AI Arrows Supply lasts forever ?

[Lord Romulous]

this was answered by the devs or some other intelligent person a long time ago but i have not been able to find the information.

why do the ai's arrows last much longer than mine ?

i was playing the defence.

i am camping on the top of a mountain with 2 units of missiles. one plain archer the other cav archer and catapult. i have spear wall protecting the archers so their is no way to get the archers but to go thru the spears. (yes i know it is cheap to camp like this but i was heavily outnumbered and it was a vital provence.

I have no attacking troops.

the enemy has 3 times as many men as me but mostly made up of peasants and ordinary archers.

his 5 units of archers advance towards me. and we begin a missile duel.
my cav archers and ordinary archers run out of arrows (kill total 70) after about 5 mins or so and my catapult lasts for about 3 mins after that but the ai's ordinary archers just keep on firing for like 20 mins or something. they dont do a huge amount of damage maybe 190 kills. but im on the top of a mountain and they are tying to kill saracen infantry so i wouldnt expect them to take heavy casulties.

but what i dont get is why the ai arrows lasted for so long ??? they started firing about 10 secs before i did and were contantly firing and reloading for like 20 mins.

what is the deal ???

when the ai finaly ran out of arrows (or atleast their ordinary archers did the treb archers fired constantly for the entire battle maybe an hour or something ) the ai moves its peasants up. but doesnt attack just kinda dances infront of my lines until the time runs out and i get victory.

the other thing that pissed me off was that cause the ai invaded from the sea when the timer ran out that ment they had lost and were my prisnors. but i didnt get the opportunity to decide their fate eg kill or ransom. they just auto ransomed.
which sucked cause i am in long war and dont want the byz to get any troops back.

[LordKhaine]

Its cos humans always stop still and fire all their arrows off right at the start.

The AI constantly moves here and there... and the archers just never get much of a chance to shoot. Fire less often.... you'll fire longer.

[Lord Romulous]

Lord Khaine

these ai archers are not moving. they are stationry like my arhers and their arrows just lasted for ever. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif

can anyone in the know give me a definitive answer about wether the ai on higher difficulty gets more arrows or somthing. if it does not then ill put the above battle done to ai being downhill of me and not getting off as many shots as i could. even though the ais tool tips said firing and reloading the whole time.

[longjohn2]

The ai gets exactly the same number of arrows as the human player, whatever the level.
When a unit is described as firing, what it actually means is that it's trying to fire. It may not be actually firing very much at all. You have to look at how many arrows actually get released.
This is particularly noticable if the a.i. is trying to shoot at you in woords. It's units can be described as firing for a long time, but if you look carefully, you'll see that very few arrows actually get fired off.

[Leet Eriksson]

i did a custom battle and brought an archer against another archer,my archers emptied there supply of arrows while the ais archers did'ntbtw they were both normal archers.he did fire a few vollies of arrows after my archers ran out(5 or 6 times i think)then he finally ran out,although it may sound wiered but i won the match after they ran out of arrows without even going to melee.

[Kraxis]

Quote[/b] (Lord Romulous @ Nov. 24 2002,06:17)]the other thing that pissed me off was that cause the ai invaded from the sea when the timer ran out that ment they had lost and were my prisnors. but i didnt get the opportunity to decide their fate eg kill or ransom. they just auto ransomed.
which sucked cause i am in long war and dont want the byz to get any troops back.
You can't choose to kill prisoners from other factions. Only rebels can be killed, and you get the money from them anyway. This is ofcourse if you don't execute the prisoners taken in the battle, though troops lost due to no escape are counted as captured always.

[Lord Romulous]

thanks Longjohn, Kraxis and others.

appreciate you clearing it up.

[MizuKokami]

also with archers, if they are "just" in range, only the front ranks of them fire, instead of all of them. this conserves arrows.

[Al Qasim Hussein]

Quote[/b] (Lord Romulous @ Nov. 24 2002,06:17)]yes i know it is cheap to camp like this but i was heavily outnumbered and it was a vital provence.
not to change the subject too much, but what is cheap about setting up your troops on a ridge and making the hapless enemy run towards you and die en route? it worked back then, it works now, and w/ the patch AI the enemy can make a battle of it now.

(i don't play MP, so do not relate comments to that&#33http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Lord Romulous]

maybe i should have added a bit more info.

i am not only on the top of a mountain but also at the edge of the map so i cant be flanked etc.

i think thats bit cheap considering in real life the enemy would have been able to go around the side of my spears etc.

btw to the programmers/ map makers why are majority of the hils and moutains at the map edges?

it makes it hard to use the hills without exploiting the edge of map as well. in next version more hills in middle of map please.

[MizuKokami]

also, i doubt seriously that the defending army sat on a hill, as the invadeing army would have been able to establish supply routes unchallenged, which is one of the most important things to consider when trying to conquer a people. i would be more inclined to believe that the invaders found a spot to dig in once they discovered the enemy was coming to defend their king's lands. i would, if i were a general invadeing a foreign land, upon discovering the nation's army up on a hill, dispatch a small contingency to go around their camp, discover where their supplies were coming from, and instruct my men to poison them. when enough time expired, i would walk my army right up the hill and kill them all while they were doubled up vomiting, or clenched over in intence pain. i guess there's not as much valor to be gained unless you make a suicide charge up a hill. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/rolleyes.gif