - much like how they wouldn't had fought you if they were still rebels. I was never sure if this was intentional but it was quite amusing sometimes to see how AI try to attack you with armies that you previously funded only to have them follow your army around, never engaing or stopping sieges etc.

 

[Falconius]

There is temporary MA at the beginning (something like the first year) of a truce. Armies which are using this temporary MA can't fight.

You might be on to something, but what does MA stand for?

 

[Falconius]

I can think of one way that this may had happened.

Have you been using your spies recently? Instigating riots etc? Does the tooltip of that army who wont fight you possess both the Castillian flag and the Ottoman flag? If so, that probably means that somehow, that army of Castille was spawned from your spies. This usually happens when a rebel army funded by you changes to a national army upon completing their objective; they still retain their secondary flag (which is yours) so that they will never fight you in a battle - much like how they wouldn't had fought you if they were still rebels. I was never sure if this was intentional but it was quite amusing sometimes to see how AI try to attack you with armies that you previously funded only to have them follow your army around, never engaing or stopping sieges etc.

I double-checked after seeing your answer, because I HAVE been using spies to instigate riots in Morea (owned by Castille). But the Castillian army in Alexandria has only the Castillian flag. (It also has the Castillian Monarch leading it, if that means anything). So I'm pretty sure that's not it.

 

[pontifex_medius]

You might be on to something, but what does MA stand for?

MA=Military Access. And yes, I've encountered the same issue myself. Sweden, which had troops besieging a Vietnamese province owned by Burgundy, was at war with me (Japan). Even as Burgundy was at war with Sweden as well, I still couldn't fight the Swedes. I owned all the surrounding provinces, and was able to enter the Burgundian province, but I could fight them only when I was granted MA by Burgundy.

 

[Falconius]

MA=Military Access. And yes, I've encountered the same issue myself. Sweden, which had troops besieging a Vietnamese province owned by Burgundy, was at war with me (Japan). Even as Burgundy was at war with Sweden as well, I still couldn't fight the Swedes. I owned all the surrounding provinces, and was able to enter the Burgundian province, but I could fight them only when I was granted MA by Burgundy.

OK, that's it then. One complication that I didn't mention in the OP (trying to keep it short), was that after the Mameluks made peace with Castille, Morocco declared war on me and the Mameluks (my ally!) dow'ed me as Morocco's ally. I managed to get a white peace with the Mams, and it was then that I could no longer fight Castille in Mam territory.

I get it now. Mystery solved! I'll have to finish that game now! Thanks everyone for their help.

Just curious though: was this always the case? I've never come across this before.

 

[TheArchMede]

I think it was added with the 10 year truces. Thats a bit long for units to be stuck in some foreign land because you have truces with intervening countries that won't give you MA due to hating you from the war you've just fought.