On Fri, 23 Sep 1994, John Morrow wrote:
> >in regards to ancient "actual" battles... in general it was very difficult
> >to organize troops that had been fighting all day into effective pursuers
> >against fleeing opponants. Also there was danger of ambush, and the classic
> >maneuver of faking retreat to draw the enemy forward. also since most
> >battles were fought in the day, it was night time by the time any pursuit
> >could be contemplated. Therefore in almost every case i can think of, the
> >defeated general could make good his escape if it was his desire to do so.
>
> Whatever we come up with, (A) Rich must be able to implement it and
> (B) players must be able to understand it.
>
> I know I suggested this before but I didn't see much comment...
>
> 1) Make it so that ATTACKs against stacks in motion (i.e. in the
> process of MOVEing to another province) will succeed only some
> of the time (e.g. 10%-20% of the time or based on terrain, etc.).
> Failed ATTACKs will still take 1 day since you tried to ATTACK so
> that repeated ATTACKing will help but not bypass the limitation.
>
> People seem unhappy with the two simplified extremes that you:
>
> (A) can attack any stack until they actually arrive at their destination
> or
> (B) cannot attack any unit as soon as they issue a move order.
>
> Both have some really bad side effects so I think the solution lies
> between the extremes. Allow people to ATTACK stacks in motion but
> make it so that such ATTACKs are not a sure thing.
>
> 2) Make it so that stacks that break in combat do MOVE to another
> province upon breaking but allow the player to control where
> they go via a "FLEE" command. The command:
>
> FLEE in north
>
> ...means the stack will issue a "MOVE in north" command if it
> breaks in combat. The command:
>
> FLEE none
>
> ...means the stack will not move if it breaks in combat and would
> be the default (since that is the way it is now).
>
> This idea provides a way for the player to control where they go if
> they break in combat which is one of the objections of the "auto move"
> technique and it would provide the option not to flee at all if that
> is what you really want. Normally this could be a "set it and forget
> it command" or it could be adjused for each location you enter. In
> any event, you should rarely need more than one FLEE command to follow
> every MOVE which isn't a lot of overhead for those who have to fiddle
> and optimize every detail of their faction. Of course, for this to
> work, (1) or something similar needs to be implemented...
>
> John Morrow
>
>