Mutual attacks - where do they fight?

[Chazar]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
If you're sending two armies from two provinces to attack one province, you will always wind up with two battles: One where the enemy attacks one of your armies, and one where your other army, missing the first army, attacks the enemy province alone.

I doubt that "always": Since I love Caelum, I usually start my attacks from various provinces. Sometimes it works, and sometime it doesnt. The good thing is that if one of your flying armies catches the enemy before he leaves the province, always all of your armies join the battle. If the enemy is moved first, he will only battle against the army residing in the province he attacks.

I guess thats due to the random evaluation of movement: Whichever army is moved first decides where the battle takes place.

One important thing to remember is that movement within friendly provinces is evaluated always before anything else, so defending a province from multiple points always works, regardless whether other armies attack the defenders starting provinces!

[ May 10, 2004, 12:41: Message edited by: Chazar ]

[Tris]

Hmmm...the best way for this to work would be for the fastest strategic army to hit first. Not only does this seem appropriate, but it also means you could do mean things like paralyse a big slow army with raiding attacks from quicker armies.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Chazar:
I doubt that "always": Since I love Caelum, I usually start my attacks from various provinces. Sometimes it works, and sometime it doesnt. The good thing is that if one of your flying armies catches the enemy before he leaves the province, always all of your armies join the battle. If the enemy is moved first, he will only battle against the army residing in the province he attacks.

This works fine if you're attacking from a province that is not being attacked in turn. If you launch from several provinces, including one that is being attacked, the enemy will attack first.

I guess thats due to the random evaluation of movement: Whichever army is moved first decides where the battle takes place.

I don't believe it's truly random. As a programmer myself, I've come to firmly distrust anything that somebody says is "random". If it's random, it's invariably a cover for an amusing, but sadistic behavior that uses the alleged randomness as a screen.

One important thing to remember is that movement within friendly provinces is evaluated always before anything else, so defending a province from multiple points always works, regardless whether other armies attack the defenders starting provinces!

I am aware of this.

[Endoperez]

If only strategic movement would matter, heavy infantry with only one movement would be useless. Defender would just make one commander in every province bordering enemy's army, and attack with them all. As they are faster than the army, they stop the big army to its place...

It could be nice to have strat. move as one of the modifiers.

[Jasper]

This works fine if you're attacking from a province that is not being attacked in turn. If you launch from several provinces, including one that is being attacked, the enemy will attack first.

This has not been my experience. I have indeed launched attacks from several provinces and pushed back my opponent -- even though he was in turn invading one of the provinces from which I attacked.

Furthermore it's a logical paradox, as there is no way to differentiate "attacker" from "defender" when two armies in adjacent provinces try to swap provinces.

I'm curious why you are so certain it works as you describe? Did one of the developers say it worked that way?

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Endoperez:
If only strategic movement would matter, heavy infantry with only one movement would be useless.

I don't think it would be a good thing to make slow heavy infantry useless, and it certainly wouldn't be a good thing to be able to stop an advance by a superior force by throwing single commanders at it.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Jasper:
This has not been my experience. I have indeed launched attacks from several provinces and pushed back my opponent -- even though he was in turn invading one of the provinces from which I attacked.

Furthermore it's a logical paradox, as there is no way to differentiate "attacker" from "defender" when two armies in adjacent provinces try to swap provinces.

As you describe, it is indeed difficult to determine who to designate the "attacker" when such an event occurs. If your opponent wasn't trying to do the same thing as well, the code probably misinterpreted the move and didn't remember to try and screw you over.

I'm curious why you are so certain it works as you describe? Did one of the developers say it worked that way?

I haven't really gotten any kind of official response one way or another. If they actually RESPONDED, that would more or less confirm that this is definitely the case. However, I've conducted a lot of observations, and this happens way too often to merely be entirely "random". It more closely matches the signature of sadism masquerading as randomness.

[ May 10, 2004, 22:36: Message edited by: Norfleet ]