Getting pushed around

[TallJimbo]

Is there some unit or spell that has the ability to push an entire stack out of a city when attacking it? I've had a few cases in my latest game in which my opponents (AI, Calabim and Malakim) attacked my cities and conquered them, but left all (or almost all) of my defenders sitting next to the city. In most cases they probably wouldn't have been able to take the cities without the push (this makes it a little hard to defend effectively).

I also think I've seem a similar effect outside of cities when attacking a stack with a set of grouped assassins: they defeat one unit, then push all the rest away. But I haven't been able to make it happen reliably. And I'm not at all certain that this is what's happening to me in the other case.

Is this a known bug, or a super-powerful feature I'm unaware of? Or is this an as-yet-undiscovered bug that I should try harder to track down?

 

[Fenboy]

I've had the second one happen to me on occasion; the AI took out an archmage (thank f for blood of the phoenix) and the rest of my stack suddenly appeared two or three squares away. IIRC it was pushed out of their territory (Sheaim) and into mine (Bannor).

 

[Ecofarm]

I think it has to do with a grouped unit succeeding in a defensive retreat. Usually, your horses are not grouped with your defenders, so it doesn't happen often.


Guessing

 

[GePap]

Level 2 air spell for the sorcery line allows you to push an enemy stack away. Forget the name, and I did not know it worked against units in a City.

 

[nihonjeff]

I've had this happen to me as well, and I think it has something to do with Blood of the Phoenix. I didn't make the connection until just now, when fenboy mentioned that his archmage had that promotion...

I'm not sure exactly how the Immortal promo works, but it seems like if the unit is killed in battle, it is considered a defeat, and a copy of the unit is placed in the capital. So when an enemy civ attacks a city, it kills the Immortal unit, but for some reason the AI thinks that it has won the whole battle and it moves the victorious unit into the city, displacing the entire defending stack.

 

[kenken244]

actually, immortal works by having the unit withdraw and then cast escape if it would die. since the only way to withdraw on defence puts you back in your territory, all the units got pulled with the archmage before the archmage cast escape.

 

[TallJimbo]

Yeah, it's definitely something to do with the immortal promotion - it only started happening to me after I built Blood of the Phoenix, and every time it's happened I've had a defeated longbowman or something appear in my capital.

 

[Psychic_Llamas]

ive had the Wyvern in the Fall Further mod atack an enemy stack, kill a unit, and have the entire enemy stack retreat 1 square. i think it has to do with the fear promotion. i think it is a cool feature

 

[Ecofarm]

ive had the Wyvern in the Fall Further mod atack an enemy stack, kill a unit, and have the entire enemy stack retreat 1 square. i think it has to do with the fear promotion. i think it is a cool feature

It's nasty in MP. The units refuse to be grouped with double click and have to be grouped again individually (like when on a boat). Assuming you are on open ground, you are probably better off moving a couple important units to cover instead of losing them all while trying to group them.

 

[cthom]

Level 2 air spell for the sorcery line allows you to push an enemy stack away. Forget the name, and I did not know it worked against units in a City.

whirlwind. i didn't think of that either! neat idea.

 

[nihonjeff]

But the 'Fear' promotion (and I'm 95% sure 'Whirlwind') don't work against units fortified in a city. If they did, they would be RIDICULOUSLY overpowered. The problem here is that somehow, when a unit with the 'Immortal' promotion is killed defending a city, the entire defending stack is ejected from the city and the enemy takes it over. This has apparently happened in at least a few cases experienced by at least a few different users.

Should this issue be raised in the Bugs thread?

I wish there was some sort of Bat-signal that would summon MagisterCultum, xienwolf, or one of the other forum heavyweights to a thread...

 

[Ecofarm]

It happened to me with a retreating ranger (and Losha) in group (noone died). I was ejected from enemy territory. I think the retreaters run for neutral territory, and carry groups. This might be separate from the city-based problem.

 

[TallJimbo]

I've added the issue with immortal-units-in-cities to the main bug thread, since that was the only one I've had enough experience with to describe well enough.

But it does seem like there may be some other issues here that may or may not be related to that problem (aside from fear and whirlwind working as intended of course).