War declared, units moved

[ColdPhoenix]

I was at war with the Babylonians and had a stack of units fortified on a forested hill outside one of their cities. Alexander declared war on me and my troops were moved one square away onto an unforested plains tile and his stack started laying into them. I'm guessing this happened because his units were on the same tile as mine when he declared war.

Has anyone else seen this happen? Why should my troops move because he declard war? Seems unfair to me.

[snoopy369]

That indeed is to be expected. I think the reason it was chosen to move the other team's units rather than the declarer's is that it is more likely to be abused by the declarer to move his own units rather than to move the other team's (in the case of a human). Either way it can have a bad outcome, of course, but it has to be done ...

[LDiCesare]

Another solution would be to have all declarer units in the tile attack all the defenders. If there are some left on both sides after that, move away the side which suffered most casualties for instance.

[patcon]

Originally posted by LDiCesare
Another solution would be to have all declarer units in the tile attack all the defenders. If there are some left on both sides after that, move away the side which suffered most casualties for instance.

This is the only sensible solution.
Let's see ... Your troops are dug in on a forested hill next to the other guy. The other guy says, "Let's fight!" So your troops say, "OK, and they abandon their fortifications and move out into the open." ABSURD!

Related question - I know that if your troops are in civ X's territory and you declare war on X, then your troops are immediately transported out of X's territory. But what if X declares war on you? My guess is that they're transported. But I don't think they should, for the same reason as above, even if this might open the door for a possible exploit. What a great way to keep the peace - park a stack of Praets outside Carthage ready to pounce if Hannibal attacks elsewhere. Maybe have some sort of "ennui/sneak attack" penalty for the defenders in this case.

[LDiCesare]

Another funny thing to test:
Put 9 units, one on separate contiguous tiles, with one opponent in the middle tile too and declare war. What happens in this case?

[Arrian]

edit: nm. Misunderstood.

-Arrian

[ColdPhoenix]

Originally posted by snoopy369
That indeed is to be expected. I think the reason it was chosen to move the other team's units rather than the declarer's is that it is more likely to be abused by the declarer to move his own units rather than to move the other team's (in the case of a human). Either way it can have a bad outcome, of course, but it has to be done ...

I guess that makes sense, didn't think about the exploit potential. Still, I think if LDiCesare's idea was implemented it would be fairer.

[snoopy369]

It's not a bad suggestion, but a lot of people choose not to play with 'stack attack' on because they prefer to attack in a certain order. They'd probably be unhappy with this outcome... not sure if it's worth worrying about it, but ...

[patcon]

Originally posted by snoopy369
That indeed is to be expected. I think the reason it was chosen to move the other team's units rather than the declarer's is that it is more likely to be abused by the declarer to move his own units rather than to move the other team's (in the case of a human). Either way it can have a bad outcome, of course, but it has to be done ...

Couldn't be abused if the movement out of the tile consumed all of the aggressor's movement. You could have the agressor moved to (1) a random adjacent available tile, (2) the least favorable adjacent available tile, or (3) the adjacent available tile closest to the aggressor's territory.

I see this current situation as a very real abuse. Now, if I come across a unit I want to attack on a good defensive tile in neutral territory (say an archer fortified on a forested hill) I'll stay at peace, move onto that tile then declare war the next turn and force that unit off into a (possibly) less-defensible tile and at least make it lose the fortify bonus.

[LDiCesare]

It's not a bad suggestion, but a lot of people choose not to play with 'stack attack' on because they prefer to attack in a certain order. They'd probably be unhappy with this outcome... not sure if it's worth worrying about it, but ...

They can avoid the outcome by moving their troops out of the plot first.