How to escape combat?

[Upside Down]

I’m fighting massively outnumbered (26000 to 3000) and the enemy army chases my army in their territory after I ninja siege their capital. How do I escape? It takes so long to put out to sea, even if they catch me, I won’t be able to make the 30 days before they attack me again after the retreat. Just running leads to a ton of attrition.

What do you guys do? All my allies conveniently got into wars against HRE at the same time, so I have no allied support either.

I have changed to a commander with a movement speed buff but even he can’t build ships any faster.

[The Former]

The best thing you can do is sacrifice your men-at-arms. Have your best soldiers under your toughest commander march to intercept the enemy and hold them for as long as possible, hopefully giving the rest time to escape. You may even want to use the diversion to create distance on land first so that you're into the fog of war and they no longer know you're trying to embark.

Edit: Oops, you're in their territory. Creating distance on land would be tough and would impose attrition in that case. All you can safely do is hope you get to sea before they plow through your elites... I can't think of any other way to pull it off.

[Upside Down]

Ah interesting. I didn’t think of using a portion of the army as a diversion! I wonder how long of a delay it would’ve created though against such a large force. Is there a way to determine combat width in advance? Or is it always the same? I watched a video that mentioned that earlier but had never actually noticed it in game.

In my game I ended up taking back the war target while their army chased one of mine and then I was able to white peace. I lost 1500 men to attrition! Good job the AI didn’t split its doom stack and take back its capital. Lol.

[The Former]

I believe combat width is the average of the two sides at the start of battle, times the percentage given for terrain. So on open ground, I think 26,000 vs. 3,000 would mean a combat width of 14,500. In forest (90%), it would be 13,050. If you click on a county and hover over its terrain icon in the info panel, you can see the percentage of combat width it allows for.

[Upside Down]

Cool thanks, but does that mean I would get all 3000 troops in and then they would use as much of the width that was left, or is it based on who is defending or equally split as a percentage?

I suppose Pikemen in the mountains would be the best way to slow an enemy down.

[The Former]

Originally posted by Upside Down:

Cool thanks, but does that mean I would get all 3000 troops in and then they would use as much of the width that was left, or is it based on who is defending or equally split as a percentage?

I suppose Pikemen in the mountains would be the best way to slow an enemy down.

I believe that's the case, yes. All yours commit, but they only commit a portion of theirs at a time, bringing the rest to reinforce the line as men fall. You'd definitely want to engage on mountains, wetlands, or hills if at all possible, in that order. And yep, pikemen would generally be the very best choice for such a mission.

Edit: I just reread your question and that's actually a good question. I assume it's 13,050 per line. You field 3,000, they field 13,050 at a time. But you might actually be right, it could be that you field 3,000 and they field 10,050.

Edit again: Wait, nevermind, my first assumption has to be accurate. Because if you both had 3,000 troops, combat width would be 3,000, meaning only one side would get to field any troops if it were option 2. Must be that both sides get upwards of <combat width> at a given time.

[Upside Down]

Got it. Thanks.