Funny thing happened to me, I was trying to do a ransack run with Assyrians then Goths and obviously I had a lot of cavalry but not much infantry. I had basically a couple scouts and a single warrior I got from a drop. I get into this massive 3v1 war against me, see an enemy city with only 2 levies defending it and thing oh well I can siege it down quick with my scouts. But then suddenly the AI attacks me. Turns out they had a couple units hidden behind the city. I have 3 times their numbers almost, it's a 12 units vs 5, however 8 of mine are cavalry and I cannot attack through walls with those. I try to win the battle with my infantry but I can't, they're wounded, I pull them back. The enemy has no archers anymore, I killed them first so they can't win this, but neither can I. So I end turn and end turn and end turn, it's a 5 turn combat, with 3 rounds each, so it takes a while, but since they attacked I have the flag and I win. Except no I don't because the AI immediately does a sortie attack again. Which means I am locked into this combat for 5 turns again, while another AI player's army is en route to my capital. I need to pull my horses back, but I cannot. If I were to play this out, my army could be locked potentially forever this way. Except instant resolve is busted and you can just use that to win regardless of walls or anything.

So yeah thank God for instant resolve being a broken way to skip past combat, but also fuck the way reinforcements and zone-locks work in this game and also horses should be able to attack through walls, those men are not glued to the goddamn horses, they could dismount and fight albeit at a reduced strength.

This doesn't sound like exploit. Well, they exploited your weakness, that's not bad.

VDmitry wrote:

This doesn't sound like exploit. Well, they exploited your weakness, that's not bad.

I agree. Walls are for keeping people outside.

Although, one could imagine a mod (or an option in the base game) for cavalery units to be dismounted if so desired in battle), which would diminish their strenghth greatly to avoid the silliness (that saved my day many times by the way : silly raiders ^^ ).

Yeah this doesn't seem really like a bug. What i can suggest you do in situations like this, leave your flag undefended and let them take it. The AI will always go for the flag as the attacker, you can force a retreat like that.

SmileyD wrote:

Yeah this doesn't seem really like a bug. What i can suggest you do in situations like this, leave your flag undefended and let them take it. The AI will always go for the flag as the attacker, you can force a retreat like that.

I know it's not a bug, my problem is the poor design. I tried to force a loss on my end but I couldn't, which is weird you'd think there would be a surrender button or leave this siege button, but nope. Instant-resolve was by far the best way to get through this, I neither lose war score and I gain the city, because instant-resolve cavalry can absolutely attack through walls, it's only when I am in command that they cannot. Which I am sure you can admit is a pretty big oversight too. If cavalry is meant to have this big weakness of being unable to attack through walls, then how come instant-resolve negates it entirely? Granted I never use instant-resolve normally because it's pretty crap usually, but like this is one situation where you can't deny that it's far more effective than any human player ever could be.

Krikkitone wrote:

There are a few problems. (the general problem of both sides stuck in a combat they don't want anymore, and Sorties blocking siege without actually doing an combat)

For a solution

1. Allow units to retreat at the end of a turn(3 rounds) of battle (so you don't have to wait the full 5 turns)

2. Any Turn in a "Sortie" where neither side attacks acts as a turn of Siege (defenders starve, siege engines built)

Yeah, I feel like there should be different rules for sorties, like, they shouldn't last 5 turns. The onus should be on the besieged party to capture the flag of the besieger else they get a draw on the battle and siege weapon/starvation progress continues unimpeded. And the battle should not be 5 turns to begin with, but more like 1 turn baseline and extra turns if they capture the flag.

a failed sortie counts as a failed battle so eventually the war will be lost by the defender if the defender keeps sorting and then hiding behind walls

but i agree it should be adjusted for sure, also forever siegeing shouldnt be an option either

Krikkitone wrote:

There are a few problems. (the general problem of both sides stuck in a combat they don't want anymore, and Sorties blocking siege without actually doing an combat)

For a solution

1. Allow units to retreat at the end of a turn(3 rounds) of battle (so you don't have to wait the full 5 turns)

2. Any Turn in a "Sortie" where neither side attacks acts as a turn of Siege (defenders starve, siege engines built)

Wish I could upvote this post

nowayi wrote:

a failed sortie counts as a failed battle so eventually the war will be lost by the defender if the defender keeps sorting and then hiding behind walls

but i agree it should be adjusted for sure, also forever siegeing shouldnt be an option either

Yeah the problem in my case was that the battle lasts 5 entire turns and if they only lose like, 5 or 8 war score per 5 turns that's still a really long time they can hold out and I was in a war with 2 players. So the other person can end me while my army is locked down.