How do you stop an amry that won't fight?

[unmerged(2706)]

Bouncing Armies

I have played one game (besides the endless tutorial) and was too frustrated to play by 1510. I played England and decided to annex Scotland (original I know). I eventually annexed Scotland but was faced with a French army of 6000 men left over from an invasion across the English Channel. The army would not fight my larger armys in pursuit. In addition, it would freely retreat into provinces with thousands of troops and instead of fighting, would merely retreat further onward, lighting fires where possible. After about 8 encounters, I forgot about the little French army only to find out after a couple years that the army was still alive and well in the Highlands. I found this to be ridiculous and haven't played since.

Do I have to have an army in every province or what???

 

[BiB]

Well, it'd help

 

[Aemilius XXIII]

I guess that you had not much cavalry in your army to pursue the enemy army?

Greetings Aemilius XXIII

 

[daboese]

Yes, you have to split up the armies. The Frenchman usually retreat into a province where there are no armies... Upgrading your fortresses might help as well- the larger the fortress, the larger the army besieging has to be. And once the French army cannot retreat anymore when it has lost, it will vanish.
I agree, it is usually most annoying playing England, especially if you have manufacturies around (and I usually like to be developed) and you loose them... Better have some troops there...

 

[Dark Knight]

I don't suppose Paradox has any fixes for the 'bouncing army' problem in the works?

 

[unmerged(1813)]

A neat solution which would also add some more 'flavor' to the game would be forces with very low morale (like after losing a battle and retreating) which run into a new enemy would start to desert and surrender. Surrendered troops would be counted in a single file, and periodically they could be exchanged for troops of your own that the enemy has captured. At the end of the war, part of the peace settlement would be provision for 'ransoming' prisoners back that you cannot exchange.
This would allow both the complete destruction by desertion/capture of an army that retreats into an occuped province, and also add another historical consideration to the game: if you failed to exchange/ransom prisoners, you'd take a hit in Stability and Army Morale both! Of course, surrender would be a lot less likely when facing barbarian natives, different religions (Moslem versus Christian), or rebels, who tended to be treated as criminals rather than as soldiers.

 

[unmerged(548)]

Do I have to have an army in every province or what???

NOOO !!!

Avoid that at all costs. It will only make things worse.

Instead pull back all troops, let the French regain some morale and then attack it with a superior force. If you do enough dammage (and don't keep small crap armies all over the place) the enemy will not be able to retreat (becourse the minimum force required to enter an enemy province) and will be totaly destroyed.
However if you keep troops in your provinces, the enemy will bounce around forever after ...

 

[jls211]

Originally posted by Boris Badanov
...Surrendered troops would be counted in a single file, and periodically they could be exchanged for troops of your own that the enemy has captured. At the end of the war, part of the peace settlement would be provision for 'ransoming' prisoners back that you cannot exchange...

This idea I like a lot, and I've seen a similar thing done in the 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms' series by Koei. When an army retreated or was destroyed there was a chance the leader would be captured or killed. You could then offer to pay for his release or swap a leader for him. (You could also try to recruit captured leaders while they were in your jails...)

 

[unmerged(2640)]

I just hope that the current mechanics of allowing an army to retreat aren't changed. First, I think to some extent that is historically ok. At that time it was far easier to retreat from enemy forces because they were generally small with slow movement and the countryside was large enough to make detection of enemies difficult.

Secondly, I actually use that tactic a fair amount myself as I don't feel like fighting a loosing battle against superior forces. I often save the forces for counterattacks once the invading forces have lost an assault on a fortress or have become small enough due to attrition.