Questions about Companion with skills related to battlefields...

[Babaganoush]

I know that companions that become wounded in battle, their skills will not be enabled until they go back to "un-wounded" health.

However, with skills like Tactics and Surgery and if they spawn in the battlefield - do they have to stay in the battlefield?

I currently have a high skilled Surgeon in my team and despite being in the bottom of the army list, he always spawns on the field. I was wondering if I could make him retreat and people in my army would still feel his 10 (+3) Surgery effects... or  is my only choice to keep hiding him in a corner?

 

[Trimaran]

what you can do, put your surgeon in another group. Jeremus is my surgeon and he is in the medic group. When the battle starts and if u see 1 in medic group thats ur surgeon, tell him to hold a position at the farthest possible place away from the battle. That way he would be safe.you can even assign more people to his group as body guards to stand with him... Your questions....no you cant make him retreat. Yes, even if ur surgeon isnt included in the battlefield his skills are in effect. So put him at the bottom of the list to get higher chance of him not spawning and falling unconscious.

 

[Captain_Octavius]

There is a retreat button in Warband right? I never use it myself, but I'm pretty sure there is a retreat command.

If I'm right, put the surgeon etc. inside a separate group and order that group to retreat. The bonus will still count, regardless of whether they spawned on the battlefield.

 

[Trimaran]

reaally!?! U can order groups to retreat? In native? I l check as soon as i get home...i know u can press tab to retreat but with everyone...

 

[Captain_Octavius]

Yes, just checked, press F1 then F5. Pretty obviously visible too actually. 

Hm, it might actually be very useful, if retreating troops will cause new ones to spawn. If that works, you can let your archer group retreat once they run out of arrows, and fresh troops will spawn (with ammo). Amazing in siege assaults and some field battles.

 

[candyman]

for the record
you can't do that in sieges
for some reason the AI decides to interpret "retreat" as "Charge"

I remember once I had lined up all my sharpshooters in an attempt to sweep the wall of defenders when I noticed jeremus was standing around...
so naturally, to get him out of the line of fire, I order him to retreat and promptly put him out of my mind
about 30 seconds later I notice a lone soldier charging the castle, and thinking he was some rogue infantry trying to get fame for himself, I watch in amusement as he slowly makes his way to the castle

He makes it 3 steps up the ladder, when he gets taken out, and I notice, to my horror...
"Jeremus has been knocked unconscious by Nord Veteran Archer"

 

[Captain_Octavius]

Did you try the retreat button in other besieging scenes as well? Can't really generalize without more testing...

 

[NJSQRL]

Did you try the retreat button in other besieging scenes as well? Can't really generalize without more testing...

I have used it quite a bit... Usually use it to tell my cav to gtfo or archers once they spent their ammo to trigger the reinforcements..

It works... but it can be buggy. Sometimes they leave.. sometimes they charge... sometimes they sit there and look at you funny.

 

[Caba`drin]

It works... but it can be buggy. Sometimes they leave.. sometimes they charge... sometimes they sit there and look at you funny.

I'm pretty sure it works by sending your troops to the nearest map border, regardless of the position of enemy bots. So it may look like they are charging...but they are simply making their way to the nearest exit.

Not buggy so much as poorly designed. (At least from my experience.)

 

[XSevSpreeX]

It works... but it can be buggy. Sometimes they leave.. sometimes they charge... sometimes they sit there and look at you funny.

I'm pretty sure it works by sending your troops to the nearest map border, regardless of the position of enemy bots. So it may look like they are charging...but they are simply making their way to the nearest exit.

Not buggy so much as poorly designed. (At least from my experience.)

That makes more sense.

 

[Felonious]

Phew, I thought it was my troops' complete and utter lack of respect for me and my cowardice.

 

[NJSQRL]

It works... but it can be buggy. Sometimes they leave.. sometimes they charge... sometimes they sit there and look at you funny.

I'm pretty sure it works by sending your troops to the nearest map border, regardless of the position of enemy bots. So it may look like they are charging...but they are simply making their way to the nearest exit.

Not buggy so much as poorly designed. (At least from my experience.)

That would make sense on the open field... where I never have trouble with it working.

However in sieges where there is a wall+ a ton of ground in between us and the border infront of us... it makes no sense to me to have him go running up the ladder when there was a border 2 feet behind him.

I occasionally have similar problems with telling them to stand in certain spots (I like putting them under the ramp of the siege tower after it reaches the walls). Sometimes they will go exactly where I want them, sometimes they will go someplace near where I told them to stand... sometimes they pick some arbitrary spot out in the middle of nowhere to stand instead.