Lay-down sallies

[Zardoz]

If I'm besieged and I want my guys in the city to sally out to support a relief army, do I have to set their posture to anything special as well as clicking the special order button?

Obviously not green/green, but I was um... surprised... in my latest game to find some of my guys sallying out before the relief force had even entered the province! That did not end well given a stack of doom was outside!

I had set them orange/orange. Was that the cause? What should I have done?

My understanding that the attack-out order always meant "wait for the relief force" first, but perhaps I'm mistaken?

Is it actually possible to get besieged stacks to attack out without any external relief force using that special order button?

Also, I can drag a stack out of a besieged city I've noticed. What does that mean in game terms; is it different to the special order button? Do they leave the city and fight in the open. The position of a stack on the GUI sometimes is unclear about whether it is inside or outside.

cheers

Tony

[arsan]

The button only works when there is a relief force. But sometimes the coordination between forces is far from perfect...

If there is no relief force you have to manually drag and drop the besieged force out of the town and into the same province for it to attack the besiegers and try to break the siege.

Regards

[Zardoz]

Yes, thanks. I realize that I have always operated under the belief that besieged forces were trapped in the city. Not sure where I got that idea from but it does seem to be wrong.

Does that mean that besieged forces can always try to escape? If I drag a stack into the province, and it fights and retreats, does it retreat to another province and not back into the city?

So I can always evacuate a city - assuming the stacks survive a fight with the besiegers? That seems to conflict with the historic idea of a siege where the trapped forces either won - or surrendered or otherwise negotiated an exit in order to abandon a city?

cheers

Tony

[arsan]

No, if defeated they retreat inside the city again.
You can try to scape with some fast and highly evasive unit (cavalry, irregulars) using green/green posture and evade orders and dropping them out of the city and into another region. Sometimes it works.
But regular troops usually get engaged in combat before being able to leave the region.

Regards

[Zardoz]

Thanks, that's clear.

cheers

Tony