Enemy size numbers?

[Bronze]

Do the number of enemy killed in the side battles reduce the numbers they will have in the following large campaign battle?

Am I correct in understanding through various guides that the amount of enemy killed in the prior large battle influences the enemy size in the next large battle?

Edited March 30, 2019 by Bronze

[pandakraut]

1 hour ago, Bronze said:

Do the number of enemy killed in the side battles reduce the numbers they will have in the following large campaign battle?

Am I correct in understanding through various guides that the amount of enemy killed in the prior large battle influences the enemy size in the next large battle?

As a general rule getting kills in any kind of battle has the potential to reduce the size of enemy units in the next battle. There are a lot of other factors involved so this may not always appear to be the case though.

[Bronze]

Do you have a link/links to a place describing these factors? I have read a few but am not finding them. I know the average size modifier on side battles.... 

[pandakraut]

The scaling section of this post is the most detail currently available. If you have any questions let me know.

 

Edited March 31, 2019 by pandakraut

[Bronze]

Mostly got it, very well done. If I read it correctly, you can only shrink the AI size to the minimum point and losses in the small, side battles help do that?

The rest of your guide raises a couple of other questions:

In what way does AI size reduction influence tech and training percent? Towards the negative?

Any tips on what causes an enemy unit to surrender vs. shatter?

And thank you!

 

[pandakraut]

38 minutes ago, Bronze said:

Mostly got it, very well done. If I read it correctly, you can only shrink the AI size to the minimum point and losses in the small, side battles help do that?

Casualties in side and grand battles will reduce the AI size. In many cases grand battles are where you get the biggest drops if you can wipe the enemy out since there are so many more men on the field to kill than in the side battles.

39 minutes ago, Bronze said:

In what way does AI size reduction influence tech and training percent? Towards the negative?

Basically yes, as far as I can tell if you drive it down it helps drive the other two down as well. Though depending on what the reinforcement results are after the battle you can still see values go up a lot.

40 minutes ago, Bronze said:

Any tips on what causes an enemy unit to surrender vs. shatter?

Shattering is based on hard conditions. If remaining hp is below a certain amount and morale is low the unit will always shatter. And if the unit size drops below another threshold then it will also always shatter.

On the other hand surrendering is based on a random chance against a base probability. That probability goes up as the unit making the check runs out of ammo, losses its officer, takes casualties, etc. The most important part to getting a unit to surrender is making sure it is either not near any other enemy units that are not routing. Otherwise the check wont' even got rolled no matter how bad of shape the unit is in.

Regarding conditions in your control, the best you can do is isolate the enemy unit and have two units(preferably cavalry since they can keep up for longer) in melee while other units are nearby. You want to have as large a difference in your total manpower vs theirs in a small area around the unit as possible. You will absolutely have runs of bad luck where it just doesn't happen no matter what you do though.