Emperor - War

[Bergman]

One thing i noticed when i moved to the emperor lvl is that there seem to be some kind of penalty when attacking AI units.

In the last game I reloaded like 10 times during a heavy fight with the frenchmen. I had minimum 90% chance of wining the battle if attacking. This have worked pretty well while playing on the monarch difficulty. There I almost never used my Warlords if I had less than 95% chance to win a fight.

Now I won't even dare to use it if it has 95%, ok I do dare, but In the game when I reloaded like 10 times, I attacked with my units and they had 94-99% each time. Even so they died like they die when one has like 75-80% on monarch difficulty. Many times they had 95+ and it was still almost common for them to die from time to time. And one unit had 99.7% and he died too! Now this didnt happen over several hours - this happend during the same reloaded turn - over and over again.

Now to my question. Is there some kind of penalty on emperor lvl when one attacks other units? Because this happend so frequently that it couldn't have been any randomness to it. While I investigated this by reloading alot of times, the 99.7% chance to win unit, died. Now common, that shouldn't have happened! Yes, once in a while but, now he died together with alot of 94-99% chance to win battles. I lost like 10 units during a couple of turns against the french and they all had 90+ chance to win.

This hasn't happend before on lower lvls so this got me thinking.

[rah]

Sometimes you get into a bad streak. And reloading won't change a turn unless you have the change seed option checked. I've seen the same thing but I've also had winning 5 straight combats in a war that are under 40%. After all I've played it seems pretty random (except those times where you know the odds aren't calcuated right)

If you're going to experiment, check the change seed options before you base your results on reloading.

[Arrian]

I lost a 96% battle last night. Ticked me off, that did.

It happens. In the same game I won a ~25% chance battle (catapult).

Reloading will give you the exact same results unless you've turned the "preserve seed" option off.

-Arrian

[Virdrago]

I don't bother complaining anymore. It still shocks me that a 98% could lose, but I've won my share of <10%, even winning a desperation 2.3%. So I grumble, but I know my time will come (just not this time).

[rah]

Yes, from the old D&D days. Pick up two 20 sided die, eventually you'll roll 0 0

I lost a 100% with a GG the other night, it was annoying.

[Arrian]

THAT would piss me off. I might throw something.

I have lost a GG unit with ~95% odds, and was pretty pissed.

-Arrian

[rah]

95 is one in 20 and my generals will attack that many times easily in a game. So expect them to die.

As a result I now will create 1 to build heroic and then settle them for the +2s. I don't get as pissed when I lose many 5 and 6 level promotion units as when i'd lose the GG. I found myself too concerned about generals and I wasn't taking enough advantage so I had to change my mindset.

Face it. Units are meant to be used, and if you use them enough, they will proabably die. Unless you're anal and building that 50 promo level unit.

I did see odds of 100.1 the other day. Imagine lossing that one.

[Arrian]

As a result I now will create 1 to build heroic and then settle them for the +2s.

That is my use for them as well, exactly. I love when I have just enough to, with West Point, crank out 17xp units.

-Arrian

[rah]

Yes, cranking those types of units every turn or so is fun. Since there is quantity, I don't get the same attachment to them that I would with generals. I can use them and lose them with much less annoyance.

[Arrian]

Exactly. I find that I baby GG units so much that it limits their effectiveness anyway.

I'm also tickled by the fact that, if you're running Representation, your settled GG's are pulling down 3 beakers per turn. Dreaming up that Tank for Grog...

-Arrian

[DirtyMartini]

Originally posted by rah
Yes, from the old D&D days. Pick up two 20 sided die, eventually you'll roll 0 0

I lost a 100% with a GG the other night, it was annoying.

20 sided dice don't have zeros...

[Bergman]

Thanks guys, for the clarification of this matter. This discussion has had me sobering up. I no longer believe there is any thing supspiscious about the battles on emperor lvl.

Yeah, I have acctually been afraid to loose my good and preachous units (they matter alot when the attacker has thrice the size of ones army!) so much that I have been neglecting the science of statistics. Well, with my emotions now in check; I do expect my units to die once in a while; even though they have 90-100% chance to win.

[couerdelion]

Always can be a problem if you're fighting someone with armies three times the size even with a big tech lead.

The safest way to beat the odds is to take more units to the fight than you would normally need.

[Diadem]

A thing about reloading that I noticed:

The random seed is fixed, so the same combat will always give the same result. But other combats will also yield the same result - so to speak. If you unit A dies in combat, you can't escape this by reloading and attacking with unit B - he will suffer from the same bad luck.

This also means that if you 90% chance unit dies, your 95% unit might win, but he'll be heavily damaged. And if you 90% unit *just* won, then you 75% unit will die.

So I don't know how you tested it, but if you kept reloading and then attacked with another unit, then it's no surprise that each attack, even with different units, went very badly for you.

You can, of course, reload, and throw some worthless unit into a hopeless battle just to get rid of impending bad luck.

[Bergman]

Originally posted by Diadem
A thing about reloading that I noticed:

The random seed is fixed, so the same combat will always give the same result. But other combats will also yield the same result - so to speak. If you unit A dies in combat, you can't escape this by reloading and attacking with unit B - he will suffer from the same bad luck.

This also means that if you 90% chance unit dies, your 95% unit might win, but he'll be heavily damaged. And if you 90% unit *just* won, then you 75% unit will die.

So I don't know how you tested it, but if you kept reloading and then attacked with another unit, then it's no surprise that each attack, even with different units, went very badly for you.

You can, of course, reload, and throw some worthless unit into a hopeless battle just to get rid of impending bad luck.

I see, yes that was my experience!