Units on Strike - how does it decide which ones?

[AfterShafter]

I've moved up to playing Immortal now and let me tell you, it's rough... Last night something happened which got me thinking.

I was playing as Louis and started out backed into a corner by Brennus (who had founded a religion and was competing with my Louis culture as a result). I was only able to get two cities before I was forced to go to war against his four or five... My economy was trash and I knew I couldn't support much in the way of units, so a quick strike seemed my only option. I focused on city grown, saved my forests, and then slavery/chop rushed as large a military as I could handle - but I miscalculated a bit and it was larger than I could handle. I saw my gold supply going down faster than I had expected so it was a bit of a race to get this assault underway.

I took out two of his weaker cities, sent some injured units to heal, and sent the remaining promoted half of my force in to his capital - and while I was doing this my gold ran out and my units went on strike. Roughly two turns before my forces consolidated for the attack, I lost an axeman from my attack stack. Next turn I lost several. That was the end of my attack.

My question is - does anyone know how it chooses which units disband from the strike? I had quite a few units healing up in my cities. a few on their way out, and a mix of swordsman/spearman/axemen gearing up for the attack... But it only took axemen from the attack stack on the hill beside Bibraca or whatever it is called... Anyone know what the formula for which units striking disbands?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Drake007]

good question, ask mr. worldbuilder, or the oracle. i think its random except for workers vs military, but i'm really not sure.

 

[ABigCivFan]

not sure about the exact logic. But should be the least expensive + least experienced units.

I assume you set your research to 0 already. guess you did not loot much gold from his 2 cities. I am always able to loot 100+ gold/captured city even during early war, which finances my army/research. In most these situations, i had to set research to 0 and convert production to beakers until i get COL, Currency, only then would be able to get out of deficit.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Just a guess, but maybe your attack stack was chosen because they were not within your borders and you had to pay supply.

 

[AfterShafter]

Just a guess, but maybe your attack stack was chosen because they were not within your borders and you had to pay supply.

Hrm, yeah. Most likely. I had quite a few units not in the stack in his territory and they went untouched, and I was using my axemen more for defensive purposes so they weren't upgraded as much...

I'll give it another try tonight and see what happens. Thanks for the input all.

 

[civzombie]

"I took out two of his weaker cities, sent some injured units to heal, and sent the remaining promoted half of my force in to his capital - and while I was doing this my gold ran out and my units went on strike. Roughly two turns before my forces consolidated for the attack, I lost an axeman from my attack stack. Next turn I lost several. That was the end of my attack."

Just a suggestion from experience. When you see that your army goes on strike, YOU should manually start disbanding non-critical units to prevent another turn with negative "income."

Probably best to start disbanding poor defenders in your city, then possibly some of your attackers that are so injured as to be temporarily useless. Possibly some workers.

You can get your income to +1 BEFORE you hit the space bar. Then there is no surprise on which units get disbanded.

If you follow that advice, you should be able to get the enemy capital and the loot should make this income problem go away for 10-15 turns or so Hopefully you will have another solution by then.

 

[50_dollar_bag]

or if build Wealth is available, do that. it's always better than losing units in a war.

 

[CivDude86]

Moving some citizens around can buy you some time. Better to work that unimproved grassland next to the river then that mine and lose an important unit.

 

[clinton]

How many units do you lose per turn from a strike? Only ever one or possibly several? And how does the game decide how many?