See the 2nd bullet of 8.4.1.
In this case, the Cavalry withdraws in the Fort, and the Militia in the Town.

...target enemy and place Friendly Stronghold pieces first—Forts, then Towns, then Hillforts, finally Settlements—then units—Cavalry, then Comitates, then Warbands, then Militia, finally Raiders. Withdraw Friendly pieces into Strongholds in the same order

Hi Marc, I'm still a bit confused about this.

Can you please explain what the Non-Player Battle Tactics sheet means by "withdraw in reverse order as placing units (8.4.1)"?

Because 8.4.1 seems to say to withdraw in the same order as placing units:

I'm a little confused here....

Per the Non-Player Battle Tactics player aid, under the Field Battle/Withdraw section, it states to first Withdraw into a Fort. Since the Fort can hold 2 units, I take this to mean that both units would Withdraw into the Fort, leaving the Town without any Withdrawn units.

I've looked through the rules and cannot find any indication that Dux units must withdraw into Dux Strongholds and Civitates units into Civitates Strongholds (unless, of course, at Fragmentation).

Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Tony

If we go by the battlesheet unit order logic, the civitate would withdraw first into the fort as the fort has priority.

You must successfully defend as many strongholds as possible.

I have been doing it that way. I find logical for the weaker unit to withdraw first.

My confusion isn't over which unit Withdraws first, but where do the units Withdraw to. The Non-Player Battle Tactics card indicates to "Withdraw first into Fort, then Town..." Since the Fort has a capacity of 2, why don't both units Withdraw into it?

Where is it indicated that the Non-Player Bots "must successfully defend as many strongholds as possible"?

Tony

Battle Tactics play Aid:
"Defenders Withdraw if their defense in Assault could save that Stronghold"
(emphasis added).

If a Stronghold already has enough units in it that the current Attackers cannot successfully Assault it, any additional defending units withdrawing into it won't make it any safer; so they start looking for another Stronghold that they can save.

Regards,
Oerjan

Looks like a late change that wasn't implemented everywhere, but I don't know for certain. AFAIK Volko handled all the final editing.

Tactically the Play Aid order makes a lot more sense to me though: withdraw the weakest units inside the walls, leave the stronger ones outside to fight the field battle if there's not enough room for them in the Stronghold.

Later,
Oerjan

There can be two logics here: preserving your best units, or inflicting maximum losses. A player could make that decision on a case-by-case, but I don't know what Volko's priority for the highest NP challenge is...

Since the other half of that instruction is to Withdraw if the unit would inflict more losses on the attacker in an Assault than they would in a Field Battle, I suspect that Volko would go for inflicting maximum losses...

/Oerjan