Enemy Won't Attack

[Grothesj]

Sometimes the enemy sits up on a hill and won't attack.  Do they have a timer on how long they'll wait before they attack or will they stay up there the whole time unless i attack first?  Is there something that determines whether an opposing army will sit and wait for me to come?

 

[mountainbell]

have you stopped moving, when you stop you're character on the map from moving it automaticlaly pauses the game.

 

[Ringwraith #5]

When your army is stronger than theirs, the AI can choose to await certain death on high ground instead of running towards it. If you do nothing they'll just sit there indefinitely.

 

[Grothesj]

When your army is stronger than theirs, the AI can choose to await certain death on high ground instead of running towards it. If you do nothing they'll just sit there indefinitely.

That's kind of what I thought and it is a reasonable position for the AI to take.  Was just curious if they eventually move or what triggered the behavior.  Thanks.

 

[stygN]

Well, take the Swadians, they sometime camp even when they have good numbers.

What you do to make them charge is to ride up to them and pick out a few men. Then usually charge after a while.

It helps if you're an archer, just use the terrain and place yourself so that you can hit 1-3 enemy crossbow men. Take them out and move around so you can hit 1-3 more. Or place yourself on the end of the Swadian Crossbow line so that only the one closest to you and a few other fire at you (the other cant fire because allied troops stand between them and you) and pick them off.

You could also just ride around and harass them until they follow you.

 

[Berpol]

Sometimes the enemy sits up on a hill and won't attack.  Do they have a timer on how long they'll wait before they attack or will they stay up there the whole time unless i attack first?  Is there something that determines whether an opposing army will sit and wait for me to come?

I'm not sure how it's triggered but so far I noticed 3 strategies:
1. Charge - always used by bandit type troops.
2. Hold Position - troops hold a position in two lines, I think they use this if they have lots of archers (like Rhodok)
3. Form line and advance - the formation is identical as above but they advance.
Should an enemy use strategy 2 or 3 he stays that way until the main groups of both sides meet in melee.
So in your case - yes, they will stay on that hill. Based on the fact that you don't want to attack first it sounds like a plausible tactic

have you stopped moving, when you stop you're character on the map from moving it automaticlaly pauses the game.

That's on the map, he meant in battle.

 

[mat2d2]

If you run in and harry the enemy by yourself then retreat to your lines they should follow.

 

[Kazzan]

Not always, but you could you know charge in with your troops or hack away at them yourself.

 

[Damntry]

When your army is stronger than theirs, the AI can choose to await certain death on high ground instead of running towards it. If you do nothing they'll just sit there indefinitely.

Nop, they always attack after some time. In fact thats how I fight when I´m doing other things in my desk, wait with my vaegirs marksman on a hill until they are bored and come after me, to die.

 

[progrox]

That's interesting. I never waited that long, always assumed they'd just sit there. The pattern is certainly right, they do that when you are the one who initiated contact on the world map, which usually means that they are weaker. Gotta give this one a try...

 

[Lord Burgess1]

When it happens to me it has always been a crossbow using faction, so I find that its a good time to get my troops to saftey, then stand at the far reaches of their crossbows, just peaking over a hill, it takes a while, but if they outnumber me greatly then it almost ensures victory.

 

[allthesedamnnamesaretaken]

It's not 100% based on army strength I think. I believe a dev explained previously (and don't quote me on this) that the AI will choose to wait for you on a hill if more than 50% of its fielded troops have missile weapons. From my experience, this seems to fit with what I've observed.

 

[stygN]

If you snipe enough enemies so that they get a new reinforcement wave they will charge you.

Tested.

 

[Ringwraith #5]

Well I did try out-waiting an enemy and it didn't work. I had to go in and harass them a bit to provoke them into action. Maybe I didn't wait long enough. How long does it usually take, Damntry?

 

[Magorian Aximand]

I have found that they usually choose to charge when all of the missile troops have exhausted their ammo. If you wait at the edge of their range, they will continue to shoot until they can't anymore. They should charge after that. However, if some troops were out of range of you and didn't shoot, the army will continue to sit.

 

[Ringwraith #5]

Ah, well that's it. I of course parked my forces out of their range.

 

[Sir Nigel]

Sometimes I make my cavalry charge, and give them the order Hold Position right before they meet the enemy. Some of them actually fight for a few seconds, and then the enemy counterattacks. You would probably lose two or three cavalry soldiers, but sometimes this is more economic than simply charge uphill with all your army.

 

[Kurt Zibling]

I had this situation when fighting the scum-of-the-earth-Rhodoks.

I got into arrow range (knowing this when the crossbow bolts started coming my way) and picked off one man.

This insult was enough to make the fools scramble forward to meet their doom at the hands of my Huscarls.

 

[Dead Guy]

I have killed enough crossbowmen/archers in an army that was holding position on a hill singlehandedly for new enemies to arrive, and they still didn't charge. I did a few more runs and after a while they did charge though. I ride my horse right at the end of the line of shooters from the side, weaving a bit as i go and then knock down all of them with my heavy charger. You can even start slicing away at them when you've impacted the first few, the rest won't have time to fire and usually you hit them as they're switching weapons to melee.

 

[stygN]

Yes, if you have a charger you can do that instead of shooting them down. The main thing is, just kill of as many ranged units as you can, it should be pretty easy since the enemy infantry and cavalry just sits there and watches.

After a while they'll attack..