Fresh army units run away when ordered to attack

[Lincoln]

First conflict of game my spearmen ran away when ordered to attack (they ran in the opposite direction from the oncoming enemy) and my archers all get killed. They hadn't even been in battle yet!! Ridiculous.... I am unable to attack, doesn't exist.. When you click on the enemy unit they run away... This is a big issue.... The only way you can get the to stop running away is the hold mouse button down and make a formation, then they just have to wait for the enemy to come to them.

[Jabberwocky]

Originally posted by Lincoln:

First conflict of game my spearmen ran away when ordered to attack (they ran in the opposite direction from the oncoming enemy) and my archers all get killed. They hadn't even been in battle yet!! Ridiculous.... I am unable to attack, doesn't exist.. When you click on the enemy unit they run away... This is a big issue.... The only way you can get the to stop running away is the hold mouse button down and make a formation, then they just have to wait for the enemy to come to them.

Sometimes military units have pathfinding issues, especially in 2 different circumstances I was able to isolate:

1st situation: At least one of your regiment'S soldiers is stuck somewhere way back where your spearmen came from. When ordered to move or to attack, they will try to form a coherent group before following your command. As at least one soldier is missing, they are trying to get him into the group before attacking or moving, so they are moving back into his direction first, as he is stuck and cannot come to them

2nd situation: You have excceeded a global population of 1500, and the game's AI can no longer keep track of every single task of every single soldier/citizen. Therefore, lags and glitches start to occur, and military units will sometimes take longer to respond to your commands. Sometimes some soldiers of a unit stay behind without getting stuck in your town, simply because the game was unable to calculate their path along with all others, so the regiment, as soon as it is able to respond, tries to march back and get their missing soldiers in formation again before advancing.