Strange bug in Peninsula Campaign (Spain)

[Cap'n Saccade]

Ran into a weird one...

(not that it's gonna matter, considering the game's age, but it's something that has happened more than once now - it is a re-creatable bug, although a rare situation)

Been replaying all the TW games in sequence so as to "complete" them (ie, get all achievements).

Currently on Total War: Nap-time and, hey, I'm actually pretty good at naval battles after a decade of trying!
Better than in Empire or Shogun, that's or sure...

Anyhow - having completed the Peninsula campaign as British (easy) and French (harder) - here's a weird game bug that has cropped up a few times while playing as Spain:

Occasionally, when taking a settlement from the French - there has evidently been a rebellion, thanks to provocateurs/priests, anti-French sentiment and lots and lots of sabotage (in preparation for military action), and a small "Rebel (aka "Spanish") army is occupying some facility in the region. Most often farmland.

This is very annoying as farmland is vital in order to get the population and economic growth of the city back and positive happiness without a massive garrison or turns of expensive building for repression.

• The occupying army is Spanish / ex Castallan Guerrillas (always the Argentines...).
  
• Hovering the mouse, it says, "your army" and flies a Spanish flag, is composed of Guerrila Spanish units - yet there is no control over it on the campaign map.
  
• The army does not appear in the list, nor does it require upkeep.
  
• If an army is sent to battle this "friendly" army, fought on the battlefield, then deployment is impossible and there is no button to start the battle.
  
• There is no choice but to quit the battle, however quitting the battle will only reveal the "enemy army" and not quit the battle - terminate process only solution.
  
• If the battle is auto-resolved and won, the "enemy" is moved from the farmland and then becomes "Spanish", appearing on the lists and requring upkeep.
  
• The max. number of any remaining type of troop (eg, heavy horse, lanceros, cazadores) can be pushed way over the recruitment limit (as with liberation as British).

I have found no other work-around, other than to send in an autoresolve army to displace the "enemy". After defeat they become "Español verdadero".

Perhaps they need some persuasion, like the Japanese guys on those islands in the Pacific who refused to believe that WWII was over for 40 years?

"Che! Amigos! Victoria y liberdad! Todo está bien, liberamos la región! La ocupación francesa es terminada!!! Puede salir del granero ahora... Por favor..? non? Ajjj - Che boludo, vienes a jugar? No..?! Conche de madre..! PORQUE, PUTANA?!! DISPARE LOS CAÑONES!!! (lo siento, mis compañeros...).

#bolasdeacero

Appears as if the rebel Spanish troops might supposed to be handed over to the player, but this does not happen.

The fact that they are neither a player army nor rebel causes a major issue in battle and an inconvenience for the campaign.

It seems the only way to avoid this is to ensure that any rebellion is over (or at least not occupying a strategic resource) before capturing a region. In this case, the army will simply sit there, acting as a free buffer.

It has only happened in the Spanish Peni. Camp. (heh, peni camp...) and only with rebellious Spanish armies that are occupying a resource at the time of a Spanish army taking a city (usually by siege, cos attacking 5 units of French artillery is kinda nuts, imo).

It's a pain, but what'd'ya gonna do about it, huh? 'Cept maybe keep an eye out and know to autoresolve (*spit*) those battles that are Spanish vs Spanish due to game bugs, 'cos this situation perhaps didn't show up in dev/QA testing or was deemed unlikely to happen (THREE TIMES THIS GAME).

Small logic error. Annoying repercussions. The rebel armies will act as reinforcements in battle, so another tactic to take ownership is to leave a group of militia until the French counter-attack with an army and withdraw - this way it doesn't cost any troops.

But you can't fight it manually, which is a shame... Cos they've always been decent troops in places that would be very useful.

TW and its bugs, ladys and gents.

Still finding new ones after 10 years - and that's when you know it's a classic :)

[Horcerer]

No mods, I assume?

And would you mind recordibg this bug? It's quite interesting.

[Cap'n Saccade]

Hi David,

You are right, no mods.

I've never done any internal dev-testing for CA, as SEGA appear to offer only zero hours contract for those positions.

Did closed alpha test for TW:A(t) - the extra (t) is for "testing" - which was for fun.

Where would I submit a report?
Is there a bug-tracker / user-echo somewhere I don't know about?

There is: https://forums.totalwar.com/categories/napoleon-total-war

However, there does not appear to be a report section for the older games - only discussion forums.

/* additionally, the Castellan Rebels are labelled "at war" until the province is taken. After this they lose the tag but do not fall under player control, remaining static, until interaction (haven't tried harassing them, to see if that "unlocks" the army) - when the rebels take a province, it becomes Spanish and contains the rebel army under player control */

Perhaps it's not a bug, but a feature?

Though, because it can cause such an issue as having to terminate the process to escape - I'd say it was a bit of a bug :P

[Cap'n Saccade]

Just so you know - those small, buggy armies - they are surprisingly hardcore:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1121900448
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1121900842

Two Cazadores, vanishing in and out of a small forest, fixing the line - two Husares slamming into the flanks as the line tries to shift.

Was a nice rout down the line from the militia to the Young Guard. Think it helped to tire them all out by marching in circles.

270 vs 1024 and they not only slaughter over half the French army: they're so bloodthirsty, they even caused 50% of their own casualties.