Crazy Unit

[Tzar007]

It might not be a bug really, but I still wonder if that's normal behavior. If you look at this screenshot, you will see II Bn HQ unit in rout. The weird thing is that it has been in rout for over an hour now, running like a bunch of mad men all around the place, from Khrisoply to where it is now. Also, if you look at the Log of the unit on the side bar, we see it has surrendered 3 times in the last hour.

But it seems it is routing with no end in sight. It's weird, I never had a unit rout for so long in HTTR.

[Tzar007]

OK never mind. It has finally stopped now, and is in Rout Recovery lower south, where there are no enemy units around. I guess it was continuously routing because it was being fired upon regularly and that fire was making it always over the "Routing" threshold.

[GoodGuy]

Exactly. The terrain in COTA is pretty different from the terrain in HttR. LOS are often broader, and there are less opportunities to hide from a charging enemy, or to reorg away from threats.
That unit was so badly clamped by these 2 enemy units, that it kept being in a state where it was close to surrender completely. I dunno if parts of a unit could surrender that way - I haven't read sections in the manual about those details.

Also, u switched to "current" on the filter bar. There are vague infos about 2 additional units (near unit D.GR) that are/or have been in the area.
Another question I never researched, due to lazyness, is whether routing units are able to deliver correct infos about all current enemy threats (spotting), or if scare reduces their ability to forward infos about sighted units.
You might want to use intel filter "All" once in a while to avoid crazy situations. [;)]

[Tzar007]

You're right about that, I guess routing units aren't the best source for intel... I rarely use ALL for filtering intel since it is usually inaccurate info (older than an hour if I recall correctly). But in this situation it's better than nothing.

Now I am also wondering if an HQ that is in rout does still deliver orders to its subordinates. I guess not, or at least its capacity to deliver orders must be seriously hampered since it seemed to me the rest of 2nd Bn was pretty much frozen and not very active while the HQ was on the rout. Any ideas ?

[GoodGuy]

Hampered might be the right term. I've experienced situations where an HQ got attacked from the side, in the middle of commanding an attack......HQ routed, but some subordinates kept attacking for a little bit (divisional HQ was routing). New orders weren't forwarded, though.

[RayWolfe]

Just a small comment on the "unit has surrendered 3 times". A surrender message means that PART of the unit has surrendered. We had lots of arguments about that in testing but concluded that this IS how it should be.
Ray

[Tzar007]

Ah ! Thank you Ray !

I was a bit mystified by the exact meaning of "Surrendering" since the unit was still running around. I thought that the unit intended to surrender, but finally changed its mind at the last second and stayed on the German side [:)]

But what you say makes sense because the number of personnel of the unit was declining everytime it said that.

What a bunch of damn cowards !!! Wait until I get them back through an exchange of prisoners of war [:D]

[Agema]

I spotted an irregularity:

I moved two arty units to the rear in one of the Malta scenarios, and grouped them for fire mssions. Both were always free to fire, but the graphics counter of the subordinate one kept moving around a bit from side to side. Now it's not much of a bug as it still seemed happy to carry out bombardments, but it was just a bit weird.

[Arjuna]

Agema,
 
Do you have a saved game demonstrating that behaviour? If so email it to support[at]panthergames[dot]com.

[Arjuna]

Just to confirm guys that routing units do not spot enemy units very effectively and they cannot issue orders.

[Agema]

Ah, sorry, no, I had to move them again shortly after and didn't save in between, but I'll see whether I can replicate it.

[Agema]

Okay, I've replicated it. I'll email it to you, as it's too large to attach.