Unfair Gibraltar !

[Admiral Delabroglio]

Hello

After I created the kingdom of Spain and the British stirred trouble in the form of partisans, I started chasing them around, as well as the initial uprising, with a small army in order to limit the dreaded attrition in Spain.

The IA moved the army of mostly Spanish militia (1 regular infantry, 7 militia) in Gibraltar.

Unfair and against the rules.

Militia is not supposed to be allowed to leave the conntry. I already knew the bug, so I left garrisons in Provence and Gascony to avoid a nasty trick such as the IA entering France. However, the whole 8 unit army taking refuge in Gibraltar, which I cannont attack, is grossly unfair. A single unit, fine. A large army that obliges me to leave units in Madrid and Portugal and either Andalusia or Western Spain is extremely annoying. The IA army can tie a sizeable chunk of my armed forces just sitting there and doing nothing, and I can't easily spare the units, nor the leaders.

For some reason, the IA did not retreat to Gibraltar when I beat its army in Andalusia, but moved there in the IA turn.

I believe I have already written a post about that, which I cannot find at the moment, so I'm begging : could you please do something about that ? The British can gather a huge army there, little by little, they do not need their Spanish allies to further increase their number.

Best regards

[mercenarius]

I will look into this, to be sure. You don't happen to have a saved game which shows this, do you? Just askin', as they say.

[Admiral Delabroglio]

Hello

No saved game left, I went back and played the end of the turn again, sometimes, the AI decides to hide in Gibraltar, sometimes, it goes north (most of the time to Gibraltar, seldom north). It was the only IA stack left in Spain after I Swept the rebels for the forst time.

I kept playing after the IA decided to go north. If it happens again, I'll make sure I keep a saved game.

Thanks...

[mercenarius]

As you have already figured out, the reason why some Spanish units retreated out of Spain is that they are Militia, and not Guerillas. Now, Militia may not move out of their home country, with the exception of Austrian and Prussian Landwehr. But I didn't program the game to require their destruction if they have to retreat out of their home country.

I'll talk to Glenn Drover about this. There are a number of possible solutions. Probably in the case of Spanish militia they should be turned into guerillas when they are forced to retreat outside of Spain. But Glenn may feel something else is better. Maybe they should simply die off.

As far the AI moving them out of Spain, that is a separate problem and I'll try to look at that next week. If you happen to run across a saved game, that is always nice to have. Note: the saved games that really help are the ones made at the end of your turn, before the AI moves.

The supply for a large allied army in Gibraltar may be unfair, but I don't think that we'll change it, to be honest. But I will ask Glenn about this as well.

[mercenarius]

Well, I spoke to Glenn and decided to leave this aspect of the game alone. Yes, it's a little unfair in a way, and it is rather abstract in some situations. In part, Gibraltar stands in for things that aren't included in the game such as Malta.

Now, you may ask, but what if France has naval superiority? Well, in that case the French player can just invade Great Britain and get it over with, I think.

As for the Spanish militia, I just don't like the idea of destroying them if they are forced to retreat out of Spain. What I have decided to do is to allow them to retreat to Gibraltar (or elsewhere). However, they will be subject to attrition at the end of the turn. Any army with Spanish Militia units in it will lose one of those militia units if the army isn't in Spain. Of course, this is a change to the game's rules, but it makes the most sense to me.

I'll get started on the next update after Christmas and I'll talk to Matrix about it after the New Year. So, I will end here by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.