Mysterious disappearances

[Carl v.]

- or what is going on behind my back?

In the forums I see that CIVIV also is modded into the mystical/magical. After what happened to me in a few games, I do think CIVIV is mystical enough.

Sometimes during gameplay, I have this strange feeling; did I not leave a unit around here somewhere? But found out I surely put that unit somewhere else.

Now I am not so sure the units have been some other place. Now I believe CIVIV also contains a mystery of magical disappearance!

First proof of something weird going on came after I crushed the Greeks – at least I think it was them. They were hopelessly behind in tech, so naturally I attacked. After victory, I started to allocate garrison troops in my new cities, and to gather my war-experienced forces somewhere in the middle. My aim was to keep my invasion army intact and not waste aggressive promotions on garrison duty.

When I came to gather my army, it was disappeared. Totally, with men and guns, totally 18 units; 13 infantry and five artillery units. I looked for my men in the files, but they showed I did not have a single infantry left. All my infantry was in the disappearing stack.

Yesterday the same phenomena occurred; this time I had built a settler and got the message that Berlin continued on barracks. When I went for the settler, there was no settler in Berlin.

Someone who had similar experiences, or even better; can someone explain what is happening?

It might also be unexplainable. Through history, many tales of mysterious disappearing units have been told. Personally I think the most spectacular is the one when a cloud (or a cloud-shaped something) came drifting up the valley and swallowed a battalion holding a ravine. The “Angel of Mons”-story from WWI is the quite opposite in its nature, but is still in the same tradition.

So if the creators of CIVIV have decided to honour this – most of the time oral – tradition, it is only natural there is no explanation anywhere.

 

[enchanter100]

I've never had missing troops...

 

[sirtommygunn]

well ive never had dissapeering troops but my enemies somtimes add units to their armies behind their backs

 

[Molon Labe]

Strange things happen in the Bermuda Triangle.

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

dude i totally know what your saying
1 time on the EARTH24 civs map i had tried to settle cuba by sailing from florida and suddenly my ships disappered ironicly it was in the same possition as the burmitia triangle would be and also

some of my troops walk on water so i renamed those troops
Jesus aint got nothin on this

 

[Ambreville]

some of my troops walk on water so i renamed those troops
Jesus aint got nothin on this

How do you rename troops in Civ4?

 

[Ambreville]

I thought once I had lost some units but found out I accidentally set an automatic "go to" order for a city's production... automatically sending new troops way off to the other side of my empire. I also had a situation where I thought I was selecting a handful of units out of a big garrison (a stack of units), and instead of sending off this handful, the entire stack left. I didn't see that and thought these units had disappeared...

 

[Carl v.]

I am glad the disappearance of troops has happened to other gamers too. It is interesting to hear that also naval units have disappeared.

There is always a risk to forget troops positioned in the terrain, especially after greater troop-movements such as a war. But there is a button in the upper right corner of the screen which gives access to a list of all your troops and their location. I did check those files at the two referred occasions.

Now I think we have established the fact that sometimes units mysteriously disappear. But an explanation?

Btw: One can rename troops by double-clicking on its name, and a box for that purpose appears.

 

[Ambreville]

Btw: One can rename troops by double-clicking on its name, and a box for that purpose appears.

OK thanks. I'll try that at the next opportunity. Can one rename generals as well?

 

[shmily_dana]

I had a galleon with a Great Merchant disappear enroute to another continent. I was at war with a civ on my continent, but I never saw it get sunk.

 

[Ben E Gas]

Did the units disappear on you because you could no longer support them? Maybe not enough gold or food? Sorry if this was mentioned, just a thought.

 

[Felspar]

Luckily it's never happened to me. It'd be interesting if you had a save before they disappeared, do the same things but watch the troops each turn.

 

[cthom]

I had a galleon with a Great Merchant disappear enroute to another continent. I was at war with a civ on my continent, but I never saw it get sunk.

i'm sure i had my own 'bermuda triangle', too. at the time i had to convince myself that i just missed it being sunk, it couldn't just disappear...

 

[Nexushyper]

I have lost units before and thought they just vanished.

However, after looking into it, they were killed. Several times I have noticed thegame skips over some battles between turns. If you check the log (Top left) it will show you what all happened during the turn. I have found 100% of the time the unit can be found killed in the log.

 

[weasel77066]

Yea perhaps its a series of options that work badly together... such as no combat zoom, quick combat, not showing enemy moves and/or any other options that when used together "skips" event animation to that extreme.
That would be too hard to keep track of for me

 

[Carl v.]

When units disappear, there might be several explanations. Some relevant questions are asked in posts above, but I do not think any of those can solve the mysterious disappearances I mentioned in my initial post.

Ben E Gas asks if my treasure was so low that I could not support all my units. I can not check this now. But I always keep an eye on my treasury, and try to save so much money that I can upgrade units in a certain city in case of attack. So I do not think that was the case, even if I can not rule it out concerning the settler. But hardly a stack of 18 units in one turn.

Nexushyper can tell about battles the gamer can not see. It happens if you play hot-seat, but I have never seen it playing single. Anyway, as long as it is observed, it is a possibility. But it could not happen to a settler in a garrisoned city. Neither do I think it could happen to a strong field-army in the middle of a newly conquered country without a trace of any attacking forces.

Thanks for suggestions. If this ever happens to me again, I will check out the mentioned possibilities.

 

[Xtream_Rockstar]

we shall add this to our hall of urban legends along with :

the living dead units

the mussroom nuke smillie

and the units walking on water