How to annihiliate enemy units

[unmerged(2073)]

This one has all the marks of a fine plan turning sour.

Having 90 soldiers chased around Ireland by a Polish army of 22000, I resolved to keep them there to starve. Unfortunately, in my negligence, I allow the Poles to sneak up on my east coast and take the Marches

This was no serious problem after a little manouevring and the Polish fleet is beaten away, I know have two armies to annihilate or starve to death.

The only problem here was that once the army on the main island was beaten down to 30 cannon, they just kept on retreating from province to province and making a serious mess of my nice countryside. Even if I beat them in Wales and they then retreat to Bristol to another waiting force, they simply retreat again and this time to Anglia - and don't let me start on how they can retreat in the same direction that they came from

At the end of the day I was forced to accept their outrageous peace demand us their cannon were probably doing more damage to my disciplined forces than I was doing to a totally demoralised army on the run with no significant support. What are they doing? Is their comander some kind of early day terrorist

Anyone tell me how I should have dealt with them

 

[hjarg]

Hmmm... maybe you wait a bit and let them regain their morale a bit. Then they will fight a bit longer and you have a greater chance to annihhilate them.
And what else they can do? You probably don't let Polish fleet near your coastline anymore, so they can't escape. And they want to live as well. Only way they can survive is to loot your provinces; you probably don't support them with food and other supplies . But they aren't strong enough to face you in direct battle, so they keep fleeing. And looting.
Or you can split your armis so you have some forces on your every province? They will always have to fight and sooner or later will be killed to the last man.

 

[grumbold]

Immortal routing out of supply cannon are a hot issue at the moment. The problem declines as the game advances because fortification levels and killpower increases. You only need one army of cavalry to persue them rather than multiple armies but the suggestion of letting them recover a little morale does help if you don't mind them getting to loot your province before you arrive.